It’s 10 PM on a Sunday and you finally decide to open your laptop and start your homework. You click open your email see your inbox is filled with emails from your teacher with assignments that you forgot about. You realize your math project is due tomorrow first period, that one biology test that you forgot about is also tomorrow, and you have three assignments that are due at 11:59 PM. Panic sets in. Eventually, you end up drinking 3 cans of energy drink and rushing through your work. You wake up sleep deprived and barely get through your biology test.
How did this happen? You procrastinated. The truth is that procrastination is no breeze. As a procrastinator, it can be very hard to stay on top of your assignments. Here are two tips that can save you the struggle and help you stay afloat this year.
The first thing you should do to avoid procrastination is to make sure that your workspace is clear of distractions. Having things that could easily make you stray from your work, like your phone, can easily make you think, “oh I can do this later.” With a workspace that is free of distractions, you can catch up with your work more efficiently. When you don’t have your phone lying around, you can finally focus on that one essay that you haven’t completed or that one math homework that is due tomorrow. Clearing your space of distractions also allows you to see everything you have on your table. You could have a math worksheet buried beneath all those papers of doodles and you would never know it.
Another very important thing to do is to have a schedule or a to-do list. When you have many assignments, it can be very hard or even impossible to memorize every single thing you have to do within a week. It is easy to procrastinate when you don’t know when your assignments are due. You don’t even need a fancy calendar, you can just write down everything you have to do on a piece of paper and keep that paper where you can always see it. These lists and calendars can remind you of the things you have to do so you don’t procrastinate.
Following these steps can help you go from having five assignments pending on Sunday night to being able to sleep peacefully knowing that you finished all your work. By implementing this advice, you can excel academically and also learn valuable skills for the future. Keep in mind that procrastination is a very common problem that many people fall into, and that’s okay. If you try your hardest and put in effort though, you can surpass the need for delaying your work.
As Benjamin Franklin said, “You may delay, but time will not.”
