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Beat Procrastination - Tips & Strategies
Judging by the fact that MOST of us around here were behind in our readings since the 3rd week of school, and some of us have back-to-back midterms, exams, etc., I figured a thread with specific tips on beating procrastination was in order.
Purpose: To provide some strategies for when you are procrastinating that will help you to get back on track.
Style: Post your strategies here! Please please please be specific in the strategy (ie: "just do some work" is not wildly helpful!), and also post if you have tried one of the strategies and we can see what is most effective.
So what works for you?
Purpose: To provide some strategies for when you are procrastinating that will help you to get back on track.
Style: Post your strategies here! Please please please be specific in the strategy (ie: "just do some work" is not wildly helpful!), and also post if you have tried one of the strategies and we can see what is most effective.
So what works for you?
Comments
- Procrastination is putting off something you should be doing in order to do something else. BUT! If you can make that "something else" an important thing, then you are actually being very productive instead of watching 3 hours worth of YouTube.
For example, I've been putting off writing this English assignment I'm dreading, but I've been spending my time working on a Kinesiology project which is very easy and mindless. While it is definitely procrastination for English, at least I'm still doing SOMEthing instead of nothing. It makes it harder to beat up on yourself this way.
A follow up trick is to find something that you want to do even less and then do your homework instead. Admittedly, the English writing is a lot more appealing than doing my laundry, so I'll leave that for another day and work on English instead. :wink:
i find that i study really well at school because my logic is that if I'm at school, I might as well be doing schoolworking. Plus, at home i get distracted really easily.
i cant do school work at home, always get distracted by somethin or just plain lazy
brute force study time at the library! yaaaa thats how the pros do it kids! :p
I believe the best strategy is forcing yourself to stay at school and just studying in one of those cubicles. It worked out fine for me when I was up there at SFU.
I prefer to be alone in my house. And then I study in small chunks and distract myself between the studying. A timer would be a helpful tool, but I usually just keep my eyes on my watch. I'll work for an hour, then take a 20 minute break. Depending on how much there is to do, it works pretty well!
Also, taking a break and going outside to get some fresh air makes a heck of a difference.
Make a list of things you want to finish that day, that week, and that month and constantly take action toward completing those things. Its ok to take a break obviously but if you regularly reassess where you are on your list of things to do, you should be alright.
Procrastination is ALL mental.
I was called into babysit until midnight (kids were already in bed), so I thought it's the perfect time to write that 3000 word essay due in a week.
HA! I managed to find a wifi access point and my computer has transformed from a essay writing tool to a gateway to procrastination....ack!
3000 words is a LOT. Seriously. I should get on it... haha
I cant study at home because I am distracted by just about anything, but cant study at school either for some reason.
I just end up forcing myself to sit down for a few days and study my ass off before the finals....not the best strategy, but it works for me I guess.
c'mon, is you serious?
I do not recommend writing 4,000 words in one night.
However, despite not knowing what the hell I was doing, when I got the essay back, the prof was like "this is the best essay in class!"
Self-esteem increased tenfold the next day :teeth:
..... but seriously people, do not procrastinate
I'll be working on it today AFTER I go out and take pictures because 21 days of rain is enough to make me want to jump off the Granville St bridge!
it actually didn't take that long... like 5-6h or something.
a tip that I would like to share is; before writing your paper, be prepared!
have a piece of paper out and write all the steps that you're gonna do, which concepts you are going to link etc etc... what you are writing on intro, outro etc... this will take about 30min, but it will take you about 30min to write a 7page paper... :)
Seriously if you do a little bit of preparation it goes a long way especially if you have some...or A LOT... of catching up to do
props times 2 ;)
The other good news is that in procrastinating from doing this essay, I managed to get a lot of work done in my other classes. Jeez... haha
i usually like setting up shop at one of the big tables in the long aq hall way between the coffee shop and images (mainly because there is a leg rest at the bottom of the table lmao)
I've given up for the night too. I'm too freaking tiiired!