By Rachael Cooper
Rachael is a 1st year PhD Student in Water Resources Engineering at the University of South Florida. She is the FY21 Communication Mentoring Coordinator (CMC).
Rachael is a 1st year PhD Student in Water Resources Engineering at the University of South Florida. She is the FY21 Communication Mentoring Coordinator (CMC).
There is a joke in my house that when I have taken the time to mop the kitchen floor or do the laundry, I must have a looming test or deadline. For some context to this joke, I am not the household ‘neat freak’. I do not enjoy cleaning, and I absolutely despise vacuuming. Yet, I have a strange instinct to procrasta-clean. As an undergraduate, I developed a coping mechanism to work in the library and not at home. As a professional before 2020, my workspace was limited to a desk I left every day to go home. So, before 2020, this ‘little weirdsy’ was just something I ignored.
Working from home as a full-time graduate student has unleashed a bit of a problem, I cannot run to the library or to the office anymore. I have had to face procrasta-cleaning head on, and I have found a new way to live with it through a lockdown, where work life, home life, and time in general just seem to be one big blur.
First, I changed my view on procrastination. I find that when I procrastinate to accomplish other tasks, I feel re-charged. Something was completed and finished! Pracrasta-cleaning gives me an extra boost and feeling of accomplishment because it is not something I normally do. Other household tasks I enjoy, such as cooking, does not recharge me as much as cleaning, but it still gives a little boost.
Second, I include every procrastination task I could and might do on my to-do list with grad school. I think of them as ‘recharging tasks’. They are going to happen if I put them on the list or not, so I have accepted them, and now include them as tasks I have accomplished in a day or week. I break things up into smaller tasks to avoid taking hours to clean an entire room. Some small procrasta-cleaning tasks include loading/emptying the dishwasher, folding laundry, wiping down my desk or bathroom mirrors.
Then, I split of my graduate school to do list by how much mental energy and time it requires. Once I have everything in a list, it becomes a puzzle. This week I have a lot of big deadlines, so I did a lot of recharging tasks Sunday, and am attempting to keep any procrastination tasks to a minimum until Friday.
Finally, I block out the required time in my schedule for the week to accomplish the high priority graduate schoolwork with one or multiple ‘recharging’ tasks to mentally boost me through it all.
The method is not foolproof and is constantly in flux as priorities rearrange throughout a week. What recharges and drains everyone are different and may change based on the time of day, time of week, or what is on the news. If I find myself in a tailspin about what to do next, I go for a walk to reset and check-in with personal and academic priorities. By accepting my procrastination methods and trying to harness them to my benefit to recharge, I feel less stressed as finals and end of semester deadlines approach.
Working from home as a full-time graduate student has unleashed a bit of a problem, I cannot run to the library or to the office anymore. I have had to face procrasta-cleaning head on, and I have found a new way to live with it through a lockdown, where work life, home life, and time in general just seem to be one big blur.
First, I changed my view on procrastination. I find that when I procrastinate to accomplish other tasks, I feel re-charged. Something was completed and finished! Pracrasta-cleaning gives me an extra boost and feeling of accomplishment because it is not something I normally do. Other household tasks I enjoy, such as cooking, does not recharge me as much as cleaning, but it still gives a little boost.
Second, I include every procrastination task I could and might do on my to-do list with grad school. I think of them as ‘recharging tasks’. They are going to happen if I put them on the list or not, so I have accepted them, and now include them as tasks I have accomplished in a day or week. I break things up into smaller tasks to avoid taking hours to clean an entire room. Some small procrasta-cleaning tasks include loading/emptying the dishwasher, folding laundry, wiping down my desk or bathroom mirrors.
Then, I split of my graduate school to do list by how much mental energy and time it requires. Once I have everything in a list, it becomes a puzzle. This week I have a lot of big deadlines, so I did a lot of recharging tasks Sunday, and am attempting to keep any procrastination tasks to a minimum until Friday.
Finally, I block out the required time in my schedule for the week to accomplish the high priority graduate schoolwork with one or multiple ‘recharging’ tasks to mentally boost me through it all.
The method is not foolproof and is constantly in flux as priorities rearrange throughout a week. What recharges and drains everyone are different and may change based on the time of day, time of week, or what is on the news. If I find myself in a tailspin about what to do next, I go for a walk to reset and check-in with personal and academic priorities. By accepting my procrastination methods and trying to harness them to my benefit to recharge, I feel less stressed as finals and end of semester deadlines approach.
