I hate my dissertation, with a passion. I wish everyone would just stop asking me about it. I clam up and forget what it is that I’m writing about. My friends and boyfriend usually step in for me and explain it to other people, because I obviously can’t manage it. This hatred, and my general laziness, meant that I procrastinated. I made excuses, the most common being that it was boring. Really what I meant was that it was hard, dull, and I couldn’t manage to force myself into a regular working routine. I slept all day, and stayed up all night procrastinating. I knew that something would have to change and quickly, I had three weeks until the deadline.

My way of procrastinating is unusual, I don’t tend to spend my time on facebook or looking at videos of cute cats, OK well I do a little bit. Instead I run student campaigns, I create blogs about vegan baking, or I apply for jobs that I think I won’t get in a million years. I dedicate all my time to these things, and avoid working. One day, during an extended period of procrastination, I applied for an internship. It was with the Liberal Democrats. I know I’m a terrible sell out, but it was for a good cause, avoiding work.

I must have written a pretty good cover letter (although I’m sure I wrote my prospective bosses’ name wrong on it) because I got a response almost immediately. After a couple of stressful weeks running on two hours of sleep a night trying to fit in both dissertation and work I cracked. I got into an argument with my boss, a popular MP, about disability allowance. This came after hearing three depressing stories about how people were struggling with having had this taken away.

The final straw was an old woman we were talking to, she wasn’t even on disability allowance, she was even happy with the government, and sung the praises for the NHS. She was on an oxygen tank so her movement was somewhat restricted but she was content with the way she was being treated. The MP that I was campaigning with gave her five minutes of his charming company, helped her with her bags, gave her his phone number, expressed a desire to help in any way he could. The following five minutes, however, were spent repeatedly checking his watch for the time, sending text messages and desperately attempting to escape the clutches of this talkative lady. I lost my temper, and began arguing with him about politics. Needless to say, I was fired.

Getting fired helped me to overcome my procrastination, not an ideal way, but it worked, for now. Next time I’ll focus on doing one thing well, rather than everything poorly. Don’t take on too much when you’re studying, especially during extremely busy periods such as dissertation time. Definitely don’t do what I do, taking on extra work to avoid doing university work.