 |
| Image via Pinterest |
Hi there! According to Charles Dickens, "Procrastination is the thief of time." It sucks the
hours out of your day and you just can’t do anything anymore because you’ve
somehow managed to waste all of your times. We’ve all been guilty of this because,
well, we’re all human, but if it’s a regular occurrence, it can really affect
your overall mood, productivity, and if you’re in school especially, your
grades.
I was never absolutely awful when it came to
procrastination, but I was still pretty bad. In middle school, I would always
spend quite a bit of time after school watching YouTube videos, catching up on
TV, etc, playing guitar for too long and stuff like that instead of getting
right into my homework and getting it over with. That slowly changed so I was
doing it the work with the distractions all around me which obviously made me
rather unproductive. I still managed to get by with high grades because I’d
ended up working really hard and in turn not getting enough sleep, which just
isn’t healthy.
That’s why this year at the start of my high school career,
I decided to change my procrastinating/unproductive ways because it was just
ruining me. Keep reading to see how I did it.
1. Identify the roots
of the problem.
Yes, roots. Plural.
Often, there’s more than one problem that starts it all when it comes to
procrastination. I found that one thing for me was that I wasn’t motivated
enough to start my work. I needed some kind of incentive to get myself going.
Another one was that I really liked putting a video or music
on in the background. I could deal with the background noise pretty well as in
I didn’t let it distract me too much,
but it still distracted me. Distractions, another problem.
 |
| Image via We Heart It |
2. Cut out all
distractions.
Distractions are just the worse when you’re trying to get
some work done. If you know you’re going to get distracted by electronics lying
around like your phone, laptop (if you don’t need it for your work), whatever
it may be, GET RID OF IT. It sounds so simple and it might be hard, but it’s
worth it. Just do yourself a favour and get rid of distractions.
If music helps you concentrate, then keep that. But whatever
you do, don’t lie to yourself and fool yourself into thinking that you actually
need it to work when in reality, you just like listening to music.
If music doesn’t help you concentrate, make sure to cut out
that distraction along with YouTube videos or TV because it’ll only slow you
down and there’ll be a bigger chance of you getting distracted by them (sorry
I’m saying the word “distracted/distractions” so much, I can’t help it) and
forget your work.
2B. Distractions:
don’t go on social media sites.
Seriously though – don’t. They will be the death of you. I
really can’t elaborate on this, sorry.
3. Clean your space.
Having a clean and organised workspace is key to getting
your work done and being productive. If it looks like the aftermath of a
tornado, you’re not going to feel very motivated to sit down and do the work.
Take some time to clean it up and make it look like something that makes you
happy.
It’s also so
important to find a quiet place to do your work. If you’re at home and you
happen to do your work at the same time that your brother is swearing at the TV
whilst playing video games, it might not be the best idea to be near that area
of the house. You catch my drift?
4. Make a to-do list
and/or a schedule.
Once you have those pesky little things, you nearly ready to
get to work. Make a detailed list of what you have to do and make it specific.
Vague tasks like “work on science project” will not get you anywhere. Instead
of that, you could say something like “find research on topics x, y, and z for
science project.” Afterwards, you could make a schedule and allot yourself
enough time to finish all your tasks. Don’t spread yourself too thin and give
yourself too many things to do and too little time. It’ll make you a lot less
motivated, trust me.
 |
| Image via We Heart It |
5. Take
(frequent-ish) breaks.
I’m not someone who takes that many breaks whilst working
because I don’t get that bothered by working for hours on end, but if you know
you’re someone who can’t do that, be sure to give yourself a short break every once in a while, so every half hour or hour or
so, so that you can refuel to have enough energy to keep going.
Do you procrastinate? If so, how badly? If you have in the
past, how did you manage to get over it? Share your stories below!
Thank you so much for reading!
- J
No comments:
Post a Comment