Procrastination is “the action of delaying or postponing something” and whether we like it or not, this tendency exists in all of us. Your friends, family, colleagues, and even your boss all procrastinate from time to time. All of our procrastination problems begin with time management, which is why instilling good time management skills will help you commit to a task faster and more efficiently. Here are our four ways to help you kick procrastination for good.
Admit to procrastinating. Usually students refuse to admit to themselves that this is an issue. Acknowledging that you procrastinate will help you fix the problem, while running away will not. Don’t deny it and trick your gut feeling into thinking that you’re actually doing well. Face it and try to realize that this isn’t “slacking off” but a serious issue. Don’t throw it off as just a “lazy day” and see it for what it really is — procrastination. If you cannot recognize your mistakes, you cannot fix anything and you will not address it. Begin by identifying the situation and move on from there.
Find and avoid activities that send you into a procrastination loophole. This may be watching YouTube videos, speaking with friends, cooking a meal for yourself, etc. Social media is a very distracting outlet as is Netflix. Other issues may be zero focus, a lack of interest in the desired topic, or just thinking that tomorrow will be a better day. The only way to fix this habit is to shut down all of your electronics and put them in a drawer. Focus on the here and now so you can dive headfirst into the task at-hand.
Believe in yourself. You have to be your own motivation and push through the negative feelings of not having anything done, or else you’ll never even get started on a task. Whether you like it or not, procrastination will eat you alive and you’ll never complete your work. But if you tell yourself that you can do it, you’ll be surprised by how far that will take you.
Never forget. Never forget what you went through when you were procrastinating on a task, and use this experience to remind yourself the stress, toil, and exhaustion you put your mind and body through. Remember the relief of completing the difficult task. Why wouldn’t you want to feel that again? Remember that results won’t show up overnight, but will be quick to appear the sooner you get to the task. Track your time and evaluate how much you actually spent on a task — without the distraction time, it may actually be a lot less than you imagined!
We hope that these tips will help you get your time management skills on track in 2020. It’s difficult to change any habit, but you’ll feel so accomplished when you kick it. While you may be tempted to pay someone to do math homework, keep your eye on the prize and remember that hard work pays off. Happy studying!