The end of the school semester is a stressful time for any student or faculty member. It is often difficult to find the motivation to get the last bit of work done, and procrastination becomes more difficult than ever to fight.

The College Of Lake County held their annual Night Against Procrastination Write-in for students to get any end of the year writing assignments done.

Typically, the event is held in person, but this year CLC had it online via Zoom to adhere to social distancing guidelines.

Jennifer Staben, a full-time faculty member in CLC’s English department and the writing center faculty coordinator, was the main organizer for the event.

Staben has been organizing and coordinating a version of this event with her tutoring staff every fall and spring since 2016.

Staben originally got the idea from her other writing colleagues at other schools in 2015.

“A writing center in Germany shared that they were participating in something called ‘The Long Night Against Procrastination’ which involved the writing center staying open all night,” Staben said. “Though most writing centers here in the U.S. couldn’t organize a 24-hour event, the idea of having a night or nights focused on getting writing done was born.”

In 2017, the official title “Night Against Procrastination Write-in” was given after initially being called “International Write-in,” which confused students as they thought it was only available for international students.

Throughout the years, the event has grown to help students.

“The idea is that all writers struggle to get bigger writing tasks done, and committing to come together with other writers is a good way to make progress and work against our natural inclination to put things off,” Staben said.

She also mentioned how there are many benefits of the event, including fighting against our yearning to procrastinate and getting the help you need right when you need it.

Additionally, the students and faculty get the chance to win prizes as an incentive.

For every hour a person stays, they receive another raffle ticket for the chance to win a 75 dollar Amazon gift card. This way, attendants have yet another reason to get work and projects done.

“When this event was held face to face, we offered benefits in the form of coffee and snacks and the chance to win prizes. Since we have gone virtual, we can no longer provide food and drinks.” Staben said.

Before entering the meeting, attendants are asked to fill out a form online. The form lets organizers know what attendants wish to work on if they would prefer to be put in an open room– where there is some light music playing in the background– or if they would rather have complete silence.

This distinction helps to create an atmosphere in which attendants are each most comfortable and in a place where they can study the best.

Although the end of the semester brings lots of stress and assignments, attending an event in which students and faculty can hold each other accountable and fight against that desire to procrastinate and instead find the motivation to get things done.