The consequences of being a chronic procrastinator

There once was a girl, literally lain
Who wanted to have her own web domain
She tried to stay on
And not be a bum
But procrastination took over her brain

This is my first ever limerick, written specifically for this blog entry. I hope you enjoyed it, because looking for words that rhyme was not fun at all.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand: Procrastination

My mortal enemy, we've been fighting since I've had the capacity to do stuff by myself, and our constant struggle is an eternal war that can only end with my death, and thus the triumph of procrastination.

Flowery language aside, procrastination sucks. It has screwed me over in the past and it's not going to end any time soon. The following is a little collection of stories of when my procrastination got so terribly bad that it has had meassurable negative consequences on my life.

Unstructured university life

Procrastination actually screwed me over twice in regards to university life. Once near the beginning of the year, and another time which is still ongoing as we speak.

Near the beginning of the year, my local university opened up inscriptions for new graduates. I intended to sign up and finally start studying Comp. Sci.

...And then I didn't!

Since inscription is only open twice per year, I had to spend the first half of my adult life as a neet. Solely because I didn't sign up to uni on time.

Luckily though, I managed to sign up for this half, so luckily I am no longer a neet.

However, I didn't consider just how differently structured uni would be compared to high-school.

I don't how it works in other universities, but in the one I'm attending they essentially give you different study materials, a couple of videos recorded by the teacher, and some assignments to see if you understood the contents of the class.

The assignments, however, are simple little self-tests. They have no deadlines whatsoever!

This essentially meant that I could do whatever and it'd be ok as long as I got a passing note on the exam.

In the end, I got so lazy that I just didn't even bother to sign up to the exam. It's not like I knew anything, but I could've at least TRIED.

It's also not like this semester is already over. I still have time to do it.

But will I?

Probably not.

What do you MEAN I have to study to learn a language?!

If you didn't know, I'm bilignual. I speak both English and Spanish fluently, and as a result I've come to love learning languages.

Or atleast, the idea of learning languages. When it comes to actual study, I simply can not stick to it.

I've wanted to learn tons of languages for a while now: German, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, even con-langs like Esperanto and Toki Pona.

But I think the biggest offender when it comes to my lack of dedication is Japanese.

I've actually spent a decent amount of time learning Japanese, but I am by no means good. And it's because my process for learning Japanese has been absolute hell.

Let me show you how it works:

1. Get a spurt of motivation to study Japanese again
2. Redownload Anki and a random Core 6k word pack
3. Grind it to hell a back the first few days, but slow down after a while to not drown in reviews
4. Miss a single day, my Anki streak is now ruined
5. Stop bothering
6. Repeat when the next spurt of motivation arrives

I say that Japanese is the biggest offender because atleast with the other ones I didn't bother to start. But I've spent 2 years doing this with Japanese.

2. Whole. Years

Imagine how much more I would know in that time if I had stayed consistent.

Finally, the worst procrastination of them all

Neglecting this website.

If you recall my first ever post, I had planned to regularly maintain this website.

But, as you can see, I didn't.

I just left it sitting in the dust, not doing anything.

Even worse, I had originally planned for this blog entry to come out on the first of October, and now it's almost a week later!

Will I ever beat procrastination?

Absolutely not, but it will not take me down without a thousand fights!