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The problem with postponing dates and deadlines

March 19, 2010

by Marley Badolati

Well, I’m tired. It’s midterms. I don’t sleep anymore and I can’t help but think, “If only I had one more day – just one, to finish all these nasty papers, paintings, presentations, proposals, and whatever the hell else I forgot to write in my planner, I might be able to survive this week.”
Truth be told, I will survive (cue Aretha Franklin) and so will you. In fact, by the time you read this you’ll probably be finished with all of your midterms and hate me for bringing up this recently experienced unpleasantness. Nevertheless, I feel compelled to address a very important issue facing us as undergraduates: procrastination.

I am a procrastinator and probably always will be. I find nothing wrong with admitting this. I dare argue that some people even function better when under overwhelming amounts of stress. But! There is a difference between the successful procrastinator (like me) and the one who fails out of college (hopefully not me at this point). What is that difference? What is it?! The answer: completing your horrible life-denying, soul-staining assignments without constantly asking for extensions.

Yeah, your midterm paper probably sucks and the paintings you finished look like cat vomit, but I can tell you that an extra day really wouldn’t have made much of a difference at this point. I admit that this isn’t always the case; sometimes extensions are absolutely necessary and we are extremely fortunate to have such kind professors who will grant them to us (wink, wink). But for the most part, extending the length of an assignment past its due date is a terrible idea. Why? Because pushing back deadlines is just like trying to avoid a series of unwanted suitors who just won’t stop asking you out – they’re not going away and you’re just going to stress yourself out by thinking about them.

Believe me, there is no way to get out of these dates. These fellas or ladies asking you out are not just strangers – they’re your friends, or at least people that you marginally care about. You may even love these suitors as friends, but you already know that the date is going to be absolutely miserable. Why? Because either there’s no sexual chemistry or you two just don’t have anything in common. I know I love reading the horribly depressing articles for Anthropology of Violence, but as soon as I had to write that midterm paper, I knew things were going to be miserable between us.
Since you actually like these people or classes, you don’t want to simply reject them. So you end up saying things like, “Oh yeah, going to the Saturday Market would be really fun, but I’m just so busy this week I don’t think I can,” followed by, “but we should totally get together soon! Oh, but I can’t make definite plans right now, since I don’t know how busy I’m going to be next week yet, but seriously, soon! I’ll give you a call!” You smile and run off with the slight relief that you won’t have to deal with the date for the next week or so. Can you see the problem with this situation yet? If not, let me explain it to you:

Putting off socially inevitable dates, like pushing back deadlines, isn’t going to help you in the long run. In the moment – when you’re faced with writing that horribly analytic essay or being asked out by a friend you’re not interested in – it seems like a good idea to ask for an extension. Just a little more time to think and then you’ll be ready. In reality, you’ll probably never be ready for certain midterms or bad dates because they just aren’t fun.
So what do you do? Well, you can suck it up, go on the date, get it over with, and hope that you won’t have to do this too many more times with other suitors, or you can completely reject the person asking you out and look like a stuck-up jerk. The best thing to do is just grin and bear it; it will all be over soon enough and you can get back to focusing on the classes that make your heart flutter. Oh! One more thing to keep in mind: Even though you’re just trying to get through that date, paper, or test, make sure to give it an honest effort not to fail. At least pretend like you’re interested or having a good time, because if you act like a snotty brat, your date is going to notice and you might as well have not even bothered to show up.

So remember: when you extend deadlines, you just extend the agony. And you don’t want to worry about all those loose ends while at the beach with your extremely attractive, hilarious, talented public speaker significant other.