don't be fooled

[flamingjune07]

Those of us who are terrible procrastinators (e.g. me) and who nonetheless seem to at least kind of function have a secret: we become total productive machines at the last minute. That is to say, I have written 25 pages worth of term papers in the past 36 hours or so, which makes the prospect of having to write about 20 more in the next 40ish

Comments

[dxmachina1111]

As a fellow procrastinator, I would like to note that we all say that, every time.

Okay, that's a lie. Actually, I said that about my summer class (which starts on the 25th), as well as about this coming semester. I know it's not going to happen. I'm going to squeeze out no more than 30 hours of maniacal work in exchange for 25 credit-hours. It's a good trade in my book.

I think it's genetic. (That absolves me of all responsibility, right?)

[nebulawindphone]

Yeah, the never again sounds familiar. But I think it's like how you find your keys in the last place you look. Of course it's us unreformed procrastinators who keep swearing we'll get better. Who else would? The reformed procrastinators?

(Seriously, though, the most encouraging thing I've heard all year may have been when I overheard a prof of mine saying to a colleague, "I haven't lost sleep over a deadline since 1996." That right there sounds like a never-again moment that actually stuck - and if it wasn't, if I'm misinterpreting the conversation, I don't want to know. I keep picturing myself ten years from now saying, maybe a little self-righteously, "Fuck that. I haven't lost sleep over a deadline since 2010." It's a nice thought.)

[flamingjune07]

I know a junior professor (literature, fwiw) who had a similar comment, except what he meant wasn't that he was reformed, but that at some point people seemed to start taking as just simply a given the apparently huge number of academics who are perpetually late with things, heh.

[flamingjune07]

I'm also having a sort of startling realization this time around, which is that maybe I actually kind of like the insane do-or-die work-for-36-hours-straight intense thing of The Last Minute? Not that I intentionally plan it this way at all, but my brain seems wired to feel pretty good about itself while in the midst of pulling things like this off. Hmm.