The Art of Procrastination

If anyone was to interview my mom about how I was growing up, being on top of things would not be one of the things she would say in terms of my strengths.  I was always a little slow starter, but always came out strong in the end.  That still sticks with me today.  I guess learned habits really do stay with you.  I have never been one to just jump and get something done right away.  Well, that is not necessarily true.  If it was something I liked, it would be done right away.  If it was something I wasn’t interested in, I would get it done…eventually.  I would wait until my parent’s voice got to the point where I was like “oh sh*t! I guess I should get this done.” As a parent now, I am very familiar with this voice now.  My son unfortunately may or may not have gotten this gene from me.

Fast forward to this weekend.  It was finally a weekend where we didn’t have a ton to do.  The only thing on the calendar was the Monster Truck show that I wrote about last night.  That was something that I was excited to do.  The other thing on my schedule for this weekend was getting my grades done, which are due Tuesday.  This is something that I DON’T want to do.  At All.  Not even a little bit.  Putting the grades in is not the hard part.  That takes me a half hour at the most.  It is grading writing that I dread.  It takes seriously forever, and with 29 students this year, it takes even longer than forever.  I want to make my feedback worth it to my students, so I take my time and really read over their writing and give them some notes to help.  Unfortunately this takes at least 15-20 minutes per kid.  That is a long time!

This is where the procrastination piece comes in.  I got my math and reading tests and grades done weeks ago.  I don’t mind grading those, so I got them done right away.  I knew this date was coming, but I still waited until the last two days to get my writing grades started.  Luckily for me I thrive under pressure.  I think I actually work better when the deadline is right in front of me.  It helps me to focus knowing that I have no choice but to get it done.  All through my school life I would do the same thing.  I would write my papers and study for my tests right before they were due.  It is how I programmed myself from a young age.  I am not happy about it, but honestly, I am so used to it now that it just works for me.  I have 24 out of the 29 writing grades done, so tomorrow will be finishing those off and and getting the grades in.  One way or another, those grades will be ready by the 8 am deadline Tuesday morning.

 

***Update…I just tried to just submit this and missed the deadline by 1 minute.  How is that procrastination thing working out??