In terms of practical application, I dont struggle with procrastination. I hate the feeling of being rushed to write a paper or prepare for a test and never feel that I do well on assignments that way, so I start far out in advance. My family often jokes that I schedule everything in my day down to the minute including meals (which is usually not true). Im usually pretty good at managing a hectic schedule and have started applying some of the tips from the textbook to improve even more. For example, Ive begun using the A-D letter and numbers system to mark out whats most important in my day and tackle that task first. However, the longer I watched Tim Urbans TED talk and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I do procrastinate, only not in the traditional sense.

When most people think of procrastination, they think of putting off important assignments for school and work until the last minute. However, as noted by Tim Urban in this video, the easiest things to procrastinate on are the things that dont have deadlines. In terms of keeping up with school and work, I do very well. Im taking four online classes this semester (twelve credit hours), working about thirty hours a week between two jobs, and attending bible studies regularly. I also try to stay fit and healthy and help my family out around the house. In a typical week, Im able to get done any preparatory work for work and be at work on time, get done all schoolwork due for that week and the first two days of the next week, and begin studying for any approaching tests five to ten days in advance. Im also able to attend bible study twice weekly on average, workout four to seven days of the week, and help out around the house.

Although Ive managed all this so far and not miss any deadlines, I realized that I have a terrible habit of procrastinating on spending time with my family or even just relaxing now and then. I have done an exercise my Dad taught me. For this exercise, multiply twenty-four by seven to get total hours in a week. Then start subtracting all your activities to figure out how much free time you have. I usually look at my fitness watch to see my average hours of sleep a night, multiply that by seven, and subtract it first. Then I multiply seven by one and a half hours to allow time for meals and subtract that. From there, I write out every assignment I need to complete that week and how long it should take me and subtract that. Lastly, I subtract out hours for fitness activities, chores around the house, and bible study. I have not done this since the spring semester, but at that time my total estimated amount of free time after school, sleep, meals, fitness, and bible study was ten to fifteen hours without factoring in work.

Watching this video made me realize that I probably need to start cutting out whatever unnecessary activities I can in a week to spend more time with my parents and sisters in the evenings. For example, maybe Ill start trying to stay two days ahead on assignments instead of five, or Ill workout five days a week instead of four to seven. Either way, I find that this can be a useful exercise to see if you need to be procrastinating more or less on different activities to get the most out of the day.