I learned a good lesson during my first fall semester, when I took my first programming class. The lesson is: Always check you computer before you leave home for school. The instructor always puts a notice online, somewhere - usually an email - when there won't be class that day. It saves time, gas, and all that goes into getting prepared for a class. The first time this happened to me, I got to school on time only to find a note on the door saying that class had been cancelled. It's a real weird feeling - good! I have a few hours of free time; then - bad! how am I going to get the help I need to finish an assignment; then good, again! - there are lots of things that I need to do away from school that I didn't think I'd have time for; then bad again! - the guilt sets in as I realize that I really should go to the computer lab and get the help there and maybe finish an assignment. To be honest, it's a toss of the coin which I decide to do.
Of course, reading the email before I leave, still sets up a whole new list of choices like, now I have time to read a book, take a nap, actually try to solve the riddles of programming by myself and the great lift that gives me. What choice do I usually make? A combination of several of the above, depending on how I'm feeling that day. I wish I could say I always go to the computer lab (if I'm already at school because I forgot to check my email first) or work on the stumbling block myself, but I'm a born-again procrastinator and put off the school work until after a few hours of more pleasurable options.
In the meantime, I've driven the rest of my world crazy while I "goofed" off. (There's some twisted sense of pleasure in that, too ;-) There's always the chance that, if I put it off, my brain will reconnect with it's fine-tuning and I'll know what to do. How often does that happen? Surprisingly, more often than not. So, fellow procrastinators, there is a reason we somehow manage to succeed and achieve our goals.
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