Princeton Trend of the Week: Procrasti-pooping (and other methods of avoiding studying at all costs)

Midterms are upon us, and with them the need to bravely face the mountains of books that have gone unread and equations that have gone misunderstood for the first half of the semester. But for every line memorized, the astute midterms studier always manages to find a way to put off the next moment of cramming with some sort of creative activity, including those not usually associated with procrastination. Some of the more imaginative methods (in addition to the typical, largely Web-based ones) I’ve noticed being employed over the last couple of days (a personal one, by the way, would be writing this post):

1) The Procrasti-poop: going to the bathroom is no longer just a necessary bodily function—it’s a way to avoid memorizing the steps of the Krebs cycle.

2) Procrasti-eating: Late meal! C-store run! 2 AM Frist study break! For every moment where you can’t digest another word of text, there’s something edible to digest instead.

3) The Procrasti-nap: You know you’ve seen it done, and probably done it yourself—just put your head down for a couple of minutes on the brick-hard library table and taken a quick nap. (Hopefully your snoring is in check and you set an alarm so that “quick” doesn’t turn into “exam in half an hour and have only covered half the material.”)

4) The Procrasti-stroll: Take a walk. “Clear your head.” This one’s pretty popular.

5) Procrasti-working: Sometimes you just get so desperate that taking a break means writing that paper due Friday instead of studying for that test tomorrow morning. Designation as procrastination is admittedly debatable, but I vote for inclusion.

This list is undoubtedly incomplete—thus I invite you to add anything you feel has been a creative and integral part of your procrastination routine.

But only if you’re studying.

--Nava Friedman '13