By: Garin Kilpatrick
“If I plan to learn I must learn to plan”
Those words were written on my sixth grade teachers desk. They will stay with me for life because they depict an important point: Planning is imperative to success. This point is no less true when applied to writing a paper. By breaking a paper down into a planned process the writing process becomes much more manageable. Follow these 5 steps and help systematically secure the success of your paper!
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Just because Eduify is a productivity tool doesn’t mean we don’t appreciate the plethora of websites out there that aid procrastination. Everyone procrastinates, and our philosophy is that sometimes you have to work hard (and use things like our quote capture, our easy editing, and our plagiarism check) because you procrastinated so much in the last week. In a strange, circular way, we all keep each other in business. So, without further ado, here are 10 websites we’ve been using to procrastinate lately.
10. Facebook. It goes without saying that Facebook needs to be on this list. Of course everyone in your life cares about your ‘5 favorite cheeses’ on LivingSocial, so why don’t you go ahead and waste more time by announcing this crucial piece of information? Stalking your friends (as well as random strangers) is such a good way to kill important time.
9. FML. Schadenfreude, right at your fingertips. These remind me of the “embarassing stories” section of trashy magazines like Cosmopolitan, except way more trashy and way more funny. You think you had a bad day? Check out some of this site and you’ll feel a whole lote better. And then, after you feel better, you will continue to procrastinate.
8. Post Secret. This site, which posts user-submitted secrets on postcard format, is not only interesting to look at, but it’s actually thought-provoking, unlike some of the other counterparts on this list. No wonder it became such a hit on the internet. It’s actually compelling. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll procrastinate.
7. StumbleUpon. If mindlessly surfing the web is your cup of tea, StumbleUpon is here to help. This site brings you personalized recommendations from all over the web, as you click through each site. I’ve actually discovered some pretty amazing websites through StumbleUpon, and it’s worth checking out if you desperately don’t want to get anything done.
6. Texts from last night. It’s the new FML. It’s FML, except meaner. TFLN include some amazing gems, most of which were written while obviously inebriated, and promises to suck many hours of productivity from your life. Don’t click the link unless you want to still be glued to your same spot in front of the computer, at the same website, an hour from now!
5. YouTube. YouTube will suck not only hours of your life, but days, weeks, months, years. Use at your own discretion. If someone sends you a link about David at the Dentist, Sneezing Panda, a video about some little girl talking about Star Wars, Evolution of Dance, or any other mindless minute-long clip, avoid with every fiber of resistance in your body, unless you want to enter the YouTube’s wormhole of procrastination.
4. Orisinal. If you’re into games but are sick of playing Solitaire on your computer, check out Orisinal. These are some of the most beautiful games I’ve ever seen, with adorable names like “Morning Sunshine,” “Bum Bum Koala,” and “These Little Pigs.” So, so, precious. But don’t let the gorgeous exterior fool you. These are just procrastination tools shrouded in lovely disguise.
3. This American Life. I have spent innumerable hours of my life staring off into space, letting my adolescent crush on Ira Glass sprout and flower, as I listen to his radio show This American Life. NPR is the only reason to listen to the radio, and luckily for us, it is now possible to listen to NPR on the web. Procrastination has never been classier.
2. Cute Overload. LOLCats were so three years ago. Now, we’ve evolved past having to see caption to just being able to appreciate the wonderful simplicity of things-so-cute-you-want-to-squeeze-them-until-they-die. My god, who knew baby pigs were so amazingly cute? What about little tiny chickens? Oh my god, chihuahua puppy!
1. FreeRice. This site helps you procrastinate, but you can justify it because your time wasting goes toward a good cause. Structured like a vocabulary test, FreeRice asks you to answer multiple choice questions on word meanings, donating 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program for every question you answer correctly.
For those who wan’t to do the opposite of procrastinate – that is, be more productive – check out our tips on how to stay productive and avoid procrastination, here!
I wish there were some sort of organic chocolate-flavored laxative for writer’s block, but unfortunately for writers, there isn’t. Most writers, at some point or another, complain about not being able to write. The writers who claim they don’t ever have writer’s block are usually laughable lazy terrible less critical writers. Prolific writers like Danielle Steele might come out with several books a year, but no one could ever, with a straight face, compare her to someone like Dorris Lessing.
Some writers, notably famous authors and those who have the option of writing leisurely, can afford to suffer from short bouts of writer’s block. Others, like you students, don’t. For you, deadlines exist, regardless of whether anything exists in your empty document. And, seriously, I get your pain. As a student, whenever I had writer’s block, my grade was docked for turning in assignments late, despite the fact that I came up with some pretty demented explanations for my lateness, which included everything from fictionary dead relatives to hospital trips for imaginary kidney stones to every type of disgusting indigestion/food poisoning imaginable (I assumed that if I grossed my teachers out enough, they wouldn’t pry too far into my reasons for needing an extension). Weirdly, I had the imagination to invent whole scenarios explaining why my paper wasn’t done, yet no mental capacity to actually sit down and write it. And, no surprise, my teachers never bought my excuse. In fact, I probably offended their intelligence by even assuming that they would.
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The Internet has become integral to the way that students research and write their papers, but in terms of procrastination, the Internet can be a frightening black hole. A quick jaunt over to Wikipedia to look up the Battle of Waterloo can quickly degenerate into three hours wasted reading about everything from brain-eating amoebas to unicorns to Kim Jung Il. Students often waste more time procrastinating and stressing out over their enormous to-do lists than they actually spend accomplishing their tasks in the end. Luckily, you can train yourself to avoid procrastinating by understanding your tendencies as a procrastinator and subverting them. Here are five helpful tips on how to curb procrastination and get your schoolwork done.
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