Procrastination – the more time you spend in high school, the better you get at it.

With four years under my belt I feel as though I have found the best ways to procrastinate and how to get away with it.

Mentality:

1. Justify it.

There is always a reason for putting something off. The most common one being “I’ll do it next.” Make promises to yourself then break them because there is always slightly more pleasant minor task that can be done.

2. Fear Failure

Wouldn’t you hate to spend a ton of time on something then find out you did it wrong or you were bad at it? If you just wait till the last minute to do it then you have an excuse for the less-than-satisfactory grade. If you do well, it’s bragging rights.

3. Perfectionism

No one has written a perfect paper. No one is perfect in school. Even people with straight As miss some points on homework. There are other things you could be doing that you are perfect at.

4. Priorities

Priorities are nonsense. There is only what you want to do and the last minute. Do what you need to do the last minute and what you want the rest of the time then. As long as you get it done, priorities are useless.

Ways to do it:

1. Facebook

Somebody probably needs to talk to you. If they don’t when you log on, just wait, eventually they’ll speak up. It pretty important to be there to help out a friend, homework can wait. Look through old photos and wall post eventually you can get stuck in a maze of social networking.

2. Television

This is an easy one. You can always watch your regular series and justify it with “I have to keep up with my show”. There are other shows I would suggest such as “My Strange Addictions” and “Locked Up Abroad”. If you still feel a little unproductive watching some of those try watching Discovery, Science, or History channel so you can at least feel a like your getting educated in something.

3. YouTube

Related videos are the best thing to happen to procrastination since the internet itself. You can search one general topic you enjoy or a video in particular then dig into the related videos column for hours.

4. Stumble Upon

Stumble Upon is like finding a new YouTube or Facebook site every time you click ‘Stumble Upon’. For those of you who don’t know much about it create an account the night you have large amounts of homework you don’t want to do. After about six hours of mind numbing enjoyment you’ll realize it is finally the last minute and can cram all that homework in like you’re used to.

5. Playing games

Playing videos games is an important relaxation tool. You have been preparing to work for a while so just play one game before you start. It will probably turn into two or ten games, but that’s the point. If they are simple online, phone or iPod games do ones that take a long time and that you can play multiple times. I suggest Warzone Tower Defense. The games can be up to 20 minutes long and you can always try again for a better score. Best of all you can play this game through Facebook, double the distraction.

6. Hobbies

If you have some sort of hobby, do that. You enjoy doing it and can probably do it for hours. Practice an instrument, bake, or draw pictures. Everyone enjoys a cookie or a good drawing, make a gift for someone. Why would you do something for your own grade instead of making something for someone else? That is just selfish.

7. Get ready to do work

Yes, these sounds crazy but organize your workload and make a to-do list. Take your time. By the time your done with all of this you’ll be doing one of the other 9 and when you do get to the last minute you will be nice and organized to do things in a hurry.

 Ways to get away with it:

1. Victimize yourself

When explaining your situation, make all your small activities sound like they had to be done. Then people will sympathize with you and hopefully even your teacher. Recognize which teachers are more lenient and which classes take fewer points off for late work.

2. Know your schedule

Know this front to back. Know what you’re probably doing the next day in each class. Ask yourself “can I do this work in another class?” and “can I sleep in this class?” and then judge what homework to do when.

3. The last minute

When it does get down to the last minute, get to work. Skip problems that take too long. Multiple choices always need to get done first. Be aware that some assignments might just not be worth your time.

4. Ask around

Ask fellow students what gets graded, collected, and graded for completion. Judging from that you can tell what needs to get done, how well and by when.

(This is where some sort of closer goes… I get around to it eventually)