Lend me some sugar. I am your neighbor.

[starstealingirl]

In the spirit of generosity (and, perhaps, procrastination), I am going to share with y'all the most effective tool I have for surviving periods of intense work and very little sleep. I invented it with my roommate back in my freshman year of college, more or less out of sheer boredom, and it has served me well in the years since. It's probably not the world's most productive strategy for intense work (for that, I would have to recommend: work steadily over a long period of time; and also, do as I say, not as I do), but if you find yourself in a crunch, it is a remarkably effective method for raising your mood, jiggling your synapses, and summoning up enough energy to work for just that little bit longer. I call it:

THE 3-MINUTE DANCE PARTY

• Pick a song. Any song. Well, not any song. It should be an up-tempo song, with a good dance beat, a generally happy mood, and lyrics you don't have to pay much attention to. My song of choice this semester is Outkast's "Hey Ya," but back in college, it was pretty much every Eurotrash dance pop song ever invented. '80s pop and ironic butt rocker music works well, too. It's up to you, really.
  
  
• If you're blocked for inspiration, you can use a song thematically related to your paper (or whatever work you're trying to do) in order to jog the ol' brain. Earlier this semester, my roommate Laura and I did a 3-minute dance party to Neil Diamond's "America" in order to get ideas for our American Studies Theories and Methods papers (and also, to try and maintain the fiction that being awake at 3 in the morning to write a paper was, actually, kinda funny).
  
  
• Play said song as loud as you can without pissing off your neighbors.
  
  
• Dance. Make an ass of yourself. Wave your hands in the air like you just don't care. Shake your bootay. Shake it. Shake it like a Polaroid picture. Bounce around, as if on an invisible trampoline. Sing into your hairbrush. If with someone else, make melodramatic facial expressions and obscene hand gestures at them as you sing. If alone, maneuver yourself in front of a mirror and make melodramatic facial expressions and obscene hand gestures at your reflection. Make yourself giggle. Giggling is good for at least an additional five minutes of intense concentration.
  
  
• Once the song is over, get back to your desk and work. If done correctly, the 3-minute dance party can buy you anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours of additional concentration time.
  
  
• Repeat as necessary.