Jorge Cham of PhD comics fame (in case you aren't friends with grad students who will inevitably post at least one of the comics per week: http://www.phdcomics.com) did a talk at MUN in April this year titled "The Power of Procrastination". Whilst explaining the favourite word of grad students worldwide, he made one point that really stood out for me. It was along the lines of;
"If you are procrastinating then you are spending your time doing something you want to do (i.e. topic of procrastination) instead of something you don't want to do (i.e. studying). So why are you doing something you don't want to do? Surely you should be doing what you do want to do. I (Cham) used to procrastinate by drawing cartoons. Look at me now."
Now, he didn't seem to be suggesting that people should leave grad school and spend their lives looking at videos of cats and sloths. That only seems financially productive if you work as a writer for BuzzFeed or something. But it was still an interesting thought.
| Slow Loris videos are also important parts of people's lives. |
The main theme of my procrastination is sports. While I try to do work at school, and I largely manage to do so, I will always have the BBC Sportsday live ticker on in the background. I might check it for 30 seconds every couple of hours, on a productive day that is. When not at work this use of my time changes from procrastination to a hobby. Thanks to our TV subscription and the fortunate time difference between Newfoundland and the UK, over the course of a weekend it is perfectly possible for me to watch 5 games of football, finishing at approximately 3pm allowing myself the chance to achieve something in the rest of the day. Until the hockey comes on at 8pm...
I have started to feel guilty about the amount of time that I invest in watching sports. Surely I should be doing something more beneficial or productive like...well, what exactly? Am I enjoying myself whilst watching sports. Yes. Even if my teams lose? Hmm that's more difficult but the rollercoaster of emotions is part of the thrill. Am I learning anything "worthwhile" from this experience? WHO CARES.
For most of my life I've thought my perfect job would be to be a sports journalist/statistician/photographer (all three in one job would be even better). I never sought to pursue any of these options seriously. Pipe dreams really. I fell in love with geology and ran with that instead, allowing my athletic fanaticism to remain a leisure activity. However, recently the possibility has popped up in my head. Thanks to Twitter.
The only thing I use Twitter (@ShtacyPhillips) for is to tweet about sports. Specifically to try and get my thoughts and opinions on the BBC sports live text commentaries. Stemming from the need for my opinions to be validated by someone, even the BBC online editors, and the fear of annoying my friends who watch sports with me with silly opinions that they don't care about (even though I do this regardless), I use social media to give myself a voice (as if mine needs to be louder anyways).
And not that getting published on the website for the rest of the BBC readers to see means that I have deep insights that no other fans have, or that I should pursue a media career, but I get strangely proud when I do get published. Someone has decided that my 140 characters are worth the world's web space. Granted, they do publish the views of absolute imbeciles too. I always fear that I am part of that crowd.
Whatever the editor's motivation, I screenshot my publications. I often post them on Facebook or Instagram (yes I've got an Android now and given into the craze) so that even more people can hear my opinions. This instant gratification validates the time I spend sitting on my couch in front of the TV. And a blog is another way that I can (and will now) broadcast things that people likely don't care about, for my own pleasure.
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| I tweet about Football... |
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| (This one came true) |
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| Rugby League (this was just an outpouring of emotion after the Grand Final 2013 come back) |
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Tennis...
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| General sporting chit chat.. |
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| And Cricket, where I indirectly helped two people outside of the UK listen to the TMS BBC cricket radio broadcast. |
Maybe I'm becoming a favourite of the BBC Sport website (I did get one of my Rugby League World Cup tweets read out on TV by Chappers). Maybe I am a decent armchair pundit. Maybe I'm just saying what everyone else is thinking. Or maybe nobody else gives a damn. Either way, I give a damn about sports. Always have and I always will. Its my procrastination tool. It's my hobby. Maybe one day it will be my career. But for now its how I simultaneously release myself from the real world and display my emotions to it. And it makes me happy. That's all that matters right?
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