Procrastination Fail

I’m a serial procrastinator.  It hasn’t been helped over the years by health issues, but this year has been the worst yet – almost dying multiple times really knocked me sideways, both physically and mentally.  I’ve missed the majority of classes this term, and there are just blanks in my memory from before and after Christmas where I just don’t have any memories at all.  Although I haven’t been admitted to hospital since the end of February, it’s really only since I spent the Easter holidays resting that I’ve really been capable of doing any work.  And as the Easter holidays finished yesterday and I have six assignments due: one on the 5th, and the other five on the 6th, the only really appropriate expression is: oh, bugger.

I’m going to walk to the shop and buy some fizzy drinks (sugar free, obviously).  Then I’ll have a quick nap, which makes me sound like a toddler but is really the only thing that keeps me going through the day.  After that, it’ll be work, work, work.

Oh, the fun.

The obligatory first post

As it’s been a few months since I created this blog, this post is rather overdue.

There’s something about first posts that make them really difficult to write.  That may sound a little crazy, but I’m one of those people who write the introduction of an essay at the end.  If I sit down to start an assignment, aiming to write a brief introductory paragraph, I’ll still be there two hours later with a title, header and footer – but no introduction.  On the other hand, if I divide the assignment up into sections, each one with some bullet points and an underlined subheading, at the end of the two hours I’ll have developed some of those bullet points into paragraphs on things that caught my eye.  If I try to write about something

See?  It really works.  I didn’t know what to write about, so I wrote about not knowing what to write about, and not writing about writing until I’ve written (try saying that five times quickly!) and in doing so, I’ve written.  And having written about writing, I can safely say that this blog is going to be for my writing, without it seeming like a completely random statement – which is what most of my previous introductory posts have appeared to be.  That was supposed to be the whole point of writing a first paragraph, so there really is a method to my madness!

I mentioned assignments earlier – I’m a twenty year old student at a university in England.  I’m just coming to the end of my first year of an English degree, so assignments are thick on the ground at the moment.  I’ve spent the last few days reading in the sun and working on my freckles, so there hasn’t been very much productive work going on; currently I’m procrastinating because the large pile of eleven – hang on, I just saw another – twelve books is striking the fear of God into my heart, or possibly my eyelids as they’re quite definite about wanting to close.  And those are just the ones I’ve borrowed from the library; I’ve got 35 texts and 7 textbooks, plus some fun reading, stacked up on my shelves.

I still have four hours of studying left to do today (happy Easter Jess – yeah yeah) and some caffeine to locate, so I’m going to conclude by saying something wise: if you get ill at university, postpone for a year.  Yes, you’ll be bored at home for the six months you aren’t ill for.  But getting to April when you’re still only at 40% and realising that you have one month in which to catch up on five months of doing basically no work is not fun.  Trust me on this one.