The Art of Procrastination

I gave a presentation today at noon.

I asked my grad research assistant to do a little data analysis for me a couple of weeks ago and she gave it to me on Wednesday.

I started gathering info Wed and Thurs for the presentation.

But I didn't actually really LOOK at the info or put the presentation together until this morning.

I think, in the end, the presentation went fairly well. It had to do with the decision-making processes of Alaska Native corporations in terms of land selection and resource development.

I had to remember interviews that I've conducted on the topic. I think I remembered them without any mistakes. But with my memory . . . there was also a lot of background information that I already know. That helped.

Also, in the past couple of weeks, I have often waited until a couple of hours before class to pull together my own class lectures. One day last week, I somehow managed to pull off a lecture without much preparation. It was all in my head. I think I had a good Performance about folklore performances. Even if I do say so myself, I would have to say, to be vulgar, that I pulled it out of my ass. And, it went okay.

That's sorta how today when.

I guess that's the advantage to having such strong grounding in my discipline and topic. I can pull off presentations without too much effort.

But I've also managed to learn the art of procrastination! One of my friends (another professor) once used to create a lot of anxiety for himself when it came to grading. He had good intentions to get it done, but the grading would often hang over his head for two weeks before he finally finished it. He finally realized that he's not going to do the grading until he absolutely had to and that he might as well not stress about it until the deadline approached and he had to get it done.

That's the art of procrastination!