Hello everyone:

Today, we are having severe weather. Tornado warnings, flash flood warnings, and thunderstorms abound. Amazingly enough, they are very similar to approaching deadlines that you have tried to ignore.

How so? Perhaps you have kept up with most of your assignments. Oh, maybe you missed a few exact dates here and there, but you’ve been almost on time for everything. You have sobbed out a story for the professor and he or she might have accepted it. But the end of the term is here and what are you going to do?

You’ve put off and delayed beginning work on that really huge end-of-term project, telling yourself that you work better under pressure. Really? I doubt that. You work faster under pressure, to be sure, except when you have a massive brain freeze. It’s like drinking a Slurpee too fast or chugging a massive smoothie without regard for the consequences.

The word “procrastination” is spelled “put-it-off,” for those who are deadline-disabled. And now, my friend, you are out of time. Your professor has deadlines, as well. He or she must get final grades posted by a certain date or take a hit on future classes. You see, our bosses take the deadlines they give us seriously and our failure to post grades can result in our not being given classes for the next term. While you may not care, we certainly do. So does our mortgage banker!

So, what can you do? Begin work immediately. Everything that you normally do for fun is now on hold. You must finish up or take a very bad grade (some of my final projects are worth three letter grades- you can’t afford to ignore them in my classes!). You will not be going to the movies or out for coffee or to your Zumba classes or anything else that might distract from the tasks at hand.

You might feel like you are in the midst of a tornado…maybe you are, for now. Next time, plan early, plan well, and work ahead, not behind.

Best,

Dr. Sheri