"Waste Some Time!"

I was looking for an email from a couple of years ago and came across an email thread with one of my teachers that I thought was particularly funny. Time was in high demand and short supply my final year of undergrad, which often led to me doing homework and other things on my laptop during my classes. One day my bad habit resulted in this conversation:

Professor,
Here are my answers to the questions from the text. I am sorry I have to email them to you also--I didn't have time to get them done before class. Thanks!
Breanne


I noticed you working on them during class.


Yes, I'm really sorry about that. I had a really busy week and am looking at a really busy weekend and Thanksgiving week (I have to complete several graduate school applications, finish a 20 page paper for a class, finish two other shorter papers for other classes, and finish doing research for and submit a final list of internships I want to apply for in Washington DC next summer--and I volunteer for 8 hours on Saturdays--in addition to my regular class and work schedule) and I was afraid if I didn't work on them during class, I wouldn't get them done. I hope it wasn't too distracting or annoying.
Breanne

Breanne,

Nah, I’m aware that students aren’t robots and sometimes do other things in class—heaven forbid!  Yours just happened to be visible this time, because I could recognize the format of the Kiplyn Davis material on your computer screen over a long period of time.

The “problems” are that it cost you a few “lateness” points, it may have limited your involvement in class discussion, and it may have caused you to put in less thinking about your in-class writing before you went back to the Davis article. 

The only other problem is mine, not yours—that any teacher wants full attention, naturally.  So it reminded the old professor that his scintillating material wasn’t reaching one of his best students. 

You’re obviously a highly-motivated (“driven”?) student.

I hope you can have a little lighter load next semester. 

And a little time for the turkey and the family next week. 

Waste some time!  Read a frivolous novel!  Play a video game!  Go for a hike!  Take a nap!

I'm sure that my professor would be happy to know that while I didn't do any time-wasting during undergrad, I certainly learned how to do it well during graduate school!