Best Ways to Handle Procrastination in College
Eliminate Distractions
Distractions are some of the leading causes of procrastination among college students. You stand very high chances of procrastinating any task you are not focused on. For instance, if you spend too much time on your social media accounts, it is needful to switch them off whenever you are working on your assignments. If television is your biggest distraction, you have to save yourself trouble by studying away from it or switch it off if you are in the room alone. Therefore, it is important to sit down and analyze the distractions you are most vulnerable to and then device practical way of eliminating or avoiding them during your study time.Break Down Large Tasks
The second strategy that will help you to eliminate procrastination is dealing with the bulk of work you handle at a time. When you take a big chunk of work and want to focus on it in one study session, the very size of the projects sends very intimidating messages to your brain. You will receive messages or suggestions like, “This is too big for me to accomplish today…” Of course the obvious escapist question will also arise, “Now, who will do all this job?” With such a mental environment around your studies, you are most vulnerable to procrastination. The biggest problem with this kind of procrastination is that it tells or advises you to postpone the whole assignments including the portions you could have done comfortably had you broken them into manageable pieces.Study in a Conducive Environment
All studying processes are environmental. Therefore, you ought to designate a proper physical environment to allow you study without distractions. One of the most conducive places you can study from is your school library since concentration and silence are guaranteed there. If you are studying from home, you should choose a dedicated room that is free from all human and nonhuman distractions.Detect and Resist Your Little and Fancy Excuses
One of the ugliest sides of procrastination is that it comes encapsulated in very tantalizing, “reasonable-looking,” and convincing excuses. These little reasons sound so sweet that you can easily think anyone who tells you to ignore them does not have your happiness at heart. Therefore, it is necessary to sit and get the most frequent voices that usually convince you to abandon an assignment. When you do this, you will be in a better position to know when you are most vulnerable to procrastinate your assignments. Here are some of those little voices:- I am the most tired student in this college today
- Even tomorrow is still a day
- I am not in the mood
- Why kill myself as if I am guaranteed of getting an A?
- After all, it is not a matter of life and death
- Tomorrow is not the deadline; I can do it then
- I still have some time on my hands
Have a Work Plan
To slay the dragon of procrastination, it is needful to work with a plan because if you don’t, it will be hard to know what you can reasonably and comfortably manage at a time. When this occurs, you will end up postponing tasks that require immediate attention because they are grouped with more other jobs that could have waited.Have a Study Buddy
If you know you have “tested positive” for procrastination, it is beneficial to surround yourself with friends who will act as a buffer for accountability. You can share your need with them, give them your study schedule, and allow them to hold you accountable until you finish every assignment on time without excuses.Now you have the cure for procrastination. We hope you will apply these remedies and obliterate it from your study life in 2018.