How to Avoid Procrastination in Academic Matters

Procrastination, that evil of evils, can be beaten - if you take the right approach.

Difficulty: Moderately challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Palm Handheld Organizers
• Alarm Clocks
• Women's Watches
• Post-it Notes
• Calendars
• Personal Organizers

1. Look at the deadline of any new assignment you get and write it on your calendar. For assignments with no deadline - a frequent phenomenon in graduate school - impose a deadline yourself.

2. Imagine how the world will look on that date, to make it real to you: What will the weather be like? What else will have changed? Don't allow those changes to pass without finishing the assignment.

3. Calculate roughly how many hours the assignment will take.

4. Decide, before bedding down each night, how much time you're going to spend the next day on the assignment.

5. Remind yourself, upon waking up, of this amount of time.

6. Tell yourself that you won't allow yourself any leisure activities that day until you've put in the promised amount of time.

7. Reward yourself, when done for the day, in whatever way you see fit. This reward is key - having a positive incentive can make all the difference.

8. Don't be afraid to call your student services office. There are well-trained people out there who can help you.

Tips & Warnings

• For particularly long assignments, don't think too much about how much work it will actually take to finish. Instead, take small steps and have faith that they'll add up to something big. After all, as they say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
• Every person has his or her own style. Tweak this method in whatever way fits you best. For instance, if this process doesn't feel quite arm-twisting enough, try marking off each day on the calendar when you get up that day.
• Remember that you're not alone; lots of people are guilty of procrastinating.
• Don't panic if you slip up the first day or two; it's still early. Take some deep breaths and re-commit yourself to doing the next day's work.

[kmwaters]

on 9/22/2008 These are great tips! I found a great opportunity this summer to make a point about the importance - I just posted a blog about it over on Prevention.com (http://buzz.prevention.com/community/kmwaters/are-book-reports-healthy). My daughter was procrastinating over getting her summer book reports done and waited until the last minute, thus causing a lot of stress and missed opportunities.

on 1/18/2006 When you are using the bathroom, you really have nothing to do other than your necessities. You can take advantage of this by bringing a textbook or paper to write down all of your ideas for your paper. You might even bring your laptop. Since you have no distractions like TV or the Internet, you are almost forced to do some of your work. You may even stay in there, even after your done with your necessities, in order to finish reading a passage or writing something down. Sometimes I get so into it that my legs fall asleep. When you leave the bathroom you will be more willing to get back to work, since you were in the middle of doing it already.

on 1/4/2006 It's crunch time, and you are dreading the task that has been left undone, whether it be writing a paper, cleaning, or studying, or reading a book. My suggestion: Make the task interesting and these can be really simple things, depending on what makes you tick:
- take notes with a nifty new pen or highlighter.
- discover a new corner or comfortable area in which you can study.
- or, whenever you come across new, important information in your textbook, eat a gummy bear or jelly bean.
- make fortune teller origami crafts to study key words.
- decorate your flashcards.
- make a general outline for your paper on your bathroom mirror, using a dry erase or overhead marker.
- dance or sing to music while you clean up.

on 1/4/2006 The best time for memorizing by heart is in the early morning. Small scattered notes, vocabulary, chemical symbols, etc. can be written in a small notebook. Use the first one or two hours after you wake up to memorize from that notebook. Put it in front of you while you are eating your breakfast. Your brain is really fresh and very accepting to memorize at that time so don't miss it!

on 11/29/2005 Estimate how long you think an assignment will take to complete, then double your original estimate. If it's a big project like a thesis or dissertation, or if it's the first time you've had an assignment like this, triple your estimate. Allowing extra time to complete the work keeps problems (the experiment that didn't work, the printer ran out of ink, getting sick, etc.) from turning into crises. If you finish early, you can recheck your work before you go out to celebrate!