15 Minutes

We talk a lot about how doing just a little at a time can add up to a lot. I mean, what is a big job besides a series of small jobs strung together? This article suggests 20 things you can do in a mere 15 minutes.

CG

Knowing When to Stop

This page provides a handy top-ten list for busting procrastination. Some of them are obvious — avoid TV, internet, telephone. Some are so obvious that they are impossible not to include (but often strangely easy to forget) — ie. get right to work! My favourite on the list: avoid doing extra research. How often do I talk to students who simply don’t know when to stop researching? Everything seems important and relevant. And sometimes, really, really interesting.

Research is a tricky thing in relation to procrastination, because it feels like you’re getting stuff done. But that “extra” research is actually making it harder for you to finish the project.

It’s essential to have some sense of what it is you’re trying to do (see #5 – Stay focused). In other words, if you’re writing a paper, have some sense of what it is you’re trying to argue. A working thesis, or research question, can make a huge difference. Then you can be always asking yourself this question: “Is this research actually helping me advance my thesis/answer my question?”

CG

That moment

When we procrastinate, there is always a moment of truth when we decide to divert our focus away from the task at hand. We usually don’t notice it, we don’t want to, or else we would have to think about the thing we’re trying to avoid and pay attention to the fact that we’re avoiding it.  When I do notice that moment, I’m actually pretty good at getting myself back to the task at hand. When I don’t, I’m off reading really interesting but unproductive blogs on the net.

I wonder – what can we do to notice that moment of truth?

CG

Learning Styles – Fun With Online Tests

Aren’t online quizzes fun? If you’re bored with your work, in the spirit of productive procrastination, I offer two that can give you a sense of what kind of learner you are. This one has you click a bunch of boxes and spits out your results, so it’s a little more user-friendly than this one, which requires you to do some math…

CG

Is Procrastination Good for You?

Ever noticed how when you’re avoiding something important, you become really prolific at something else? For example, when I used to work as a freelance writer and editor, my bathroom sparkled, especially if I had a difficult major job to work on.

Perhaps that’s not all bad. Sometimes burying ourselves too deep in our work gets us lost in it, and we can’t see a way out. Maybe a little procrastination is good for us.

Of course, “a little” should be the operative phrase here. And watching TV or checking Facebook doesn’t necessarily qualify as productive. (Can’t mention Facebook here without noting that the U of T Procrastination Association has more than 3,000 members on its FB page.)

Lots has been written on this idea of productive procrastination, for example, from Lifeclever here and a site called Structured Procrastination here.

My advice? Don’t forget your priorites. Students in university have to get work done. But when you’re just not up to doing the work, have a to-do list of other things that you could do. You could do less urgent, but equally important work in another subject. You could have a list of stuff you’ve been avoiding like laundry or paying bills. And, hey, there’s always that bathroom to clean…

CG

This Poem Contains Nudity

Write me, it whispers
inviting. Write me now.

Oh, I couldn’t, I say. I am shy.
I hardly know you.
Your conventions, your breath.
It is too intimate.

Tiptoe through me in ankle bracelets.
Pluck my lines from vines like grapes
and hold me in your mouth.
I want you to know me
from the inside.

I am scared.

In its unwritten state, the poem
is naked, stripped of clothes, of body.
It has no shame, exists without form,
wants a body to enter the world with, any body.

The poem isn’t coy, it is wide open.
I am the prude with the pen, the one
trying to fit its huge expanse of self through this
small inky orifice.

Write me, it whispers.
Write me now.

by Ronna Bloom
from Personal Effects
Pedlar Press, 2000

RB

Cringe-Busting Your To-Do List

CBC Radio One show Spark offers some pretty concise advice on how to get things done.

CG