As finals week lies on the horizon and I already can feel the tension
between studying and procrastination setting in, I decided to look to Mark
Twain for wisdom on the upcoming week. After reading the wit and wisdom of Mark
Twain I was sure he would have something to say about the next week. Oddly enough Mark seemed to be on both sides
of the issue. The first quote I came across that caught my attention was
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
Just as I saw in my first round of reading Twain, he is right on the
money with this one. Once I get started on studying or an assignment I usually
find it is not that difficult and goes by quickly. Some days this is my
attitude on studying and I can get quite a bit accomplished, but I can also put
off studying for hours or even days if it does not seem urgent. As I was still
pondering this piece of advice I found another quote that seemed to support the
opposite opinion.
“Never put off till tomorrow what you can do the
day after tomorrow.”
I know for me, most of the time this thought will
cross my mind before the first Twain quote and studying will often get pushed
back. It is reassuring to see that even Mark Twain valued the practicality of procrastination.
Ultimately studying over the next week will be a mix of these two strategies,
starting early on all the urgent studying and saving everything else for the
day after tomorrow….or maybe the day after that.
The last quote Mark Twain quote I found to get me
through finals week was a convenient piece of advice for our final paper in
LitCiv,
“Substitute 'd**n' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your
editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.”
I don’t know that I would recommend this exact
strategy but it’s apparent Twain likes the four letter word that doesn’t exist
just as much as Professor Williams.
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