I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
- Douglas Adams

Procrastination is an often maligned and misrepresented technique. People always say “why put off till tomorrow what could be done today?” Although this is true, it does not mean that procrastination is a poor work technique. Indeed procrastination, when used properly, can yield last minute nuggets of gold, or at the very least help you survive that term paper you forgot about until three days before the due date. The following is a short guide on how to properly procrastinate without stressing, staying up till 2 a.m., or out and out failure.

* Please note that procrastination as a lifestyle can be dangerous, there is very little room for error. Before putting something off you have to ask yourself if you can afford to take the negative consequences of total failure.

Step 1: Know your assignment

This may sound obvious, but it bears mentioning. You need to know what you’re putting off. First you need to know what it is you’re doing. Is it a paper? Is it an oral report? How many pages are required? Do you have to make something? Know everything about the requirements because when you procrastinate you have no room for these kinds of errors. Forgetting that your paper is single spaced may be a minor problem with a week left, but it becomes a disaster when you have less 20 hours to complete the assignment.

Next you need to know what your topic is about. Sometimes your topic will be assigned, sometimes you get to choose. Regardless of how it is assigned, you must be familiar with your topic on some level. Occasionally you can figure it out as you go along, but even then you have to do a little prior research to know that you can. Never go into a long term work session without some prior knowledge. Remember: There are some things that are way too big to put off. A good rule of thumb is one page per hour. If you don’t have 15 hours, don’t do 15 pages.

Step 2: Have a conclusion & evidence and find the facts to support it.

This step applies only to papers and even then only in several instances, such as research papers.

**Remember, this is a survival technique. If you’re interested in a scholarly pursuit of the truth, don’t bother with this step. But then again if you were, you probably would not be reading this

You know your paper requirements, you know your topic, the next thing you must know is your conclusion. By determining what your conclusion is first, it becomes easier to write the rest of the paper.Think of it as writing backwards. For instance if one wanted to write a paper on drug legalization. You want to write in favor of legalization. This is your conclusion: drugs should be legal. Your evidence can be whatever you want as long as you can find a legitimate source to back it up. Internet sources with .org are good, however make sure that the website is not dedicated to the conclusion you’re trying to support. That will bring in questions of legitimacy. Think about it: If you’re writing about the legalization of weed and you used norml.org as a source, the teacher is within their right to question the legitimacy of the information.

Websites with agendas are risky. It is risky to rely on .org site, but .edu websites are basically a rubber stamp. Teachers will rarely question academic websites. While it may sound difficult to find academic websites to support unorthodox facts or evidence, remember: what the thinker thinks, the prover proves. There is bound to be some out of touch professor who will post his “findings” on his school’s website. Also a good source for information is wikipedia*. While most professors will not accept wikipedia, there is a way around this. Instead of citing wikipedia, cite the sources that it cites. Very few professors will ask to see your sources. However, if you cite books be prepared to come up with an excuse as to why you don’t have it. Be prepared to buy the book if necessary. Just remember, your topic will determine the amount of information you can find and the ease in which you can interpret.

*This is VERY dangerous. I don’t know how well your professor would take this, but I can bet not very well. I would not recommend using this technique, however if you are VERY desperate, then it may be your last option. And by desperate I mean you’ll flunk out of school if you don’t make a good grade.

Step 3:

This is the most critical step. You know what you’re doing, what your conclusion is, and where you’re going to get your information, but now you must now how you’re going to piece the puzzle together. First you must have at least one full day before the deadline to complete your project. Now it may sound risky to give yourself only a day, but consider how much time you would spend on writing something. Even giving a generous estimate, most people won’t spend more than a total of 12 hours actually writing a paper. Bearing this in mind, be prepared to spend the entire day writing this. Here are some ways to help finish your assignment quickly, and with little pain:

1) Wake up two hours before you plan to write. The reason you should do this is to provide yourself with a little rest time before your actually writing session. If you wake up and then go right into your writing session you will feel rushed. Furthermore at some point you will get overwhelmed because you have thought of nothing but this paper, and that is how people crash and burn in their writing.

2) Start early. Remember, this is an all day event. Would you rather go from 1 p.m. to 12 a.m. or would you rather go from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.? Also this gives you more time to take breaks and breathers.

3) Go off by yourself. If you’re around people, television, or any kind of distracting media outside of the device you’re using, you will get distracted. The worst kind of distraction is the subconscious kind. This is when a T.V. is on and your neither watching the T.V. or attentively writing. You wind up just starting blankly and the screen OR you just write garbage.

4) Plan breaks into your session. After so long of writing, your brain will become exhausted and start to shut down. I can’t speak for every person, but personally my time is around three hours of straight writing. A good way to elongate that time is to place small thirty minute breaks in between certain stopping points and then have one large break (one to two hours, never three) near the end. For example: I have a ten page paper to write. For every two pages I write, I take a thirty minute break. After I write seven pages, I take a two hour break to rest and then continue.

5) Structure, structure, structure. The more you are able to place a structure your paper, the easier is will become. Simple write a short outline or web. For example: I am writing a paper on the War on Drugs. I will dedicate paragraph x to the underlying causes, paragraph y to the start of it, and paragraph z to the effects. I want pages 1-2 to be about it’s history, pages 3-4 to be the pros and cons, and pages 5-6 to be my summary.

The final tip I have to offer is to know when you have become overwhelmed and cannot write anymore. There will be some times where your mind just refuses to work anymore and anything you write is contrived garbage. If you have to think too hard about what your writing, you may have hit your stopping point. Don’t be afraid to stop and clear your mind. This is why you take the whole day to write, so when this happens you don’t doom yourself to failure.

The most important key to this whole method is to know yourself. You know what you can or cannot do. You know how you write and how you work. Ultimately it is up to you and you alone.