How to procrastinate at Christmas

As a student at Imperial, the lead up to Christmas can seem like one of the busiest times of the year, a feeling compounded by the multitude of seasonal events that you just have to go to. No matter how overwhelmed you’re feeling, there are always some parties that you will just refuse to miss, because everyone knows that reservations and propriety fly out the window as soon as mulled wine and mistletoe are involved. Whether you’re the kind of person who’s at the front line of the drama, or you just like watching it unfold, Christmas parties are often unmissable, and a good way to release the stress that’s gradually built up throughout the term.

So we get it; no matter what else you should be doing, Christmas (or other seasonal celebrations) parties are always fun and we should make sure that we find time to enjoy them. But what if you really need to be studying for those exams, and the constant study guilt prevents you from relaxing properly? I think that I solved this problem, and I would encourage you to do the same: turn the festivities into study material.

Are you an engineer? Use some of your recently-acquired skills to build something challenging. Out of gingerbread. Are you a physicist or mathematician? Conduct an analysis of the flows of people around the mistletoe. A medic? Examine alcohol related injuries and offer your friends hangover cures. Not obviously specialised to the season, but you’ll make a lot of people happy if you do it wearing antlers or a Santa hat. You get the idea; every subject can be adapted to some festive fun.

You’re studying at Imperial because at some point, you decided that you love your subject. It’s really easy to lose track of that amidst all the maths lectures and tedious labs, so why not use Christmas as an opportunity to take a step back and do something not directly related to your course purely because you enjoy it. It won’t necessarily get you better marks in that coursework (unless someone’s involved in a project investigating the material properties of gingerbread, please someone let me know if that is actually a thing), or help you remember that equation you’re inevitably going to forget in your upcoming exam, but it might rejuvenate your passion for your subject, which will help get you through all those times over the holidays when you’ll be cracking open your textbooks when all your non-Imperial friends are passed out in a food coma at the foot of the Christmas tree.

Everyone needs a break now and then, but you’ll feel a bit less guilty about the time off if you utilise it in a somewhat productive manner. And if, like me, you opt for a giant gingerbread creation, you’ll find that offloading large quantities of sugar onto your friends does wonders for your social standing.