Managing Your Procrastination
You are not being lazy, you are just doing that and not this!
“Damn, I was supposed to do that yesterday”, “ You were supposed to do that last Friday”, “ Are you saying it got delayed by 2 days” !
Do these sound familiar! You sit down with an important task and end up completing other tasks such as taking your dog for a walk, doing laundry, reading an article, messaging your friends or daydreaming. Procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something. The word has origin from the Latin procrastinatus, which itself evolved from the prefix pro-, meaning “forward,” and crastinus, meaning “of tomorrow.” It is common at some point in time to procrastinate which is mysterious strong force, which keeps you away from completing the task.
There are many studies published which correlate the impact of procrastination, emotions and stress levels on high school and university students. This is an alarming issue considering the performance of students causing them to perform poorly in their classes which in turn leads to higher stress, illness and of course bad grades by the end of their term.
Procrastination is a bad habit like gambling, overeating when in excess only harms the well-being of students. The causes for procrastination are plenty but mainly seem to be low self-confidence, low motivation, poor decision, management and organizational skills. The catch is opportunities come and go, but procrastinating on a decision could just change the course or fate of the students. Procrastination captures the fears and locks up the motivation in students who develop a self-defeating pattern for which a heavy price is paid.
Students, if you are procrastinating, PLEASE STOP and FOLLOW THESE STRATEGIES
1. Do one thing at a time.
2. Ask someone to follow up on you.
3. Do not worry about judgements passed by others.
4. Make to do list which is achievable and start with tasks, which interest you.
5. Stay away from Interruptions such as mobile phones, social media and electronic gaming devices.
6. Master your schedule and timetable.
7. Reward yourself with small goals as you achieve the decided tasks.
8. If you find a task to be difficult, try to do in early morning or mid-afternoon, as our brains are more active during that phase.
Just Remember, Procrastination is the foe of Productivity and it’s better to achieve something right now than tomorrow, who knows what’s there in store for you!
