Your teacher assigns a paper due Friday. Monday, you ignore it. Tuesday, you start to work on it, then become sidetracked by Facebook. Wednesday, you say you will write it Thursday. Thursday night rolls around, and you stay up till three in the morning rushing to finish the paper. You scrape by on the paper, but the stress placed on you is worse than a failing grade would be. Procrastination is not a healthy practice, and will be harmful in college and later on in a career. Then how does one break the cycle of procrastination?
Procrastination is the avoidance or putting off of certain tasks, which is quite common. A psychologist’s study recently showed that 90% of college students procrastinate, and 25% are chronic procrastinators. Procrastination is usually the product of poor time management or distraction, and often has bad consequences. Work produced last minute because of procrastination is low quality and teachers and bosses can usually tell when something has been done the night before. Procrastination puts incredible stress on one’s body, and creates bad studying habits.
The good news is there are ways to combat procrastination. If you are feeling frustrated by the amount of work you need to complete, work on managing your time. Create a priority list of the next day’s activities and be sure to stick to it. Spread out large projects over several days; do not attempt to finish it in one sitting. When studying, make sure you break up your time with ten minute breaks every 45 minutes. Create a quiet studying environment, turn off the TV and computer, keep your phone out of reach, and try not to study in too comfortable an area, where you will be more prone to daydream. Do not aim for perfection, as this is also a form of procrastination.
If you work on pre-planning and time management skills and finish projects early, you will have more time opened up to you to do other things. Get projects out of the way early in the week and not only will you have more time to be with your friends, you will not have it hanging over your head causing stress and anxiety. Procrastination may seem like a way to ease your mind and relax, but in reality it just makes life more stressful than it needs to be.