In this Wednesday Workout, we will be thinking about tackling procrastination. How do you overcome difficulties with getting started on tasks, staying focussed or finishing them off? There is a lot of overlap between this topic and a previous Wednesday Workout that focussed on perfectionism – so you might also want to go and read that page.
Check out our Tik Tok overview of tackling procrastination below, or read on for more detail.
How do I get on with things and stop wasting time procrastinating?
Everyone procrastinates. That is part of being human. The key is being able to recognise and manage your own procrastination. Different things work for different people, so you might need to try different techniques to see what works for you. But here are some ideas.
1. Don’t be overambitious. You will not study for ten hours straight every day of your Easter break, so don’t write that in your schedule and then feel disappointed when you don’t achieve it. Plan for something more realistic, and you are more likely to stick to it. Perhaps three blocks of two hours might work better.
2. Reward yourself – build in pleasure and relaxation. Your study will be more effective if you allow time for your brain to process all that learning. Your brain processes really well while you are relaxing or distracting yourself with exercise, TV, video games, preparing and eating a healthy and delicious meal, or socialising. Make sure that you build these activities into your schedule. Be strict with your time – don’t get lost in a box set for a whole day, but schedule enjoyable downtime to follow periods of study effort. You will learn better and stay more motivated.
3. If you find you can’t sustain your efforts for long periods of time, make your efforts really short. That might sound counterintuitive, but if your mind wanders before an hour or two of study is complete, you are just wasting valuable time and effort. Instead, try the Pomodoro technique. This is just like interval training in sport. You identify the task you will work on, set a timer for 25 minutes, and then work solidly until the timer rings. You then have a five minute break before resetting. Pick another task, or the next part of the task, reset the timer and put your head down for another 25 minutes. You will find that you will accomplish more in a shorter sustained effort than in a longer distracted effort. So overall, you will be more efficient.
4. Mix up tasks that you find easy or enjoyable with ones that are harder. It is really easy to get lost in study that we find easy or enjoyable and never get to the really hard stuff. Or sometimes we get so bogged down in the harder material that we never have time to study the things that we enjoy. Make sure to mix them up in your schedule so that you get plenty of endorphins and other reward neurochemicals being released from those easier or more enjoyable topics to help us through the harder ones.
5. Study socially – be accountable. Share your study schedule with other students, and have regular meet-ups (in real life or on Zoom/Teams) to share your progress. You can even start a video call, work in silence individually for 30 minutes or an hour, and then share how far you’ve got, test each other and then carry on studying. It is very easy to feel alone and overwhelmed – but there are lots of us doing the same things at the same time, so we can actually use each other to help ourselves study more effectively
Last Updated 3rd October 2023