Each week, siblings Andrea and Amanda Galvan are presented with a topic and 30 minutes to debate that topic. The catch? They are not allowed to speak. Instead, they document this dialogue on a Google Document in separate spaces, but they can utilize whatever resources that the Internet can provide them to support their viewpoint. 

Amanda: There’s one thing we both have in common here, and that, my dear sister,  would be procrastination. Although, with as much procrastinating as I do, I can’t bring myself to actually agreeing with it. I mean, it’s practically avoiding your responsibilities.

Andrea: It’s not so much avoiding responsibilities as it is trying to cope with stress.  I have SO much junk that I have to do all the time that I don’t know where to start, so I just . . . don’t do it right away. I need time to clear my mind and figure out what I have to do, so that’s what my procrastinating time is.

Amanda: That makes some sense, although putting all your work off until the very last moment before it’s due doesn’t really sound like planning and figuring out what to do. Especially if you’re just scrolling through Tumblr or drawing pictures of One Direction. Procrastination is not beneficial at all.

Andrea: … oh, so you’re going there, are you? Well, just you wait. JUST YOU WAIT until you’re in your junior year and you have all this AP stuff to do and you have NO TIME to do it. You’ve got project after project after project, and that’s not even counting Web Design stuff.  You still do your work, but it just keeps piling and piling until it’s taller than . . . a really tall lamp! Plus, you have to worry about college and scholarships and jobs and it’s just too much. So you avoid it. It’s a tiny comfort zone, but hey, that’s all you can do until you crack from all the pressure.

Amanda: I know I don’t have as much work as you, but whenever I’m faced with things to do my initial thought is to get it done. Granted, I’m not as good at finishing my work the very day I get it, but at least I get it done. Free time feels that much better when there’s not a pile of work looming over your shoulder. Also, I believe planning for the future (scholarships and jobs, to be specific) would be more beneficial than turning away. At least you’ll have a general plan to go by when it comes time for those.

Andrea: Oh, I have a plan for the future. I’m just so convinced that it’s going to fail because I don’t know what I should know to be successful in the “real world.” HEY WAIT I get my work done too!! It just takes me a lot longer to finish my work because there’s so much of it.  Another thing is friends. It gets REALLY messy once you add friends into this equation of stress because everyone wants to hang out with you but you have NO TIME to hang out with them.  They think you’re not that good of a friend because you never can hang out with them and then you just feel even worse than you already do! So, once again, you’re left by yourself, sitting in front of a stupid bright computer screen with an empty Microsoft Word document open, wondering when it’s all going to end, if it ever ends.  And you don’t do anything, because you don’t know what to do.

Amanda: You’re kinda missing the point here, though. The whole reason you’re supposed to do your work is so you don’t have to be dealing with all that. I mean, when you’re done with all the school stuff, then you’ll have time to think about when to hang out with your friends and time to plan for the future. It’s nothing a little time management can’t solve. The main problem of procrastination would be that all the time being spent staring at that “stupid bright computer screen” you’re not getting any work done. You’re just staring.

Andrea: Sorry about that, I’m just really fired up. *calms down* Okay, yeah, I know, my time management skills are terrible. It shouldn’t be this hard.  I shouldn’t BE overwhelmed with work, and I shouldn’t have to stress about everything that I do stress about. This is the only way I know how to deal with it; if I go outside and do something else my mind always comes back to school and all the homework I have. Whatever. You win this time. I should probably get back to my homework.

Amanda: Hey man, time management is my best friend. As much as I would like to spend all my time catching up on anime or rolling around with the dogs, I can’t. Procrastinating is painful and takes a major toll in the end. Like now, for example. You should go do your homework.