Beat Procrastination: How to Overcome Waiting Until the Last Minute

We all know the feeling of having a semester to complete a paper, and starting it at 9 pm the night before. Whether it's bad study habits you built pre-college, being distracted by your social life or just plain forgetfulness, procrastination can increase your stress level and impact your ability to be successful as a student. Scientists have found lots of reasons why our brains favor procrastination, and the good news is there are lots of things we can do to break this destructive pattern. While breaking this habit can be challenging and definitely takes some effort, it is often as simple as trying out some new routines and tactics to kick your brain into gear.

1.     Break it down into bite-size chunks

Thinking about writing a ten-page thesis can seem like an insurmountable task, which can be enough to overwhelm you and leave you reaching for your instagram feed to cope.  However, starting a title page, finding 2 references, or making an outline might be something you can manage. Make a list of the individual components that need to be done in order to compose the whole and start chipping away at your list starting with the easiest and smallest tasks. By getting something small done and crossing it off your list, you will build your confidence and gain some momentum by the time you get to the larger and more challenging parts.

2.     Give yourself deadlines

Rather than relying on yourself to have the time management skills to break up a huge project, give yourself smaller deadlines for pieces of the project. Not only does this give you more time and energy to focus on the smaller pieces, making it seem more doable, but this also helps you build your confidence which is an important antidote to procrastination.

3.     Acknowledge your emotional responses

Procrastination can often crop up because of an emotional reaction such as feeling inadequate or struggling with a fear that your end product won't be good enough. In that moment it can feel easier to avoid to task that to face that feeling. In this case, a little mindful self-awareness can go a long way. Try asking yourself what emotion is underlying your procrastination and acknowledge it. Once you are aware of the reaction you can choose to handle it in whatever way fits for you, whether it's reminding yourself of past successes, or choosing some positive self- talk to reassure yourself. Even if it doesn't go away, separating yourself from the emotion and naming it is half the battle and can free up your mind to continue moving forward.

4.     Throw perfection out the window.

If perfectionism is getting in your way of getting started, then begin a task by aiming for mediocre quality work. Allowing yourself to get rid of those unattainable expectations can give you the room to get started. Once you have gotten started and released the perfectionism, you can always continue to work and tweak to improve the quality.

5.     Use a 15-minute timer.

Part of the reason procrastination is so easy to succumb to is that deadlines help us get things done. Once the clock is ticking, the pressure is enough to help us put pen to paper and start getting some things accomplished. You can mimic this pressure for yourself by setting a timer on your phone for 15 minutes and making an agreement with yourself to work for just that 15 minutes. Once the timer is up, you can either choose to give yourself a break until your next timer session or expand the work session if you are on a roll.

 College is an essential time to build the habits that will carry you through the rest of your adult life, and there is no time like the present to break your procrastination habit before it causes you serious consequences. Investing the time now to build healthy work habits and time management skills will pay in dividends for the rest of your life. Everyone's procrastination is driven by different things, so mix up your work routine and try one or all of these to see how it affects your workflow.

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