It's safe to say we all procrastinate sometimes, but in my first semester of uni, I found it so easy to always fall into bad habits - putting off work until the last minute and panicking right before deadlines. I changed my ways coming into my second semester, and it definitely paid off! I used a few methods to see this through, and I'm gonna share them with you today!
My first tip is to know exactly what it is that you want to do, or to at least have a rough idea of how you want your day, or afternoon, or morning to go, whatever it may be. Every evening, I'd write down what it was I wanted to accomplish the following day, or I would do it in the morning before school if I wanted to get up and study early, or even after class (our classes were from 8am to 12pm every day!) and I would make the list according to w what we learned that day.
Just choose what works for you! I'd recommend starting off with writing everything out the night before so not too much thought goes into your tasks when the day comes - it'll definitely be easy to procrastinate without a list of tasks right in front of you!
After you've decided what it is you want to do, you should take all of that and break it down into small, manageable tasks. Having a huge to-do list can be very intimidating, but having them broken down into bitesize pieces makes it much easier to tackle.
For example, I could write down that I want to study the first two sections of my comprehension book. I'm much less likely to do that because one section has 5 chapters in it, so to make it easier on myself, my to-do list will actually say:
□ Study Chapter 1
□ Study Chapter 2
and so on. To break it down even further, I would write down something like:
□ Chapter 1
↳ Text 1 Vocab
↳ Text 1 Grammar
↳ Text 2 Vocab
↳ Text 2 Grammar
This small brain trick can really come in handy, especially since studying for 2 sections now seems much more manageable. If you would like to see my post on how to make an effective to-do list, click right here!
My next tip is to always keep your to-do list nearby. I keep my bullet journal on my desk and take it with me if I'm studying outside of the dorm. I also keep a to-do list on my phone if I don't feel like carrying the physical bullet journal with me that day. Point is, always keep something on you that you can use to refer to and more importantly, remind you that you have stuff that needs to get done!
Limiting distractions is something we've all heard before but it's so so important! Cutting out anything that will definitely shift your focus from the task at hand is going to ensure you don't procrastinate.
For me, studying in my room is distracting, so on days where I knew I wouldn't manage, I would go to the study room. My phone is also a distraction but I also have important textbooks on there that I need while I'm studying, so my solution for that was to turn off the wifi completely.
Find what it is that distracts you and either get rid of it completely or change some aspect of it so it won't impact your productivity.
Keeping like-minded people around me was also something super important because whoever you decide to let hang around you will definitely impact your life, whether it's good or bad. I am super grateful the friends that are able to keep me free from distractions and also motivate me to get off my behind and get stuff done.
If you realise your friends are the ones keeping you from being productive, just know that it's absolutely okay to be independent and self-study! Having a discussion with them about this will also help too!
Last but not least, the final tip I have for you is to either completely break or shift your bad habits. For example, after I'd have lunch, I would start feeling like taking a nap. Now, naps aren't a bad thing but I know myself and my naps can last anywhere from 45 minutes to as long as 3 hours (eek!). So, I decided to shift this habit by napping earlier in the afternoon and setting an alarm for only an hour, two hours max if I felt like I really needed it. That way, I would wake up refreshed and ready to get some work done!
A bad habit I know that people do is to start doing chores before getting work done, and while it may seem super productive, tricking yourself to do chores as a way to procrastinate is just as bad! So, do your chores at another time or add them to your daily routine so everything will already be clean and tidy when you're ready to get some work done.
So, those are my tips for avoiding procrastination and getting stuff done! I hope you found this useful and can use some of these tips too.
I'll see you in the next one!
