As the first week of school draws to a close you’re probably feeling like an organized genius who can prioritize their life with the utmost ease. Well it’s only syllabus week and starting a clean slate on the right foot doesn’t mean it’ll be easy to continue that throughout the semester. If you’re a master of self-sabotage and your capacity to be lazy is boundless, you know what it’s like to gradually find yourself overwhelmed, overworked and under the gun. No matter who you are, a Freshman (always hungover), Sophomore (always drunk), Junior (flirting with expulsion) or Senior (bar regular) or even Super Senior (drinks alone)…procrastination probably sneaks up on you at some point. Here are some tips that might help.
1. Remove unnecessary forms of visual distraction.
Shun Netflix. Give it a time-out for not leaving you alone. Change your password with your eyes closed. Just don’t watch it, even if you try to convince yourself you can do homework while watching Netflix, you can’t. Distractions and procrastination live together and they make love inside your head—don’t let them, spurn their advances. Which leads me to my next tip:
2. Be a clock-block.
Make sure you read that closely. You may find yourself under a time crunch from time to time but don’t stare at the clock like it’ going to move backwards. Oftentimes when you worry about how much time you have to do something, it adds more stress you don’t need and this will fuel your procrastination. This means that you probably shouldn’t be “checking your phone for the time” because you know you’re going to do 40 other things on it instead.
3. Go off the grid. But not off-off, like, kind of off.
If you need your phone for some of your schoolwork, that’s understandable. If you don’t have to communicate with a study team then put your phone on do not disturb mode. Let Tinder be a reward, not a crutch. We are all aware of the addictive effects of the smartphone so let’s just make sure we don’t give ourselves the option we know we’ll take.
4. Go to the library.
This might seem like a no-brainer but when it comes time to actually go there, excuses usually prevail. Just by getting out of your house or dorm you are bound for success because people won’t be able to find you and tempt you with endless beer bongs and drinking games no one knows the rules to so it takes longer to finish a game than Monopoly. Also, the library has a bunch of like books and stuff so you’re surrounded by knowledge and bound to be a product of your environment.
5. Use a planner.
Planners come in all shapes in sizes and they all work! Get your hands on one and fill it out. Nothing feels better than crossing out a to-do item you have and seeing your tasks in order helps dramatically with knowing what to do when. You can even color-code your assignments by difficulty, that way you’ll know what you’ll have time for and you can get the easy assignments off the list right away because the smaller the list the better, right?
6. Establish the right mental attitude.
It’s all a mental game, that’s why procrastinating is so easy despite how damaging it is. Adopt some mantras like “now is better than later” or “there’s not time like the present”. It’s corny but if you start thinking these positive things then over time you will find yourself getting accustomed to them. It’s the same with rejecting negative thoughts, push aside “I can do it later” or “I have plenty of time. It might feel amazing to ignore your work and spend that time with your friends but you know either you will have to do it later and miss out then or you won’t do it all, then you’re in big trouble. Win the mental war in your head and you’ll see the benefit of facing reality as you become one of those people you thought you never could be, or that never even existed.
7. Practice consistency.
If you do all of these things only a few times there won’t be much benefit. You have make them a part of your routine, that way they will become easier to do. Make it a personal written goal you sign yourself that says you’ll do these things for two weeks. If after two weeks you don’t feel the need or urge to continue then you are probably screwed and should seek medication for your extreme lack of focus and commitment.
I find all of these things extremely useful in preventing procrastination but I get it, no one likes being told what to do and most want to figure things out on their own. But that’s just another form of procrastination because some people already have it figured out for you, don’t waste your time.
