I cannot believe we are already half way through this semester. And I am certain that I am not the only one with this sentiment. While some of us may be happy that it’s almost over, others, like myself, may be concerned that we won’t have enough time to undo certain grades.

Let me introduce myself; My name is Geraldine Vincent, and I am a recovering procrastinator. I have been told by my closest friend that I may possibly suffer from clinomania, an obsession with bed rest, an observation that I may not agree with. However, I must say that my bed is my most priced possession.

I’ve found that numerous times in the past, I would do anything humanly possible — and legal, to stay in my bed. I would have issues with the weather, especially when it snowed or rained, or was too sunny, or mildly cold. All I wanted to do was stay in bed. Not necessarily to sleep, most times to daydream and come up with beautiful perfect world scenarios.

Now for me, I am yet to decide whether my procrastination stems from clinomania or clinomania stems from my procrastination. But I am able to recognize that I have a problem and that goes a long way in preventing it. I am self aware of the things I can do, and can’t do; of the things that lead to prolonged stays in bed, and of the things that make me miss football games, bingo night, or sometimes even a date.

You may wonder, “why is she just writing this?” or “since you are so self aware, why do you still procrastinate?” Well, to answer the first question, the Ex-Officio for the International Relations council and a very good friend of mine, Sameer Keshavan, was in the process to organize a time management talk with some professors on campus for international and domestic students, and as an active member of the group, I had followed him through the whole process. We were having a conversation concerning the talk, when he turned and said to me “I have so much to do and sometimes, I feel like people expect me to do it all at the same time” and I responded that I feel the same way too, only that I push most of mine to the last minute and then become very overwhelmed. I had experienced an Isaac Newton moment, without the apple.

As an answer to the second question, I believe that there are many hardworking students out there (myself included), that could have done better than they did, and can be doing better than they are doing now, if only they didn’t procrastinate. 

Self awareness goes a long way in any recovery program. If you have an alcohol or a shopping problem, or if you go to a rehab for any reason whatsoever, the first step towards recovery is self-awareness. Why? Because, in order to overcome a problem, you must know it’s source. You must also understand yourself and what patterns lead you into that problem. 

Because the urge to procrastinate can be very strong, I must say that the main problem with procrastinators is, no matter how self aware they are, they still procrastinate. Now for me, this is no longer a daily occurrence. In fact during my early stages of recovery, out of fear that I might fall back into the same pattern, I overworked myself, and could not achieve balance.

Geraldine Vincent is the current president for International Relations council. She can be reached at [email protected]