It’s finally the end of the semester and you think you have your life semi-figured out, but what you don’t realize is that you still have papers to write, research to conduct and final exams to study for. Your first thought is probably “I’ll get to all of this when I get to it,” your next thought could be, “When are all the deadlines again? Oh, not for two more weeks, I have time,” but what you don’t realize is that you’ve just, yet again, procrastinated.

Many of us are guilty of what I like to call the procrastination cycle. It’s where you get the assignment days in advance, look at it, notice the date, say, “Oh I’m going start today", you don’t start, then say, “Oh I have time," then wait until the last minute then finally start the assignment. We constantly do this ourselves in hopes of a better future, but what if we could avoid procrastination? What if we could actually start assignments on time and have a stress-free semester? In order to do this, we must balance everything that’s going on around us.

Some tips and reminders in fighting against procrastination could be:

1. Do assignments in small increments allowing yourself time to breathe in between

Say, for example, you have a 10-page paper due in a week, you can do 2-3 pages worth of writing a day. This is especially important if you have homework from other classes.

2. Be aware of due dates

I was always taught due dates are closer than they appear.

3. Don’t sell yourself short; know that you can do it!

You’ve made it this far in school, no need to give up now!

4. If you like to binge on social media, make sure the apps are turned off or your phone is on silent

I find this very helpful, especially with text messages, you can literally just work in 30 minute increments and take social media breaks.

5. Find motivation for completing assignments

If you don't know why you should do assignments find something that can motivate you to start and finish your work.

6. Just know it could be worse

Your situation could be worse, but instead you're making your future brighter by doing your work on time.

7. Every assignment done on time is one less assignment to worry about

Just think about it for a second--the moment you finish an assignment, you don't even have to worry about it anymore.

8. You actually make your professors proud of you

Professors can often times tell if you did an assignment at the last minute.

9. If you avoid procrastination, your overall health can be better

Your health is more important than you think.

Lastly,

10. Do NOT wait until the last minute

This might all seem simple, but it really isn’t. Overcoming procrastination takes time to master. I’m personally not over procrastination, but I know what it does to a person. You become stressed and have all types of anxiety. I have become better although I could still use a lot of polish. I also know it’s better said than done.

But wait, let’s take out time to see what procrastination really does. For one, if you’re in college, procrastination will have you hating yourself at the end of the semester. Professors will not stop assigning things just because you didn’t sleep the night before an assignment was due. They will probably wish for you to have better luck next time. With this being said, don’t be a sophomore or higher in college, you will really be looked down upon.

Like I have previously stated before, I am not perfect at this. I am still a work in progress, no joke. I’ve had to learn the hard way; trust me--I’ve had my share of procrastinating, sadly, but it is what it is. I hope that one day reading this you will consider all of the times you procrastinated and how it made you feel afterwards.