Tips and Tricks to End Procrastination

This article was written by our writing leader Jaidyn. Get to know our Summer 2018 Leaders here!

Let’s be honest, everybody deals with procrastination. For some people, it is not that big of a problem. For others, however, it can be a huge problem. Procrastination is where you put something off for as long as you can. Whether it be a homework assignment or a very important essay, the words “I’ll do it later” always come to mind. This can cause some problems though. Not only are you giving yourself less time to work on the activity, you’re also adding more stress to your life. Don’t worry though, there are some ways to help ease out of the habit of procrastinating.

First things first, let’s talk about all the problems that are caused by procrastinating. When you push your work back, it is only giving you less time to do it. If you have a week to complete something, but you wait until the last day, you now have to do 7 days of work in one day. This will cause you to stress out about it and not give 100%. Stress is not good. It’s bad for your mental health and even your physical health. Any stress is bad, but when you add unneeded stress, nothing good is going to come from it.

There are a few tricks that can help you stop procrastinating. Not all of them may work for you, or there is another method that is not listed that does work for you. Find the one that benefits you the most, and stick with that.

Rewards

A good way to not procrastinate and get your work done is give yourself a treat for every milestone. This could be a small piece of candy after every chapter in a book. A 5 minute break after every paragraph you write. Any small reward that will help you stay motivated and focused is fine.

Break to Work Ratios

Finding the perfect ratio between doing work and taking a break can be hard. You want to give yourself enough time to get a good amount of work done, but not too much so that you want to quit. The same goes for your break. You want enough time to relax, but not too much to where you don’t want to do your work again.

Consequences

A good way to really make sure you don’t procrastinate is telling yourself what will happen if you do. If you do your work the day you get it, you won’t have to worry about it later. You will have more time to relax after you get it done, AND you eliminate the unwanted stress.

Love What You’re Doing

If you have the option, pick a project that you love doing. If you love what you’re doing, you’ll want to do it. If you aren’t able to change what you need to do, find a way to make it fun! Change picking up laundry to playing basketball. Change taking the trash out to a spy mission. Do whatever will help you want to do your job.

Procrastination is a common problem. It leads to many problems and it can be hard to break the habit. Hopefully some of these hacks will help you. Just remember: don’t procrastinate on ending your procrastination habits.

How do you combat procrastination? Comment below!

If you would like more advice on how to quit procrastinating, check out this TED talk.

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