Student Life: Staying in and Studying (Cat Videos).

It gets to that point in the semester when you realise you might actually have to submit some assignments. That's what happened this weekend in our house. Suddenly we were all faced with deadlines and tests and there was no way to avoid it. As responsible adults we decided to stay in and study. We retired to our rooms and at first things went well.

It lasted a couple of hours before one of us got distracted and started sending the others life-changing videos from youtube. 

Soon we were all sitting in our rooms pretending to work. I tried my best to pen a verse or two, but simply ended up writing ridiculous ditties about cat videos. 

The spell had been broken. A break was needed. So we spent the next three hours drinking tea.

We found out things about each other as we wiled the hours away with heart to hearts. 

It was clear no work was going to be done. I decided to try out a new pilates regime. Sure it would cleanse my mind of viral cat videos and get me back to writing semi-coherent sentences. Bored, one of my housemates watched and gave pointers.

The whole episode resulted in a catastrophic loss of balance and some minor facial injuries. 

While I sat cursing the pilates ball. My housemates bounced about on it like two hyperactive three year olds. Displaying their version of interpretive pilates. 

We seriously needed to get back to work. But our concentration was waning. We needed food. Rather than order something in, or make something quick like well-adjusted adults who have their priorities in order, we decided to spend a couple of hours cooking ourselves a proper meal. 

Then there was the time spent consuming the spoils of our efforts. In the moments that followed nothing mattered except for how much food we could fit into our mouths without looking like complete heathens.

Revitalized we stood up, ready now to take on the world of study. We made it half-way across the living room before we started dropping like flies as the food hit our stomachs. 

We may not have gotten any work done. But by process of trial and error we did finally figure out what the pilates ball was good for. 

Figure Out Your True-Calling through Procrastination

Sometimes in an effort to avoid the necessary evil of whatever-it-is-that-needs-doing one can find their true calling. I've been using that one a lot lately, the true-calling theory, and have discovered that I could be a first-rate housewife, fitness planner, Facebook-stalker or cat lady. I'm not necessarily comfortable with any of these callings but they are there anyway. 

Disclaimer: These are my own personal tools of procrastination and in no way an indication of my lifestyle choices… 

1. Tea-Making: Endless cups of tea that I don’t drink. I’m not a fan of the stuff but if there’s something else to be done you can be sure I’ll need to boil a kettle and stir some teabags around a cup for ten minutes. Then sit, watching it go cold as I stare into space wondering what else I “need” to do before I get going with paying bills, writing essays, job applications … 

2. The Facebook Browse: But it’s not just a browse is it? Fast forward an hour and after boring myself to tears with the countless pictures of cute animals my friends share. I’ve fallen in love with some song writer half way across the world. I know the name of his dog, his soon to be ex-girlfriend and have figured out a way to meet him. The important thing to remember here is that I don’t act on this feverish acquisition of knowledge. I just pride myself on the ability to obtain it. Training for my future as an internet stalker for unhappily married couples. I could start a franchise? 

3. Routine Check on the Animals: I don’t even like animals. But they are here. So I feel obliged to communicate with them. This can result in a full hour whittled away trying to pretend the cats like me and getting the moronic dog to chase something other than his tail. 

4. Rearranging Clothes: When faced with something I’d rather not do I find myself folding clothes. Something I never do. Sometimes it even seems like I MUST rearrange my drawers. This involves tipping my folded clothes on the floor and then shaking them out and refolding them into different drawers to justify the chaos I've caused. 

5. Paperwork: This is a last resort when faced with having to make business type phone calls. I will first open my file. I do keep one, stuffed with receipts and bills and grown-up things. I generally avoid it, and then when I need to do something adult: I tip it all out to sort before I can get on with the task in hand. 

6. Starting a New Exercise Routine: This is one of those methods of procrastination that can take up hours of my time. First there is the planning. The decision to commit hours of each day to pain. But what kind of pain? How many days off? Targets? Goals? And then the first-step: day one of the routine. So I leave the house: stride down the road as far away as possible from what I need to get done today. I scare the neighbours by lunging about in the garden and collapsing in broken heaps, only to realise that this plan is too much, tomorrow I will devise a new one.

7. Event Attending- Fail at life and party or succeed at life and avoid party. In order to avoid become a balding hermit on a mountain-top with cats for company I normally justify the fail-at-life option.

8. Matching Socks: I become possessed by the need to find all my socks their original partner in crime. Given that I've long held the theory that socks are eaten by the washing machine this can take a considerable chunk of the day. But I’m a romantic, obviously, anything in the name of monogamy.

9. Mopping the Floor: This only happens when I have to edit my novel. I get a page in and then realise the dirt on the floor is distracting me. It must be dealt with now.

10. Channeling my inner TV chef: When duty calls you can be sure I will think of a reason to spend two hours in the kitchen contemplating what sort of cheese will go best with tonight’s dinner (never mind the fact that my choice is usually limited to feta or cheddar), mumbling to myself as I dice onions and devising new ways to cook potatoes.