'If you speak to me, I'll not stop.' PhD student's note on procrastination goes viral on Twitter, netizens find it relatable

At times, we just can't seem to be getting the work done, or get to the mindset of getting the work done. You can be a student, a businessman or an employee, this happens to the best of us.

Some turn to a cup of Joe, others push themselves mentally to get in the process of finishing the project. Sometimes, people even switch off their phones, or lock themselves in a room to avoid the unnecessary distractions from other people or the outside world.

When a project requires our undivided attention, we even inform those close to us to not disturb us for a certain time period. A similar incident took place recently when a PhD student put out a disclaimer so nobody bothers him or her.


But it's the message written on the disclaimer that grabbed everyone's major attention and made the note go viral on social media platforms.

Written in all caps, the research student asked everyone to "Please do not talk to me."

The student then revealed their poor habit of being a "terrible procrastinator".

"Please do not talk to me. I'm doing PhD work and if you speak to me, I will not stop because I'm a terrible procrastinator!" the note read.

"Email if needed. Thank you," the person added at the bottom of the note.

The hilarious disclaimer was shared on Twitter by a person named Steve Bingham, who himself is a PhD candidate at the University of Leeds as per his Twitter bio. He is also a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Nottingham Business School.

"I think every PhD student needs this sign at some point @PhDVoice," he wrote alongside the picture of the note.

The tweet so far has over 8.9K likes on the micro-blogging platform.

The tweet garnered a lot of reaction on the Internet, with several research students saying that they can relate to the person.

"One of my former colleagues pinned post-its with the words "Is this necessary?" everywhere (literally!) to stop himself from doing anything else than finishing his thesis. We even found some of them when cleaning the lab years after he had left," one person commented on the tweet.

Others also shared their own stories on Twitter.