So. It's one o'clock going on two in the morning and I've put off two different writing assignments. Massive, 8-12 page stories that require thought and attention and love and care. But no. I'm watching Falco music videos and getting ready to play video games with my friend from Texas. I'm a procrastinator. None of this amateur-crastination stuff for me. I've considered majoring in the subject, and it's hurt me in a number of ways over the years.
An anecdote: I almost failed out of the sixth-grade. An elaboration: Every time my Social Studies class would assign a project, I would usually (read: always) put the project off until the day after it was due. There would be a lot of "I'm just putting the last few details on it, Mrs. Social Studies Teacher" going on when asked where my results were. It got to the point where my best friend (the one who's going to play games with me via the internet in a minute) wouldn't be my partner when project time came around. It was bad.
Luckily, I got over it. Projects still came around, but I realized that I wouldn't win any friends nor keep up my normally laudable grades if I kept putting off projects. When assigned a group, I became the jovial, awesome guy who came up with great ideas and sweet talked others into doing the majority of the work. Alone, I got used to turning in sub-par projects. Projects, mind you. Not papers. Three dimensional, physical objects used to show off one idea or another. Papers were something I put off too, and I'm going to parlay the one into the other in a reasonable way in the following papers.
Mainly, I learned that no matter how awesome and spectacular you may be ( and I am totally and completely awesome and spectacular), putting assignments off is a horrible, horrible, instantly rewarding but ultimately damning idea. If you have something that needs done, for the love of all that is good and holy in this world, do it. If you think that you can do it tomorrow, you can't. It will not work. Because tomorrow you will think you can put it off till the next day. Tomorrow, I will probably study for a Geology test and play Guitar Hero. The day after that I will work on stuff for my other job and maybe write a few creative words. The day after that will be...Friday? Thursday? Regardless, I will not be working on my writing. Then the weekend will come and I will sleep and do laundry and do just about everything except write. Then Sunday night will roll around and I will type like the devil. I will type like there is no tomorrow because, for all intents and purposes, there IS no tomorrow. And my work will be really, really bad. I will know that I can do better, and it will be even worse because I claim to be a creative writer. Which means I plan on writing, creatively, for a living at one point in my life. And I cannot bring myself to write creatively. Instead I'm writing this blog entry about procrastinating.
There's not a whole lot that needs to be said about procrastination. It's a bad habit and it needs to be broken. So you, procrastinating reader, can break it with me. Dedicate your time. Say that after x amount of time on one project, assuming you do your normal, day-to-day assignments on time, you can spend y amount of time doing something enjoyable. This is a tried and true writer's block cure, and it works for basic projects and papers as well. Spend a few hours in the library researching or in front of the computer typing knowing that you have an hour or two or guilt free bliss waiting for you and you will find the work comes a lot easier. The same principle applies to hiking (I like hiking). Hike for an hour knowing that you have a ten minute break waiting for you and you'll find that it seems like a lot less effort than wondering when the next break will be. Allot your time as needed.
Another thing to do is write notes. Post-It notes. Lots and lots of them. If you put off papers, you probably put off other things. So what I do, usually, is write a Post-It note that says something informative, like "Massive paper. You should probably be writing that and not playing Super Nintendo." (I know myself pretty well) or something inspiring like "You will fail college and live in a box if you do not write something. You will be a disappointment to you family. Open Word and type or no one will ever love you." They help a lot more than you would think. I put these notes on my computer monitor so I see them every day and when I become disenchanted by them I take it down and re-write it so that I know that I WILL fail and I WILL be a loser if I don't get those papers written.
You know, I think I'm going to go write those papers now. You probably have something you should being too. Just saying.
No comments:
Post a Comment