There’s that productive kind of procrastination\u2024 It’s not that you don’t ever get around to doing anything, just not what you’re supposed to be doing\u2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After planning to study or work on assignments, your bedroom suddenly needs to be cleaned up; maybe the rest of your house does too. Clothes folded\u201a desk cleared\u201a things have to go exactly in the right place\u2024 It all seems like it matters when you’re doing it\u2024 But somehow\u201a when it comes to opening your notes\u201a that momentum is gone\u2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is the “getting ready to study” phase\u201a which never actually ends\u201a where you get your water\u201a the snack\u201a the study music or show\u201a you adjust the light\u201a you set the tone\u2024 Then you can convince yourself you’re going to start studying soon\u2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Making a study schedule is another big one\u2024 You spend so much time planning exactly what you are going to do, breaking everything into sections, and maybe even color-coding it. It feels productive\u2024 But you haven’t actually started anything yet\u2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rewriting your notes is another way to waste time\u2024 You tell yourself that rewriting everything will help you understand it better\u201a and that’s sometimes true\u201a but it’s sometimes a way to avoid the bigger issue\u2024 You feel like you’re making progress\u201a even though you’re not learning anything\u2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if it is something that sounds tiring, like going for a run or a walk around campus, there is always the same excuse: taking a break before getting started, with the idea that after moving your body or working out, you will get around to schoolwork. It might be true\u201a but at the same time you’re actually pushing things off again\u2024 At SUNY Cortland\u201a it’s even easier not to do your work when everyone else is outside enjoying the weather\u2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Checking things over and over becomes part of it too\u2024 Refreshing your email\u201a checking assignments\u201a looking at your calendar like something might have changed\u2024 It gives you something to do\u201a even if it doesn’t actually move anything forward\u2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then it gets to this time of year\u201a with finals coming up and graduation just around the corner\u201a and everything kind of gets crazy\u201a and it’s easier to do smaller things\u201a the little things\u201a instead of just sitting down and studying\u2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tricky thing is that it doesn’t feel like procrastination\u2024 It’s not like you’re scrolling on your phone\u201a or staring blankly at the wall\u201a you’re doing something productive\u201a and ordinarily that would be a good thing\u2024 That makes it easy to justify the decision\u2024 But then you realize you did everything except the very thing you needed to do\u201a and now you’re either out of time or you’re more stressed than you were when you started\u2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s not that you’re not motivated\u201a you’ve just channeled that motivation into every other thing\u2024 And once you finally sit down and start\u201a you realize it wasn’t as bad as you made it out to be\u2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still\u201a somehow\u201a the next time you have something to study\u201a you’ll probably do the same exact things all over again\u2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There’s that productive kind of procrastination\u2024 It’s not that you don’t ever get around to doing anything, just not what you’re supposed to be doing\u2024 After planning to study or work on assignments, your bedroom suddenly needs to be cleaned up; maybe the rest of your house does too. Clothes folded\u201a desk cleared\u201a things have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":417,"featured_media":634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-lifestyle","8":"entry"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/10\/20181018_50555-1.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2022\/10\/20181018_50555-1.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Emily Cackett","author_link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/author\/emily-cackett02\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/417"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}