What I Do Best by Adam Bobat
If there was something I was really good at, it would be procrastination. I can remember that I started procrastinating during COVID-19 because our assignments were easy enough that I could finish them in 15 minutes. Because of this, I would choose to watch YouTube, scroll social media, or play games, and this still holds true today. Back in seventh grade, I had to make a presentation about a poet, mine was on Robert Frost, and I finished that presentation 20 minutes before I had to present it. Another example of my procrastination was in seventh-grade history. Our history teacher, Mrs. Gregg, would give us electronic journals with twenty-plus slides we would fill out over the span of a few weeks before the test. For every two to three slides, you would have to watch a 40-minute-long video, but I never did that. The night before it was due, I would Google all the questions and information I needed to fill out on the pages and finish the journal in an hour or so. I never got anything below an A, so I never stopped doing that.
Transitioning from my old school to Uni High was an interesting experience. I had an opportunity to meet new people and make new friends, but the biggest change for me was the curriculum. The core classes felt easier than at my old school, but the one thing that didn’t change was my procrastination. I would procrastinate on all my assignments subbie year. I would do my Latin homework the night before it was due, while other students would do it in class. I would do my English reading in school right before I had my class. This was a common trend in my other classes.
Looking back at my time at Uni so far, I think there have only been a handful of assignments I haven’t procrastinated on. My freshman and sophomore years were the same story as my subbie year. Currently, I am in my junior year, and nothing has changed. I have had a few more assignments that I haven’t procrastinated on this year than in previous years, but I still procrastinate on almost every assignment. For example, in history, Mr. Leff gives us a shared Google doc to write our essays so he can see our version histories to see our writing process. I assume he expects an outline and a drafting process before we get to our final product, but when he looks at my version history, he finds that I wrote the entirety of my essay at school the day it was due. No outline. Just a start-to-finish essay that I started at lunch the day it was due. A more recent example of when I procrastinated on an assignment is this essay. I am sick and sitting at home while I work on this essay that was assigned two days ago. It’s due today at 3:15. I wrote my first sentence at 12:57 p.m., and then I sat on my phone scrolling Instagram for about 40 minutes. I started writing the rest of this essay at 1:46 p.m.–around the time class would start if I were at school. Yes I would have written this whole class in the class period right before it was due.
After I finish my assignments I procrastinated or get back a test that I procrastinated studying for, I tell myself I am going to stop procrastination. And without fail I procrastinate the next assignment I get. I originally told myself that I procrastinate because I have no motivation, and I need the pressure to start going. But this is wrong. I think it’s just my lack of self-discipline, and dopamine receptors being fried from short-form media.
Hey Bobat,
ReplyDeleteNice post! As someone who despises procrastination, I question your ways but praise your ability to not fold under pressure. As for suggestions, you tend to state a variety of detailed examples of procrastination in your life. However, if you can add some sort of analysis regarding your work habits, that will help make your essay stronger. Maybe talk about a reality where you do not procrastinate and how that could have made you different, or if you would or would not continue procrastinating past high school. Overall, solid read
Howdy,
ReplyDeleteCool essay. However, I do feel like it, at times, feels a bit too caught up in description of processes or the assignment, leaving not enough time or words for personal reflection. I think you try something interesting at the end with the whole 'I procrastinated with this' part of the essay, but it feels a bit too repetitive after the previous sections. I would suggest incorporating the slightly underdeveloped reflection and cutting back on the description of your act of procrastination. I think in general, a small comment I have about your essay is that it feels like you're leading up to something with an example, and then it ends up falling a bit flat at the end. I think this is just amplified by your examples mostly sticking to a similar formula, which would be: I procrastinate, here's how I procrastinated this time (in the form of 'here's what I was supposed to do/here's what I did), and then 'I finished the assignment.' Obviously, there's some difference between sections, but I just really wanted to see something newer than that format near the end.
Wow you must have that clutch gene, finish this at the end. I'd usually call myself a procrastinator, but after reading this I think you have me beat by a wide margin. Truthfully, I can tell you procrastinated a little. It feels slightly underdeveloped, with much more description than reflection. Instead, maybe show more about why you do it, how it makes you feel emotionally, the reaction from your teachers etc. rather than just 'oh yeah im procrastinating this one too ahaha'. That's just my opinion. I'm also being hard on you because you're always mean to me in class but that's unrelated. Still a good post though.
ReplyDeleteHi Adam! I think your title is very fitting. Procrastination does become a habit when done frequently. The first sentence of your last paragraph is the first instance where you suggest that procrastination has had a negative effect on you, so you might consider expanding on that idea. The rest of the essay does not present delaying assignments as much of a personal issue since you say that you always finish in the end. Additionally, it would be interesting to hear about any strategies you attempted to stop postponing your work—or, if you never implemented one, why you didn’t follow through. Since you are approaching the word limit, you may need to remove some examples to make room for more of those sorts of reflection.
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