Let's face it, we all put the 'pro' in 'procrastination' way more often than we should. It's a fact of life that as we grow up, we avoid doing things we should and end up rushing to do three hours of work in 30 minutes. I find myself procrastinating daily, and regretting every time as I rush to write a 6 page paper or vacuum the entire house in half the time it should take me. Even over this last weekend I had to write four posts on my Philosophy class's blog, and I didn't write any of them until 16 hours before they were due. It's idiotic how much time I spend twiddling my thumbs, catching up on shows I don't even watch and reading the same Facebook posts 10 times. Maybe we are hard wired for being lazy until the last possible minute, but I doubt that. I think the truth is more along the lines of, unless we are in the perfect environment for our personal learning, we find it very hard to actually focus, buckle down and do work. Unfortunately, unless we find that perfect environment, we will forever be stuck in a limbo of procrastination and then rushing at the last minute.
Figuring out where that perfect environment is can be hard. For some people, it's the library. But that's easy to figure out, it's the first place you go when you know you really have to hit the books. I hate the library, though; It's kind of like a homework hell. Some people find an empty classroom, or just an empty room in general. Others do really well just sitting at a desk or on their bed in their room. Yet, none of these places work for me. My place is a Starbucks, or a coffee house similar to Starbucks.
I reached a point during my freshman year of college where I was absolutely miserable. I felt stuck in my room, stuck with just five or so friends, and lonely when none of them were available. I always felt like I was doing nothing. I went through a period of time where I was depressed. This feeling isn't like depression, it's not that hard hitting, and it's much easier to come out of, but it still sucks. I felt depressed for about four weeks before I did something about it. At this point I called up a counselor, and made an appointment. But before I even went to the counselor, I changed one little thing in my life.
On my college campus, we have a building called Crosby Student Center. Basically, it's like the social center of campus. Our mail room is based out of Crosby, there is a coffee shop, tons of tables, big comfy couches and it's always busy. But it has a feeling about it that just makes it feel like home. Crosby also puts on an event every Wednesday night where live music comes in and they perform for about an hour. Fittingly, it's called Coffee House. One of my friends and I decided to go one night, about 5 weeks before school got out. And this one little choice changed my college life. I figured out in that one visit that if I wanted to get homework done, study, or socialize with more people, Crosby was going to be my place. After that I spent hours there every week, actually doing homework. There was even one week where I had all of my homework done for the entire next week, and it was only Thursday night of the week before. I had finally taken the 'pro' out of 'procrastination.'
What is hard about college life, however, is that then you have to return to your home, and readjust how you get things done at home, too. I took a six week online class this summer, and I spent the first five weeks barely making the deadlines. I have one week left, and I am planning on spending a lot of time at a Starbucks.
What makes it work for me is the white noise, the fact that I know I could have a conversation with almost anyone, but know that I also need to focus. What also makes it great is I can get coffee whenever I need... and who doesn't love that?
<3 Katelynn René
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