Don’t let anybody tell you different, procrastination has its up side. Actually, it has several. One of the benefits to procrastinating on writing your dissertation is that you could end up doing lots of other productive things with your time.
For instance, you may be teaching a class. You may be working a regular job in a field related to your area of research. You may be spending a lot of time at the office. You may be editing your summer vacation videos to post on youtube. You may be engaged in a host of other goal-oriented activities.
I attribute all of this to the Sacking of September syndrome. Naturally speaking, September is a time of harvest, things coming to fruition, bounty. In our Odyssey parallel life, September is related to reckless looting and pillaging. The common denominator here is energy. You are now stupid with energy even if you feel like you’re as sluggish as the ratings are for 30 Roc and as jaded as Alec Baldwin is about marriage. The point is Alec Baldwin is an amazing talent, 30 Roc is a hilarious and well-written show, and you are out there kickin’-ass!
It is my belief that slow and steady does not always win the race. Sometimes caffeine soaked benders get the job done. Sometimes papers are in fact written the week-end before they are due. The sad truth, which is related to the discordance of the academic schedule with the natural swing of things, is that the only times you may have ever experienced these wild bursts of work is at the end of the semester when everything needs to be handed in somewhere.
But September, in all its crazy glory, is the best time to dig in for a weekend of non-stop writing. You may be saying, ‘that A.B.D. girl is crazy talking!’ or you may be saying, “the S.O.S. syndrome has theoretical validity but has no empirical support;’ either way sit yourself down and cozy up for a September shaggy dog story:
The time—9:09 am. The place—in front of a very old, very slow, very annoying computer. I had just been told that the fact that I had never given a paper at a conference severely obliterated my chances of leading a nice normal life in academia. Lucky for me, it was September. Stoically I waited for the results from the broadest, vaguest, most unrealistic internet key-word search for conferences ever attempted. Dumb luck led me to a new organization that was practically begging for papers. Through sleight of hand I knew I could relate my topic to the goals of the organization and wind up getting to present a paper to an actual audience. All was falling into place.
But, wait, what’s this? The deadline for papers? Did I miss it? I rushed to the calendar. Initially so confused by all the numbers, I forgot what week it was. Truth will out however. The deadline: three days away!!!
Times like these call for pacing. Pacing and an iced-tea. Pacing, an iced-tea and a black and white cookie. “Y’know, I thought,” already done with the chocolate part of the black and white cookie (which, by the way is the only good part) “Screw it. I can’t make the deadline, I’ll just find another conference.”
I ate the white part of the cookie. I shouldn’t have bothered eating the white part of the cookie. “Fine. I’ll submit to this stupid thing.”
At which point I proceeded not to leave my apartment for three days. I lived on ramen noodles, called friends on breaks I’d give myself from time to time and freaked them out because I sounded like I was on cocaine, and spread papers and notes all over the floor and every other surface until my proposal was finished.
I clicked ‘send’ four hours before the due time.
The great thing about this three day frenzy was that it was the beginning of the year and so there was no other paper build up or deadlines I was dealing with at the same time and, at the end of it, I could clean up and carry on with my life. It was like a freak storm that tears up one house and plops in an entirely different place, but with no other damage.
Could this be the time for your freak storm?
2 Comments
February 28, 2009 at 5:29 pm
I love your site!
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August 12, 2009 at 9:09 pm
I just discovered your site while googling “dissertation procrastination”… It’s inspiring, and I’m sure that I’ll want to get back to work on my own dissertation, just as soon as I read a few more posts!