Number Four: Cleaning

Washing up!
The beauty of this is that you can let it mount up whilst you're "busy" working towards that deadline. The critical point - running out of cutlery (even if it's just a fork for a hurriedly made pot noodle), realising that you can't reuse your coffee mug AGAIN without contracting some horrid stomach bug or the remnants of the last 72 coffee dregs sliding down your gullet, or finding an infestation of mice a la Withnail and I - will always come the night before your hand in when you're desperately trying to make up for all the time you've wasted on work avoidance tactics numbers one, two and three (so far). But then, it really has to be done. Your mother would be so proud.

Number Three: Food

You've got to love cooking. It's nature's law, you have to eat! So there's always going to be cooking. Rustling up three courses from scratch the night before a hand-in has to be my paricularly extravagant achievement though.

And of course cooking leads us on to...

Number Two: Ebay

The epitome of student time wasting - it is your mistress, and no matter what time of day or night, you will obey!
The catch-22 of the situation is that I use it to save money as I have so little. But then it's wasting time of which I have even less.

Number One: The Blog

This is quite obviously the ultimate work avoidance tactic. It's the final line that's standing between me and finishing my thesis, and it's only stopping me because I (under no other duress) have just signed up to it, as I am
1) dangerously close to having to face my personal demons (AKA my tutor) and hand the tome in for criticism, and
2) I'm getting quite bored of all the other work avoidance tactics.

You may find them useful, as I have.