Procrastinating Isn’t Fun Without the Procrastination

Something strange happened Thursday night. For the first time this summer, I didn’t have anything to do. Now when I say ‘nothing,’ I had no homework (it’s summer), no treasurer work, no emails that needed to be sent, no dishes to do, no meetings to attend, and none of those random tasks that always come up. I ran the day before, so I wasn’t going to run. I had five hours to do whatever I wanted.

This caught me off guard. As a college student, these are uncharted waters. Now what?

...yep, that's about it

So I tried entertaining myself with things I usually do when procrastinating. I played guitar. I read articles on Grantland. I hopped on Facebook. Sure, they were fun, but not nearly as entertaining as they usually were. After switching between various activities, I realized that the actual activity used during procrastination is usually not that interesting. It just appears more interesting in contrast to what actually needs to be done.

I believe that the Decision-Making Center of the brain is separated from everything else up there.. If the brain made all of our decisions, then things like teen pregnancy and Nazism wouldn’t exist, and of course this isn’t the case. Personal desires are important, sometimes too important, in making a decision. Though your brain knows that studying for a test should be a priority, you still value entertainment and the instant gratification that comes with it. It’s difficult to correctly value long-term payoffs.

Something my inner procrastinator will do is trick my brain into thinking that procrastination is actually logical. Exercise is good for the heart! Ten minutes of relaxation now will help you be more productive later. My résumé really needs to be updated. By focusing on one small benefit, we purposefully forget about all of the other factors.

I’m still trying to figure out the best way to get ahead of procrastination. I’m always writing papers at the last minute. Granted, I’m much more efficient when working with a time constraint, but only because I have to be. It would help to avoid the deadline barrier while retaining my efficiency. Solutions are welcome. I’ll get to it eventually.