Smoke a half a pack of cigarettes, take a bunch of stims, masturbate until I have about 3 hours until the work is due, then absolutely crush it.
I procrastinated until the terror of failing was imminent enough to spur me into working continuously until it was done.
It’s not a good system and working that way for so much of my life feels like it’s fucked up my sense of reward and motivation tbh (or maybe they were already fucked up from depression). In a perverse way, I think I even enjoy those panicked sprees.
Slightly more useful advice though: it helps to maintain a low tolerance to your stimulants of choice (coffee/nicotine/amphetamines) by not using then regularly, or taking tolerance breaks when you can get a couple weeks with less pressure on you. They’re more useful when you really need them that way.
For resetting caffeine I do 2 week breaks, though one can probably get away with as little as 1 to reset tolerance. I’ll taper down the first two days with one mug of black tea on the first, and one mug of green tea on the second. Fatigue, sleep pattern changes, and headache are basically unavoidable with caffeine withdrawal, just gotta thug it out. OTC sleep aids and pain medicine can help.
I don’t smoke regularly and I tend to avoid harder stimulants because I expect I’d form addiction with them super easily, so other users will have to give advice on those.
I used to leave it until around midnight then stay up all night smoking half a pack of cigarettes and drinking several cups of tea crushing a week’s worth of number theory problem sets in about 7 hours.
I would not recommend this, but it might still be better than the adderall binges of my classmates…
crushing a week’s worth of number theory problem sets in about 7 hours
That’s absolute madness. At least if it’s not the “intro to proofs” number theory course.
It was a 200 level course at my university, which means it was a senior level or first year grad student level.
The problem sets were designed to be 1 to 2 hours per night, so it’s not that wild, but certainly took a toll. Plus, by rushing it I missed a lot of beautiful connections I didn’t get until I did a 6 week intensive exploration course in grad school. 6 hours a day of problem sets.
I never really “got” number theory. Too much machinery flying around. I preferred analysis and even algebra. But my math program was…not good.
That sounds intensive. My mind would melt from that much focus I think.
It’s hard to focus all day, especially if you’ve just gotten off of hours of class/work. If I was feeling like I wasn’t going to be able to focus on some work I had to do in the evening, I would usually just go to bed early and try to wake up around 3:30/4 am make some coffee and then do it.
Even if you’re only getting a few hours of sleep, your mind really resets. You might be surprised at how much more productive you are that early rather than attempting an all nighter where you’re just worn out.
Also, bonus tip: you don’t have to do every assignment or even all of an assignment that you do. In most of my classes non project assignments were a pretty low percentage of my overall grade. When I was particularly pressed for time or stressed I would just do enough of an assignment to prove to myself that I understood the concepts good enough for the exam, and turn in what I did for partial credit.
Not do it and fail lmao
I have had a lot of problems with procrastination and advice isn’t always helpful because I can just procrastinate the advice. If my brain is really committed to not doing anything, there’s only one method that I’ve found to work, and that’s to ask myself, “What do you want in exchange?” If the responsible part of me wants something done that badly, then it ought to be willing to compromise on something else.
If you are able to get yourself to do things, then I would suggest meditation, which is to say, sitting still and staring at a blank wall. If that sounds boring it’s because it is. That’s kinda the point. It’s so boring that even unpleasant things - including the task you don’t want to do - start to seem interesting and entertaining in contrast. It’s also a great way to shift headspaces and put things in perspective. It’s easier to stay in practice if you have a group so that you can reassure each other that staring at walls is a totally normal thing to do.
