Looking at a big assignment or task can be totally overwhelming. Like, how am I supposed to write a 25-page paper?! Instead of looking at it as one giant task, take the time to think about what steps are required to achieve that task. Whenever I am assigned something, I will think through everything I have to do and write it down as a list of steps. Take the example of writing a paper: you start by finding 5+ academic sources, then read the sources, then create a structure for your paper, do the data section, then write other sections, etc. It\u2019s so much easier to conceptualize the task of finding 5+ peer-reviewed articles for your paper than to conceptualize writing a massive paper. So break things down into small steps to make a big project feel less daunting.<\/p>\n
2. Start small. <\/strong><\/p>\n After I\u2019ve figured out what steps I need to take in order to complete a big task, I like to start with the small and easy steps. Starting small can help you feel like you\u2019ve accomplished something and give you the motivation to keep accomplishing tasks. For me, this is usually creating a document. I always start with opening a word processing document, saving it with an accurate title, and creating a skeleton structure (putting in the titles of sections, like Introduction, Background, etc). It\u2019s such a simple thing to do, but it\u2019s the foundation of your project and shows you that all you have to do is fill in the sections! It\u2019s also an easy thing to cross off of my tasks that need completing. So start easy and gain momentum from a small accomplishment!<\/p>\n 3. Make lists and prioritize. <\/strong><\/p>\n This ties in with 1. of creating a list of steps it will take to achieve a bigger task. But I find it helpful to do this with all the things you need to achieve in a day\/week\/etc so that you can literally see everything you have to do. When you cross things off your list, it also shows how much progress you\u2019ve made! I like to colour-code my lists so that I can easily see which readings and assignments are for which task, or whether it\u2019s a task regarding a particular project. I also include life things on my lists, like buying groceries or sending emails. I find that writing lists helps you to prioritize which tasks are most important<\/em> and need to be done first. Whether that\u2019s a numbered list where you do the thing at the top first, or a list for what needs to be accomplished by the end of the day, etc. Listing out what you need to accomplish helps you see how much there is to do, and it helps you prioritize what tasks must get done.<\/p>\n I make lists upon lists upon lists, and they change depending on what I need to get done. I used to make lists for readings to do (left), but now I make more general lists of everything I need to get done in school and life (right). Organizational styles evolve as you do!<\/p><\/div>\n 4. Make a schedule with achievable goals and reward success. <\/strong><\/p>\n A big thing for procrastinators is not \u201cfinding the time\u201d to get work done early. So try scheduling in periods of time to work on projects early! Use your calendar, reminders on your phone, or sticky notes to tell you when you should work on a project. Make a goal for this period of time that\u2019s achievable and make sure to do your best to achieve that goal during the set time. This could be a goal of spending 15 minutes uninterrupted reading a textbook chapter, or it could be a goal of completing 2 pages of an essay over a 3 hour period. Whatever your goal is, make sure it\u2019s specific and achievable within the time period. Personally, I struggle with achieving benchmarks, so I set my goals as working on a project for an uninterrupted period of time. And if you do achieve your goal? Reward yourself! I like to buy myself a latte if I have done a good job achieving my goals throughout the week. If it\u2019s a thing I really really<\/em> don\u2019t want to do or it\u2019s difficult, I give myself bigger rewards for completing it! So schedule in time to work, set achievable goals for that work period, and reward yourself for achieving your goals! But remember: don\u2019t beat yourself up if you don\u2019t achieve those goals, just try harder next time.<\/p>\n 5. Show yourself compassion, let yourself take a break to recharge. <\/strong><\/p>\n Showing yourself compassion when you fail to achieve your goal is very important. The more you beat yourself up over small failures or guilt of slacking off when you should be working, the less energized you\u2019ll be to do work. Often, procrastinators feel extremely guilty about procrastinating and will criticize themselves for not working sooner. We may think that self-criticism helps inspire us to get things done, but it has the opposite effect. Self-criticism drains your energy and encourages you to keep procrastinating. The best way to overcome this is to forgive yourself for failure or procrastination, and then to see it as a chance to recharge your batteries. So what if you watch 3 episodes of your favourite show on Netflix? Remember that you need that time to recharge and rest your brain. Instead of making yourself feel guilty about watching your favourite show, think about how you\u2019re letting your brain relax so that you\u2019ll be energized and ready to start working after the episode is done! It\u2019s a simple way to reframe your thoughts, but endlessly helpful. If you don\u2019t punish yourself for relaxing, you will actually feel more relaxed and ready to work again. So be compassionate toward yourself when you fail or procrastinate, and instead think of procrastination as a chance to relax and recharge your batteries so that you can return to work refreshed!<\/p>\n 6. Act upon ideas and inspiration. <\/strong><\/p>\n When you\u2019re a procrastinator, it\u2019s hard to motivate yourself to start work. