Procrastination: 5 tips to avoid it

During final’s season in college, you may struggle to start studying or just finish your projects. Maybe procrastination has become your best friend and you haven’t even noticed. So how can can you  defeat it? These 5 tips will help you.

First of all, do you really know what procrastination is? It’s a the habit that makes you postpone your pending responsibilities, leavinge for tomorrow what you can do today. Even though it obviously doesn’t lead to the best results, procrastinating maybe more common than you think. 

After studying this practice deeply, scientists at the Constanza University (Germany) have  that we tend to procrastinate because we think tomorrow will be a better day to get things done. Has this ever happened to you?

These are the three stages of procrastination:

1. Discomfort: The activity you have to get done seems like the worst ever.
2. Being busy: Because it’s so awful (at least for you), you would rather get busy with any other activity you can.
3. Justification: You think that definitely that day just wasn’t the day to get it done and, well, tomorrow will be a new day.

So how can you fight this bad habit to accomplish your activities on time and be more productive? These are a few things you should consider:

1. Make a plan!

Make your own study plan. For this, make sure you make an itinerary with all your assignments and their deadlines. Getting one topic per day without leaving blank spaces that lead you to procrastination will actually help.

Also, remembering all the deadlines or the finals date can help you keep everything on time.

 It’s important to start building the habit to accomplish these itineraries. Once you start doing it, you’ll realize it’s not as bad as you thought and you’ll be free of your responsibilities faster than you thought.

2. Vary your activities

If your study plans are based only on reading books or notes, let me tell you something: you will get bored and start procrastinating. Having monotonous study sessions will cause boredom and therefore the search for a distraction.

How can you avoid it? For starters, you must know yourself very well. Which study methods suits you best? You don’t necessarily need to read a book to study: watch a video or a movie, read a graphic novel, etc. Finding the best methods for you can help you stay focused.

3. Make a distraction list

That’s right, a distraction list. Identifying all the things that might lead you to the path of procrastination make it easier to avoid them. Start thinking! What are the elements that tend to catch your eye while studying or doing homework? When you find them all, put them away!!

This can also help you create different study routines that are free of distractions and more entertaining. Believe it or not, doing your assignments can be fun and you definitely can enjoy it. I mean, if you’re studying that career you must like it, right? Enjoy the ride!

4. Reward yourself

Rewarding yourself can help you complete each part of your study schedule, Make your own reward system based on what you like the most. The prizes can range from eating a candy or chocolate, or watching an episode of the show you like, to taking a short break.

Make sure you do your planning by blocks, and once you complete them, enjoy your well-deserved prize. This will make your study sessions easier so you can defeat procrastination and welcome productivity in your life. All you need is discipline!

5. Ask for help

You don’t have to do everything on your own! You can ask friends or people you know to help you complete your assignments. Think about this: studying or working in groups can make it easier for students to keep each other away from distractions and finish everything on time.

You can start study groups with your classmates to get ready for tests or to focus on your projects without getting too far from your main goal: saying goodbye to procrastination. Sometimes things are much better when working in teams so give it a try.

Keep in mind that procrastination is a non-healthy habit that can hurt negatively your performance in college, That’s why it’s so important to defeat and learn how to actually enjoy fulfilling our responsibilities.