PROCRASTINATE TOMORROW- NOT TODAY

Procrastination is a serious problem and most people don’t know how to work around it. It can affect just about anyone. People’s excuses always go somewhere along the lines of “I’ll do it later” or “I’ve got time tomorrow” or “I have a month for that.” Once one excuse is made it’s hard to get back to work. However, strategies can be used to deal with the problem.

Sometimes students think they’re alone when it comes to this topic but teachers also experience procrastination. “I think everyone procrastinates, and since I am a human, I fall into that category as well,” English Teacher Ms. Cannaday said.

This shows teachers aren’t perfect just like students. We all have our limits so once we see a big assignment we think we just can’t do it we just give up.

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“I do procrastinate. I do it especially with tasks I dislike, like cleaning or grading papers.  I don’t like tasks that are tedious and time consuming so I put them off in favor of things I’d rather do. I guess it happens weekly. I try to recognize it and change my mindset, but it is hard,” English teacher Lesly Zeir said. She is a perfect example of procrastination because she hates it and tries to get out of the cycle but just doesn’t know how to.

There are ways around this according to “The Psychology and Causes of Procrastination by Solving Procrastination” is a very well written article. The article states that a popular method is to split the work into smaller sections and give yourself deadlines. Once you do that, the workload will feel lighter and it’ll just be more refreshing and a lot easier to meet shorter deadlines. You can take this one step further and reward or punish yourself if you miss or meet a deadline. This makes that long scary project a fun game.

Methods to overcome procrastination aren’t one size fits all. People’s brains work differently.

“Procrastination used to be a huge problem but I’ve learned to manage it,” Freshman Hunter Dowdy said. His method to manage it was to get in a good head space and take it all on at once. For some people this’ll just result in low quality work and others might just give up the moment they start. His example is a really good one because it show some people are just different when it comes to procrastination.

Let’s take a step back and look at people who just straight up can’t stand procrastination. For example, “Procrastination is my worst enemy,”  Freshman Veron Blackshire said. For people like that, they have to look at this topic differently and treat it like a game. Instead of separating the assignment into different days, they can do it all in one day. This might sound like a lot or hard work but it’s 100% doable.

Someone can do this by doing it in three parts and giving themselves 1-2 hours in between each part depending on the length of the assignment. It works surprisingly well and all someone has to do is sacrifice one day. Some people prefer this because if they work for a whole day, the time will not only go by faster. It’ll also free up all the other days someone has to do the assignment. This method works best when someone does it as soon as you get the assignment just so it’s fresh in their mind.

There are many benefits to these strategies. People don’t even need to struggle with procrastination to use them. These strategies are just really good ways to get any piece of work done and once someone is in the mindset of doing them, they become muscle memory. Someone can use this technique to help them mow their backyard or to clean their house.The reason it works so well is because you trick your brain into doing small tasks and with enough of these tasks, you’ll end up doing a bigger task such as a school assignment.

The article/study Why You Procrastinate (It Has Nothing to Do With Self-Control) by the New York Times is exactly what the title says.This article is very well written and talks about many things mostly it goes over the fact that you don’t procrastinate because you’re dumb or lazy, you do it because you were never taught to split the work or how to get the right motivation. You can over come this shortcoming in just one week! And the article explains it well because it does not only focus on school it focuses on procrastination and how you experience it a lot more than you think.

Getting over procrastination isn’t just about getting things done sooner or meeting deadline but its about saving time that would be spent stressing over something dumb when you could be doing whatever you want.