[Discussion] How do you deal with procrastination?

[Callypigia]

I just don't worry about it. It is what it is, and things will happen eventually. To quote John Lennon:

"Everybody seems to think I'm lazy
I don't mind, I think they're crazy.
Running everywhere at such a speed
Till they find there's no need."

 

[Illuminater]

Turn off all your electronics and start working for once.

 

[Bihari]

Pee on it to show dominance

 

[Trúth]

I don't, I've accepted that I'm a lazy person and that my best work is when I've waited until the last minute anyway.

 

[Bimbonium]

I guess it dissappears with time, by my 3rd year in the university I had become rather time conscious. Now I don't even have a choice.

 

[Hachiman]

Engage yourself in some activities outside and less on internet

 

[Rohan]

I've dealt with this issue for quite some time, and I would like to hear how others deal with this. I had a giant problem with it during high school, rather than doing my work or studying, I would look up random things on the internet, watch YouTube videos, read Manga, and other non important things until the last minute.

Even now I struggle with it despite it mainly being a first world problem. I'm curious if anyone else has the same issue, and if so, how do you deal with it? I'm going to start College this year and I'm really determined to start a good term. However I'm really anxious with even more free control on my hands, and the lack of parental guidance that I usually had when living with my parents.

Thanks for the advice in advance.

Go outside and study. You can study with friends or in a park. If you study indoors you will be in a restricted enviroment which leads to fall in intrest, boredom and then procrastination.

Be active. For this you should do morning walks, exercising, interacting with friends, etc. Activity keeps your mind and body dynamic which basically stops procrastination. An active man would rarely be lazy.

Take the computer and laptops as a bane and stop using them altogether. They detach you from the real world and make you an inactive shell. And Inactivity is the seed of procrastination. A good solution would be to browse the internet and play games on mobile phones initially and slowly get off it as well (This prevents relapses).

So, Refrain from staying in restricted periods for long periods of time (Eating, Sleeping, Bathing and daily activities are exceptions), interact with friends and other people in real time, adopt a healthy and active lifestyle and see the internet and the computer as a bane. Do this and Procrastination will be taking an extended vacation from your being. kun:

A change in lifestyle comes first, then a change in mindset should follow (The advice on how to change your mindset has been given brilliantly already by the above people). If you change your mindset and not your lifestyle, then your mind will cave in and you will be back to square one.

 

[lndra]

I think I quoted everyone..

Spoiler

I just listen to music.

I embrace it.

It was a big issue for me in college and in the first year of Uni. XD Nowadays, I only procrastinate if I already know the topics inside and out...in Uni, you can't afford to it. One lecture you missed and a big chunk of your mark goes.

college will definitely teach you time management. before i dropped out i noticed it in myself and other students i talked to on campus. you just have to retrain your behavior and for a lot of people paying so much to be there bring the change

"Work Hard, Play Harder"​

you had to have heard that classic saying because its true. set apart a time to work on what needs to be done and a time to do the things you like to do. i can still procrastinate dont get me wrong but for the most part i try to get whatever work out of the way, so i dont have to worry about it later

It took a change in how i mentally saw things, high school was forced so procrastination was easy, plus I was a good test taker so I had no problems. But we CHOOSE to pursue higher education(usually). Once you hit a bad grade or what not due to procrastination I think it'll fix itself, it's different when your the one paying to go lol not really advice just personal experience

Hope this helps

Spoiler

[video=youtube;ZXsQAXx_ao0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXsQAXx_ao0[/video]

Nah seriously it can crush you, just have to make sure you motivate yourself. Make a decision to be successful (in a class for example) and then just set small study session goals each day, and eventually it will become habitual.

Simple: Keep doing it until you're left with no choice but to stop procrastinating. I learned that the hard way but it overall improved my life after I ****ed it over doggy-style by procrastinating in the first place.

