Procrastination

[Carmen Lopez]

Searched every page of this board and didn't see this anywhere. Slightly silly that I'm posting this while procrastinating from a paper I have due at midnight (only need to do two and half more pages so don't be alarmed).

So, am I the only huge procrastinator out there? Like, not just leaving small, simple school assignements to the last minute, but big things. Honestly I think there is something wrong with me--either that or I've just trained my body to run on adrenaline. Either way, it's difficult to break the habit. I try to start stuff ahead of time, but I just can't focus on it and I have no idea why.

Conversely, are there any former procrastinators out there who successfully broke the habit? If so please let me know your secret :O

Edit: W00t! Back to 500 posts again!

 

[Severin Viper]

No, no you are not the only huge procrastinator here. I myself have trouble getting motivated to do college work, but that may be because of other factors. =/ *shrug*

 

[Stark]

I've been a terrible procrastinator all my life, no real reason why. I guess its just who I am as a person D:

Though its not always a bad thing - delaying doing something for a while, I've found, can give yourself time to look over the situation and come up with a better solution than what you might have come up with before

 

[Cody]

I procrastinate on, quite literally, everything. Even if I'm especially excited for a project I do. The only difference being, in that case, I get a little bit of work done, forget about it, and am left the night (or so) before something is due rushing to finish everything.

As much as I hate the stress and the lack of sleep that comes from it, I feel like it's when I do my best work. I find it difficult to focus on assignments, unless it's something I am completely interested in. But then, when the deadline is quickly approaching, I can finally buckle down and get some work done. It may have something to do with adrenaline, as Carmen said, but it's more likely just my lack of focus at times.

 

[Magpie]

I used to be really bad, but I think I've got better over time. I used to be really bad at school. Homework was always done the night before it was due (occasionally on the morning it was due!) and even longer projects were left until the final week or so. However, as I worked my way through college I improved somewhat, probably because the subject matter was something I was interested in, and not just some random Math homework that I really didn't see the point in :V

I don't think procrastination is all bad though. I find in my experience, that work done early on for a project is slow moving, and often not of the best quality. You know you've got plenty of time, so you aren't completely focused and work just goes at a snails pace. However, as the deadline approaches, you have to focus, and the work that gets done is good, focused stuff. I produced much better work nearer deadlines for that reason alone. So in a way, procrastination was beneficial for me. That said, I never left stuff so close to the line that I had to pull all-nighters. Some late nights maybe, but not to that extreme. I was a sensible procrastinator, I like to think.

I think it's just part of human nature. Embrace it and use it to your advantage

 

[Rayn_Shyu]

I am such a bad procrastinator. All my English papers were written from 10PM to 1:30AM in high school. Even when I'm in the process of writing them I end up playing Solitaire and surfing teh webs. It's the focus thing, like Magpie said. And I have terrible focus when I don't care. Waiting till I can actually focus and I'm nervous about getting it done actually makes me get it done.
Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go study...

 

[Teapot]

I'll probably get around to replying to this thread... tomorrow.

(I have two assignments I'm procrastinating right now, and they're not even started yet )

 

[Yoshimitsu]

I was gonna post something decent here but... meh, I'll do it later.

 

[Shocari]

I've always procrastinated on school stuff. If it's a huge chunk of my overall grade, it's not getting done until the last minute. My only reason for procrastinating is that I'm a lazy sonofabitch who enjoys being lazy, and since I work ridiculously fast anyway, it can wait until the last minute for me to even start caring.

Sure, I could do the stuff right off and get it out of the way, but I like looking at people who spent ages working on it when I get a better grade then they did, and it only took me a relatively small amount of time, with a huge douchebag smirk on my face. It's also funny considering I usually sleep in all of my classes, and have done so for years, so it startles them to actually see the results of me NOT sleeping.

 

[112% Elusive]

Shori you have my respect sir XD

I procrastinate a lot >>
One really BAD instance was when I had to do a portfolio thing for my 8th grade English class the day before it was due. I was working on it from 3:30 PM - Midnight, only taking breaks for dinner. (Pretty much the time I got home until I went to bed.)

My mom helped me a bit, because I could not figure out for the life of me how to work the fancy Cricut machine that cut out fancy letters. ;^;

Oh and there was that one time I think in 8th grade when I did my whole science project the day before it was due. Experiment included.

It was awesome. The results of the experiment tasted terrible though, and I HAD SO MANY FFFFF. (Yes it was edible. Or was supposed to be, it tasted terrible though)



I got an awesome grade on both, despite working like crazy :'D

I procrastinate because I'm a lazy bum. :X

 

[Carmen Lopez]

Just finished up that paper, btw ^^ Considering everyone in my class was on a time crunch, we'll see how good our papers are. Mine probably isn't that great because Anthropology is -really- not my strong-suit.

Either way, I never knew we had some procrastinators on 'Charms. I really like Magpie's take on embracing it and making it work. While I do hope to get better at this really bad habit, I do like the idea of mentally preparing in the meantime~

 

[Linkachu]

I'd like to say I procrastinated replying to this, but that joke is getting old and I was honestly just too tired to get to it yesterday.

I've long been a procrastinator of the worst kind. I don't just procrastinate out of laziness, I procrastinate out of intimidation. When something is very important, a large project, or just something I can't fully get my head around, I tend to freeze up. I'm a perfectionist-procrastinator, so if I can't be at my best I put it off. And put it off. And suddenly it's the deadline, I'm not even CLOSE to being done, and things get rushed. Many times during my first university degree my work was late because of this problem. Being pressed for time can be a great motivator if you work it to your advantage, but for people like me procrastination is never really a good thing. It's just one extra stress that renders me unable to do anything.

