If you are anything like me, you are plagued by the very serious and deadly case of...procrastination. When dealing with the thought of mountains of homework, your mind automatically decides that the best course of action to take, of course, is to not work. Excellent plan! I mean watching youtube videos till 2 in the morning is definitely the key to passing your math exam! Not. In any case, I believe the point has been made. As an experienced procrastinator, I have racked up some helpful tips to stop or decrease procrastination.
1) Break it down. This is actually incredibly helpful. Studies show that often procrastination is a coping mechanism to lots of work and stress. Your brain sees a pile of work, doesn’t know what to do, so it ‘runs away’ by distracting itself. This is where breaking it down helps. By breaking it down, your work changes into smaller and more manageable pieces. Instead of 20 pages to take notes on, think of it as 5 per hour (which is 1 page per 12 minutes). Our monsters are only as scary as we see them to be.
2) Make checklists. After doing step 1, implement this step. If you write up a checklist of everything you need to do (in small parts), when you finish an assignment, you get the satisfaction of scratching it out with your pen.
3) Work with someone else. This may or may not work for you. Some people find that working with others is distracting, while others find it more helpful. Be aware that it is vital to choose someone you know who will not distract you too much. It’s fine to have some fun in between, but make sure you don’t get off track. If meeting up in person is difficult, there is always Skype. Skyping helps as you can talk to someone while working, instead of having to waste time typing when you could be writing notes or doing math homework.
4) Tell others beforehand what you’re going to do so that you’re forced to do it in fear of mockery from your friends. The idea behind is that by telling someone else, if you don’t complete the work, they will ask why? Sometimes, these friends can also give you the needed push to get working.
5) Reward yourself. If you work right now, later you can play. Of course, if you are a procrastinator, your first thought is: why play later when you can play now? The reason being is that the dark cloud of stress looming around is gone. When you are watching TV shows instead of doing work, somewhere in the corner of your mind is a little cloud of anxiety about all the assignments you have to do. If you work and then play, playing becomes much more fun. There’s no longer the stress of work you have to complete, and instead you’re floating on cloud nine because you’ve just realized that you have no work to do.
Fun Facts:
-In this world there are four types of people-thrill seeking procrastinators, avoiders (also procrastinators, decisional procrastinators, and those who don’t procrastinate. So maybe that last type is a rare unicorn that I doubt exists, but onto the first 3.
-Thrill seekers wait till the last minute to do work because they seek the rush of finishing an assignment 1 minute before the deadline and getting an A.
-Avoiders (the name says it all) avoid work either due to fear of failure-they are the most common type of procrastinators. These people are sometimes actually perfectionists as well (they avoid work in fear they will not able to complete it perfectly). Sometimes, they fear what people think of them. If they try, and get a C, then it’s their lack of ability. However, if they don’t even try, then it can be blamed on the fact that they simply didn’t put in any effort.
-Decisional procrastinators. These people cannot make a decision, therefore absolving them of the responsibility for the outcome.
-Hopefully this was helpful. And for those people who are reading this instead of doing their work, think of Nike: Just Do It!
1) Break it down. This is actually incredibly helpful. Studies show that often procrastination is a coping mechanism to lots of work and stress. Your brain sees a pile of work, doesn’t know what to do, so it ‘runs away’ by distracting itself. This is where breaking it down helps. By breaking it down, your work changes into smaller and more manageable pieces. Instead of 20 pages to take notes on, think of it as 5 per hour (which is 1 page per 12 minutes). Our monsters are only as scary as we see them to be.
2) Make checklists. After doing step 1, implement this step. If you write up a checklist of everything you need to do (in small parts), when you finish an assignment, you get the satisfaction of scratching it out with your pen.
3) Work with someone else. This may or may not work for you. Some people find that working with others is distracting, while others find it more helpful. Be aware that it is vital to choose someone you know who will not distract you too much. It’s fine to have some fun in between, but make sure you don’t get off track. If meeting up in person is difficult, there is always Skype. Skyping helps as you can talk to someone while working, instead of having to waste time typing when you could be writing notes or doing math homework.
4) Tell others beforehand what you’re going to do so that you’re forced to do it in fear of mockery from your friends. The idea behind is that by telling someone else, if you don’t complete the work, they will ask why? Sometimes, these friends can also give you the needed push to get working.
5) Reward yourself. If you work right now, later you can play. Of course, if you are a procrastinator, your first thought is: why play later when you can play now? The reason being is that the dark cloud of stress looming around is gone. When you are watching TV shows instead of doing work, somewhere in the corner of your mind is a little cloud of anxiety about all the assignments you have to do. If you work and then play, playing becomes much more fun. There’s no longer the stress of work you have to complete, and instead you’re floating on cloud nine because you’ve just realized that you have no work to do.
Fun Facts:
-In this world there are four types of people-thrill seeking procrastinators, avoiders (also procrastinators, decisional procrastinators, and those who don’t procrastinate. So maybe that last type is a rare unicorn that I doubt exists, but onto the first 3.
-Thrill seekers wait till the last minute to do work because they seek the rush of finishing an assignment 1 minute before the deadline and getting an A.
-Avoiders (the name says it all) avoid work either due to fear of failure-they are the most common type of procrastinators. These people are sometimes actually perfectionists as well (they avoid work in fear they will not able to complete it perfectly). Sometimes, they fear what people think of them. If they try, and get a C, then it’s their lack of ability. However, if they don’t even try, then it can be blamed on the fact that they simply didn’t put in any effort.
-Decisional procrastinators. These people cannot make a decision, therefore absolving them of the responsibility for the outcome.
-Hopefully this was helpful. And for those people who are reading this instead of doing their work, think of Nike: Just Do It!