It is about 9 p.m. on a March evening, and I have a 2,500-word literature review due in 24 hours. I have done all the research. The journal articles are read, annotated and organised into sections. I have even created an outline and colour-coded it by source.
The problem is that I have not written a decent sentence. I am in full-on panic mode, which is a bad and scary place to be if you are a writer.
When Preparation Becomes Procrastination
My friend—a man who talked me down from just about every panic session I had while writing papers during the final 18 months of my undergraduate degree—is on the phone trying to talk me off my writing ledge…again.
He’s calmly reassuring me that I have this. I can write this. He’s even trying to give me writing tips, despite never having written a literature review in his life or knowing what one is, for that matter.
That just sets me off more. I lay into him with something close to the following:
“This isn’t going to be okay. I have no idea what I am doing. I have never written a literature review in my life! It doesn’t make any sense! How can I have a degree in writing yet NEVER have written one of these things?!?!?”
To increase the accuracy of that quote, please add a specific expletive about every third word.
He should have hung up on me. But, being the good friend he is, he calmly lets me rant and cry. Maybe having an ocean separating us makes it easier to endure.
A large portion of my panic session has little to do with the fact that this is the first literature review I have written for my master’s programme. I still find them hateful, even after writing a few, but they are just another type of writing. No big deal. It’s academic writing. You don’t have to like it; you just have to do it.
The real problem is that I have put off writing it until the last minute.
I’m a procrastinator with a speciality in procrastinating on writing assignments.
Procrastinating on Writing Assignments
My trusty Merriam-Webster Dictionary app defines procrastinate as “to be slow or late about doing something that should be done…to put off intentionally and habitually.”
Wikipedia — yes, I’m using it as a source; this is not a university research paper, so sue me! — defines procrastination as “the practice of carrying out less urgent tasks in preference to doing more urgent ones.”
It also includes doing more pleasurable things instead of less pleasurable ones, therefore putting off an impending task until a later time — sometimes the last minute before the deadline.
California Polytechnic State University’s Student Academic Services website says: “The procrastinator is often remarkably optimistic about his ability to complete a task on a tight deadline.”
This is usually accompanied by assurances that everything is under control.
Yep, that’s me!
I wouldn’t call myself a chronic procrastinator. I usually don’t have a problem getting things started or finishing them before they need to be done.
There are times when I forget to do something until the last minute, like buying birthday cards. But that’s not procrastination so much as me forgetting that it takes time for a piece of mail to get from England to the United States.
The thing I procrastinate on most often — perhaps chronically — is writing assignments.
You read that correctly.
The girl who loves writing, has a degree in writing and continues to further her education—despite saying repeatedly that this is her last degree—has put off just about every writing assignment she’s had for school.
And there have been many.
Why Last-Minute Success Reinforces the Habit
The Cal Poly site discusses how student procrastination can sometimes be reinforced by receiving a decent grade on an assignment completed just in the nick of time.
The student procrastinates, gets away with it and learns that the strategy apparently works.
In that case, I’m in big trouble. As someone who chronically procrastinates on writing assignments, I have written some stellar papers the night before they were due. In fact, I’ve never received a poor — or even average — grade on anything I’ve written for school.
Sorry. That is some unintentional boasting.
I could basically blame the educational systems in two countries for reinforcing my bad habit…but I won’t. I only blame myself.
The truth is, I really wish I didn’t procrastinate on writing, especially when it comes to coursework. It’s stressful and sometimes scary. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I know this habit will eventually bite me squarely where it hurts.
There will be a time when I’m furiously typing away, trying to finish an assignment, and my computer will crash. Or I’ll discover that one of my sources is insufficient. Perhaps I’ll doze off and simply fail to finish.
Something will happen, and my 20-plus-year run of good procrastination luck will come to an end. This doesn’t bode well for someone working on a master’s dissertation and considering going on to a PhD. It also doesn’t help that my goal is to make writing a major part of my profession.
How I’m Trying to Stop Procrastinating on Writing
Okay…so I know there’s a problem. Time to make efforts to fix it.
I’ve found a couple recent articles that, along with Cal Poly’s website, give some helpful hints on conquering procrastination.
There are apparently apps that do things like cut you off from the internet or one very mean one, if you are a writer, named Write Or Die that starts to delete what you’ve written if you pause for too long while writing.
Maria Konnikova’s New Yorker article, “Getting Over Procrastination” as well as Cal Poly’s website suggests taking the task a little at a time. Work on something for about 5-10 minutes then do something different. That breaks the assignment up into more digestible parts.
My approach is a mixture of ideas, although I begin using them instinctively before researching this post. I’m starting to panic about my dissertation, which is due in January.
This past Monday, I wake up and decide I am going to change my schedule. I’ve become a bit lazy now that my taught courses are complete and I don’t have a job to go to. I’m looking, by the way, if anyone in London is hiring.
My normal routine involves waking up late and lounging around drinking tea. I might do some dissertation research or apply for jobs, but there is very little structure. Now, I force myself to get up and leave my little room. I walk down to Starbucks, sit there and work for at least two hours.
Being out in public is far less distracting for me.
Even with toddlers running around screaming and loud conversations happening at nearby tables, I am less likely to lose focus than I am when sitting alone in my quiet room.
In addition to getting up and working straight away, I sign up for two extra writing groups during the week. It’s the same concept: I’m in public, so I’m more focused, and I have a stated task—to write or research.
One more trick is giving myself deadlines.
They are self-imposed, with no real consequences if I miss them, but they work. This blog has a deadline, and I treat it as though an editor is breathing down my neck for a story.
Is My New Routine Working?
This experiment has only been going on for six days, but it has already produced some fantastic results.
I’ve completed a lot of dissertation research and written more non-dissertation material than I have in a very long time.
The late-night — or very early morning — panic attacks about the dissertation have also been minimised. I think I’ve only had one this week.
I’m becoming more disciplined and focused. The sense of getting things accomplished, without feeling quite so much pressure, is incredibly rewarding.
Now I will point out the irony of this post. It is a post about procrastination that I wrote three days before its deadline.
Hmmm…maybe my new routine is working!
