It is that time of the semester when all the decisions of the last 3 months come to bear on a graduate student. 4 papers are due, exams are in 3 weeks, there's internships and jobs to find. It seems as if everything decided to become due at the same time. But that's not quite the case. For me, even getting to write this blog post took a lot of, well, procrastinating.
Being in graduate school requires a great deal of what I call sensible procrastination. I am not advocating for leaving only 30 minutes to complete an assignment that requires 10hours, that's stupid. In fact there are things that we cannot procrastinate for too long without seeing some negative side effects. Doctors and other personnel who deal with matters of life and death also, may not have the luxury of procrastination in saving lives. However, even in these extreme scenarios, I think that we might have more leeway on some other matters than we let on.
Another thing to consider is that eventually all the control over our lives that we fancy ourselves having is actually a farce. The universe is unfolding as it should. In fact, efforts to commandeer everything in our lives and marshal our will to get things done sometimes achieve the opposite effect, inducing anxiety and treadmilling. Recognizing that some things will fall through the cracks of our attention and meticulous working may perhaps be of help.
Procrastination lets me do some other things with my life besides working on 'important' assignments. Between the time I become aware of the task and getting it complete, is a journey. I could spend a great deal of time working on it steadily, or I could leave it all to the last minutes. I think what happens is that our subconscious mind never really lets things go, but is processing them in the background. In fact, it is safe to say that while we rest, and enjoy memes, movies, novels, parties and so on, our subconscious is busy working out the most efficient way to solve a problem.
Finally, the time spent on the journey to any important destination is usually longer than the time spent at the destination. Further, when we get to the destination, we usually realize that it was not really what we thought it would be. Our victory becomes hollow if we have in fact lost parts of ourselves in pursuit of the ultimate accomplishment: hobbies, friends, family, surroundings. We realize that we have as a matter of fact won the world, and lost our souls.
Therefore, this is a tool that we should use sensibly and creatively. It is something that we can apply to make our lives richer and fuller without compromising the quality of our work. Happy procrastinating!
Being in graduate school requires a great deal of what I call sensible procrastination. I am not advocating for leaving only 30 minutes to complete an assignment that requires 10hours, that's stupid. In fact there are things that we cannot procrastinate for too long without seeing some negative side effects. Doctors and other personnel who deal with matters of life and death also, may not have the luxury of procrastination in saving lives. However, even in these extreme scenarios, I think that we might have more leeway on some other matters than we let on.
Procrastination lets me do some other things with my life besides working on 'important' assignments. Between the time I become aware of the task and getting it complete, is a journey. I could spend a great deal of time working on it steadily, or I could leave it all to the last minutes. I think what happens is that our subconscious mind never really lets things go, but is processing them in the background. In fact, it is safe to say that while we rest, and enjoy memes, movies, novels, parties and so on, our subconscious is busy working out the most efficient way to solve a problem.
Finally, the time spent on the journey to any important destination is usually longer than the time spent at the destination. Further, when we get to the destination, we usually realize that it was not really what we thought it would be. Our victory becomes hollow if we have in fact lost parts of ourselves in pursuit of the ultimate accomplishment: hobbies, friends, family, surroundings. We realize that we have as a matter of fact won the world, and lost our souls.
Therefore, this is a tool that we should use sensibly and creatively. It is something that we can apply to make our lives richer and fuller without compromising the quality of our work. Happy procrastinating!
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