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to act upon any moments of inspiration to start your project! If you get an idea for your essay or figure out how to overcome a problem, tackle it immediately. Use that idea and moment of motivation to start on your work. Once you write down the idea, you may be inspired to continue working on it or improving other parts of the project. If the document is already open and you have a good workflow, why not keep going? I find this really helpful and will drop anything I\u2019m doing when inspiration or motivation hits because I know that it fades quickly. So if you have an idea, inspiration, or motivation to work, use it as soon as possible to get some of your project done<\/p>\n 7. Trick yourself with early deadlines. <\/strong><\/p>\n This works really well if you keep a calendar and know your deadlines for projects a few months in advance. As a student, I take the syllabi for all my classes and write down the deadlines in my calendar for the entire term. Then, I write in fake deadlines a few days or a week before the real deadline. This way, I freak out a bit when I see the false deadline and start working on the project a few days or a week earlier than I normally would. Alternatively, you could write in reminders that you have a project due in two weeks, in one week, etc. Or, you could try scheduling in time to work on the upcoming projects before the night-before-it\u2019s-due procrastination work time. So use scheduling to your advantage and trick your future self, or set up reminders!<\/p>\n 8. Practice productive procrastination. <\/strong><\/p>\n Procrastinating things can create a lot of anxiety which builds and builds and builds until you finally break down and complete the project you\u2019ve been procrastinating. The only way to get rid of anxiety from procrastination is to work on whatever is being procrastinated. One way to help with this is to tackle smaller projects while you\u2019re procrastinating a bigger project. This will help to relieve anxiety more effectively than watching extra Netflix episodes, and it will also cross things off of your list. This might be doing the pile of dishes in your sink, organizing your calendar for the week, doing the easier project you have due, or writing the reflection paper that\u2019s actually kinda fun. I always try to be productive when I\u2019m procrastinating because even if I don\u2019t get the big thing done, at least I\u2019ve used that as motivation to cross off smaller tasks on my list. Am I writing this blog post right now to procrastinate writing a statistics paper? Absolutely! Do I feel productive even though I\u2019m still procrastinating? Absolutely! So use procrastination to motivate yourself to be productive in other areas! You\u2019ll get things done and also relieve some of your anxiety. This is great especially if you keep a list of things to do because you\u2019ll watch as things keep getting crossed off that list, proving to yourself that you are successful and that you are accomplishing things.<\/p>\n 9. Keep things in perspective. <\/strong><\/p>\n Finally, I think it\u2019s important to keep things in perspective. When you\u2019re procrastinating, it often feels like the thing that you’re avoiding is massive and that it will be the end of the world if you don\u2019t get it done in time. But you know what? The world won\u2019t end if you watch one more episode of a show. The world won\u2019t end if you email your professor asking for an extension. The world won\u2019t end if you submit a partially incomplete draft. The world won\u2019t end if you hand in your project a day late. You will be okay, life will continue going, and the consequences are very manageable. In the case of school assignments, professors are often very understanding, or you\u2019ll suffer a small late penalty. It\u2019s not the end of the world and grades do not define your self-worth. I find it helpful to remind myself of these things and that something doesn\u2019t need to be perfect, or that it\u2019s okay to ask for help when you\u2019re struggling. Sometimes remembering that it\u2019s not the end of the world makes procrastination easier to overcome because it\u2019s no longer such a big deal. So remember to keep things in perspective regarding your life and what you need to get done. Ultimately, nothing in school will be the end of the world and you will be okay.<\/p>\n These are my 9 tips and tricks for how to overcome and deal with procrastination while in school (especially grad school). I\u2019ve researched ways to deal with procrastination and experimented with so many different suggestions; these are the things that I\u2019ve found to work best. The key is to stay organized, plan, be kind to yourself, and remember that it\u2019s not the end of the world. I\u2019ve been a lot happier with school now that I reward myself for success rather than punishing myself for failure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hi, I\u2019m a serial procrastinator! I have been procrastinating ever since I started school. It\u2019s a lot easier to do in highschool, harder to do in undergrad, but it\u2019s impossible during grad school. Trust me, I\u2019m a seasoned procrastinator and I know what I\u2019m talking about: I wrote full 20-page essays the night before during … [Read more…]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[21,51,52],"class_list":{"0":"entry","1":"post","2":"publish","3":"author-shannon-pearson","4":"post-1006","6":"format-standard","7":"category-student-blog","8":"post_tag-grad-life","9":"post_tag-procrastination","10":"post_tag-tips"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1012,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions\/1012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.mun.ca\/studentblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2018\/11\/IMG_20181116_125104.jpg\")
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