Q1: “I’m bad at keeping in contact with people from my home town while I’m at school. I’m bad at keeping in contact with people from school while I’m home. I’m bad at keeping in contact with people in general. How do I improve?”
This is a great question! Many people struggle with staying in communication with their friends while they are away from them. It’s a scientific fact that humans have attention spans shorter than that of a goldfish (source: The Google), and so, when we are away from each other for longer than however long that is, we instantly forget everything we once knew and become new people.
It’s tragic, but it is the cause of many ended friendships.
So, how can you stop from forgetting about the existence of your friends, you ask? It’s simple. First, limit your friends down to about four. You really only need four friends to begin with, and it’s impossible to expect anyone to remember more than four people anyway. Then, find your nearest “SORRY!” game board. Take out one of each of the different colored pawns. Then, label each pawn with the name of your friend. For example, the green pawn can represent Andrew or Julia or whoever you decide to keep in your life. Last, place these four pawns on top of your dresser. This way, every morning when you wake up, you will be reminded of these four lovely people in your life.
If this doesn’t suit you because it’s only four people, your expectations are too high. Otherwise, you can just try to remember as best you can like a normal person. Everybody forgets things sometimes.
Q2: “How do I stop procrastinating? Every time I sit down and start to make a plan, I decide that I’ll finish it later.”
With all of my combined three weeks’ worth of experience with writing an advice column, even I have not yet found the answer to this question. I procrastinate writing this article every week (usually it’s two days late). I procrastinate putting on my glasses each morning and end up walking to class blind half the time. I even procrastinated telling my roommate that I used his toothbrush to clean the toilet once, and let me tell you, it was not pretty.
So, here’s my advice. Just don’t stop. Everyone knows that the need to do things in a timely manner is just a social construct. And sure, maybe it’s more respectful of others’ time to be punctual and do things in a timely fashion, but if everyone procrastinated, who would care? Not me. Not my poor vision. Not the guy who hits me with his car after I couldn’t see him when I crossed the street. He would be understanding because he would procrastinate too. Everyone would be able to live in harmony.
Truly, it’s the key to world peace. Maybe everyone is so up in arms about societal problems because they have become accustomed to people treating them with consideration. We should just lower our expectations of ourselves and each other.
In other words: Just suck it up and finish your plans.
