5.7: Study Skills- Avoiding Procrastination

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Do You Procrastinate?

As you saw in Unit 2, procrastination means putting off doing something. The word comes from Latin, where cras means tomorrow. In other words, if you procrastinate, you say, “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

There are different reasons for procrastination. Here are a few:

You are not interested in the subject or the assignment.
You are easily distracted by other activities, such as friends and going out.
You are mentally or physically exhausted from your daily responsibilities.
You are nervous about the course or the assignment and unsure of your own abilities.
You are not sure how to get started with the task.

Do any of these sound like you? Procrastination should be avoided, because it can cost you marks. Your college may deduct marks for assignments that you hand in late.

Tips to Avoid Procrastination

You have a homework assignment to do, but you keep putting it off. Here are tips to help you deal with the problem of procrastination.

Try to figure out why you are procrastinating. Before you can solve a problem, you need to understand why it is happening. Do any of the reasons above apply to you?
Try to start homework assignments right away. When you first learn about an assignment, you may be excited by it. As time goes by, you might lose interest. As the saying goes, “strike while the iron is hot.”
Often, procrastination is caused by fear. You are nervous that you will not do well. Tell yourself that your first attempt at an assignment does not need to be perfect. Your first goal is just to get something—anything—on paper.
Break your assignment into small pieces. For example, if you are writing a paragraph for this course, tell yourself that today you will do some brainstorming, tomorrow you will plan your paragraph, and so on. Breaking it into smaller tasks makes the assignment much less daunting.
If you are having trouble getting started, promise yourself that you will spend 15 minutes on the task. That’s all. After 15 minutes, you can go fishing, watch TV, or do anything else you like. If you commit to 15 minutes, you may well find that you get caught up in the task, that it isn’t so bad after all, and that you want to continue.
Remove distractions. If you know that you procrastinate by checking social media, take your phone into another room. If you know that you are distracted by television, consider working in the college library instead of at home.
Form a mental picture of yourself when the assignment is done. How will you feel? Will you reward yourself with a treat? Then, go and make it happen!
Recognize that everyone procrastinates at some point. It is normal behaviour. However, if procrastination is becoming a serious problem for you, consider making an appointment with a counsellor at your college.

You Try It!

Think about the following questions.

1. When was the last time you procrastinated? What do you think caused you to procrastinate?

________________________________________________________________________

2. Next time you feel like procrastinating, what are you going to do to prevent this from happening? Write your ideas in the space below.

Things I can do to help me to prevent procrastination: