In the boring life of a student, school-age students have found many ways to entertain themselves. Whether that be playing video games, watching television, or scrolling on their phones, everyone has something they do in their leisure time. However, these sources of entertainment might tempt someone into playing their video game too much, watching an unhealthy amount of television, or just spending the entire day sitting in a chair scrolling through TikTok. With more entertainment and free time, you’ll end up having less time to do your work. This is called procrastination: leaving work later because it isn’t due immediately, and instead, having free time now. Many students fall under the trap of procrastination: “Why should I finish the assignment now? It’s due in 5 days, I’ll have plenty of time,” many students think. This is the mindset that leads to procrastination. Students will leave it from one day to the next, and then to the next, and end up barely finishing right before the deadline, or sometimes, not at all! To break this unhealthy mindset, we offer you some helpful strategies.
Breaking procrastination is not just doing all your work the day it is
assigned; instead, it is doing a balanced amount of work each day of the
week. Once you receive an assignment, whether it be homework or a big
project, think about it right away. Thinking long-term is a vital tactic. In
a busy schedule filled with extracurriculars and other activities, using
tools like your student planner, or Timer Master’s Time Planner and To Do
can help you schedule your time. For example, you can enter your tasks
long-term tasks into To Do, recording when a piece of homework is due and
your goals for your long-term projects and their deadlines. Then, use To
Do’s alarm feature to help you remember the deadlines.
However, it is also
important to schedule your day. After school hours, students are faced with
a packed schedule. They not only need to allocate free time but also juggle
various homework and extracurricular activities. This is where Time Planner
comes in. Simply enter your task, set a start and end time, and click on the
timer icon. A timer pops out, and use that timer to make sure you stay on
track. Using Time Planner greatly helps you to visualize your day and stay
on schedule, completing everything you need to do while also having free
time.
By planning out your week and your day, you can gauge how much work
you have to do each day and allocate free time when you’re done with your
work.
The largest red flag you can encounter when starting to work on homework is feeling like you don’t want to work on it now; “I’ll work on it later,” you think. However, this mindset will end up pulling you behind. What if your assignment is due on Monday, and you plan to work on it on Sunday, but your family decides to go camping that day? Then, you’ll fall behind on work, and you won’t manage to finish in time because you procrastinate. It’s important to know that what you might not always end up working, as you might encounter challenges along the way. What if your homework turns out to be harder than expected? However, if you start working right away, you can finish your assignment on time, all at the same time accounting for unexpected events. This will help you finish your assignments quicker, and you’ll find your life to be less stressful.
If you are handed a huge writing assignment, this task might look daunting, and you might not even want to start working on it. But if you break your assignment into multiple parts, like outlining, drafting, writing, and editing, this will greatly relieve the pressure that is on you. By focusing on one task at a time, this increases your work quality and efficiency, rather than worrying about other things. Procrastination is often a product of stress. By breaking down your assignments into smaller tasks, this helps to decrease stress, therefore preventing procrastination.
One of the biggest reasons people tend to procrastinate is catastrophizing.
This happens when people make a big deal out of something. For example, they
might think an assignment is tough, boring, painful, or hard, so they won’t
start on it until they absolutely have to - right before the deadline. In
reality, a simple piece of homework won’t kill you. Many students also tend
to make excuses, like “There’s plenty of time left,” “I’m not feeling it
right now,” “I still have two more days,” “I work better under pressure,”
etc. Be honest with yourself. These are all excuses you try to make, leading
you to keep procrastinating just to the point of the deadline, when you
realize you have to do it.
Believe in yourself, and your academic abilities
as a student, and you’ll overcome this mindset. Think about all the
positives of completing this assignment - no more stress, more relaxing free
time, and more time to hang out with your friends.
Lastly, another useful thing to do is to find an accountability partner. This might not necessarily be your best friends, as they might distract you from finishing your work. Find someone responsible, or another peer that struggles with procrastination, and help each other out. In this relationship, you connect with someone (call, text, etc) at certain time intervals (such as once per week or every two days). Share your deadlines, and help each other stay on track, and committing to what you will do before your next meeting. Not wanting to go back on your word, this can be a great way to squash procrastination. Remind each other to complete their work right away and not procrastinate, and soon you’ll find your days to be much easier.
Procrastination is a problem with not only students around the world, but also adults. Implementing useful and effective methods, like staying organized and mapping out your schedule, start working right away, breaking down big tasks, changing your mindset, and finding an accountability partner will help you break procrastination and decrease your stress.
