Procrastination? Is it all that bad?

banie01

I have a 3000word essay due at 5pm.
I have at least chosen my topic and begun to sort out references.
I've even made a lovely little mindmap
I've yet to do any substantive work on it though.

I'd love to blame Covid, to blame anything other than my shoddy work style.
I'm a 41y.o "mature" student who had 20yrs of professional experience before heading back to academia.
I know better...

What's worse is that whilst I'm lazily coasting my way through 2nd year.
My lad is in 5th year, thinking I'll let him do the same!
It's do as I say, not as I do!
My years of poor habit and haphazard albeit successful to date working style.
Are not an appropriate approach to the leaving cert

So lads and ladettes?
How tight should I cut it? Is it appropriate to reference my own work?:pac:
And can I keep up my QCA?

Also?
Chime in with your own experiences of last minute anything!

chrissb8

My simple advice for when you're absolutely cramming it for an assignment is know your beginning, middle and end. Plan well and you can get it done, it's when you're sitting there, mind blank thinking what to write next is when the work doesn't happen.

I wrote 1500 words of a 20,000-word thesis in one night and did edits, references, contents etc. Huge mistake as the writing is easy, it's the editing and all the referencing which will kill ya. SO REFERENCE AS YOU GO.

It may be tedious but it will save you a tonne of time. I worked from 4 pm till 8 am the next morning btw. Then ran into Dublin got it printed, gave it in and came out with a mark of 68% on it.

I also went a bit delirious when drinking that night due to a lack of sleep, relief and drunkenness. All fond memories.

You'll be grand OP, just write as quick and fast as you can. Try aim to have it done by 4pm and plus I'm sure it's within 10% of the total word count you have to write, so maybe even like 2700 words you really have to write?

ROAAAR

I'll light a candle

banie01

ROAAAR wrote: »

I'll light a candle

A scented one I hope :P
I'm actually not too worried, its for criminal justice and I am fairly sure I can spin out what I have into something at least cogent.

The adrenaline of the deadline is far more a motivation to me than just being on top of my work.
I need a crack across the head on that front.

Thelonious Monk

Yes it's terrible, I'm suffering the same way with putting things off for assignments and studying for degree I'm doing, but I'm nowhere near as bad as I used to be.
This Ted talk on the subject is very good -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arj7oStGLkU

Wibbs

I'll tell you tomorrow. Hopefully.

Surreptitious

In the time it took you to start this thread and send replies you could have actually got some of it done. Get on with it cowboy!

sbsquarepants

banie01 wrote: »

I have a 3000word essay due at 5pm.

You've 5 hours, 300 minutes for 3,000 words.



10 words a minute, relax man, piece of píss.



Stick on the kettle and grab a few bikkies and a bit of you tube, no hurry - sure you've the world of time!

banie01

sbsquarepants wrote: »

You've 5 hours, 300 minutes for 3,000 words.



10 words a minute, relax man, piece of píss.



Stick on the kettle and grab a few bikkies and a bit of you tube, no hurry - sure you've the world of time!

See, this man gets it!
Coffee and amphetamine will get the words out...
Just the order that could be an issue 😛

banie01

<snip>

As someone who is too well aware of their own mortality, has faced it a couple of times and buried loved ones.
That hypothesis is flawed

The value of my effort is proportional to the value I attribute the work.
Clearly in this instance I have either ascribed too low a value to care?
Or vastly overestimated my capacity to complete the task.

Now given my lack of previous failure, my relative success in life to date I refuted your hypothesis.

Wibbs

banie01 wrote: »

As someone who is too well aware of their own mortality, has faced it a couple of times and buried loved ones.
That hypothesis is flawed

The value of my effort is proportional to the value I attribute the work.
Clearly in this instance I have either ascribed too low a value to care?
Or vastly overestimated my capacity to complete the task.

Now given my lack of previous failure, my relative success in life to date I refuted your hypothesis.

How dare you refute the easy janglings of pop psychology! Actually there's a lot of actual psychology that's dubious so there's that.

ohnonotgmail

Wibbs wrote: »

How dare you refute the easy janglings of pop psychology! Actually there's a lot of actual psychology that's dubious so there's that.

it is almost like it is not really a proper science.

