Those of you in school, or former students, how do/did you fight procrastination. I used to be a student who was so on top of assignments, always completing them early and submitting them early. This year, however, I've caught the procrastination bug.

I currently have a paper that is due in 14 hours and I've only written 47 words. I feel like I've lost the motivation to be in school and strive for great marks. Have you ever felt like this? How did you get past it?

[Edited 10/26/11 23:30pm]

ugh, my last year of college was horrible, I wouldn't get out of bed until 11am, go to class, discover nobody else even bothered going and then I'd go home again. We had whole semesters to do assignments and of course I never started them until the week they were due. I was lucky to pass.

Since becoming a parent though, things have certainly changed around, I tend to do things as soon as I can because of the risk a kid is sick and has to stay home from school or something else that will throw a spanner in the works, so I don't wait until the day before anymore.

I practiced until I had it down to an art form! You know what they say, practice makes perfect.

Scare yourself,

think about when you are going to apply for a job, the raised eybrows of people looking at the lower grades of your final years in college, years that really matter (who cares about the first few years, its the final years, when papers are more serious, assignments more difficult, etc. that matter).

Think about all those people competing with you when applying for jobs, people with much better CV's, more workexperience, higher grades...

Think about about all the men/woman that will only date succesful men/woman (there was a thread on this here lately).

Think about the dissapointment of your parents, family in their slacker children, etc.

You working yet??

hendrikus said:

Scare yourself,

think about when you are going to apply for a job, the raised eybrows of people looking at the lower grades of your final years in college, years that really matter (who cares about the first few years, its the final years, when papers are more serious, assignments more difficult, etc. that matter).

Think about all those people competing with you when applying for jobs, people with much better CV's, more workexperience, higher grades...

Think about about all the men/woman that will only date succesful men/woman (there was a thread on this here lately).

Think about the dissapointment of your parents, family in their slacker children, etc.

You working yet??

I would not say my grades are suffering from procrastination. My assignments always end up completed on time and usually with great results. So, in that regard, I do not feel like a slacker. I have the most trouble with sitting down and getting started. Once I have started though, I can usually power through the assignment and often end up even enjoying it.

However, I agree that as I progress into my final years of university, I will not be able to get away with such procrastination.

LOL, I finished the paper about 10 minutes ago. I still have 10 hours until it is due so it has been another successful all nighter.

I was serial procrastinater....but it would work out in my favor. I churned out some of my best work, especially with papers, at the the final hour. All of a sudden, words would come to me and somehow make sense. I found that when I would start early, my papers wouldn't make any sense because I would be looking far too much into what the point of writing the paper was in the first place. When my back is against the wall, the bullshit flies out the window and all I see is what actually needs to be done.

Procrastination is like masterbation... At first it feels good, but in the end your only screwing yourself...

I have a few "anti-procrastination" things posted on my wall here in my office .

Generally it is like "ways to overcome procrastination at work" etc ...

Things like "find out what your lateness does to others " ... etc ...

It really does help . I try to get alot of work done the day before now ... so I am not so stressed out the day things are due - even tho I can still procrastinate with the best of them !

I'll post a reply to this later....

missfee said:

I was serial procrastinater....but it would work out in my favor. I churned out some of my best work, especially with papers, at the the final hour. All of a sudden, words would come to me and somehow make sense. I found that when I would start early, my papers wouldn't make any sense because I would be looking far too much into what the point of writing the paper was in the first place. When my back is against the wall, the bullshit flies out the window and all I see is what actually needs to be done.

I can relate to this. Sometimes it takes a little bit of pressure for my creativity to start to flow. The more I wait, the easier it seems to focus and zero-in on what actually needs to be done.

PurpleJedi said:

I'll post a reply to this later....

I always say to myself "when the time is right"

It took me about 5 hours just to do a 900 word essay yesterday. I just kept giving up.

purplemonster04 said:

It took me about 5 hours just to do a 900 word essay yesterday. I just kept giving up.

