Procrastination
Okay people, it's English assignment dump time! Here's a definitional essay I did, the topic is procrastination. I honestly don't know if it even fits the criteria of a definitional essay.
Time and time again I have found myself at this computer working away when most of the world has already banked its fifth hour of sleep. Obviously sleep would be preferred to the various assigned tasks that I scramble to finish each night, but my conscience forces me to the keyboard time and time again, apparently strong enough to do this but not to prevent me from engaging in the horrible character trait of procrastination. Obviously at this point in my education, I have experienced enough of the ill effects and consequences of procrastination to know how detrimental it is and how better off I would seem to be if I could just throw the habit. So why don’t I? To know that is to know procrastination.
At first, my reasons for procrastinating were quite childish. The main thing was how structured I wanted my life to be, which mainly meant that I desired certain actions to be attributed to a select few times and places, such as schoolwork to be performed at school, chores at home and so forth. Obviously, there was a significant flaw in this plan that I so desired the world to operate by: homework. While the word was mostly seen to mean “schoolwork that is assigned to be done outside classes, most likely at home,” I found the whole concept to be quite offensive. After spending what I believed at the time to be a hard day at school (Oh, if I knew then what I know now) here it was, following me home. Now, I did not expect the home environment to be completely work-free, merely schoolwork free. This would allow the home to feel more like a home and less like a workplace, which detracts from its pleasant atmosphere. So what was to be done about this work that made the very wrong decision of invading my domicile? The most obvious solution would be to actually perform the assigned task, but that would be admitting to the fact that it was all right for the school environment to cross with the home environment. In other words, it would be admitting defeat. This was intolerable in my eyes. The next choice would be to not let the work bother me and continue on treating my home as such and pretending that had not been desecrated. I would always eventually break down and do the work, but in my mind I was holding my own rebellion against what I saw as a major affront against everything I wanted my life to be like.
Obviously when I discovered that doing schoolwork at home was a necessary to the act of learning, which I had no objections against, and that limiting certain actions and activities to certain environments would eventually limit my abilities (not to mention it was boring and a little creepy), this view of the situation died very quickly. But my procrastinating days did not go with it.
Most people perform work because it has a desirable end result, or if they are forced to do it, to get it out of the way and move onto more pleasant activities. As I had no real “pleasant activities” (i.e. hobbies, etc.) to look forward to the action of homework become more and more disheartening, both because it wasn’t exactly fun and the fact that it was basically all I had to do in my life. Therefore, I would keep it around, so that I would always have something to do and would never really have to face any free time and its terrifying array of choices. Procrastination is essence became a way of life for me.
What procrastination means to me now, I cannot quite tell. I’m sure in retrospect it will become clear to me, but it isn’t so now. The answer to the question as to whether or not the addition of other activities to my life, such as work, has changed the meaning of procrastination for yet another time will have to wait for another day.
I actually had fun writing that. More of them will probably show up later tonight, as this the last (hopefully) night I will be doing high school homework.
This amused me, and I hope it does you as well.
Your Star Wars Pickup Line
"Date, or date not -- there is no 'let's just friends be'."
What's Your Star Wars Pickup Line?
Time and time again I have found myself at this computer working away when most of the world has already banked its fifth hour of sleep. Obviously sleep would be preferred to the various assigned tasks that I scramble to finish each night, but my conscience forces me to the keyboard time and time again, apparently strong enough to do this but not to prevent me from engaging in the horrible character trait of procrastination. Obviously at this point in my education, I have experienced enough of the ill effects and consequences of procrastination to know how detrimental it is and how better off I would seem to be if I could just throw the habit. So why don’t I? To know that is to know procrastination.
At first, my reasons for procrastinating were quite childish. The main thing was how structured I wanted my life to be, which mainly meant that I desired certain actions to be attributed to a select few times and places, such as schoolwork to be performed at school, chores at home and so forth. Obviously, there was a significant flaw in this plan that I so desired the world to operate by: homework. While the word was mostly seen to mean “schoolwork that is assigned to be done outside classes, most likely at home,” I found the whole concept to be quite offensive. After spending what I believed at the time to be a hard day at school (Oh, if I knew then what I know now) here it was, following me home. Now, I did not expect the home environment to be completely work-free, merely schoolwork free. This would allow the home to feel more like a home and less like a workplace, which detracts from its pleasant atmosphere. So what was to be done about this work that made the very wrong decision of invading my domicile? The most obvious solution would be to actually perform the assigned task, but that would be admitting to the fact that it was all right for the school environment to cross with the home environment. In other words, it would be admitting defeat. This was intolerable in my eyes. The next choice would be to not let the work bother me and continue on treating my home as such and pretending that had not been desecrated. I would always eventually break down and do the work, but in my mind I was holding my own rebellion against what I saw as a major affront against everything I wanted my life to be like.
Obviously when I discovered that doing schoolwork at home was a necessary to the act of learning, which I had no objections against, and that limiting certain actions and activities to certain environments would eventually limit my abilities (not to mention it was boring and a little creepy), this view of the situation died very quickly. But my procrastinating days did not go with it.
Most people perform work because it has a desirable end result, or if they are forced to do it, to get it out of the way and move onto more pleasant activities. As I had no real “pleasant activities” (i.e. hobbies, etc.) to look forward to the action of homework become more and more disheartening, both because it wasn’t exactly fun and the fact that it was basically all I had to do in my life. Therefore, I would keep it around, so that I would always have something to do and would never really have to face any free time and its terrifying array of choices. Procrastination is essence became a way of life for me.
What procrastination means to me now, I cannot quite tell. I’m sure in retrospect it will become clear to me, but it isn’t so now. The answer to the question as to whether or not the addition of other activities to my life, such as work, has changed the meaning of procrastination for yet another time will have to wait for another day.
I actually had fun writing that. More of them will probably show up later tonight, as this the last (hopefully) night I will be doing high school homework.
This amused me, and I hope it does you as well.
Your Star Wars Pickup Line
"Date, or date not -- there is no 'let's just friends be'."
What's Your Star Wars Pickup Line?