Thursday, November 16, 2006

16.1: there will be more from me today, I guarantee it

One especially good thing about posting every day is that it forces me to keep a firmer handle on dates and time than I probably otherwise would in my current backwards insomniac existence. Unfortunately, I am painfully aware of how much time I am wasting. I really need to write the poetry essay that will finish my last incomplete from spring semester, something I am reminded of every time I type in the date at the top of these posts. It's really difficult to write papers without deadlines or structure. This should be easy!

There are two unfortunate reasons why this paper remains unfinished:
1. My mentor-teacher-surrogate mother is too nice and keeps giving me extensions
2. I suck and cannot impose structure on my days no matter how (admittedly feebly) I try

2 comments:

Mrs. Chili said...

Can I help in any way?

feather said...

I think I'm going to employ the techniques of operant conditioning -- known fondly as "Skinnerizing" among myself and several psychology teachers that I know -- and set up a temporary system of rewards and consequences. Specifically, I'm not going to let myself watch any of the tempting DVDs I've got of House, M.D. until I complete a certain amount of pages. Two or three pages will earn one episode. I've already theoretically got ten pages, so I hypothesize that I'll be able to get to the twenty -- or at least sixteen or eighteen if I allow myself to slip below the bar of perfectionism -- by the end of the weekend. I must finish off this monster by monday. Tuesday at the latest.

My biggest problem is using the internet for Evil and not for Good. I need it to access literary criticism through the school's databases, but I go so easily astray! I should temporarily ban myself from viewing blogger and livejournal whenever I am working on my paper. Wikipedia, that cruel temptress, must unfortunately be kept for quick information on dates.