The deadline junkie – Procrastinating — sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t

I love procrastinating.

There aren’t many things in life that I won’t wait to do until the last minute.

Typically, I ignore my responsibilities until a day or two before the hard deadline arrives. When I get into that red zone, I will budget how much time I think this particular homework assignment or opinion column will take and then procrastinate even more until the only time I have left is what I budgeted for.

I procrastinate because I’m lazy.

Rarely has the habit saved me from doing work and more often it causes me to turn in work late or poorly done — usually both.

I’d like to stress, though, that a majority of the tasks on which I procrastinate turn out fine. Most of my just-before-class homework assignments and night-before essays are perfectly representative of the work I will produce. It’s well thought out, researched and written, even if it’s just a first draft with a stapled-on bibliography.

I’m not a frantic procrastinator. Some folks who spend all morning doing the afternoon’s essay tear their hair out with stress and anxiety. Thanks to my time budgeting, if I keep a steady pace I will almost always get it done on time. I call this working period “crunch time.”

The issue with procrastinating is that things don’t always work out the way I plan. Poor budget estimates, unforeseen requirements and the inevitable “you wanna kick it tonight?” text can seriously hamper my ability to create timely, high-quality work. Procrastination is like thinking it only takes 10 minutes to get to work and then getting stuck in traffic. Now I’m late and I only have myself to blame.
     The only people in my life who haven’t touched on my lazy behavior are those who don’t know me. My mother and schoolteachers have been telling me to get my homework done before 6 p.m. since my first day of school, but after a few years of that, I think they just considered it a lost cause.

I am able to maintain this procrastination vocation because it has yet to kill me. It’s bit my bum here and there, but for the most part, everything turns out fine. If I see a big, hairy project in my future I will put in the work ahead of time, but even with those I end up spending a lot of those last couple days in crunch time.

I’d like to overcome my habit.

When I do work ahead of time, it feels so righteous to be sitting and doing nothing later that day. When I do work ahead of time, it’s cleaner, more interesting and better structured. When I do work ahead of time, it’s better work. Yet, I find it so hard to motivate myself before the deadline is breathing down my neck.

I’m getting better, though. Just last night I wrote a column about how I want to overcome my last-minute habit.

Jack Olson

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