The Postgraduate Procrastination Trap

The procrastination trap – every Masters student has encountered it. With a seemingly endless list of demanding tasks involved in postgraduate study (reading, seminar preparation, the mammoth undertaking that is your final dissertation) and an even longer list of immediately accessible distractions that are just more fun (social media, Netflix, a quick natter turned three-hour gossip session with your housemate) – no one is immune.

The trap can engulf us at any time, even when confronted with the smallest of tasks. Maybe you’re even in it right now (in which case, allow us to congratulate you on your excellent choice of procrastination material!).

So let’s take a closer look at that perilous cycle so many Master students find themselves in…

Phase #1: The setup

The road to the procrastination trap is paved with good intentions. Aware that a deadline is looming, you’ve created the perfect environment for productivity to thrive. Your desk has been meticulously tidied, notes artfully arranged, and Very Important Project.docx sits newly opened on your desktop.

You’ve prepared your caffeinated beverage of choice along with a selection of nutritious snacks, and Spotify’s ‘Deep Focus’ mix plays softly in the background. You settle in for a productive day.

Phase #2: Distraction

After a strenuous five or so minutes of staring intently at your flashing cursor, inspiration has failed to strike. You notice that the time is 9:51am and resolve to absolutely, definitely knuckle down at 10. Predictably, you’re deep in a social media rabbit hole and contemplating a third coffee run by the time 10:51 rolls around. Oh well, may as well wait until 11.

Phase #3: Productive procrastination

It’s not long before mindlessly scrolling TikTok and adding items to your Amazon wish list have lost their appeal. Unfortunately, the Very Important Project, looming ever larger in your mind, is no more enticing. It’s at this point that you start to channel all your productive energy into anything and everything that isn’t the task you’d set out to complete.

You clean your entire room, do the washing up you’d been avoiding, alphabetise every book on your shelf (might come in handy later) and budget all your expenses for the next six months in an Excel spreadsheet.

At least you’ve achieved something, right?

Phase #4: Despair

After sitting back down at your (now even tidier) desk and discovering that the mental block in your brain is still as indestructible as ever, you’re just about ready to throw in the towel. It’s not your fault that we operate in a world where instant gratification is ever in reach, and digital media is constantly competing for our attention. How does anyone ever get anything done? You’re absolutely convinced that had the internet existed in the 16th century, Shakespeare would never have made it past his first play.

Phase #5: The escape

If there’s a way into the procrastination trap, there must be a way out. It’s often the case that this magic door doesn’t open until approximately 24 hours before a deadline, when you finally manage to complete your task in a panic-induced frenzy.

Might we suggest, however, the many other ways you can escape the procrastination trap before things reach such a critical point. First off, it’s important to lower your expectations. If you’d set yourself the lofty goal of blitzing through 2,000 words of your dissertation during an 8-hour session without so much as a 15-minute tea break, it might be time for a rethink. Break your workload in small manageable chunks, and that formidable blank page will start to lose its power.

Secondly, try not to feel too bad about falling prey to the procrastination trap. You’d hardly be the first – in fact the problem of procrastination has such a long history that the Ancient Greeks had their own word for it (akrasia). So don’t waste yet more time fretting over past mistakes – self-forgiveness is perhaps the most important step in breaking the cycle.

For those of you currently stuck in the procrastination trap, we hope this blog has inspired you to find a way out (or at least offered some solace!).

If you’re not ready to get back to work just yet, might we recommend a leisurely browse of our advice section, where you’ll find our informative and detailed guides on all things postgraduate (who could really call that procrastination, after all…).

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