For the past year of my life I have been obligated to spend a ridiculous amount of time "reflecting" about various elements of my course work.  To do this, I had to answer the same questions over and over again in effort to "dig deeper,"  "push myself" and "connect the material to my life."  At the time, this was a much mocked practice between my classmates and myself—especially when we were later required to reflect on other's reflections and then reflect on the reflection we received.  This all seemed like such a waste of time.

Now that I have been out of class for a few weeks, I have found myself missing having an obligation to reflect simply because it forced me to think and, probably most importantly, write. 

While I think that being required to answer the exact same questions week after week, I have to admit it is helpful to have a point value attached to the process because, lets face it, I'm a slave to any point system—add a deadline in there and I am in procrastination/pressure heaven.

Living in a land without deadlines means I simply get nothing done—that I am, as far as writing goes, braindead.  I have tried to create deadlines for myself and my writing, but I ultimately know that I am not accountable to anyone but myself so I don't do anything.  I wonder if there is a way to create the sense of pressure that schooling or work create without having to deal with all the other unpleasantness because I'm afraid that without it, I will waste every spare second of my time thinking that I'll write something great...later.