It happens to the best of us. Your teacher assigns homework, your mother tells you to do the dishes, your laundry needs to done and you're sitting on your smart phone playing Tetris. Maybe digital distraction is not your vice, but whatever you're doing is to avoid doing what you're supposed to.

According to Psychology Today, "Procrastination in large part reflects our perennial struggle with self-control as well as our inability to accurately predict how we'll feel tomorrow, or the next day." Procrastination is a crutch that many people use, saying that they "work better under pressure," which is not the case for many people. Procrastination can hinder you from doing many things that you want to do in life. Not turning in that homework could lower your grade, not doing those dishes now could make you late for something when you have to do them later, and not washing your clothes now could make you sit at home from a party that you really wanted to attend. Procrastination can also give you a bad reputation amongst your peers, it may cause you to lose your ambition to succeed, and it can also lead to many stress-induced health issues. So take it from a me, a queen procrastinator, and nip this bad habit right in the bud.

Here are 5 tips on how to stop procrastinating:

1. Make a small to-do list of the items you're avoiding and set deadlines for them.

This way you can remember those assignments and tasks and get them out of the way.

2. Break the task down into smaller bits so it does not seem so overwhelming.

You will be proud of your small accomplishments and you'll be much more likely to finish.

3. Eliminate temptation to do something else.

This way you can focus on the task at hand and not get distracted by something unrelated and end up doing something else.

4. Ask someone to help you complete the task.

Sometimes it can be daunting to complete a big task by yourself, that's why it's better to ask someone to help you complete it. That way you can get it done much quicker than you ever would have doing it by yourself.

5. Focus on how happy you will be when you get the job done!

Visualizing the end goal and feeling of accomplishment will make you work that much harder to finish that homework assignment or project.

Exercising these five small tips will help you crush procrastination and make it easier to stick to the schedules you set for yourself. Procrastination is easy to shake when we put our minds to it.