Colin Phan - Week #14: I FORGOT TO DO MY HOMEWORK!!!

 Memory is a powerful thing, except when it disappears the night before an assignment is due. That’s why I’m writing this blog early, so I won’t forget! Have you ever stared at that red “Missing” icon on Google Classroom, wondering why your brain decided to erase all traces of that essay you were working on? Same. Actually, I recently learned that there was a term for this, which is the phenomenon called selective academic amnesia.


Universal Excuses:

  • “I thought it was due next week…”

  • “Wait…that’s graded?”

  • “I don’t remember hearing about that assignment!”

  • “My digital dog ate my homework on Google Docs.”


Language shapes how we recall information, but when it comes to assignments, our brains (or maybe just mine) turn into a master excuse generator rather than a good, trusty memory bank. 


Teachers post deadlines, (some) repeat them, (some) highlight them in bold, (some) remind us again, and (some) want us to be on top of our game like Mrs. Smith, yet somehow a good 20% of the time they fade into the background like white noise. Maybe being used to all of the stuff being due in APENG, we no longer trigger a sense of urgency when hearing “due date” until it's 11:59 PM, and then Google Classroom isn’t working properly. 


PROCRASTINATION: The ultimate self-deception. “I’ll do it later.” I hear this every day coming out of my own mouth. I say it with such confidence that I could be a politician, knowing full well that it will definitely be future me’s problem. And future me is gonna be so happy and thrilled that when I realize that later is actually now, and that now can’t be pushed back to later. So, if you’re reading this, start your blog comments now, not later. 🙂


HOW TO FIGHT BACK!1!1!: ✅ Make deadlines into something that sounds terrifying. ✅ 

Surround yourself with 10293829887 sticky notes with the due date. ✅ Homework is the best thing ever, right? 😀✅ Write your blog/blog comments now! ✅No phone until homework is done. 🙁  ✅ Set 238832 alarms to remind you that you have to read chapters 16-28 of Beloved by Friday.


At the end of the day, I think that the “I’ll do it later” phrase everyone says only works if later genuinely exists. Set an alarm, write it on your hand, bribe yourself with snacks, or do whatever to remember your assignment—just don’t let that next assignment become the next forgotten story.


Comments

  1. Krish PatelApril 6, 2025 at 10:36 PM

    Hi Colin,
    You have a really good sense of titles because I was also captivated by the title in your blog. I also enjoyed the emojis that you scattered in your blog as it kept my attention for longer and did not bore me while I was reading your blog. In addition, I like how your blog felt extremely relatable as I have experienced that feeling of missing your homework or assignment deadline by accident even though I finished the assignment. I also like how you provide advice on how not to miss deadlines using the psychology of fear. I also like how you use procrastination to indirectly tell us that we are sort of responsible for missing that deadline because at the end of the day, we have all put off our responsibilities and paid for doing that more times than we like.
    -Krish

    ReplyDelete
  2. Elina FanApril 8, 2025 at 11:46 PM

    Hi Colin, personally, I love procrastinating, yet sometimes I feel like I don’t really procrastinate, I just wait until the minute before the last minute to work on assignments. I’ve never submitted an assignment less than ten minutes before the deadline, even my POAS that I worked on deliriously for two days prior to the early submission deadline. Selective academic amnesia definitely hit me in the beginning of the year when I was still getting used to the schedule of weekly surveys and blogs, which sometimes left my mind until the last hour. The ways to fight back procrastination never really worked out for me, especially when I surrounded myself with tons of sticky notes–leaving me overwhelmed instead of focused. I love the ending to your blog; I always forget that later may not exist, which is partially why I am working on blog comments the night before they are due, instead of the day of. For me, blocking out my schedule on a day-to-day basis helps me complete what I need to do, and running the general list through my head keeps them constantly on my mind.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ritwik DeshpandeApril 9, 2025 at 9:50 AM

    Hi Colin,

    Your blog post definitely immediately captured my attention as soon as I looked at it. Especially during the first semester of this year and earlier years of my academic career, I was not diligent at all about doing my homework and I often missed assignments or did them last minute causing me to submit shoddy work. However, I started implementing some of the strategies that you mentioned including utilizing post-it notes and alarms on my phone in order to make sure I kept up with my deadlines for school. Still, it is quite difficult to get EVERY assignment in on time especially in a high-workload high-stakes class like APENG. One thing that I haven’t implemented yet that I definitely will now that you brought it up is restricting my access to my phone until I finish all my assignments. I think a lot of you here can relate to me when I say the phone is a major distraction when completing homework. Additionally, I would much rather have quality time with my phone after finishing all my homework instead of guilt-ridden, half-enjoyable time with my phone before finishing all my homework.

    -Ritwik

    ReplyDelete
  4. Max GeApril 9, 2025 at 12:25 PM

    Hi Colin, I really related to your blog this week! That feeling when I click on the “Missing” section on Google Classroom fully expecting it to be empty, but finding that it is not, is a completely heart-dropping feeling. I would argue that the “that’s graded?” excuse is not so universal, especially in AP Lang. Literally everything we do is graded—I remember getting a 60% on the tone sentences that we did in class because I couldn’t finish in time…

    I honestly think that giving students a Weekly Overview that has all the lesson plans for the week and the deadlines listed at the bottom, like Mrs. Smith does, is actually really beneficial for me. I’m able to mark all the due dates on my to-do list app on Monday and not have to worry about forgetting any deadlines because they will be staring me in the face after that.

    I have a lot of first hand experience with procrastination. I try to avoid it (by leaving at least 10 minutes before the deadline to finish it) because it genuinely stresses me out. I submitted my POAS at like 9:52 or something, but watching elsa submit hers at 9:59 and 42 seconds was the most stressful experience of my life even though it wasn’t even me…

    Thanks for the advice! I’ll make sure to set a reminder on my phone that finishing Beloved was due last Friday. See you later!

    ReplyDelete

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