Procrastination

Don't procrastinate! How many of us really know what procrastinate means? To me, it means simply to put off or to forget. Just leave it to the last minute, you have plenty of time. I've heard my parents tell me many times not to procrastinate, yet I continue to put things off until I am stuck in a blind rush to get it finished. So why do we procrastinate? For me it isn't that I don't want to do the work, because I know that it must be done and I have every intention of finishing it, but I get distracted very easily. I do all the planning but spend so much time on the planning, thinking that if the planning is perfect the resulting product will be too, that I procrastinate on making the essay or project into the masterpiece it should be. So how do you stop procrastinating? That's all a matter of perception. When you get a project, don't shove it to the back of your mind, start planning as soon as you get the instructions. If you start working on it right away, your mind will get into that working mode where you try and get things done all in one try. You won't get to that final good copy if you don't start working on it right away, I know from experience. Another tip is to set aside some specific days or times to work on it and remove yourself from distractions. For someone who enjoys networking and surfing Youtube, I know how hard it is to cut off the distractions, but it is possible. If you find yourself on Youtube getting distracted, create a playlist and let it play through while you work, music helps relax and if you are relaxed you may be more likely to do a good job. If music makes you want to dance however, turn all sound off so you don't get that distracting urge to bust out your moves. Is it Facebook that has you distracted? It distracts everyone, but the key is to know your limits. Fifteen to twenty minutes of Facebook time, and than close the browser, re-open it when you are finished with your work. Is is people talking to you through MSN or Yahoo? An easy way to fix that is to not even sign in because once you start talking, you may not want to stop. To effectively stop yourself from procrastinating first find out what is distracting you and work around that, eliminate that distraction from your work time. Another thing, figure out why you leave it to the last minute. Do you like the rush? Were you busy? Put aside time to work on the project and go through with that schedule. Treat it as work, because that's what it is. Would you willingly show up late for work and than not do anything? Probably not because you'd get fired. Well if you don't do any work on your project and throw it all together in a short amount of time, you are likely to get a failing grade. Train yourself to have effective work habits, something I need to work on as well. Just this week i was rushing to finish a twenty-five minute presentation as well as an eight page essay. I had a month to work on it, but I procrastinated until there was only a week left. Don't follow my mistakes, follow my advice. It is advice that I myself have trouble following, but I know it works because there are rare times when I have worked against my not-so-great working habits and those times result in very good grades.