Today I invited Hillary to go to Late Night with me. It looked like she was doing homework, so I apologized for interrupting.
"Oh, no," she said. "It's okay. I'm actually pretty much done."
Homework. Done.
This is a concept I can't quite wrap my head around. Never in the history of my collegiate career can I ever remember being done -- even for a day. I have never crossed an item off my list without coming to another item that needed to be completed. Because I'm extremely slow and methodical, a perfectionist, and easily overwhelmed, and because I know that I'll never be done, sometimes I give up on the idea of even starting. Why begin something that I know I'll never be able to finish? So I resign myself to a semester of partially completed reading projects (fortunately I'm excellent at faking that I know what I'm talking about in class discussions), homework assignments turned in late, marathon paper-writing sessions, and all-nighters before major tests.
When I was younger, this worked. It isn't working anymore. No amount of caffeine in the world can relieve me of my fatigue, anxiety, and low academic self-esteem. I'd love to be able to watch a movie, go to a concert, or simply hang out with friends without feeling guilty, like there are a million other things I really should be doing instead.
"What's your secret?" I had to ask.
"It's pretty simple, really. I do my homework as soon as it's assigned. If I have a lot of reading to do, I space it out and do a little each day. There's no sense in procrastinating. I know that when it's done, I can play!"
Wow. Simple genius.
4 comments:
I am a genius, aren't I?
Wu-Tang!!!
To Hillary, the famed blog reader: Yes, you are!
When I was at college I remember once vowing to get an early night just once in the following week. I think the earliest I ended up going to bed that week was about 1.30 am.
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