The "I have an essay due in 15 hours and I haven't started yet" thread

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explodet

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This is one of the hardest essays I've had to BS my way through in a long time.

As an English major, I've done plenty of overnight essays, but this essay is for a philosophy course. And I've been racking my brain for 2 days trying to figure out how Nicholas of Cusa's contemplations on God and the infinite relates to Aristotle's theories on the void and the universe.

It was a false start as I was going to write about Ptolemy and the Jesuits, then switched to Francis Bacon, but couldn't find enough primary sources for any of them.

If you don't know who or what the hell I'm talking about, I have the exact same problem. DOOM!

I think I'm going to have more peanut butter cups now.

So, anyone else out there decide to play the procrastination game recently?
 
I was in a very similar situation last year when I was taking philosophy. Our final grade was based on this essay that had to be 12 pages on...oh, shit - I can't remember.

Anyways...I really enjoyed the class for the most part, but I don't think I learned a damn thing. I ended up procrastinating until the last week, then I dropped the class even though I was caring a 4.0 up until then (the exam was worth 60% of the grade...so, I would have failed if I didn't do it).

Good luck.
 
ahhh, sweet procrastination. my entire life has been built around it.

i've tried to make more of an effort lately to study in a timely fashion, and finish projects in a timely fashion, but it doesn't always work out that way.

i did procrastinate a bit on my last essay. it was a mid-term for my political science class, and it wasn't a take-home essay. he said "here are 5 possible subjects to write about, i am going to give you the option of 3 to choose from on the midterm, and you will only have to write on one"

so basically, to cover yourself on all bases, as long as you studied for 3 of the essays you would be in good shape. anyways i did a little studying here and there over the weeks but had to really get going the night before and day of the midterm.

long story short i aced it (it only had to be about 6 pages long, but that can be a pain in the ass to write w/o lecture notes and only an hour and a half to complete it), but the moral truly is that you shouldn't procrastinate!


good luck with yours though dude, i have no clue about any of the stuff you mentioned.
 
I have a 12-15 page take home essay exam due tomorrow at 12:30, I started it today at 10:30. Plus, I had work and another test today. I'm almost finished with it now, although it clearly has taken a dive in the pages I've been writing recently. I just want to get it done with. Maybe this is why we were given the assignment two weeks ago...
 
I've got a 10 page paper due next Tuesday in Professional Responsibility. It concerns the lawyer's many decisions in a video we watched about some ficticious Morgantown Civic Center collapse. Perhaps some of the other law students here may have seen it in their PR classes? Anyway, I'll have the whole weekend to work on it, since I found out the Halloween party my friends at home throw is actually the weekend of Halloween, and not THIS weekend, like I originally thought.

On one side, we have to defend the lawyer's actions. Examples include his advising his client (a potential defendent in the collapse) to destroy as many documents concerning the matter as possible prior to being served. It's funnier when you watch it, but there's also the part where he coaches him before the deposition. The steel reinforcing rods they provided were known to have problems in the cold, but the memos said specifically, conditions like those "in the Arctic Circle," so the client should definitely stick to just that.

Then we have to rip apart his actions in the other half.
 
There are few things in life greater than printing out a finished paper in the early hours of a day after having stayed up the entire night writing.

Good luck!
 
Pochacco said:
There are few things in life greater than printing out a finished paper in the early hours of a day after having stayed up the entire night writing.
Click to expand...
Agreed. :D
It may be one of the reasons why I do it so many damn times.

Thanks all. I may actually be forming a thesis at this time.
 
Pochacco said:
There are few things in life greater than printing out a finished paper in the early hours of a day after having stayed up the entire night writing.

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Although this usually benefits me, since I procrastinate too much, but the notice comes at least a couple days before the fact, I wonder how this attitude would change if, minutes after printing out the paper, you get an e-mail from the prof. saying that he decided to postpone the due date a day or two?
 
