student life

Procrastination: A student’s sworn enemy

Laptop Keyboard, Student Life, Mikaella King, Kettle Mag
Written by Mikaella King

We have all done it and we all know the feeling. You tell yourself that you are going to be productive; do your work, clean up and even take a morning run, but Its always easier said then done.

Procrastination is a student’s worst enemy, that’s because we all do it at some point. Deep down we know we should get the work done but there is always something more important to do. Being a university student I can relate to this… a lot.

Deadlines

So you are told you have a 2000 word essay due in and you tell yourself that you wont leave it until the last minute this time; but If you are anything like me, you know for a fact it will be a last minute, late night in order to get it finished on time. So the essay is due in on Friday and its already Monday, you open an empty Word document and start typing the heading or question.

This is when the big blank comes. You sit and stare at the cursor, hoping that it will all of a sudden start to write your essay for you. After staring at the curser for a while you think maybe a cup of tea will help you to get the creative juices flowing.

Dangerous Distractions

This is when the procrastinating really starts.

Your trip to the kitchen turns into making a three course meal, then deciding to have a small TV break, which then escalates into watching a huge eight season long TV series. Slowly the time ticks away and you still only have the title to your essay.

It gets to about Wednesday and you realise that you should really attempt some more of your essay.

So once again you open your Word document and stare at the cursor, trying to think of what to write. With no inspiration you decide to have a look on social media and, of course, this is the worst decision you could have made. You become consumed by the funny images on Tumblr and waste hours being entertained by pointless disagreements on Facebook.

After flicking through Facebook, Twitter and sending a few snaps to your friends on Snapchat you decide to go back to your essay. However by this time, you’re hungry again… so you decide to put it off until the next day.

Before you know it, it’s Thursday – the day before your essay is due. Your friends are going shopping, so you decide to go with them, as you don’t want to feel like you are missing out. You get home and it’s only logical that you should clean your room and go through all of your clothes to see what to keep and what to throw away.

This is the only time you wont put off cleaning – so surely that’s okay, right?

All of a sudden it is 9 o’ clock, and this is when the panic really starts to kick in and you realise you should have done your essay sooner. This is when the energy drinks and coffee are very much needed.

Surprisingly through the tears, the stress and the panic you manage to reach the 2000 words that you needed. However, after all that procrastination and all of that stress, you are too tired to be remotely pleased or even relieved about your essay finally being done.

I don’t know about you but this is always something that I do. Do you find yourself procrastinating instead of getting the work done? I’m constantly telling myself that “this time I am going to get my essay done and dusted as soon as I can.”

Unfortunately, it never happens.

How do you deal with the dreaded procrastination? Get in touch in the comments below and tell us your best techniques to avoid getting distracted!