I have always been a procrastinator. From the days when I would tell my parents about a science project the night before it was due and stay up until the wee hours of the morning finishing it, to the days of waking up early to finish a college paper, to…well, writing this blog post.

You know how people say “I work better under pressure!” to excuse procrastination? Well, it’s true for me. Maybe not that I work better per se, but I definitely work more efficiently. Nothing gets my butt in gear like only having an hour to complete something. Then there’s no room for procrastination.

In this day-and-age, procrastination is almost too easy. I can turn on my TV by talking to my remote, I can see what all of my Facebook friends are up to, and I can text them and pretend that they’re my real friends all at the same time!

Every time I write a sentence, my inclination is to look up and watch just 30 seconds of television. Then, once the episode ends, I realize that I haven’t done anything for a solid half hour. Oh well! That episode ended on a cliffhanger, so I have to watch the beginning of the next one to figure out what happened! Just the beginning…yeah, suuuuuuuuuure.

Could this procrastination be due to depression (which at this point I have known that I have for several years)? Hmmm…nah.

That’s literally how I’ve always worked, though. I struggle sitting in a room with a TV that isn’t on. It feels rude, you know? There’s a TV just sitting there mute and inactive, and I have the power to give it life and give it a voice. To not exercise that power is just downright selfish.

Even if I’m not watching the TV, there’s something just comforting about having it on in the background. (This is one of the reasons why rewatching is so good for me — I actually have a prayer of getting work done and not just sitting and watch-…

…oh, sorry, what was I saying? Jane the Virgin just got artificially inseminated on my TV…again.)

Plus, if I start projects any earlier than I need to, I’ll allow them to drag on for forever. I take my time, refuse to focus, and suddenly something that should take me two hours has taken 3 days, 4 seasons of Modern Family, and several pints of ice cream.

Instead, if I just start the project two or three hours before it’s due, I buckle down and get it done. The threat of having it hanging over my head and having an impending deadline forces me to focus, and therefore I don’t spend more time on it than needed.

Besides, I’d much rather do my work in a last-minute frenzy! And I wonder why I’m so stressed out all the time.

On the bright side, when it is crunch time, since I’m so focused on what I’m doing and not allowing distractions to get in my way, my work actually does turn out a bit better. Or at the very least, doesn’t require as much editing…which is good, because when you’re right up against a deadline, who has time for editing, amirite?

I think that another reason (or way, I guess you could say), that I procrastinate is that I love working in small bursts of energy. I like having several projects going on at once so that I can hack away at them in small bits individually. I find that it keeps everything as interesting and stressful as possible. Living the dream.

After all, what could be better for your productivity and sanity than to add more things to your already busy schedule?!

I personally feel most productive when I have so many things going on that I have to use working on one project as a distraction from working on another. It’s like the procrastinating rebel inside me is being satisfied, but I’m still actually getting work done. Yay productive procrastination!

This blog, for example, is something that I can always work on when I’m procrastinating on other things. This means that I’m frequently creating new blog post documents and essentially leaving them blank until I’m in a rush to finish them before Wednesday! Much like this one that I wrote in a feverish rush yesterday, then edited today…

Are you a procrastinator? Do you like getting things done in advance in a calm manner, or do you like spastically rushing at the last minute to get things done?