Am I a procrastinator? Hint: this blog was written a day late

 


I heard this prompt on Wednesday morning. When I heard it I thought it would be perfect, so I started typing away at my keyboard… for like three minutes. Then I got distracted and clicked on a different tab to work on something else. Then with 10 minutes left in class I resumed my journey of writing this essay; but then the bell rang and I told myself, i'll work on it later. That evening I got home from practice exhausted and I told myself I'll finish it tomorrow. On Thursday I had a swim meet, I realized I didn't have the time to finish the blog, so I told myself I'll email Ms. Rodems. I then proceeded to forget to email Ms. Rodems and fall asleep. Now, today, it's Friday and i'm finally writing the essay. 

That pretty much describes my relationship with procrastination. I always tell myself I can do something tomorrow and then when tomorrow comes I tell myself I'll do it later, then suddenly later is tomorrow and the cycle repeats itself. To my credit I don't procrastinate on everything. I actually prefer to say I prioritize. For example, my room has looked like a hurricane hit it for the past week because between spending the time it would take to tidy up and the time it takes to finish  my homework assignments, I choose homework. Though I suppose the fact that this essay is late is kind of invalidating my point about prioritizing school work, so… just ignore that fact. 

Anyways as I was saying I don't procrastinate on everything. Most of the time the things I procrastinate on tend to be cleaning my room, doing my hair, getting ready for bed, ect. You know, little stuff. The problem for me is eventually all the little things become big things. 

My messy room turns from a couple of t-shirts thrown on the ground to school papers everywhere and never ending piles of unfolded laundry. Then suddenly this ‘little thing’ is keeping me from finding the homework assignment due tomorrow, clothes to wear, and all the little everyday items I need. Unfortunately even as the task seems to get more important it doesn't stop the homework assignments or the scholarship deadlines. so priority, once again, wins and cleaning goes to the bottom of this list. Until finally the piles of clothes have turned into mountains and I can’t even lay on my bed without the uncomfortable feeling of being surrounded by clutter. That is when later finally comes and I stop pushing cleaning to the bottom of my priority list.

A similar thing happens when I try to do my hair. Usually a style can last me a good couple of weeks. Problematically after those couple of weeks come to an end I don't re-do my hair. It’s an all day process of taking the old braids out, washing, combing, blow drying, parting, and re-braiding that I don't have time for. So like cleaning my room I tell myself, I'll do it another time. It’s not until no amount of shampoo can get the smell of chlorine out my hair that I finally sit down and take on the daunting task of doing it. But even then, I don't finish. For example, I tried doing my hair a week ago. By 2am I was halfway through with aching hands covered in hair products and a headache, so I told myself, I'll do it tomorrow. I don't think it would surprise you to find out that tomorrow never came. Now I'm telling myself I'll finish it this weekend, will I? Probably not. But I will definitely think about it and find all the better things I could be doing with my time.

 

Note: I wasn't really sure how to wrap this whole thing up 

Comments

  1. Miranda BurgosOctober 4, 2023 at 9:04 PM

    I loved your essay! One of my favorite things/something I think you did a great job with was the conversational tone. I feel like I can picture you saying this to me; you really captured your spirit and personality. I also feel like it was very relatable, and I liked how meta the beginning of it was. I like the hair example, but it does feel a little sudden at the end since the essay pretty much ends right after that. At the end of the essay you should probably be having a little less narrative and more overall reflection.

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  2. Maxwell HeOctober 5, 2023 at 7:59 PM

    Out of the 4 procrastination essays I've read, this one was by far the most vivid and personal (in my books, that makes it the best). I think bringing up the process you used to write this blog itself worked out really well in illustrating the procrastination process, and you also used non-academic tasks as other instructive cases. The metacognition you use to write and reflect on each paragraph is really lucid as well. A really nice change in perspective. I guess ending off the essay is a bit hard---I don't really know what I'd do here---but maybe reflecting on your growth (or lack thereof) with procrastination would be a good start.

    Funny how I'm writing this also comically close to the comment deadline, by the way.

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