Study procrastination - what are your favourite distractions?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Well, it’s that time of year again when I am soon to sit for a uni exam. This one is actually a Microsoft exam (70-228 SQL Server admin, for those who care). My exam is in four days.

Despite the fact that I’m not confident in the topic and I really should be working hard, do you think I’ve been hitting the books and studying my arse off? Well, only a little. The rest of the time I’m reading friends’ LiveJournals, I’ve been browsing the SDMB, I’ve washed the car, and I’m about to vacuum the carpet.

Anything, ANYTHING to avoid this damn study!

So, what are you favourite methods of avoiding study?
Max :smiley:

2

Sleeping. Not kidding…studying certain subjects it amazed me at how tired I’d get so quickly.

3

not going to class,
if you don’t go to class you don’t know what you have to study and there fore can’t study it.

I’m headed back to college in a few weeks and plan not to do this again

4

You ask that? On this board? Is that some sort of implied meta-thread joke or something?

5

In order of frequency of use:

Sleep
TV
Card games
Laundry
Long walks
Letters home
Sharpening pencils
Voluntary surgery
Incarceration
Premature burial
Coma

6

The Straight Dope Forums

Do you seriously need anything else? Heck, I am supposed to be studying Calculus now and I am surfing here…!

7

Heh! I’ve been treating myself by reading Sampiro’s many threads about his nutty family. :smiley:

8

In college, I would make 4 course meals for my housemates.

They’d come home, sit down at the table and ask, “so, when’s that paper due?”

9

This is too funny! :slight_smile:

10

I learned to make an oragami crane when I was supposed to be studying for a physics final.

11

Let me guess that origami has proven more useful than Physics in your later life.

12

I think. I’ll be reading the book and just start thinking about something else. Usually, a rather unrelated something else. After half an hour, I’ll say “Dammit, I should be studying!” I read one sentence and start thinking about other things again.

13

Urgh, I’ve been doing this a LOT lately. Part of my approach to Microsoft exams is to do practice exams. They mimic the look, feel and content of the actual exams.

I’ll be reading a question and 9 times out of 10 I’ll get distracted: “You have installed SQL Server on a new server and have configured the SQL Server Agent… hey that reminds me, I need to talk to the real estate agent about the tiles in the bathroom. The grout is falling out, bigtime. Speaking of grout, I wonder what grout is actually made of. Hmm, if anyone knows, it’d be the people at the SDMB. On the topic of SDMB, I wonder if I’m the only one to have mistakenly referred to it as BDSM, then wondered why people look at me strangely? Mmmm BDSM. Hey, I wonder what ever happened to that cat-o-nine-tails I made when I was still at uni?”. And it goes downhill from there!

Is it any wonder it takes me hours just to complete a 50-question practice exam?

Hello Again, I like your style! Got any exams coming up? I like my steak prepared Medium, thanks :smiley:
Keep the ideas coming in, folks! There’s only two days to my exam and I haven’t done half as much procrastination as I should!

Max.

14

It’s usually a mixture of portland cement, sand and water. Glad to be a distraction. :stuck_out_tongue:

15

If there was a deadline fast approaching, I’d inevitably realize my nails needed clipping. Right. Now!

Laundry, dishes, floor sweeping, and room tidying all became very important during peak study times.

16

When exams loomed and I wanted to avoid studying, everything on TV became very interesting to me. That’s how I gained an interest in Cricket and American Football.

17

I find ways to contact as many friends as are not busy. I listen to music. I stare into space. I lie on the bed to “clear my brain,” and wake up some hours later after having had dreams about characters on Joss Whedon tv shows.

18

Along the lines of DataZak’s … er, techniques, but more focused, I have tended lately towards watching Star Trek DS9 or TNG, as I have every episode of both series on my external. Also, the Great Web of Inter never fails to provide me with endless hours of distraction, be it email, LiveJournal, webcomics or the SDMB itself. Hey, I just think of it as pit stops on the Road to Knowledge (see my location). :slight_smile:

19

I end up surfing the web, and writing emails to people who I haven’t written to in a while. I’m supposed to be writing my thesis at the moment.

20

Isn’t it amazing how creative and long-winded such writings can be? Consider the possibilty of doing some copy/paste operations from your emails and building your thesis from them. That would be at least as coherent as some papers I did at 3 AM before an 8 AM class after spending the weekend staring at the tube or playing Tonk, Fan Tan or Hearts.