By: Adair Garrett
My ideal writing practice is to first outline, write all of my ideas in a stream-of-consciousness manner, then reorganize my paper into a more logical structure based on the ideas I’ve written. After I have a close-to-completed work, I like to go through my paper and consider grammatical structure and word choice. I enjoy editing (my mom is an English teacher and it fulfills some sort of itch I continuously have), so I’ll spend a good bit of time on this step of the process. Before I turn it in, I read the document all the way through twice, with at least an hour in between. This gives me time to have a set of fresh eyes when I review my work, and this step often allows me to catch small or tricky mistakes.
I do not like to write with snacks because it often distracts me from the task at hand, but I normally have a big cup of double-bag green tea with me. I like to listen to Lo Fi Hip Hop Radio on Youtube and I work normally in the CULC or during my free time at work. I do not get anything done in my own house because my little sister and I are best friends, and it is impossible to get anything done when your best friend is asking you to color with her.
I know the next paragraph will cause every other student in this class to hate me, so please read at your discretion.
I am not a procrastinator. For some reason, if I know I need to do something and I don’t immediately begin to do it, then I feel terribly frustrated and unhappy. I remember specific times in my life when I have procrastinated because I was so shocked by the feeling of not wanting to do something that I should be doing. Last semester, the day before my last final, I procrastinated. I got out of my Statics final and walked back to my dorm to start studying for my Multivariable Calculus final the next day. No matter how much I told myself that I needed to study, I could not find the motivation to start from anywhere. A friend of mine in an earlier section told me that evening that the test was “ridiculously easy”, which was a comment that somehow did not help my situation at all. Eventually, I worked out and went to sleep, and the motivation did not come until during the test, where I found it exceedingly difficult and stressful. This is honestly the only time I can remember procrastinating this past year and it reminded me why my conscience never lets me procrastinate.
As an example of my complete lack of procrastination, I started this post on May 26th, have written the majority of this post on June 4th, and will turn it in after editing on June 25th (even though it is due June 26th). As a result, deadlines are complicated for me because sometimes I have done something so far in advance that I’ve finished far before I can submit something.