By Keith Nelson

In 8th grade, my daily schedule was as follows: school from 8:00 to 3:30, get home at 4, then sit on Instagram Reels till dinner (6ish), then the thought of homework would come to me. It comes with a pang of guilt, knowing that the work will eventually have to be done before I go to bed, and I will have to suffer the responsibility of completion. Keep in mind CHATGPT had not dropped yet (what a year that was), and us poor middle schoolers were forced to do homework on our own. After dinner I would either circle back to Reels, or hop on Fort.

I soon would figure out a better way to delay my work instead of Instagram, appeasing my anxiety (slightly) and fulfilling the need for productivity. Instead of procrastinating on my phone with my homework in front of me, I went to my grungy basement gym, complete with a Costo bench and 20 Lb dumbbells, and so began my journey of working out. I wasn’t a very athletic person at the time, and hadn’t done anything but play Fortnite for the past 2 years, back when I was homeschooled. However, working out was more fun than homework, and better than scrolling on my phone.

Now fast forward to December 2025. It was finals week, after a chaotic semester, I loathed the idea of doing much of anything but sleeping and rotting. Despite this, I still had the guilt of being so useless when tests were still looming over my head. Using my trusty productive-procrastination method, I began myself on another journey: Reading.

That week, I took a trip to my local Barnes and Noble, and dropped some cash on two books I wanted to read: The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum and Suprised By Joy by C.S. Lewis. These two books would serve a valuable ally in soothing my worried test brain. I discovered through them, that reading books was actually very easy, when avoiding doing something else. To excuse myself from late night studying, I would read from 10-11. If I had instead excused myself from studying with Reels, I would have felt horrible, lazy, and not gone to bed at a good time.

Instead of reaching for your phone to delay the inevitable, go out and grab a book that you find interesting. It does not need to be something profound, like a classic or a self help book. Nor does it need to be long, educational, or even made for adults. Heck, go find the books you loved when you were a child. When you haven’t read a book for leisure in years, you should not expect yourself to be flying through The Hobbit on your first go (though maybe you could).

Book Ideas

Fantasy: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Non-Fiction: Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

Autobiography: Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl

Spy/Thriller: Patriot Games by Tom Clancy

Adventure Fiction- White Fang by Jack London