Help Me Study By Overcoming Procrastination

By Lachlan Haynes


If you love to procrastinate then these are four words you will be very familiar with: "I'll do it tomorrow." While it's true these four words may actually comfort you as you say them to yourself- knowing full well that a critical assignment date draws closer or your bedroom becomes messier and messier or you have precious little time left to study for that important exam - they also create a major problem. A major problem that could warp into a major meltdown! And major meltdowns are never pretty. They normally end in us slumping to the ground in agony screeching like the wicked witch from the Wizard of Oz, "what a world, what a world, what a world" or in the case of the scarecrow, "If I only had a brain!"

The good news is you probably do have a brain after all! What a relief. The big problem is, however, that while the words "I'll do it tomorrow" may comfort you and give you a sense of relief that everything be will be OK or a hope about what tomorrow may bring, they are also the bane of your entire existence! They torture you. They tease you. They make you think that when you wake up in the morning you will be super-motivated and super-pumped to tackle a task that yesterday seemed completely impossible. But not today! Today (being tomorrow) you know all the answers and have all the confidence in the world and all the obstacles that stopped you from starting the task yesterday are now gone aren't they? Well aren't they? Unfortunately the answer is no, because nothing at all has changed! Everything is the same. Except that today is the day! Things are going to happen! Angels are going to fly! The earth is going to shake! OK well maybe not, but you are going to do some work you have been putting off anyway.

So Many Lies

Tomorrow comes and tomorrow goes and you just keep thinking, "Well maybe tomorrow I will do the work!" One day makes no difference anyway does it? Each day you face the same dilemma and each day you make a decision that tomorrow is the best option.

We're not here to tell you that these excuses are necessarily complete untruths but if these phrases are familiar to you then you might just be a serial procrastinator. You probably tend to spend a lot of time convincing yourself of these lies and ultimately you will most likely believe them to be totally true. The major problem with this approach is that it will ultimately bring no long-term satisfaction to you at all. In the short term you are off the hook but the list of tasks you need to complete gets very long and you start feeling very unhappy. Sound familiar? If you do tell yourself these things, stop it immediately! You are just lying to yourself. Stop the lies and accept the truth. Find the real reason for your procrastination.

Find A Solution

On objective reflection, this is a horrible approach to anything in life, particularly your studies. Worse still, you will get found out if you try to continue this behavior after high school because University and College (and life in general) takes no prisoners when it comes to last-minute work. Do it at your own risk - you will (no doubt about it) pay the price. Believe me, we know. We've been there. Learn from us. So, what can you do about it?

Instead, just take a moment and think about it. Think about what the payoff is for you. Think about what it is that reinforces why you should procrastinate. There has to be a payoff. No-one does anything they don't want to do without a payoff being involved. So what's yours? Is it because you don't like being told what to do? It is because you want to be in control - even if that means failing? Is it because you fear what your friends will think if you get your work done and act like a good student? Is it because you think it will be too hard? Is it because you don't know where to start and are hoping someone will help you? What is making you believe procrastinating is a desirable action? Think hard here. What could it be?




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