A Bad Idea I Can't Seem to Quit: Waiting Until the Absolute Last Minute to Write my Essays (10/10 DO NOT Recommend)

Hi, my name is Jen and I have a problem. I'll let my tweets speak for themselves.

Yes, I have been in college for three years now. No, I still haven't learned how to not procrastinate on my papers. Feel free to fling the judgement my way. But let he who has not committed the cardinal sin of essay writing throw the first stone. Yeah, that's what I thought.

We've all been there: cuddled into the couch, laptop screen glaring in your eyes, caffeine failing you, your eyelids drooping further and further. You wonder how it could possibly be 2 am already. Tension fills your soul as you stare at your glaringly blank word document.

To give myself some credit, I don't think my procrastination stems from laziness. Nor do I have any false notion that I do my best work under pressure. I've been giving this issue a lot of thought (although this really is just another form of procrastination), and I think the root of my problem stems from a fear of failure.

You see, every time I complete the Herculean task of finishing a frantically produced paper, there is always a little voice in the back of my mind that says: That was good enough in a pinch. Of course, you could have done soooooo much better if you had more time. Guess we'll never know...

Oddly, I think I take comfort in denying myself the chance to explore my full potential. Because what if I really give it my all, and it still sucks? Then I would have to accept that I'm a shitty writer and therefore my life is a lie and therefore I am a failure as a human and I might as well just move to Iceland to begin my career as a sheep herder.

But here's a secret: we're all shitty writers. At least when we sit down to write that first draft.

I work at my college's student writing center, and in our little oasis of encouragement and positivity, quotes and memes and stories about writing cover almost the entire wall (it's glorious). But one of my favorite quotes is this little nugget of wisdom: "There is no such thing as good writing, only good re-writing." And I guess you could say that one hit a little close to home.

We Stan Anne. Photo Courtesy
of the Wall Street Journal

The annoying thing about writing is that it requires a total surrender of your comfort zone. You have to be okay with writing actual trash and you need to understand that one paper is not going to define your legacy as a writer. And remember that giving yourself time to revise will always. make. your. writing. stronger. No exceptions.

Anne Lamott, queen of words, wrote this: “Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something—anything—down on paper. What I’ve learned to do when I sit down to work on a shitty first draft is to quiet the voices in my head.”

So next time you have a paper to write, try to channel Anne Lamott and don't stress yourself out before there is anything real to stress out about. Don't set out to write perfection; set out to quiet the voices in your head first.

And please take care of yourself. Sleep is important, so no more all-nighters!...or at least fewer of them ;)