Procrastination- An extract from the life of a B.Tech student

I was waiting for the weekend to write another post. Not that I was busy, I just could not start working, stuck in the "making-up my mind" phase. Procrastination doesn't spare anyone. Following is a short expression (it's quite long actually) of how a typical engineering student prepares for a test in college. 

I have a test tomorrow, need to score good in this one because others didn't go well. There is a full day and full night to go so I am relaxed. I plan out my schedule, decide to start preparing from today evening after having sufficient sleep to pull an all-nighter. But no, I have to go to the market to buy some stuff I have been postponing and better to do that today because I have to "study" later. I go to the market, and I find some really cool stuff too which wasn't there earlier so I have to buy that (Obviously!). I come back by 5 pm. I should have started preparing by now but I can't because I had to sleep to be awake at night. So I sincerely set an alarm to wake up after exactly 2 hours of sleep. After having a a very good nap I wake up hungry, but how can I be hungry? Because it's dinner time already. May be my alarm tone was so charming that it sent me into an "inception dream" (there is no such thing, don't Google it!). #MovieReference

Dinner lasts for another hour, find some friends on my way back from hostel mess to my room, had to ask their preparation status. They say they haven't started, I know they are lying. Yeah, I have a lie detector fixed in my head; I borrowed it from Nick Fury. So I am a little tensed now, just a little. But I am confident enough; it's just a small test. 

What do I need now? I start looking for notes to study from. I had them yesterday but can't find them now. Oh! I had lent it to a friend for photostat, I didn't get it back. I sprint to her room, ask for my notes. She is a fellow procrastinator; she is watching Friends (the tv series) to freshen up "before" starting to study. We discuss the episode and some other local gossips and another hour passes. I get the notes but I need coffee for maximum concentration. Got coffee now, all is set, I settle down and seriously go through the index, mark the pages to study and happily cross the ones not to be covered. Suddenly my phone beeps, some discussion has started on the group chat regarding the syllabus. They say another chapter is also included in tomorrow's test syllabus. Little more stressed I skip the introductory part of the chapter, let's start with the important topic. I go through the text, didn't get it, read it again. Nah! Still nothing. I need to google it, I am lost in phone now and have to check facebook occasionally because my friends are commenting on my profile photo so I have the moral obligation to reply them. 

So, this topic seems tough, it has a derivation which has five sections. Doesn't seem important. I skip the topic for morning. This continues for few hours. It's quite late now but I haven't done much. Feeling tired, I decide to take a short nap because I care about my health so much (only when it's not required). I'll get up in half hour and finish everything. To my disappointment I wake up half + three hours later. Sun is out already, my heart skips a beat. The test is in about two hours. Feeling horrified, I call a friend and get a list of expected questions and FAQs. I have no time now, but I can see the topics mentioned in these questions. Ultimately I haven't even covered half of the syllabus. I reach college and try to grab the seat closer to the geeks so that I can peek in their sheets. 

Finally, I write the test, trying to extract the most of my poor photographic memory. Hoping for the examiner to be either lazy or too happy so that he just misses the fact that none of the answers make any sense, here I am, proud of my "hard work".

Everyone’s story might differ from this but more or less it will be the same. Temptations and distractions overpower our minds very easily. Beating procrastination would require strong commitment and today with so many distractions around it's tough for students to be consistent with hard work. And why should we be, when last day studying gets us good marks. Thanks to our awesome education system where "if you cram, you top the exam". Procrastination has been a by-product of such system. Obviously, why to cram every day when it can be done on the last day. 

My first few days in a software company

I joined a Software company as a trainee in January, 2015. I must say it took me some time to get used to this environment. Being an engineering student I have my own speed and preferred way of doing things. Anyone who is also an engineering student will understand that we have a habit of working under pressure. This is how we pass our semester exams with presentable marks. We can't just be consistently working and complete a scheduled task well before time. It's the work done under pressure of deadline or fear of losing that extracts the best out of us. That's who we are..we are engineers. 

I must say things here are weird as I have never been to a software company ever. No one in my family has. Rather it was my first ever "office experience", excluding the casual trips to my parents' offices. Coming to office every day, sitting 8-9 hours facing an emotionless knowledge box (the computer in my cubicle) and figuring out C language codes… it doesn't attract me yet.

Although, this wasn't unexpected but finally being here as a part of this lifeless air in the cubicles amidst the random "tick- tick" of keyboard and faint mouse clicks, I now understand the value of "having interest" in one's work. Why I am saying this? May be I don't have interest in programming. Or it's the unfamiliar and workaholic working conditions. In college, it was all about handling things as they come, life was uncertain and exciting. Now it's just long C language codes (by long I mean around 800 lines only in the main function), data sheets and command prompt screen.  

While sitting in my cubicle I crave to rush out of the centrally cooled, sealed and corked building, see the world outside. The only relief from the damp environment is the fellow workers who are like me, just with more experience and capacity to work here. I have observed people around me; they all work and joke around often. Sometimes I hear chatter and laughter from the next cubicle discussing about a new movie or a prank played over a colleague by sending a fake invitation to every team member announcing his marriage. Such things restore my interest to this changed life. 

It might take a while to get used to a professional life. I do miss the days when I could just lie around doing nothing, ROFL-ing with friends and planning a day which may or may not include attending lectures, sleeping or texting during class and tensions didn't stick along for long. 

College days won't come back, what can happen is me getting used to the new life, accepting the change and be a part of it. I am a fighter, won't give up easily!