OK, guys, beat this one. I'm working on my thesis which was due A YEAR AGO. I managed to get an incomplete when it was originally due, because I had procrastinated too long to be able to get it done (though at the time I was at least procrastinating by writing other, less daunting papers). For some reason incompletes last an entire year at my school and that has been my downfall. I spent the first 9 months thinking about writing it, another month deciding to start over and picking a new topic, another month doing way more research than was necessary in order to avoid writing it, a couple weeks staring at a computer screen, and the past day and a half writing. I'm supposed to turn in a draft this afternoon. In the past I've been proud of my procrastination abilities. Now it's just embarrassing.

sigh. I'm in the same boat. My credits start to drop off at the end of the summer semester. I need a post-defense draft by mid-June, and still have no idea how to analyze my data. I have a sneaking suspicion all my data is total crap anyway, because I also procrastinated on setting up my plans for field work, and just kinda went out and got some numbers from some things. I'm still in the over-researching phase, but I have to go wash some dishes now.

I'll beat that. I've been done with my Masters coursework for over 2 1/2 years and I still haven't finished my thesis... and I've been paying for the mandatory minimum 2 credits per quarter ever since (not cheap!) to keep up my status as a student.

Granted, I got a job and moved away from the school about 6 months after starting my thesis work, which has hampered things a bit, but it's not like I was making tons of progress before that. The problem... no deadline. Procrastination was great for most of my college career... I had lots of free time to do lots of fun things. But procrastination kills when there is no deadline. No pressure = no work.

I also find that procrastination isn't as fun once you're in a job where you have to go into work every day. It's not like I can use my wasted time to exercise or learn to play an instrument or other good things like that. I just sit my cube and read stuff like Slate all day. Not so exciting. I've tried using wasted work time toward my thesis, but predictably that didn't work.

This procrastination appears to be something you learn (or at least, perfect) in college.

I didn't go to college, so I can't really brag that I can procrastinate on quite the level that you folks can, but I'm a hell of an autodidact and with time and determination, I'll outprocrastinate you all.

Update: I had a meeting with my professor today (which I had been putting off for weeks) and he told me I wasn't the only one who'd been putting off finishing her incomplete thesis. The other three students in my class who received incompletes haven't finished them either (two of them haven't even contacted him), and Friday is the deadline! Does it make me a horrible person that I was ecstatic to hear that my classmates are as bad off as I am? Procrastination loves company.

I had completed all my coursework for my BA, but had one incomplete in a Russian Lit class to finish before I could get my diploma. It took me over two years to memorize a measely poem to complete the Russian Lit class and get my paper (a 10-year exercise of procrastination, doobage, and beer). Did have a lot of fun tho.