Top 10 ways to procrastinate

May 9, 2024 — by Sunny Cao
Courtesy of Jex Popov
Late nights doom-scrolling.
A pro procrastinator’s guide to putting things off

10. Pretending to be productive 

I am so productive! Remember that coffee I made five hours ago that has since gone cold? Check. How about clicking on the computer’s mouse to make sure the screen doesn’t go black even though you’re not using it? Check. Hey, maybe by doing this you can gaslight yourself into thinking you were actually being productive! 

9. Staring at a wall 

Count the number of bumps on your ceiling and tell yourself you’re only doing this for a mental break! Perfect time for your weekly existential crisis and flashback of life regrets to kick in!

8. Web surfing

The perfect opportunity to feed your brain rot. The next thing you know, you’re 6 months deep on your crush’s Instagram posts when you accidentally like a picture and start panicking. You remove that red heart immediately, but it’s too late. The notification has been sent to them. Way to add to your list of life regrets!

7. Cleaning your desk 

At least now you can say you did SOMETHING, and you’ll probably feel more motivated sitting in front of a clean desk.  

6. Going through your old belongings

Usually happens as a result of cleaning and sorting. Next thing you know, you’ve gone through every single elementary assignment and re-read your childhood aspiration of being a celebrity or astronaut one day.

5. Overthinking for no reason 

My favorite way to pressure myself into being productive again is by overthinking my hopeless future and how much of a disappointment to my parents I might be. In  the meantime, the task at hand goes undone.

4. Stress eating  

Literally just eat away all your troubles; food makes all your stress go away at the moment, doesn’t it?

3. Taking “a short break” 

Oh, yes, I’m just on my phone to rest my eyes from my computer 😀 (only five minutes of Instagram reels won’t hurt).

2. Organizing your upcoming deadlines 

Once you realize how much you have to do, maybe you’ll freak out and actually start doing things! Or you can just push back what’s supposed to be done today to tomorrow: You sure will always be more productive and hardworking the next day. If it’s not due tomorrow, why start doing it today? 🙂  

1. Taking an after-school nap 

I mean, what can be better than this? There’s no anxiety and pressure when you’re sleeping. And now you can gaslight yourself into believing your lifestyle isn’t that unhealthy after all because this nap will cancel out staying up till 4 a.m. the day before. 

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