After my degree was completed, I decided to stop leaving my assignments to the last minute. Essay papers were still a bit of a problem (hard to break old habits), but everything else I'd do with time to spare. I really enjoyed the classes I took after my undergrad mind, so maybe that played a hand in my enthusiasm to get their assignments done.

As for everything else... I still procrastinate a lot for the same reasons I always have. If something is intimidating or my focus isn't there, it's hard for me to get work done. Paperwork is a big problem for me, just can't motivate myself to do it. But at least I'm aware that I do this. :'D

 

[Demelza]

Well I sorta am and sorta not. See with school work I've never done this apart from with maths (but I hated that >.>) and with now starting college I seem to be doing everything without putting it off.

In life itself if mum tells me to do something I can put it off for an hour or so (depending on what it is I'm meant to be doing), meeting up with friends I'll often be late as I put off leaving the house until the very last minute. Replying topics often gets left on forums too xD I'll mean to post in something and leave it while I go to check something else and it doesn't get posted in.

I'd say like Magpie said you just have to embrace it and work with it

 

[SineCosineTangent]

I procrastinate on pretty much everything. It's a rather terrible habit XD;

It really is an overarching theme of my life- procrastinate like hell until it's the day of the deadline, and then blitzkrieg all the work. So far I've been lucky, since my work is still easy enough to just blast through. It's not just my schoolwork, either. Drawing and RP posts often get pushed about until I feel I can do them perfectly, which sometimes is a bad thing if I have an RP where people are waiting on me (such as SS, for example), and I get writers block. I suppose I just don't want to do anything creative less than my best. Hell, I have an art request that should be fully colored and up tomorrow that I haven't finished the lineart for yet |D I guess I work best under pressure.

I fear a lot of my procrastination is more laziness than anything else. Kind of a family trait I'm afraid- push work off to the last second, and then use the pressure of the situation to speed up our work.

 

[slayer49]

Woo! Procrastination rocks! I'm on a 2 week break from school right now and i have a couple projects that are due right when I go back. I'm due to put them off till the last few days of break.

 

[Psycho Monkey]

I procrastinate on everything, even the things that do interest me. In games I procrastinate because I don't want to beat them too quickly, I want to enjoy them for as long as I can. At this stage in my life that has led to numerous problems as I now have a ton of incomplete games and neither the means nor the time to get to all of them.

On school assignments I do the homework the night before they're due or, in the case of research papers, start them the week before they're due. Like most people have said, when I have time I'm uninterested but an approaching deadline creates a necessity and gives me focus. One of my best (or worst) examples was last semester when I had two papers for two different classes due on the same day as an exam for a third class. This event took place the Friday before Spring Break. If it wasn't for the fact I'm already insane I would have lost my mind! If I remember correctly, I got a B on the exam and I know I go high A's on both papers. Crowning Moment of Awesome indeed.

Another fun example was in one of my health classes where I had to spend the semester trying to break a bad habit we had. I chose procrastination as my bad habit to break. The first sentence of the paper I had to write for it said "This was written the night before so clearly I failed to break or even curb my habit."

tl;dr version: Psycho Monkey procrastinates and does it well.

 

[Blazi]

Does leaving a Christian Studies Assignment until several weeks after it was due count? I have the nicest teacher ever, so at least I didn't get an E (We don't have F's, just you-did-very-badly's). I got a D- instead.

I'm doing my very best to break this habit of mine.

 

[Dark Soul]

I challenge you all to a procrastination contest... Tomorrow. Maybe.

Honestly, I've tried to procrastinate stuff troughout my school career, but for some reason I can't manage to do it because I'm too stressful and paranoid about my grades. I've started learning how to handle stress better, so it's not much of a problem, but sometimes I do wish I allowed myself some more free time.

 

[Indie]

Productivity? Sooooooo mainstream ;D

I am indeed, a masterful procrastinator. In primary school my scrapbook projects could be lest until the weekend before, on one occasion in the car the next morning.

 

[Secad MS]

I only typically procrastinate on things that don't matter much to my schoolwork but are important to interpersonal interactions, such as thank-you cards. I would imagine that the people already saw my gleeful expression and heard my "thank you," but my family has taught me to give those cards, even if I hate the gift. XD

 

[Shiny Motley]

I just procrastinated posting in this thread, because I kept telling myself that I would but I never got around to until now. XD

Anyways, I procrastinate on anything and everything minus music, because it's kind of hard to get into a good orchestra or get a good grade for a playing test and whatnot if I don't practice daily. Even then, I do a lot of practicing (about 200% more than usual) the day right before a test, audition, competition, recital, and whatnot.

But yeah, like I said...

For school, if I can put it off, I will. I only do my first period homework at home, and even then I only do it partway and finish it right before class starts or on the bus if I don't have anything to do for Spanish, my next class. I also do that on the bus and right before school/class starts. I do my math homework during lunch since math is one of my afternoon classes, and physics homework I either finished during class the day before it was due or I find time during the bus ride, lunch, and before class to finish it.

Which is why I have a 73 in English and US History and a 76 in Calculus. Oh gosh... maybe I should do my readings over an extended period of time and actually take notes and annotate the readings. |D

Projects I start on the day they're assigned, but then I don't even look at it until the day before it's due. Then I pull an all nighter.

Also, studying for tests and quizzes? Puh-leez, I just wing it and hope I've payed enough attention in class. The only exception to this is History, because I don't want to fail the class and get below a 70. XD

 

[cloveria1215]

i sure everyone felt like this. i do have a procrastination problem that I've been fighting since middle. either the project too boring or i'm too lazy. Now that i'm in college i'm trying better at not letting time slip out of my hands. one step at a time