DarthWoo said:
Although this usually benefits me, since I procrastinate too much, but the notice comes at least a couple days before the fact, I wonder how this attitude would change if, minutes after printing out the paper, you get an e-mail from the prof. saying that he decided to postpone the due date a day or two?
Click to expand...
It's happened to me (well, it wasn't a paper but a programming project).
I stayed up the entire night coding a database project, didn't eat dinner, slept across 4 computer chairs...only to have the prof email me and all the other students who didn't bother finishing their project that he was going to extend the deadline a day. He did this hours before the original deadline.
I WAS PISSED.

He never did respond to my angry emails...fcuker. :(
 
pro tip# 25:
Overdose of caffiene pills while at the same time you are writing your paper, then when you get to class not only will have a paper in hand but you look like shit it's likely that you'll throw-up right then and there. The Prof then feels sympathy for you as you tell him you've felt this way all week and though you've finished the paper you know it's not your best work and he/she gives you a couple of days extention... works best with speeches (knows from experience).
 
Hah, I pulled this yesterday. Awake at 12 AM, paper due at 10:50 AM. Over a book that I need to read first that I hadn't. Finished the entire "project" in about 5 1/2 hours. Just 5 hours before the class started. Not so bad.
 
How about the "I have a midterm in 10 hours and I'd like to sleep for 8 of those, but I haven't studied yet" people? Are we welcome here?

I have to do a small assignment now, too. But at least it's on Machiavelli, who's interesting.

[edit] The assignment is: "Would it be a good idea for present-day democracies to follow Machiavelli's teachings in The Prince?" <--- SEX
 
I finished a 102 page portfolio (a lot of it was photocopies though, so I didn't really write THAT much) at about 9:00am. Finished printing at 9:30am (slow printer though). The class was at 10am.

But it's not like I procrastinated. I spend probably 10 hours on the damn thing before about 16 hours of working at it from 5pm to 9am. Almost fell asleep during the class. Prof was like "I know you probably spend all night on this, but pay attention!"
 
beerbelly said:
I have a midterm in about 7 hours and I only started reading the text 3 hours ago. Six chapters (250 pages) to know :(
Click to expand...

Ick. Were you swamped with other work or did you just not care?
 
hehe, lakeearth... my english portfolio project during the summer came in at about 97 pages, and i stated the damn thing two days before the due date.

anyway, i have a research paper due monday(haven't started), a regular 2-4 page paper due monday(haven't started), and another 2 page paper due on tuesday in civilicization.

tuesday is also the day i have to "facilitate" class discussion for 45 minutes in the civ. class, too. i've already turned in the 3 page outline/guideline to the teacher and assigned the class their homework, but i'm gonna studky like mad this week and rehearse 2-3 times to make sure i don't fuck up during my time alotted.

it's gonna be a long, busy weekend... again.
 
In high school, I always managed to structure my work so that I never had to stay up ridiculously late to write something. I've just found it impossible here, for whatever reason.
 
FoneBone said:
In high school, I always managed to structure my work so that I never had to stay up ridiculously late to write something. I've just found it impossible here, for whatever reason.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but some people gotta learn though. Manage your time and have the willpower to do it really early. For example I finished a 7 page lab today that's due on Monday because I have a huge test on Monday too.

I can't handle all-nighters. I did it twice during my first year. It's okay for assignments, but NEVER pull an all-nighter for an exam. Fry your brain (though I did technically pull an all nighter last year during exams. I stopped studying at 1am but I was so nervous that I spent all night thinking about rather than sleeping).
 
LakeEarth said:
Yeah, but some people gotta learn though. Manage your time and have the willpower to do it really early. For example I finished a 7 page lab today that's due on Monday because I have a huge test on Monday too.

I can't handle all-nighters. I did it twice during my first year. It's okay for assignments, but NEVER pull an all-nighter for an exam. Fry your brain (though I did technically pull an all nighter last year during exams. I stopped studying at 1am but I was so nervous that I spent all night thinking about rather than sleeping).
Click to expand...
Well, I have yet to actually pull an all-nighter (though I inevitably will) but I have ended up getting only 4 or so hours of sleep a couple times. But it's writing I'm talking about -- I don't think I'm capable of staying up all night just to study.
 
