Lessons of Procrastination from an Inexperienced Procrastinator

Have you ever felt the feeling of doing everything in the last minute just to comply with the necessary requirements or just to beat the deadline? For a certified procrastinator or perfectionist, that would be nothing new for them. But how about those people who are forced into the situation due to fortuitous event or encountered a mishap along the process?

This was what I had encountered when I was about to graduate from my Master's Degree. As soon as I passed my thesis defense, I applied for graduation the following day (which is also the last day of the said application). I know that it is not typical of me to do those in last minute, but the reason I applied the day after my defense was because when I learned that the date of my defense is one day ahead of the last day of the application to graduate, I opt to apply on the last day of application instead. I just do not want to put my expectations high that time so there is that.

However, things did not go as planned and unfortunately it became a domino effect:

• First, I learned that my application to graduate did not push through for the reasons that I don't know. This would mean that should I really want to graduate, I have to wait for the reopening of the application period to apply, but this time subject to penalty and fines.
• Second, my classmates with same thesis adviser are informed that we have to figure out a way for our thesis adviser to sign our approval sheet since she was a part-time professor; and because of the late submission, we have to write a letter indicating the reason for the late submission. This is the time where we picked up some lessons from our previous classmates who already encountered that situation and actually applied it (e.g. let our mentor sign documents that required her signature); and yet, we still lagged behind the said deadline.
• Third, after we successfully let our mentor sign our approval sheet, I learned that the thesis title I placed in the approval sheet is inconsistent with the thesis title my mentor approves. This made me choose between addressing the issue immediately versus placing two different thesis title for the sake of not tampering an official document (which is the approval sheet), which of course rejected by the school as there should be consistency of the thesis title.
• Lastly, despite the chance of having another reopening of application to graduate, I end up having one last mishap which is I placed the the thesis title my mentor approved and few hours after the said application, I've been told that the school rejected the submission of my thesis due to title inconsistencies.

My peers, who also finished defending their paper during this term, were just waiting for the graduation practice and other graduation-related activities, while I on the other hand have to address these compounding issues. A part of me know that I can just give up and wait for the next graduation (which is February 2019 vs supposed October 2018) since all I need to do is to fix the necessary mishaps and just wait for the application for February 2019 graduation. By going through that route, I can dodge from necessary fines and I'm technically not in a hurry to graduate. Besides, it did not seem to be a life or death matter for me to immediately graduate and nothing is technically at stake. However, multiple opportunities from the school to extend necessary deadlines and encouragements from some of my peers graduating on October 2018 made me realize that I have to try to comply even if nothing is at stake. - and I did! So Hello October 2018 Graduation!

I, for one, admit that I am not an expert in procrastination or what some people call the pressure cooker situation. Whenever my groupmates, classmates or classmates with the same mentor are panicking at my progress while they are lagging behind, I kept on telling them that is because I am not expert in procrastinating and I am not effective whenever I am in the last minute situation. This is to inform them that they can relax and do their part where they are most productive. This also meant that whenever a deadline looms and I have not done my part yet, I start to panic and as we know, whenever someone is in panic mode, you cannot think properly and you end up having irrational decisions that you might later regret.

By going through my personal pressure cooker situation (even if nothing is technically at stake), I learned a lot of things and hopefully I would be able to apply it when I it matters.

1. Optimism - This is the one trait I think most procrastinators have. They know that they can finish things on time even if they looked exhausted with what they have been through in the last minute. They know that stressing themselves from the beginning would be useless if they might end up stressing themselves in the end too.
   
2. Never give up - This goes hand-in-hand with optimism as these people have a strong inner will to make sure that they will finish what had been asked of them to do no matter what. By never giving up, they knew that they should keep on fighting - we can say that these people can have a strong fighting spirit.
   
3. Motivation - I can say that this the primary reason why people were able to beat the deadline. One can be optimistic, but if one does not have the drive to actually think and act upon it, succeeding a task through procrastination would become useless. This does not only apply only in procrastination, but across all aspects of life, studies, etc.
   
   Like what I have mentioned, I was not motivated enough to comply because I thought that there is no way that the school would allow me to extend their imposed deadline for the submission. However, when I realized what could be the impact between marching this school year (at least I knew some of my peers despite not being close enough with them) compared with marching next school year (where there is no guarantee that my closest friends in the MBA would finally defend and pass their thesis), I decided that I should do something about it and fight through it.
   
4. Adjust your pace - There are times where it is actually okay to relax when a particular deadline is approaching as either you really have plenty of time despite the allowances you made, and  even if you rush things, you might end up giving yourself unnecessary stress.
   
5. Pause, think then act - An inexperienced procrastinator would make a lot of irrational decisions (like me) when they are in a pressure cooker situation. Meanwhile, an experience procrastinator would not do such things. They would pause for a while and think of their possible options, how to find an optimal solution to their problem, and then act on it. Most of the time, it works for them and you can see that some people are having exceptionally good results compared to their peers who finished their requirements ahead of them.
   
   In my case, since I learned that I would need to ask for the respective personnel to again sign whichever document I would choose to have as an official thesis title, I decided to pause, then think of my options where I can only disturb the least number of stakeholders involved. In this case it was a matter of asking my mentor to sign versus five personnel (mentor, three panel, and dean) where of course I chose the route of asking my mentor to re-sign the said documents and not disturb the other stakeholders. By doing this route, I was able to comply the said requirements based on their imposed deadline.
   
6. It is rewarding - Lastly, I think people who had successfully accomplished something through procrastination would feel a sense of euphoria. Whenever my peers would post something on social media about their academic life with the caption in relation with exerting their efforts by increasing caffeine intake, sleepless nights, etc. just to finish a final paper or to the extent - thesis, I think I now realized that majority of the people who said those lines are probably been through the pressure cooker situation. As the saying goes, it would not be rewarding if you did not actually worked hard for it. In their case, even if they opt to not do things ahead (as they think they are not productive), their huge sacrifices are what made them truly satisfying.
   
   I am not saying that those who are doing things ahead of time are not making an effort on it. Early doers may sacrifice time and socialization just to finish ahead of time, but it is those who undergone pressure cooker situation would be the ones that are making bigger sacrifices compared with those who do things ahead. This would not become surprising

I know that during my pressure cooking phase, it was a mixture of anxiety, nervousness and everything in between especially that I know that I don't perform well during these phase. With all these experiences, I would still want to make sure to do things early and if ever I there are abrupt situations that need immediate action, I already know how to deal with it.

For now... I will savor my upcoming graduation this month!