The Vine: February 16, 2001
Dear Sars,
Let me start by saying that I love your Dawson’s Creek recaps and visit TN often…perhaps a little TOO often. Which brings me to my problem: I procrastinate.
Yes, I know that most people are guilty of this to some degree (particularly university students like myself), and it’s something that I’ve taken a humourous approach to in the past (“You think you’re bad?”, etc.). But it’s ceased to be funny as of late.
I didn’t always used to be this way. Nowadays, I can’t get anything done. I sit here and surf the Net, or watch television, or eat, or exercise, or do ANYTHING to avoid what I should be doing (hence the term “procrastinating”, I guess). I try to monitor myself; sometimes when I’m surfing the Net or watching a 2
a.m. “Cheers” rerun, I’ll say, “What the hell am I doing? I have work to do!” and stop, but it will all start over again in a few minutes. It’s starting to affect my school work. I’m working on a paper due two days ago, and it’s still nowhere near done.
I’m not asking for sympathy. In fact, I want someone to kick my ass and get me in shape. But since I know that person has to be me, I’m trying to take some steps to mend my ways. I’ve ordered a self-help book, and I’m planning to go talk to my prof tomorrow to see if she can help me figure out why I can’t finish my paper. In the meantime, could you possibly share some tips to help me stop this destructive behaviour (short of disconnecting the cable and the Internet)?
Thanks very much!
Signed,
Hardly Working
Dear Hardly,
From what I’ve read, the reason most procrastinators procrastinate is that, oddly, they’re perfectionists — they want whatever they do to come out perfectly, so they put off starting, because if they don’t start, they can’t mess up or do a less-than-flawless job. I’m a reasonably serious procrastinator myself, and that analysis fits me to a tee. There’s nothing wrong with procrastinating in and of itself, really, but there are things that have to get done, and done on time, and you need to accept that 1) you tend to procrastinate because 2) you don’t really want to do these things, but 3) you have to, so you’ll have to work against your true nature until the necessary things do get done.
Procrastination feeds on itself; you put things off, and then you think you’ll never finish so why start, and it’s so late you’ll never get it done in time, blah blah blah fishcakes. The key here is to break down whatever you’ve got ahead of you into manageable tasks. For instance, writing a paper has parts, so break those parts down: read book(s); make outline; identify quotes and sources; write body paragraphs; write introduction and conclusion; proofread and spell-check; title page; staple. Make a list for yourself, and cross off the items on the list. In the middle of the list, add a reward like “play mah jongg online for 20 minutes.” (Not that, uh, that’s on my list or anything.) Do it. Cross it off. Get back to work.
List-making sounds anal, and overly simplistic, but it works. I have three running lists — “today,” “this week,” and “general to-do” — and not so much as a sock would get picked up if I didn’t put it on one of the lists. Then again, I’m also a promptness Nazi, which tends to override the procrastination, at least as far as turning things in late. But try the list-making. Seeing projects and tasks in writing might get you in gear.