Do you mean it took five hours to actually write it? That's not procrastination. Procrastination would be delaying the start of the project by 5 hours.

I could easily take five hours to write 900 words. You know the proper way to write, don't you? You sit down at your computer and stare at the blank screen until beads of blood pop out on your forehead.

Genesia said:

purplemonster04 said:

It took me about 5 hours just to do a 900 word essay yesterday. I just kept giving up.

Do you mean it took five hours to actually write it? That's not procrastination. Procrastination would be delaying the start of the project by 5 hours.

I could easily take five hours to write 900 words. You know the proper way to write, don't you? You sit down at your computer and stare at the blank screen until beads of blood pop out on your forehead.

Yes, I am beginning to think many people are using the word essay when they simply mean assignment.

hendrikus said:

Genesia said:

Do you mean it took five hours to actually write it? That's not procrastination. Procrastination would be delaying the start of the project by 5 hours.

I could easily take five hours to write 900 words. You know the proper way to write, don't you? You sit down at your computer and stare at the blank screen until beads of blood pop out on your forehead.

Yes, I am beginning to think many people are using the word essay when they simply mean assignment.

Or term paper.

Genesia said:

purplemonster04 said:

It took me about 5 hours just to do a 900 word essay yesterday. I just kept giving up.

Do you mean it took five hours to actually write it? That's not procrastination. Procrastination would be delaying the start of the project by 5 hours.

I could easily take five hours to write 900 words. You know the proper way to write, don't you? You sit down at your computer and stare at the blank screen until beads of blood pop out on your forehead.

Well it took me 5 hours from when I started, to finish. But I repeatedly stopped during the writing process.
I basically did 5-10 lines, and I decided to 'have a break', which was only meant to last around 5 minutes but ended up being half an hour. After that I just kept having more 'breaks'.

I could've easily done it in an hour or so if I concentrated, normally I do with essays around the same length, or longer. I guess I just found the subject more boring than usual.

hendrikus said:

Yes, I am beginning to think many people are using the word essay when they simply mean assignment.

Well my teacher clearly said 'essay'.

purplemonster04 said:

hendrikus said:

Yes, I am beginning to think many people are using the word essay when they simply mean assignment.

Well my teacher clearly said 'essay'.

I'm curious, what was the topic about and did you have to do research of your own to write it.

hendrikus said:

purplemonster04 said:

Well my teacher clearly said 'essay'.

I'm curious, what was the topic about and did you have to do research of your own to write it.

It's about the book Skellig.

"How does Almond create tension in chapters 34-40"

It was basically analyzing the writing, looking at the techniques used, using quotation, giving our opinion, etc.

purplemonster04 said:

hendrikus said:

I'm curious, what was the topic about and did you have to do research of your own to write it.

It's about the book Skellig.

"How does Almond create tension in chapters 34-40"

It was basically analyzing the writing, looking at the techniques used, using quotation, giving our opinion, etc.

Ohhhhh...so it's bullshit! Yeah, that shouldn't take five hours.

Genesia said:

purplemonster04 said:

It's about the book Skellig.

"How does Almond create tension in chapters 34-40"

It was basically analyzing the writing, looking at the techniques used, using quotation, giving our opinion, etc.

Ohhhhh...so it's bullshit! Yeah, that shouldn't take five hours.

I know! It didn't really help that the book was boring, and I was logged on to Skype at the same time..

I only have myself to blame.

i'll tell you later.

Dpurpled said:

Those of you in school, or former students, how do/did you fight procrastination. I used to be a student who was so on top of assignments, always completing them early and submitting them early. This year, however, I've caught the procrastination bug.

I currently have a paper that is due in 14 hours and I've only written 47 words. I feel like I've lost the motivation to be in school and strive for great marks. Have you ever felt like this? How did you get past it?

[Edited 10/26/11 23:30pm]

take a break from being in school