POBox19

Procrasti is the most populated nation on earth. You'll find lots of friends there all doing the same nothing.

In my experience getting an essay completed early was always the best way to enjoy the days before it was due to be delivered. Like any set of tasks always do the most difficult first and the remainder will be easy.

Good luck with the exams.

Grace under pressure is supposed to be the mark of a genius.

What I would do is download speech to text software and dictate the essay in a general way, then fine tune it in the last 2 hours. It would save you all the typing.

Greyfox

Procrastination is absolutely lovely, it just robs you of your chance of reaching a great achievement

Happy4all

sbsquarepants wrote: »

You've 5 hours, 300 minutes for 3,000 words.



10 words a minute, relax man, piece of píss.



Stick on the kettle and grab a few bikkies and a bit of you tube, no hurry - sure you've the world of time!

I can foresee a bit of "cut & paste"

sbsquarepants

Deleted User wrote: »

What I would do is download speech to text software and dictate the essay in a general way, then fine tune it in the last 2 hours. It would save you all the typing.

Genius!


Pat yourself on the back there AG. I love it.

banie01

Happy4all wrote: »

I can foresee a bit of "cut & paste"

Not in the age of turnitin
Even quillbot is being caught out nowadays on there.

I'm getting there tho

Jimbob1977

Alan Partridge:

"I used to be indecisive. Now, I'm not so sure"

banie01

3006 words, referenced and Grammarly's plagiarism check is coming in at 2%.
My Mrs is always my pre-submission sanity check and she says it reads ok...
So it's done!

I'm hoping that the good Dr marking it, sees it the same way.
Fingers crossed!

3d4life

banie01 wrote: »

Procrastination? Is it all that bad?

I dont know.

Do we have to decide now ?

Something might happen over the weekend.

Wouldnt it be better to leave it 'till Monday ?

ablelocks

i was going to give you a pep talk earlier, but then happened across a few websites and read the papers etc so i thought i'd leave you alone for while but then had to have my lunch and a couple of work calls and when i finally get back here you've it done.

well done you.

Fools rush in.

banie01

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Fools rush in.

Only if the angels are scared.

chrissb8

banie01 wrote: »

Only if the angels are scared.

How did you get on?

Leg End Reject

3d4life wrote: »

I dont know.

Do we have to decide now ?

Something might happen over the weekend.

Wouldnt it be better to leave it 'till Monday ?

Your quoted post actually links to the original, another new feature!

On topic, I am the queen of procrastination. A huge advantage of it is that it focuses the mind fairly sharpish and I power through tasks rather than get sidetracked. The disadvantages, well ...

banie01

chrissb8 wrote: »

How did you get on?

Honestly, and probably arrogantly...
I think I nailed it.
Hubris will likely be my downfall, but I submitted a fairly cogent and very defendable essay at 14:50 yesterday.

I've read it over again since, and it hangs together well.
Might not get me an A, but certainly worthy of a B and if I can keep better than a 3.2 QCA during this **** show?
I'll be a happy student.

Surreptitious

El Hecko wrote: »

400 word essay due next Friday and I still haven't started.

Fml.

One of your posts on here would amount to that. 400 words me ass.

ohnonotgmail

Surreptitious wrote: »

One of your posts on here would amount to that. 400 words me ass.

I've written more on post-it notes. since when did 400 words constitute an essay?

The_Honeybadger

I’m a procrastinator too, I don’t tend to cut things quite as fine as you op but it has certainly been an issue for me. I work in an area where there is a lot of deadlines so I simply had to address it, I have had to work hard on things like diary management, to do lists, organising workflows etc and delegating things in good time to other staff so as not to unload my tardiness on them (I’m in management)

In relation to getting essays and theses done it’s just a case of setting so much time aside each day etc to work on it and planning it out and then sticking to it as rigidly as you can. I used to fool myself in to thinking that I can get through huge amounts of work very quickly when I get going so my procrastination didn’t matter but there is absolutely no doubt that the quality suffers when you are cramming it at the end.

Surreptitious

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

I've written more on post-it notes. since when did 400 words constitute an essay?

I wouldn't take anything that dude says seriously.