I keep on procrastinating and not doing much of shit. Damn, I really need to get it together. Anyone know of any good time management techniques or books I can read? I see nothing but destruction if I keep doing what I'm doing.

I seriously think I may have ADHD or something of the sort... Or maybe it's just the fact that I'm COMPLETELY uninterested in some of these courses I have to take at university... I often find myself walking out of class 3 or 4 times to go get a drink because I get restless sitting down. My attention often fades away from the lecture because I cannot stand to hear the professor babble on and on about things I have no interest in. Sure, it's easy to say "Just be more disciplined," but oh have I tried. I often am left ready to burst out of the classroom... Sometimes I just feel like l'm in jail (minus the assrapings). When it comes to the internet, I often have 4 or more tabs of completely unrelated subjects open in Firefox and switch between them in three minute intervals.

I'm not too fond of the magical pill solution and I actually think my problem derives from too much choice and a 'perfectionist' mindset... I expect everything I do to be perfect so I never get started on many things and I also have too many activities I can occupy my time with so my mind is scattered. This is going to take a while but I can solve this problem my reconfiguring the way I look at the world...

1) It is ok not to be perfect at every subject. Hell, it's impossible.
2) Completeing my homework on a consistent basis is more important than trying to get a perfect grade on each and every piece, failing at that and end up not turning in anything at all.
3) I need to change my environment so that I'm not constantly drawn into activities that I don't need to be engaged in.
4) Learn something about the word commitment. I think I've backed away from that word because I was so afraid of failure. Now I'm not nearly so afraid of failure and realize that it's an integral part of success as long as you get back up and learn.

Oh well, I got things to change, but I can get it done.

Well, I doubt it's ADHD, because SOME activities I can do forever. I've read books for 12+ hours a day, went to sleep and resumed reading (Clash of Kings)... Recently I worked on this piece of art literally the whole day... I spent probably 8 or so hours on it. I definitely am not for a lack of focus in items I'm INTERESTED in. It's just classes that I'm not too keen on that I find hard to tolerate. Especially when the class requires hours of studying only to fill your head with useless facts you know you're to forget after the class is done. Maybe my problem is more of tolerating things when they aren't the way I want them. I work best in an environment where I don't feel like graded beef and will get tossed away if I don't always pass some certain standard. I just have to work on becoming much more oblivious to the judgments of others and that'll get me started a long way in curing my procrastination and attention problems.
 
Good luck, explodet.

I've been playing the procrastination game since my sophomore year of High School. Now I'm a Freshman in college and I completely BSed my way through a paper due a couple weeks ago and got an A on it. :lol
 
Midterm in 8 hours that I've slightly studied for...It hopefully won't be too hard (the class/tests is easy from what i've heard around campus), but I don't wanna fuck things up my first quarter of college.
 
On a related note. I just spent hours creating an Operations Budget for the fictional company "McDonald Widget Co." It's due in 3 hours and my printer is out of ink... why does God hate me so?
 
kevm3 said:
I keep on procrastinating and not doing much of shit. Damn, I really need to get it together. Anyone know of any good time management techniques or books I can read? I see nothing but destruction if I keep doing what I'm doing.

I seriously think I may have ADHD or something of the sort... Or maybe it's just the fact that I'm COMPLETELY uninterested in some of these courses I have to take at university... I often find myself walking out of class 3 or 4 times to go get a drink because I get restless sitting down. My attention often fades away from the lecture because I cannot stand to hear the professor babble on and on about things I have no interest in. Sure, it's easy to say "Just be more disciplined," but oh have I tried. I often am left ready to burst out of the classroom... Sometimes I just feel like l'm in jail (minus the assrapings). When it comes to the internet, I often have 4 or more tabs of completely unrelated subjects open in Firefox and switch between them in three minute intervals.

I'm not too fond of the magical pill solution and I actually think my problem derives from too much choice and a 'perfectionist' mindset... I expect everything I do to be perfect so I never get started on many things and I also have too many activities I can occupy my time with so my mind is scattered. This is going to take a while but I can solve this problem my reconfiguring the way I look at the world...

