College Students Procrastinate: Film at Eleven Twelve

Newsflash: college students don't run home after class and start on the assignment they've just been given. I honestly believe that some professors don't get that. They haven't been undergrads for so long that they just don't remember what it's like having a dozen things to do and no incentive other than a letter put on a sheet of paper four months later.

I admit it: I procrastinate. For me it's a matter of motivation. I don't pay my taxes in March because until I start making dinner plans for April 15, that date is still just so...intangible. There's no benefit to filling out my 1040s early, and then all of a sudden there's punishment for not having done so.

I imagine that if I followed 43 Folders' suggestion of the (10+2)*5 hack, I could accomplish the items on my to-do list. (The problem there is that an empty to-do list doesn't stay empty for long. Getting Things Done robs you of the invaluable excuse of saying you have way to much to do to add anything more.)

Saying you already have too much to do is a lame excuse for not rebooting a Big Important Server, so don't do it, but it's a life-saver for those awkward moments when Tammy Timewaster hooks you and reels you over to her desk to ask if you'd mind alphabetizing her bookmarks for her. A few key people at work have an impression of me of being just phenomenally busy all the time, and, given how much they still call me, I'm fine with them having that idea.