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Well, it’s been a while since I’ve posted again. Thought I’d drop in to share my thought process of anxiety/madness when I’m writing a paper in grad school. Why? Because I’m currently writing a paper, and I would like to procrastinate. I’ll write a post in defence of procrastination, too…but I’ll do that later (haha).

  1. This topic is soooooooo interesting! I’m going to check out every book ever written about it, and read everything even remotely related to it. That’s how interesting this is!!!!!
  2. What the hell was I thinking, this is so boring. I’m never going to read all this crap.
  3. Having read all this crap, I’m soooo interested in this topic again! I could even write a PhD thesis on it!
  4. I’m so overwhelmed. What the hell am I even writing about again?
  5. Now that I’ve started writing this paper, I’m sooo interested in this again! My idea is so brilliant and original, my professor is going to suggest I submit my paper for publication in a reputable journal! Once it’s published, my paper will REVOLUTIONALIZE THIS FIELD.
  6. My paper is a mess and complete bullshit. None of my claims are original, my logic is flawed, and I don’t even understand the theory I’m using. WHY AM I EVEN IN GRAD SCHOOL? SOON THEY WILL DISCOVER THAT I’M A FRAUD.
  7. Ugh, who cares. I’m not curing cancer, it’s just bloody grad school. Just bang out some semi-coherent bullshit and hand it in. The earth is going up in flames in 500 million years. My paper isn’t even remotely significant.

Currently, I’m oscillating between 5-7. This, my friends, is the Cycle of Doom. Now that I’ve written it down and made it public, maybe I can call myself on it and break out of it. This seems unlikely, but it’s worth a shot.