Study Prof

Putting things off is the average student’s modus operandi. But you aren’t average! You know that procrastination leads to stress, zits, and sub-par results. Here are seven easy ways to stop procrastination.

1. Imagine completion - This is my personal favorite! First I imagine just how stressed I’ll be if I put the task off. I imagine that undone item gnawing away at me damping my enjoyment of life. Then I see myself completing the job and I try to fully feel the sense of relief and satisfaction that I’ll have. Seems almost too easy, but five or ten seconds of careful imagining often gets me off my duff and into the task.
2. Slice and dice – How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. When my children were three or four years old, I began teaching them how to clean up their room. If I ushered them into a room that could be declared a national disaster area and said, “clean it up,” I would get whining, crying, and a defeated and downcast child. But if I divided the same job into bite size tasks–”Let’s pick up all the red legos first”–the job was easy. Now I use the same trick on myself. I hate running so I make deals with myself. “Alright self, all you have to do is get your running shoes on and go stand on the street corner for one minute.” By the time I’ve done that, I feel like a might as well run. “Just to the end of the block.” Once I’m there, I’ll make another deal with myself. Bonus: Take-5 Technique – Commit to working on that dreaded task for five minutes. Actually set a timer. You can keep going once the timer goes off if you like, but you can also feel free to stop at that point. Works like a charm for me.

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