I am literally 90% 'do it now", 5%" do it later", and 15% "oh shit i forgot"

The firststep (getting started) is the hardest. One solution is getting yourself energetic (for me, listening to music) as well as constantly reminding yourself of risk/reward for weather or not you do it. Get a job that requires up and about physical work (something that takes genuine physical effort) and take it as seriously as you can (even if it's more than it really is) to feel motivated & self-rewarding. Did that after College & it worked like a charm.

just motivate yourself. I have a problem with it sometimes but it usually works out for me depending on the problem. Im my years at HS if I had like an important assignment I get motivated so I won't get a bad grade. Basically think about the consequences if you don't do it if it becomes too late.

I don't. I just hope it doesn't ruin me.

Helps that the school system here sucks, so I never had problems despite never studying.

In general I've found only one strategy to be effective at consistently dealing with this - make your goals less susceptible to procrastination, that is, make them more 'in the present' and more concrete.

So for example when I was studying I found goals like "I'm going to thoroughly understand the calculus of variations this week by completing that chapter on my textbook" nearly impossible to attempt without procrastinating. The problem with those sort of goals is that they're too vague, broad and have too big a time-frame to be done in.

Whereas goals like "I'm going to study for 4 hours today regardless of how much class material I cover" were a lot easier to approach in the first place, even if I couldn't quite finish them (e.g. I'd often only get 2-3 hours of studying done even though I intended to do 4).

Later on I would find by far the best strategy to tackle procrastination when studying - what various writers on this subject have called "focus bursts."

I would do the following: open my textbook or lecture notes or whatever (turn distractions like the internet off - unplug the router if you can etc) and then study with a stopwatch (use your phone).

I'd then concentrate intensely on the work until my stopwatch recorded 20 minutes (it is a well established fact that the natural attention span of most adults is about 20 minutes) after which I'd pause the stopwatch and take a few minutes break. This is the 'focus burst.'

Rinse and repeat.

Over the 2 years or so of studying with this method I've noted that the time you record on your stopwatch - the 'focus burst' time - tends to not reflect the time people think they are actually working or studying in the real world. Work in the real world unsurprisingly turns out to be highly inefficient.

Depending on your motivation, mood etc the efficiency of the burst can vary but I've found that on average it is about 66% - so if you record 2 hours on your stopwatch this means that you've done 3 hours of 'real world' studying, i.e. 3 hours of what other people would consider to be serious studying. So don't worry about recording too many hours on your stopwatch.

Easy, i feed it :| I currently have a demo that i am supposed to be working with someone else on, and thanks to my slowing around i just finished the script today. I am supposed to be test driving it right now, but instead i decided to stop by NB

Ooooh yes, that's a big problem to me as well. It got way worse after I finished school to be honest. In school, I never really studied and still managed somehow to pass all exams that I needed. Not because I'm smart, simply because I was unbelievably lucky.

And now, with all the freedom, I'm a complete mess and delay any important thing as long as I possibly can. >.>

Yep, I had the same problem yet I always came through with my studies.

First of all the word procrastination makes you think in the wrong way, let's call it what it is. Resistance, when you want to do a certain thing you feel resistance towards, you end up needing to exert alot of mental effort and concentration to stick with that task for any length of time.

The reason for this is because you have extrinsic motivation to study, meaning you want to do it to get good grades(seek reward) and avoid pain(not fail your grades). When you have extrinsic motivation, you only think about the event, the end result, meaning you have no interest in the process.

The problem happens when the struggle of the process is as strong or stronger than the reward.

So what does this all mean?

You need to change how you look at school and studies, you must create intrinsic motivation, meaning you need to develop genuine interest and curiosity for the subject of study. It also means you train yourself to enjoy the process.

The process is the goal, anytime you learn or do something, there is still more to be done. There is never an end so make sure you understand that even if you get your studies done once, you'll still need to do more and yet more untill you graduate.


