Taking a fresh look at procrastination at college (and in life)
by Mela Lozano, University of Texas at San Antonio
Hello everyone. My name is Mela. I am a senior in college, and I am a procrastinator. I procrastinate about everything! Procrastination is like the five-day-old spaghetti sitting in your fridge, glaring at you every time you open that door. It’s awful! But it is necessary.
Without it, I would be sitting on my bathroom floor, crying my eyes out, wondering how the h-ll do I get my life together. Everyone has been there before. Don’t hide your spaghetti. Acknowledge and accept that your spaghetti will always be present. Procrastination got me through to my senior year of college; and I am going to share with you how.
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First and foremost, get out of the mindset that you can read everything assigned to you. Bottom line: you can’t. Believe me, I’m an English Major, I’ve tried. So, I came to a decision one day while eating spaghetti (I eat a lot of spaghetti, great stress food). What better way to procrastinate my readings than to cliff note the readings! Side note: Cliff notes is a more reliable source than Spark Notes.
Now, I am sure you are wondering how is reading a detailed short of an entire text procrastination. Well, my fellow collegiate, the answer lies in the sentence. I am procrastinating from reading a 50-page text by reading a shortened summary.
Most people think of it as not doing anything. I think of it as an equivalent to efficiency. Ironic, but it is true. Knowing that there is a time crunch before your 8 a.m. class, and you have a 50-page reading due hours before, the best way to use your time is procrastination! Skip the task of reading and read shortened summaries of the text.
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Be aware, I do not recommend cliff noting all the time; only in moderation. It would be good to read the assigned material, but if you are like me and do not actually have a lot of time on your hands, then skip the heavy stuff, go for the light stuff. And that my dear friends, is how I got through college. Procrastination.
Mela Lozano
University of Texas at San Antonio
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Bonus: Try these additional procrastinator hacks
- Turn your devices to DND or simply hide it while scrambling to get something done last minute
- Use LifeSpace task lists to plan ahead so you can be hyper-efficient and hyper-focused when in crunch time
- Create a collaborative class “space” in LifeSpace and enroll multiple students to divide the load and share their notes
- Eat a healthy meal and get exercise before a cram session to stimulate your brain and stay alert
- Create mini-goals and mini-rewards that can be accomplished in 15-60 minute increments to keep moving forward on overwhelming projects or impossible tasks