Gulbadan

First, let me start off by saying that "procrastination" is an extremely difficult word to write, and an even more difficult one to say. I always confuse it with "procreation" for some odd reason.

Anyway, now that that's out of the way, we address the topic at hand: procrastination. Everyone procrastinates. It's really a fundamentally important part of human nature I believe. And yet, everyone feels guilty when they do so and, more importantly, surprised when it actually happens.

That happened to me yesterday, where the procrastination devil hit me hard, and I ended up wasting what was supposed to be the most super-productive day ever.

This is what was supposed to happen yesterday - my ideal daily planner told me this:
1. I was going to wake up early.
2. I was going to enjoy a nice, healthy, filling but quick breakfast and then a nice, warm but quick shower.
3. I was going to head off to the library, reaching there around 11 am and begin work.
4. I was going to spend 3-4 hours applying for a few dozen summer internship positions by writing cover letters, tweaking my resume and sending out the necessary emails to contacts and employers.
5. I was then going to break for lunch - a quick but health bite, really.
6. Post-lunch, for the next few hours I was going to invest all my energy doing (and completing) research for a final paper I am supposed to write for a course I am currently taking.
7. I was then going to come home late at night after many hours of hard labour, warm up the leftover pasta for dinner, and then head to bed all tired and satisfied.

So yea, as you can see, this would have been a very productive and useful day.

This is how it turned out.

1. So I woke up late. Bad start. I had slept at 3 am the night before, because I was watching Battlestar Gallactica season 2, so that's really the root cause.
2. I made breakfast - healthy and filling. Then I thought I'll watch one more episode of BSG because I really need something to do while I have such a large quantity of breakfast.
3. So obviously since the show is so fucking addictive I couldn't resist watching another one. Two episodes later I realized I needed to rent the remainder of the season from the university library, but couldn't stop, so went online to search for streams of the next episode.
4. Couldn't find them, ended up noticing that new episodes are out for both Gossip Girl and How I Met Your Mother. Said to myself that it's really just 2 measly episodes, there's no harm in watching them. That was another hour or so gone.
5. Thought I'd catch up on the news while I was online, so went to the DAWN website. Read a few articles, and came across the phrase "we must be vigilant all the time." Probably a Pakistani-terrorists-creating-mayhem-and-causing-the-rest-of-the-world-a-big-fat-headache story.
6. Started thinking how the word "vigilance" is so cool. Remembered something I had read somewhere, a lot: "constant vigilance." Started raking my brain but couldn't place it. Where was it? Lord of the Rings? Gandalf? No, unlikely. Harry Potter? Hmm. Likely. Sounds like something Dumbledore would say. "Harry, we must show constant vigilance (or else Voldemort will anal-rape Hermione and spear Ron.)"
7. Went to Google searching for "constant vigilance" and found it. Aha! Mad-Eye Moody's pet line. Why did I think Dumbledore? Hmm.
8. Came across a Harry Potter fansite specializing in trivia and assorted information about all things relevant to the books.
9. Ended up spending seven hours on it. Yes, seven fucking hours. On one website. (Clearly you can see how much I like Harry Potter.)
10. Realized it was too late in the night to start doing anything productive, so started watching the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" movie. Fell asleep within one hour. I think that depressing robot did the trick.

The next day, today, hasn't fared so well either. Although I did end up waking up on time, and did make a healthy and filling breakfast again (btw, I also watched the latest Scrubs episode while eating it), and did make it to the library on time, and did start researching for my paper, I ended up getting distracted on the internet again, and started reading up semi-related articles and the like. And then, in an unexplained moment of utter madness and stupidity, I somehow ended up having a conversation with a recent ex girlfriend. That led to a flood of a thousand good memories and fun times spent together and the inevitable and totally sour parting of ways, resulting in pain and heartache and depression that will probably last for another few days, if not weeks.

So, yea, that was pretty screwed up. Should never have stayed up late at night watching Battlestar Gallactica to begin with.