The title of this post was my senior quote in high school. No, I am not proud of it, and yes, I still cringe. You want to know the worst part? I quickly submitted this because I thought I was going to miss the deadline and they ended up extending the deadline another week. Check back in 5 to 10 years to see if I ever recover.
Procrastination has always been one of my worst qualities, and one that is still very much a work-in-progress for me. If something could be put off for only five minutes, then I usually put it off, especially when I was younger and in middle and high school, clearly.
Funny thing is though; I love writing to-do lists and staying organized. I have a digital calendar, a physical planner, a spreadsheet of all my assignments throughout the semester and multiple to-do lists that are updated every day and rewritten each week. So, to me, it’s still so frustrating that even if I start something in a timely manner, and it’s listed in multiple locations, I am always putting things off longer than they should be.
Naturally the last thing I should probably be doing is adding another platform to stay on top of the tasks that I already struggle to complete. However, I love trying out new platforms and will never say no to them. The platform I chose was Trello, one that was recommended in a video1 by Professor Hastings at my university. The video has other platform recommendations as well, so if you’re in search of a project management platform, I suggest you check out the video. The main reason I decided to go with Trello is because the platform is incredibly visual based. This works for me because it’s easier for my brain to process things written out in front of me instead of just thinking about them in my head.
Trello also allows me to organize tasks, or “cards” as they call them, by timeframes (i.e. today, this week, later) so that things are not in just one long list which is better than my regular to-do lists.
The style of this type of project management is very similar to the Japanese style of Kan Ban2, or managing work by balancing demand, resources and capabilities to create the most optimized workflow. Kan Ban is also incredibly visual based; it allows project members to always track and edit items so things can be as clear as possible. It ensures that nothing is missed, and if something could be done in a better way.
The best thing about these systems is that they can be incredibly personalized depending on the person or project. This idea was interesting to hear, especially considering it contrasted the chapter of “Stolen Focus” I chose to read this week.
In the chapter, Johann Hari talks about the school system and how limiting it is for children, connecting to his greater theme of deteriorating focus and attention across the world. But what stuck out the most was his conversation with Lenore Skenazy, and the idea of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivations. The former is when you do something because you love it, a hobby or passion, but the latter is when you are forced to do it because of something later down the line, like a deadline or goal3.
This is not to say my motivation towards education and college are strictly extrinsic, because that would be untrue, I love my major and my classes because I am interested and passionate about them. Though, it would also be untrue to say that I love homework. However, I think realizing this specific part of school is more extrinsic for me is the first step in actually dealing with my procrastination habit.
Do you guys struggle with procrastination as well? If you have any tips or thoughts at all let me know, I am always taking suggestions that’s for sure!
Citations:
- Quinnipiac University Graduate Programs. Project Management Approaches. 2018. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lssx0TNS7AQ. ↩︎
- “Kanban (Development).” Wikipedia, 3 July 2026. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kanban_(development)&oldid=1362298019. ↩︎
- Hari, Johann. Stolen Focus. First, Crown, 2023. Paperback, Originally published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2022. ↩︎
Meg Buckley | Through the Lenses 
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