Each school year leads to a constant cycle of trying to get ourselves to sit down, focus, and complete our schoolwork, as everything else suddenly seems much more interesting. The Internet is an obvious choice for most forays into the thick of procrastination, but what do people do offline? We surveyed several students to see what they do to avoid responsibilities in the real world.

“When I need to procrastinate, I will sing and dance in [front of] a mirror as much as I possibly can to avoid thinking about the problem. And I was very happy when I found out that my room had two mirrors, because it allowed for multi-dimensional dancing.”
— Anushka Kurian, first-year

“Most of the time, I procrastinate by playing with my bearded dragon. He’s a lizard. His name is Mushu. Oh, and sometimes I walk home if the weather is nice.”
— Marvy*, third-year Political Science

“My main way of procrastinating is list-making and just trying to get myself organized but not actually accomplishing anything!”
— Hannah*, second-year Linguistics

“I like to read this book, it’s on body language. What I do is basically read a chapter, and then go talk to my parents and try to identify all the stuff I learned in that book. It’s pretty fun.”
— Shannon*, second-year Pharmacy

“I guess I procrastinate by socializing with my roommates. Mostly chatting about school, work, life, and [online] games. Ironically, I spend a portion of my offline procrastination talking [with my roommates] about how I procrastinate online.”
— Thomas Zheng, second-year Biochemistry and Chemistry

“I normally bake something that the rest of my family doesn’t know how to make, since I look productive without doing actual work. Both the baking and the looking productive seems to keep my family appeased.”
— Bailey Irene, second-year History

“One way that I procrastinate is just reading a book in the backyard. But not a school book, obviously. I like to read romance novels.”
— Ferry Anthony, fourth-year Philosophy and Religion

“I procrastinate by clipping my nails. Sometimes I even paint them.”
­­— Julia Irion, fourth-year English and Portuguese

“Usually when I have a lot of work to do, I just take naps, even if I’m not tired, so that I can avoid all of my responsibilities!”
— Jack McCrossin, first-year Urban Studies

“I just play around with make-up and skin-care and [other] fun things!”
— Sylvia Battaglia, third-year Political Science and Philosophy