Procrastinators are like Capacitors: A Dose of Mid-Semester Motivation
By Aadyaa Sharma
Contributor
It has very recently occurred to me that procrastinators, such as I, are much like capacitors. If you’re unfamiliar, a capacitor is an electrical component consisting of two closely spaced plates that store energy, but don’t touch. At first glance, this might seem inefficient and borderline useless – after all, an open circuit doesn’t allow current to flow, right? But that perspective is too limited.
Let’s consider a regular person as a standard circuit: flip the switch, and the light bulb turns on immediately, staying lit as long as the circuit remains closed. Procrastinators, however, are wired differently. We need time to “charge” our plates before we unleash a sudden burst of energy. Sound familiar? Perhaps an assignment that has been put off for a bit too long and is done last minute because of the deadline-induced system override? It isn’t inherently bad – I mean, it works. Capacitors, too, have their uses; the flash on a camera, for instance, takes a moment to charge, and then it instantly assaults whatever you’re attempting to capture with light. Useful? Absolutely. Everybody loves a good photo with flash on a bad-quality digital camera. But if you drop something in a dark theatre, a flashlight might be better.
This analogy makes an important distinction: some people thrive on consistency and discipline, while others operate in bursts of intense focus. Both have their strengths: procrastinators often excel under pressure, while planners ensure steady progress. Essentially, procrastinators need to stop getting a bad reputation for how they are wired… That being said, I don’t think it is healthy either.
Okay, but both have their uses, and the assignments are getting done, so what’s the harm? Besides the obviously messed up sleep schedule and a generally poorer quality of work, anything without a deadline is severely impacted. I mean long-term projects in your personal life, projects, career goals, and self-improvement. Have you noticed they keep getting pushed back for some reason or another? It may not be very noticeable now, but it will harm you in the long run, eventually. For instance, I have been meaning to get a job for a while now, but I am always too conveniently busy to finish working on my CV. Or that email I have been meaning to write? No matter how small a task, it takes a certain amount of energy to accomplish, so I keep delaying it. (Spoiler: I did write it!). The good news, however, is that I have adopted a new system that has been working wonders as of late. I started listing every task, big or small, and assigning concrete deadlines on my notes app. Which has been activating that system override I was talking about earlier, and I have been completing tasks.
What changed? I assisted a University of Toronto engineering Alumni Q&A/seminar. Aside from being overwhelmingly pretentious, they were also excellent at delivering motivational speeches. The message was, “No one will save you,” which means that you are your own best ally and worst enemy, and that whatever is working now won’t necessarily work forever. Have bigger dreams and try to accomplish them because the only person you are failing is yourself. In short, though the procrastination route has its perks and gives you an amazing skill set, figure out a way to override the system. Do it as a favour to yourself.