11 ways that I am avoiding revising for my exam

Exams, ugh, they’re the worst, right? Especially at the end of the year when the weather’s nice and Covid restrictions are being lifted. All I want to do is put on my little sundress and head to the pub for some drinks with my mates, not have my head stuck in a book.

Well, if you’re anything like me, you’re a procrastination god and you are going out while expertly avoiding even looking at your notebooks. To be fair, I’m an English student, I only have one exam anyway (sorry not sorry) but that doesn’t mean I want to study for it. So, here is a list of the 11 ways that I’ve been procrastinating.

Online shopping and planning new fits

A habit that followed me throughout lockdown, I have been roaming all of my favorite online stores and spending my money recklessly. When you live in a house with people who actually study, there’s not much to do but to plan the cute outfits you’re going to wear when they finally want to do something with you! This activity probably kills about an hour of my day, but god is it fun staring at all the pretty things I can wear to the Water Witch

Creating new habits

This is a good one! If you’re trying to avoid something, just take up a seemingly random new habit and stick with it. You will most likely become very absorbed in it and it’ll be the only thing on your mind, so there’s no time to revise there. I’m trying to create a new hair-washing cycle and so far my hair has been feeling dirty which doesn’t put me in much of a studying mood anyway! Works like a charm.

Tier lists

Do you have lots of very strong and random opinions that you like to share with people? Even though they haven’t asked about them at all? If you answered yes, then you should make a tier list on your Instagram story. My lucky followers have been subjected to many Sad Song Ratings and Hottest Pictures of Timothée Chalamet nights. Believe it or not, you’ll kill about an hour doing these between collecting pictures from Pinterest and giving appropriate grades and reasonings for your choices. I recommend ranking all the Lancs colleges!

Bothering my Animal Crossing villagers

They are sick of me, if they all asked to move out tomorrow I would not be surprised. But all of my housemates are studying day and night, and I would be a horrible friend to go and distract them (even though I am infinitely bored) so Daisy and Goldie are the next best thing.

Rewatching iconic movies

What better way to kill time than to give your favorite old movies a rewatch? Recently I’ve been rewatching all of Robin Williams’ movies, because he’s a genius, and I miss him every day. I could not think of a better way to be spending my time. Today I watched Dead Poets Society, which as an English student is actually quite on brand, but sadly not related to my course so it doesn’t count…

Applying for postgraduate studies

Funnily enough I’ve been procrastinating one form of education in favor of another one! As a third year I have the added dread of “Oh no! What am I going to do next year?” on top of exam pressure, and my solution has been to apply to MA programmes that I won’t be accepted onto if I don’t study for my exam and fail. Bit of a conundrum here…

Yoga

I do at least 20 minutes of yoga everyday and it’s been great! It gets me moving my body, it’s an easy form of exercise that I really enjoy, and it has the added benefit of making me feel like I’ve got my life together. If I already have my life together, surely this exam can’t be that important, so it’s fine if I don’t study for it.

Ranting about how stressed I am

We all do this, right? It’s just a healthy coping mechanism and at least I know I’m stressed instead of living in a bubble of delusion. These feelings will catch up to me and force me to revise for this exam at some point, so I’m not too worried. This is definitely what I should be doing.

Finishing Breath of the Wild

After six months of owning the latest Zelda game, Breath of the Wild, and refusing to actually complete the game, I finally decided to go and be the hero I’m meant to be and save Hyrule and Princess Zelda from the evil grasp of Calamity Ganon. It was fun, bittersweet, I’m not very good with endings, but I got the same sense of accomplishment that I would at the end of a long day of revision! Now I get to start the game over and play it again.

Walks along the canal

Whether you’re studying or not, walks are great for getting out and clearing your head. You’ll be going as a good break to stop thinking about all that coursework, but I’ll be going in “head empty, just vibes” mode. Always good to say hi to the sheep as well.

Chess

I’ll be the first to admit that when Queen’s Gambit came out I got just a little too obsessed with it… But what can I say, I like a smart woman who can kick men’s asses! Anyway, my boyfriend and I have taken up a healthy rivalry in the form of chess, but the only problem is that I’m terrible at it, so I’ve been playing online chess in the hopes of finally beating him one day! So far, not so good, but this is a much more valuable way to be spending my time. Wish I had joined the Lancaster Chess Society.

Writing about procrastinating

Yeah, that’s right, we get a little meta over here at the Tab now and again! But seriously, what better way to procrastinate than to at least be productive with it and turn it into some funny and relatable content for all you fine people?

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