Procrastination fetters deep thought
Emily Breiner
Issue date: 3/6/08 Section: Opinion
There it is again. The request from the back row of your history class: "Can you extend that paper deadline till Monday? I've got like three other papers due this Friday."
For a moment no one breathes. Forget whatever great insight the professor delivered moments ago; this is the best idea the class has heard all day.
The professor consents, the class adjourns, and students head home to watch TV because the assignment is no longer pressing.
Although Hillsdale College students claim to care less about grades and more about the good life, whom are we kidding? Our minds are occupied with how we are going to manage our clogged schedules.
Students tend to blame professors when the load gets large. But when an English professor extends a paper deadline, relief sweeps through a classroom like victory on a battlefield.
But is this relief good news, or just a temporary suspension of the anxiety of the looming deadline?
After recently extending a paper deadline for one of his literature classes, Dr. Christopher Busch said when he extends a paper deadline, he sees little difference in paper quality because students feel less pressure, so they spend less time on their papers, thus making the finished copy potentially worse.
Well, maybe sparse sleep, coffee and a stiff neck are the only way to give birth to great ideas.
But third shift is hardly a desirable hour for a heart-to-heart with the laptop.
So as I sit at my Mac, typing at a frenzied pace 24 hours before this column's deadline, am I saying we need to stop procrastinating and live a more balanced life?
No. Just about everybody tags "I just need to balance my time" onto the stressful list of things they have to do. It sounds volcanic.
A word about balance: I have never understood that word. People say it all the time when they are stressed and attempting to compartmentalize their lives, an attempt make an even split between their hang out time and their study time.
They're trying to say that they won't be happy until they get everything done - but when will that happen?
So is balance good? It sounds more like a stressed compromise.
Life isn't that symmetrical. You can't split it into equal parts. Humans are embracers. We tend toward extreme busyness or sickening laziness.
So we slouch at the desk, hands poised, waiting for a genius comment to cross the brainwaves. Have we looked at the page so long that we cannot critically examine it any longer?
Let's remember that pause and reflection produce developed thoughts. Embrace the frantic day because you're never going to avoid it. But carve out times of solitude.
Writer John Stott penned balance as an all-out embrace of two concepts instead of a compromise or average of two concepts.
If we really care about our growth as humans, we're going to have to give time for our thoughts to ferment - even in the busiest day - before we press "Print."
For a moment no one breathes. Forget whatever great insight the professor delivered moments ago; this is the best idea the class has heard all day.
The professor consents, the class adjourns, and students head home to watch TV because the assignment is no longer pressing.
Although Hillsdale College students claim to care less about grades and more about the good life, whom are we kidding? Our minds are occupied with how we are going to manage our clogged schedules.
Students tend to blame professors when the load gets large. But when an English professor extends a paper deadline, relief sweeps through a classroom like victory on a battlefield.
But is this relief good news, or just a temporary suspension of the anxiety of the looming deadline?
After recently extending a paper deadline for one of his literature classes, Dr. Christopher Busch said when he extends a paper deadline, he sees little difference in paper quality because students feel less pressure, so they spend less time on their papers, thus making the finished copy potentially worse.
Well, maybe sparse sleep, coffee and a stiff neck are the only way to give birth to great ideas.
But third shift is hardly a desirable hour for a heart-to-heart with the laptop.
So as I sit at my Mac, typing at a frenzied pace 24 hours before this column's deadline, am I saying we need to stop procrastinating and live a more balanced life?
No. Just about everybody tags "I just need to balance my time" onto the stressful list of things they have to do. It sounds volcanic.
A word about balance: I have never understood that word. People say it all the time when they are stressed and attempting to compartmentalize their lives, an attempt make an even split between their hang out time and their study time.
They're trying to say that they won't be happy until they get everything done - but when will that happen?
So is balance good? It sounds more like a stressed compromise.
Life isn't that symmetrical. You can't split it into equal parts. Humans are embracers. We tend toward extreme busyness or sickening laziness.
So we slouch at the desk, hands poised, waiting for a genius comment to cross the brainwaves. Have we looked at the page so long that we cannot critically examine it any longer?
Let's remember that pause and reflection produce developed thoughts. Embrace the frantic day because you're never going to avoid it. But carve out times of solitude.
Writer John Stott penned balance as an all-out embrace of two concepts instead of a compromise or average of two concepts.
If we really care about our growth as humans, we're going to have to give time for our thoughts to ferment - even in the busiest day - before we press "Print."
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