Studying paralysis

My slacking is catching up with me. For instance, right now I'm posting this instead of reading the case for my casenote, because it was making me sleepy, despite the fact that it's about strip clubs, and the court references New Kids on the Block many times. See, last year, everything was so packed together that I couldn't really stop. This year, it's different. Our semester is normal, not packed into 10 weeks. So, for the last few months, I've just kept saying to myself: "It's okay if I go out three or four nights this week, I still have ____ months to go before I really have to start studying." Well, now I have a month, maybe a little less. There's a casenote, and a paper, and studying for finals, and catching up on the 200 pages of EU reading that I neglected at the beginning of the semester. All of which adds up to a weird form of studying paralysis. It's like when I was younger, and my mom would tell me to clean my room, and the damn thing was so messy I didn't even know where to start. That's pretty much how I feel right about now. A sample of a typical thought process: Should I study? Well, I could, but that would entail actual thinking, so maybe I should take some "me time" and reread this trashy novel I've read five times previously. And maybe, while I'm at it, I could nap a little. Yes, napping would help. Then I'd be refreshed and better able to study.

I've become a master of rationalizing away my slacking behavior. Occasionally, I'll even refer to last year and blame my current lack of work ethic on residual burnout from the 1L year from hell. But, that's BS, since I did plenty of nothing this summer, and have no real excuse for engaging in more of it. Anyway, just thought I'd share, since I know that some of my friends are experiencing a similar "oh no, finals are coming" thought process, and slacking, like misery, does love company. And now, time to unfreeze my brain, and get back to reading about gentlemen's clubs.