At some points in our lives, most of us have received some sort of "preparing for college" type lessons. Whether it be in high school, with an "Effective Note-taking Seminar" or during Orientation with a "Balancing your Time" discussion, there has been an emphasis on teaching us how to succeed in college, not only within the classroom but outside it as well.
But all these lessons have missed one of the most important parts of doing work in college?effective procrastination. At first, it seems the term "effective procrastination" is an oxymoron, like "military intelligence" or "Bowdoin party." In reality, however, there is such a thing. Effective procrastination, as opposed to just wasting time, has two main elements.
One, it must be an activity with a variable length of time, meaning that you can do it for five minutes just as easily as for 50 minutes.
Two, it must be something that completely engages your mind, otherwise you will just spend the time worrying about the work you should be doing and get no benefit from the procrastinating. Thus, watching TV is not an effective procrastination tool?it engages your mind, but is not really a variable length of time. You could end up catching "The Warriors" on AMC, and all of a sudden your ten-minute break turns into two hours. (Note: If any of you have not seen "The Warriors" and have no idea what I'm talking about, you must see it immediately, otherwise I call you uncivilized heathens and shall mock you unmercifully.)
On the other hand, staring blankly at the wall in the library is certainly a varied-time activity, but doesn't really engage your mind (unless you're at Bates, where it's considered an intellectual exercise). Now that we have established what effective procrastination is, let's look at some techniques for it.
Since so much work is done on the computer these days, one of the simplest and most effective ways to procrastinate a bit is to look at web sites.
There are of course the old standbys, such as thefacebook and instant messenger, but to be honest, there're only so many people you sort of know that you can add as friends, and on instant messenger you'll just end up having awkward conversations with people you used to talk to in high school. There also are some sites you want to avoid religiously when procrastinating?news sites are not good, because you end up thinking about all that is wrong in the world, how much you hate people, and what you could do to make the world a better place, rather than being able to seamlessly go back to important things like 17th century British literature.
You want to avoid porn sites for the same reason?you will lose any focus you have had on your work, and instead start thinking about what kind of a woman would be with a horse (uhh, if you're into that sort of thing...).
Thus, the ideal site for procrastinating is one that you can spend a few minutes on, enjoy the content, and then get back to work.
One of my personal favorites is tuckermax.com, which is easily one of the funniest things I have ever seen. In short, it is a collection of stories by this guy about various acts of debauchery and foolishness. Nothing quite inspires studying like reading about picking up strippers in a Texas roadhouse. Trust me, this site is fantastic, and addictive?as long as you limit yourself to a few stories at a time, you will be fine to get back to the work.
Another excellent site is everyvideogame.com, which has on the site a bunch of old Nintendo and Sega games that you can play online. These games are fun for a while, but soon grow boring, so you can easily get back to work. They also have the added benefit of allowing you to reminisce about your carefree childhood, when you spent all your time playing video games alone while the other children played together and laughed...Hmm, getting off-topic again.
Another great procrastination technique is exercising. Anyone who knows me knows that I treat my body like a temple, and so regular exercise is very important to keep your body as fit as your mind. At least that's what they tell me. Personally, going up stairs tends to leave me short of breath, so I don't really speak from experience here, but I have heard that a short bout of exercising will help refresh your mind.
Continuing with the idea of treating your body well, having a drink while in the midst of studying can often be very useful. The key here being a single drink, as opposed to several, unless you are doing work for a creative writing class, when the Hemingway/Kerouac route of going on a three-day bender might come in handy. For most other studying though, taking a few minutes to relax and enjoy a nice cocktail will often re-energize you and focus you more when you actually go back to work. By cocktail, of course, I mean a beer, since the entire Bowdoin educational system would come crashing down if students were allowed a single real drink while doing their work.
There are many other useful techniques for procrastination that I won't explore in depth here, such as talking to roommates, making paper airplanes, creating your own meth lab, or a host of others. The important thing to remember is that procrastination involves putting off or delaying your work, not ignoring it. Effective procrastination means you eventually will finish the work you need to do, and when done right, actually means you will be more focused and do a better job on that work.