1) It is ok not to be perfect at every subject. Hell, it's impossible.
2) Completeing my homework on a consistent basis is more important than trying to get a perfect grade on each and every piece, failing at that and end up not turning in anything at all.
3) I need to change my environment so that I'm not constantly drawn into activities that I don't need to be engaged in.
4) Learn something about the word commitment. I think I've backed away from that word because I was so afraid of failure. Now I'm not nearly so afraid of failure and realize that it's an integral part of success as long as you get back up and learn.

Oh well, I got things to change, but I can get it done.

Well, I doubt it's ADHD, because SOME activities I can do forever. I've read books for 12+ hours a day, went to sleep and resumed reading (Clash of Kings)... Recently I worked on this piece of art literally the whole day... I spent probably 8 or so hours on it. I definitely am not for a lack of focus in items I'm INTERESTED in. It's just classes that I'm not too keen on that I find hard to tolerate. Especially when the class requires hours of studying only to fill your head with useless facts you know you're to forget after the class is done. Maybe my problem is more of tolerating things when they aren't the way I want them. I work best in an environment where I don't feel like graded beef and will get tossed away if I don't always pass some certain standard. I just have to work on becoming much more oblivious to the judgments of others and that'll get me started a long way in curing my procrastination and attention problems.
Click to expand...
ditto everything you said, though I think I have trouble focusing on even things I like (like videogames, TV news, etc...)

I'm pretty messy, unorganized, and unfocused, yet I always think perfectionist when doing something...

like when studying for tests, I can never start cause I always debate whether to study everything, just examples, etc... I spend more time thinking about my studying than studying...
 
I've improved over time, but I've sometimes waited until practically the day a paper was due before I started it. Though I can't say that doing such has hurt my grades. I've pretty much always gotten an A or a B at the lowest for such rush papers. The problem is mostly in the hecticness involved in waiting so long. This topic reminds me that I should get started on a few papers that are due before Thanksgiving. If I don't start soon, the deadline will be here before I know it. :p
 
I have a 7 page paper for me English 225 due monday.
I have a 4 page paper for Archaeology due Monday.
I have math 308 homework due in an hour.

I am going to the ocean this weekend and wont get home until late Sunday night. I am leaving right after school. Oh god!
 
And I'm bumping this thread only because I'm in the same boat again, only this time I've got to simulate a dialogue between Rene Descartes and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz about the concept of matter.

And this one's due in 18 hours.

On the plus side, the last essay I did got a B-!
 
I've decided that I'm going to try to go back to my earlier work habits -- hopefully my grades will improve. (But we're talking As vs Bs here -- I haven't been failing anything.)
 
explodet said:
And I'm bumping this thread only because I'm in the same boat again, only this time I've got to simulate a dialogue between Rene Descartes and Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz about the concept of matter.

And this one's due in 18 hours.

On the plus side, the last essay I did got a B-!
Click to expand...

In my experience, Philosophy teachers are the easiest to snowblind with smart-sounding BS. As an English major, this should be just about the only skill you have.
 
I have to write an essay about the Linux vs Windows security.

WTF I'M NOT IN ENGINEERING TO WRITE ESSAYS.
 
I have to write 3 contextual analysis reports for tomorrow on stagecoach, the unforgive, and gunga din. I have class at 6:10pm, and work from 7:00am-5:00pm. It's 4pm... hrm.... why am I still here?
 
I once did two essays in one night. I didn't start either one until the night before and they were due the same day. Worked from 9:00PM - 9:30AM and somehow I magically got them done. The joys of high school.
 
White Man said:
In my experience, Philosophy teachers are the easiest to snowblind with smart-sounding BS. As an English major, this should be just about the only skill you have.
Click to expand...
:D

I also work as a web programmer, so I'm not a COMPLETE drain on society.
 
Think you guys have it bad...my last English paper this semester has to be an argument about Cars or ATVs...thats real Kentucky learning shining through there :lol
 
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