Take this quiz to find out if you-or any students in your family-need to get serious about overcoming procrastination:
- Do you put off assignments until the last possible hour because you like to think of yourself as the type of person who works best under pressure?
- Do you write down your priorities before you start projects? Do many things seem unimportant when you look at them in the light of these priorities?
- Do you ask yourself which of several tasks is the most important one before you rush into an assignment?
- Do you concentrate on finishing an assignment when you're in danger of missing a deadline, rather than complaining that you never have enough time to get your work done?
- Do you make sure your friends know when not to disturb you?
- Do you turn off the TV and your phone when you need to work on an important assignment? Do you concentrate completely on what you're doing now, rather than dwelling on what you did in the past?
- When you've done the best you can, are you content to wrap up a project and hand it in as it is?-Do you generally make good estimates of how much time it will take to finish an assignment?
If you answered "no" to any of the above questions but the first one (I hope you answered "no" to that one), you can develop better study habits by getting serious about procrastination. Try doing the hardest assignments first. Sandwich a difficult assignment between two of your favorite ones.
Most students dread writing assignments, putting them off to the last possible minute. Writing is one of the most important skills a student can develop. Here are some tips from great writers that can help you conquer the procrastination monster:
- Winston Churchill wrote about 5 million words in his lifetime. That's the equivalent of ten thousand 500-word articles, so he must have enjoyed writing very much. And he wrote well-well enough to win a Nobel Prize for literature. Churchill once said: "When you're going through Hell, keep going." To paraphrase that advice for all students struggling with a writing assignment: When you don't know what to write, keep writing.
- Don't be a bleeder. (Journalists who agonize over every word they write are known in their profession as "bleeders.") The faster you write, the more you'll enjoy writing. Jack London, one of my favorite writers when I was a student, said that "you can't wait for inspiration; you have to go after it with a club."
- Another Nobel Prize Laureate, John Steinbeck, said: "Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on." In other words, rewriting before you finish a first draft is an excuse for procrastination.
Enthusiasm is what makes the difference between reaching our goals and giving up before we get started. Thomas Edison said, "If the only thing we leave our kids is the quality of enthusiasm, we will have given them an estate of incalculable value." Edison's research laboratory burned to the ground when he was 67. As the fire consumed his world-famous "invention factory," Edison told his children, "Kids, go get your mother. She'll never see another fire like this one." Edison knew that enthusiasm is the best antidote for tragedy, and it's the most powerful weapon to use in the war against procrastination.
I have learned that my level of enthusiasm has nothing to do with my feelings; my feelings wake up on a different side of the bed every day. To take control of my life, I must choose the way I feel-I can't let my feelings control me. Can you talk yourself into a positive frame of mind when you're discouraged? How do you keep yourself motivated? How do you stay focused when a job is tedious? How do you handle failure when your plan isn't going well?
- Stay away from negative people. Attitudes are contagious-negative people infect us with negative attitudes. Associate with positive thinkers; their self-confidence is contagious, too.
- Schedule difficult tasks for the time of day when your energy is highest. If you haven't determined the best time for you to tackle the day's least appealing jobs, try doing them as early as possible.
- Tackle a problem that's been a thorn in your side. When you get in the habit of making things happen, your enthusiasm goes through the roof. Inactivity is a major cause of depression and anxiety. (On the other hand, you can increase your energy level without eliminating other forces that cause procrastination; teenagers are particularly adept at expending enormous amounts of energy without getting anything done. Always remember that any technique is only effective when used as part of a total strategy.)
When you breeze through a task with particular ease and competence, make a note of the time of day. And ask yourself what other factors might have contributed to making you more productive. When you start to discover a pattern, you will have found how to operate at a higher level every day. And when you identify the time of day when you are usually most efficient, schedule some of your least enjoyable tasks for that time.
We must continue to learn new things as if we were going to live forever, while living each day as if it were the last. Telling myself that "Today is the first day of the rest of my life" doesn't work for me. If today were the last day of my life, how would I live it? That is the question I ask myself when I must fight against the forces of procrastination.
Always remember that enthusiasm is a choice. Mark Twain said, "Do something every day that you don't want to do; this is the golden rule for acquiring the habit of doing your duty without pain."
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