1. Break out the laptop.
Extra points if you open it with the conviction that you’re about to start doing work.
2. Open your problem set.
Or bring up that Paradise Lost reading you have to do. “You’re about to get work done for once!” you tell yourself.
3. Open your email.
It’s not quite math homework, but it’s definitely something that needs to be done. Delete all the heartfelt letters from Ron Daniels. He had his chance to win you over, but three loans later you know you can’t continue this toxic relationship.
4. Check Facebook.
No, you’re not procrastinating, you’re just checking to make sure there aren’t any urgent messages before you begin working. You don’t want to get interrupted halfway through a problem set, do you?
5. Open up YouTube.
It’s just for music though, something cool to listen to while you’re working. You take a gander at the suggested videos... An hour passes.
6. Ignore the slowly mounting guilt.
Though you can feel the disgust rising up within you, you’re now in hour two of a Masterchef marathon and don’t see yourself stopping anytime soon. There’s still tomorrow for that problem set though, so instead of slamming the laptop down with righteous indignation, you settle in for the next iteration of Gordon Ramsay making fully grown humans cry.
7. It’s important to remind yourself:
You aren’t just being lazy, that you need this time to relax. You still have time before your Calc III homework is due, you don’t have to start today. It’s not laziness, it’s time management. You’ll manage your time later so you can do fun things right now.
