Procrastination itself is such a long word for lazy people that it is not even read rather just understood in the mind. But it is truly the serial killer of academic life. From postponing important assignments until the deadline, to leaving notes completion and research work until ‘tomorrow’, all such activities contribute to becoming a major procrastinator.
All students, no matter which field they belong to, or are part-time workers or are part-time studying, rely on delaying their study work, for instance, assignments, research, reading, writing etc. Although everything and many things are sometimes more important than your studies, it really helps if you manage time effectively and avoid wasting it.
Some ways that could help you beat procrastination include keeping small stick-notes with you and writing the important stuff on them. You can them put these everywhere in your room, on your laptop, on your table, in your kitchen, in your office and wherever you mostly spend your time, (even if it’s the bathroom). This way you will be reminded of your reading, essay writing, research work every now and then. It would be like some ‘annoying orange‘ that will constantly repeat that you have work to do until you actually sit down and do it.
Another very useful way to avoid procrastinating is to set up a daily timetable. You will have to follow the timetable and not waste even a single minute out of the time that you have allocated for studying. And for this, we all have smartphones, smarter than us, which provide you with many amazing applications to design a timetable with alarms and reminders. Some of the best which I personally have used include My Study Life, StudyBlue, and Evernote. However other than these, we all have calendars in our phones which can be use very efficiently if we set up reminders and tasks.
You can use the most famous Dropbox too for accessing your study material anywhere you want. So next time around if you’re alone at a coffee shop, open up your material through Dropbox on your phone and go through your books, notes or papers.
So these things will help you NOT waste time and delay your important study work. You should be very careful about what your habits are as once you become a procrastinator, it becomes very difficult to pull yourself out of this escape phenomenon.
All the best to all the working students, the mothers, and part-time working students who are studying through the University of London International Programmes.
-Sundus
Sundus is studying for the BSc Sociology in Pakistan with support from Roots College International. The BSc Sociology is not available to new students from 2014, however you can still study for a Diploma for Graduates in Sociology.
It’s tough being a student and I think that there is something more potent to deal with procrastination in this context and that is inspiration. This is gives a person a mission and motivation to act now. Universities need to invite more iconic people to give talks and inspire students.
I did a coursera mooc over the summer led by an expert called Dr Barbara Oakley. A cool trick she recommended to help avoid procrastinating, is to do the thing you keep putting off, ffor 25 mins, with you total attention, and set a reward for yourself at the end. She said people tend to put off difficult tasks, but you would be amazed how easy the set limit of 25 mins can help you achieve on a particular task. It has been working for me, and im a legendary procrastinator!!!