18 Jul 2017

We all procrastinate. From the assignment we leave to the last minute to studying for the exam we have tomorrow morning- procrastinating is a part of student life. Even when our teachers tell us we won’t be able to do it the night before it’s due (is that a challenge?) we leave assignments and essays until a few hours before.

Inevitably, we have a freak out when we realise we’ll be pulling an all-nighter just to scrape together enough words to meet the minimum limit and promise ourselves next time we’ll start earlier. But next time rolls around and we find ourselves binging on another Netflix series instead of getting cracking on the assessment that’s due. And the cycle repeats. If you’re reading this you’re probably procrastinating, so once you get to the end, go get some shit done.

1. Get rid of your phone

Scrolling through your newsfeed is a great way to avoid doing any productive study. You can tell yourself you’re only going to check your phone quickly and two hours later find yourself weeks deep in some random girl’s Insta feed, being careful not to like something she posted in Year 7. Turn it off, chuck it in a drawer, give it to your mum- whatever you need to do but get your phone away from wherever you’re studying.

2. Block YouTube/Facebook/etc.

Avoid the trap of watching one conspiracy video on Youtube, going down a black hole then finding yourself curled up in a ball five hours later muttering how the government is lying about everything with no study done at all. StayFocused is a good one if you need your laptop to study but know you won’t be able to resist checking in on sites like Facebook. It lets you set timers for how long you can spend on sites then will block you after the time is up- perfect for forcing you to get back to your notes.

3. Break it down

Don’t tell yourself you have to get through six hours of study on Saturday because you have so much work to do. Break it down into manageable chunks so you don’t have a huge monster of a task ahead of you that you keep putting off because it’s too much work.  Start with something easy- like writing the intro to your essay. It doesn’t matter if the writing is shit or not making sense, just get some words down on the page. Once you get through that have a snack, pat yourself on the back then have a crack at the first paragraph.

4. Don’t stop what you’re doing

When you finally sit down to study it’s easy to get distracted by thoughts of all the other shit you need to do. You might get the sudden urge to clean your room or cleanse your wardrobe of the clothes you never wear anymore. You might be able to convince yourself that you need to get those things done before you can study properly but if you get one of these urges- resist at all costs. Instead, scribble whatever you want to do down on a piece of paper and get back to the maths questions you’re working on. You need to get into a study groove so don’t get distracted by other things that pop into your head.

5. Go to school/the library/a classroom

This one works best when you’re surrounded by other people who are actually studying. When you’re at home, it’s easy to get distracted by the latest episode of GoT or take a sneaky nap- no one can see you f*cking around instead of doing work. But, if you head into school or to a study room at your library it’s harder to lounge around and do nothing. At the very least you’ll feel the urge to pretend to study which will hopefully push you to actually get things done.