Campus Conversations

Built in Procrastination; How to Survive Your Senior Year

November 9, 2012

Blogger: Miranda Sieg

Hello everyone! It’s been a very stressful month, what with midterms, papers, and, oh yeah, I’m double majoring!

So that’s been fun. I’ve known I was going to double major since probably freshman year and so far it’s been going well. I’ve always been a good writer and such so I wasn’t too worried about having to write two theses this year (we call them comps, as in senior comprehensive projects). I’ve been trying a two-pronged attack where I write most of one in one go, then start on the other. It worked out great for the first one so I dived right into the second one and immediately hit a brick wall. It was partially the rather unhelpful non-advice I was getting from people that were supposed to be helping me, but that’s a different story. Most of it was just that I had just finished a draft of my other paper, so I was sick of studying. Just goes to show, procrastination is essential. (Proceeds to read manga and watch Nu’est music videos for three hours).

Anyway, it’s been busy, but, I was ready for it. I only signed up for three ‘real’ classes (4 unit), then I’m taking karate, as always, and I added voice this year, which has been awesome. With my two comps independent studies my schedule is the same 18 units as always! But back to karate and voice. I am a firm believer that if something you are working on isn’t going well, you should take a break and come back to it after having done something completely different. My schedule worked out in such a way that I have all my academic classes Monday and Wednesday with karate to round out the day, a day off Tuesday, and voice on Thursday with a lighter schedule Friday. Basically it’s perfect. After focusing all day I get to rest my brain immediately with karate, and I get to do voice for a little kick Thursday just to make it to Friday. Long story short, I think it’s a good idea to build something non-academic into your routine, whether that be through your schedule, a club, or some serious self-discipline. I always find it easier to do it through my schedule, otherwise I probably won’t go.