In short
-You have extrinsic motivation
-You don't like studying
-Humans move toward pleasure and away from pain
-The pain of the process(studying) is equal to or stronger than the reward(good grades)
-Change it by becoming intrinsically motivated
-Like the process to empower yourself, it is never-ending.

Liking something pulls you towards it so if you need to push yourself, something is wrong.

Good luck.

Once a procrastinator, always a procrastinator.

I just don't worry about it. It is what it is, and things will happen eventually. To quote John Lennon:

"Everybody seems to think I'm lazy
I don't mind, I think they're crazy.
Running everywhere at such a speed
Till they find there's no need."

Turn off all your electronics and start working for once.

Engage yourself in some activities outside and less on internet

Go outside and study. You can study with friends or in a park. If you study indoors you will be in a restricted enviroment which leads to fall in intrest, boredom and then procrastination.

Be active. For this you should do morning walks, exercising, interacting with friends, etc. Activity keeps your mind and body dynamic which basically stops procrastination. An active man would rarely be lazy.

Take the computer and laptops as a bane and stop using them altogether. They detach you from the real world and make you an inactive shell. And Inactivity is the seed of procrastination. A good solution would be to browse the internet and play games on mobile phones initially and slowly get off it as well (This prevents relapses).

So, Refrain from staying in restricted periods for long periods of time (Eating, Sleeping, Bathing and daily activities are exceptions), interact with friends and other people in real time, adopt a healthy and active lifestyle and see the internet and the computer as a bane. Do this and Procrastination will be taking an extended vacation from your being. kun:

A change in lifestyle comes first, then a change in mindset should follow (The advice on how to change your mindset has been given brilliantly already by the above people). If you change your mindset and not your lifestyle, then your mind will cave in and you will be back to square one.

Thank you for the advice. I've taken most of these to heart - Will definitely implement these tips for my procostination

 

[Wabbit]

i dont know. I had 2 months to prepare for supplementary maths exam and barely a week left now and I still cant

 

[HashiraMadara]

It was a big issue for me in college and in the first year of Uni. XD Nowadays, I only procrastinate if I already know the topics inside and out...in Uni, you can't afford to it. One lecture you missed and a big chunk of your mark goes.

I am doing it now at work , I was doing it in primary school-high school and university as well. Even now in my post grads I haven't opened my second semester guild lines yet I have a scope presentation next week

 

[~Ethereal~]

I am doing it now at work , I was doing it in primary school-high school and university as well. Even now in my post grads I haven't opened my second semester guild lines yet I have a scope presentation next week

Lol, I would go mad if I don't study 2 months prior to the exams.

 

[HashiraMadara]

Lol, I would go mad if I don't study 2 months prior to the exams.

I always "study" the 2 days before exams(over estimating my intelligence) only to realise it's too late. Then the "fu*k it" moment happens where I write the whole thing with educated guesses and prior knowledge

 

[JENchuuriki]

I struggle with that too! These strategies works for me:

I have a note/checklist of to-do list, listed are the things I have to do for the day and that the most important things are on the top - when I completed it one by one I'll just have to tick them off. It feels good when you look at your list and have done most of it.

Actually, it's really a battle with yourself. Your willpower controls your mind and you have to be stronger enough not to give in to temptations/distractions.

The effective way is that you have to view your task as a mission that has to be accomplished and you'll get to reward yourself with leisure time.

 

[Don Drama]

I've dealt with this issue for quite some time, and I would like to hear how others deal with this. I had a giant problem with it during high school, rather than doing my work or studying, I would look up random things on the internet, watch YouTube videos, read Manga, and other non important things until the last minute.

Even now I struggle with it despite it mainly being a first world problem. I'm curious if anyone else has the same issue, and if so, how do you deal with it? I'm going to start College this year and I'm really determined to start a good term. However I'm really anxious with even more free control on my hands, and the lack of parental guidance that I usually had when living with my parents.

Thanks for the advice in advance.

It's called time management. Be systematic by putting priority on the bucket list. Always remember that you will reap what you sow.