Procrastination

SPRING BREAAAAAAK!!!!! 

For me, it couldn't have come any sooner.  I've been so out of it these last couple weeks, and I didn't get as much accomplished as I should have.  Add to that the fact that I caught a cold last Thursday, and my motivation to do anything was reduced to absolute zero.  As much as I envy my classmates who are going somewhere warm / exciting over the break (where exactly is Punta Cana, anyway?), I'm glad to just be home and able to rest.  And I think that's what I mainly intend to do over the break - rest.

Sure, there's work to be done.  Anything math or physics, I can usually motivate myself to work on when I'm on vacation, since those are the subjects that I enjoy the most.  But when it comes to reading or writing, that's where I lapse into slug mode.  A couple weeks ago, Loyola canceled classes for an entire week because of the Snowpocalypse that descended upon Baltimore.  I thought I could use the time off to catch up on my schoolwork and get a head start on a paper for History that would have been due that week.  I spent pretty much every day trying to motivate myself to get off the internet and read the book that the paper was about.  But each day, I accomplished relatively nothing.  Not only that, I ended up wasting valuable time that I could have spent sleeping and / or doing something fun (I had planned to bake Valentine's cookies that weekend, but never got around to it until a few days ago), so my week off was neither productive nor enjoyable - a wasted week that I would kill to have back.  I ended up having to turn in the paper late because I couldn't get it done in time. 

This isn't the first time that I've agonized over an assignment many days before it was due, only to wind up having to do 90 % of it the night before it was due.  Last spring, I spent every day of finals week trying to take notes for my term paper for my English class, but each day, I accomplished very little.  I spent almost all day and all evening the day before it was due trying to take notes and finish organizing my thoughts, and I didn't start typing the actual paper until about 1 a.m.  The whole week was spent in a state of misery about not being able to go outside and enjoy the beautiful weather. 

The point I'm trying to make here is, if you're like me and tend to procrastinate on things, don't worry about trying to get things done ahead of time, because you know you're just going to end up doing it all at the last minute anyway.  If you actually have the motivation to work, by all means, go ahead, but if you don't get everything accomplished that you wanted to over the break, don't stress about it.  It's called Spring Break for a reason.  Enjoy your time off.  If you spend your entire break agonizing over your schoolwork, not only will you feel depressed when you don't get anything done, but you'll also regret not having done anything fun when you had the chance.  In the words of Ellen DeGeneres, "Procrastinate now, while there's still time.  Don't put it off til the last minute."

Hope you all have a fun, relaxing, and rewarding Spring Break!

B-)