Do you remember that feeling of stress when you’re trying to type the last words of your assignment or essay as fast as you can to make it in time for the deadline?
You tell yourself not to procrastinate for the next assignment but then, a few weeks down the road, you see yourself in the same cycle: hurrying to complete your assignment.
Yes, it seems you do have a procrastination habit and I am sure it is affecting your academic performance. Here are some simple methods to deal with procrastination and hopefully put a permanent end to it.
Disadvantages of Procrastination
Procrastinating is a really bad habit, especially for students. If you procrastinate, you will not be able to finish your work on time and even if you do, the end product will most likely be a mess and not finished well because it gets rushed. You will then be given a bad score, which will affect your final grade. Begging the teacher for an extension is not advisable as it gives a bad impression of you and shows that you have poor time management skills.
Let’s deal with Procrastination
Get a planner
My number one suggestion to battle procrastination for students would be to start using a planner. Whether you want to bullet journal or just get a printed planner from the bookshop, a planner is the most important tool to stop procrastination. A planner will help you to keep track of all your assignments.
Firstly, write down the due date of your assignment in the planner. Then, think of the difficulty level of the assignment and work out how much time in advance you will need to work on the assignment. Remember to factor in some time for editing so that the end product will look more polished. Although it is important to write down and plan the dates, it is equally important to check your planner daily to help you to remember to follow the dates set.
Wake up earlier
As a daily routine, I’d suggest waking up earlier to plan your day based on what needs to be completed as reflected in your planner. This way, you will not be wasting your time chatting aimlessly in the canteen. A useful tip would be to wake up earlier by 15 minutes so that you can include healthy habits like healthy eating and exercises throughout the day that will energise you for the rest of the day to complete the activities in your planner. Waking up earlier is going to enable you to pace yourself better instead of rushing because you’ve overslept.
Sleep earlier
Another tip is to get to bed earlier so that you will have enough rest to get through the day and to complete everything you’ve scheduled in your planner. With enough sleep, you will feel refreshed and more productive the next day. An early morning is always better than a late night. Don’t exhaust yourself or the result of your assignment will be worse.
Rank your assignments in terms of difficulty and urgency
When bombarded with endless assignments and projects from your teacher, it is useful to rank your assignments by difficulty and urgency. For example, if you have to write a research project that will take more time, you should rank the project as difficult and schedule yourself to start on the project earlier in order to have ample time to complete it well.
If an assignment is easy and requires less than an hour, you can rank the assignment as easy and do it first so that you have fewer things to worry about. The urgency of the assignment depends on when the task is due. Assignments with impending deadlines should always take priority.
Break up difficult assignments into more manageable tasks
After ranking the assignments in terms of difficulty and urgency, it is best if you start at the hardest assignment so that the task will get less intense as it progresses. Students should break up difficult assignments into smaller and more manageable tasks. Trying to deal with an assignment may be daunting for some students so it’s advisable to make the task smaller and bite-sized. If you hesitate to do something because you are lazy or scared to start, countdown and get just get started. Sometimes, right after you put your mind to it and start, you will realise it is not as bad as you thought.
Conclusion
With all these tips to battle against procrastination, let’s procrastinate no more and get started on your next assignment!
Image: Kumparan