Procrastination. We’re college students, we know the word well. Is it a crisis or a thing of beauty? Maybe, a bit of both? If you’re like me, it’s an important word to live by.
Before writing my five page report due promptly at 9 a.m. the following day, serious procrastination has to occur. First, the checking of away messages. Even though some of them are 1,000 miles away, I have to know what my friends at their respective colleges are doing. Why? I still haven’t figured that out. After checking those, there is the 15 minutes I allot myself to check Facebook. OMG, Debbie updated her favorite movies and quotes! A friend request – yay! Sometimes the excitement is just too much to handle!
After what should have been 15 minutes on Facebook has sickeningly turned into an hour and a half, I have to check my e-mail. After three minutes it’s almost time to begin, but hey, look at the time – it’s 3:48 p.m., which means it’s snack time. So, I saunter over to the fridge and reach for the pizza pocket box. It’s empty, how did that happen? Well, I need my pizza pocket, I can’t write a report without one. I decide to run over to the Corner Store and grab another box. It’s food – a necessity – I think I should make the time for it.
After returning to my desk, I’m almost ready to start. It’s been 34 minutes since I last checked Facebook, and I fight the urge to check it again. What if one of my friends updated her relationship status? No! I slap my hand away from the keyboard. I glance over at my dresser and notice my weekly Newsweek lying on it. It looks so sad. I’ve had it for three days and I haven’t even touched it, so I’ll just skim through it for five minutes and then get to my rep – oh wait, is that an article about Panda Bears!? After 45 minutes I’m ready to begin. I flip on Microsoft Word and type in my heading. Just then, my roommate walks in and of course I have to ask her how her day was – it’s only polite. Somehow we get into a discussion about decorating the bland, white walls in our apartment and by the time I return to my computer, it’s past 6 p.m. and I’m hungry again so we decide to get dinner.
After dinner, a meeting and hanging out in a friend’s room, it’s past 10 p.m. and I realize I’ve neglected to do the rest of my work. Looks like I have a long night ahead of me.
Now obviously I’m exaggerating a little bit, but I know for some of you reading this – you know who you are – this is a pretty accurate description of a weeknight.
It’s not our fault though. OK, maybe it is, but the truth is that college students these days have more on their plate than ever before, and with all the distractions of everyday life, it becomes harder and harder to accomplish everything. We resort to unhealthy methods of pulling all-nighters and pouring down Red Bull after Red Bull, which
can increase heart rate and dehydration. So what’s the moral of the story? Don’t just say to yourself “I’ll do it later,” it doesn’t work.
Kraus is a member of the class of 2009.
