Real Talk: How to Manage Your Procrastination

The first time procrastination didn’t work for me was in my junior year of high school. It was peak COVID, zoom classes, and a hybrid schedule, leaving me with no motivation to do any homework, seeing how distraught and disorganized the whole school became. On the rare occasion that an assignment was due, I pushed it off to the last minute but never actually finished it. But, everything was so crazy that I was let off the hook way more than I probably should’ve been, so nothing about it scared me. When the next school year came though, my grades were slipping dangerously low and my procrastination started threatening my future. I pulled myself together enough to make it here at Arcadia, but my tendency to procrastinate never really went away. I developed better time management but stayed up too late finishing something due in just a few hours. 

While I’m not any kind of psychologist, scientist, or person who could do a TED Talk, I invite you to open your mind as I share a few tips on managing procrastination that are realistic and that you might not have heard of (because I came up with some on my own as an experienced procrastinator).

Notice I said managing procrastination and not eliminating it. For many students, procrastination is inevitable with our busy schedules and desire to take time for ourselves. With that being said, here are my 3 tips for procrastination:

Rewarding yourself with an hour of TikTok or going on a short walk and breaking your concentration after writing half a page of your essay isn’t going to help you. Maybe the Pomodoro method (20 minutes on, 5 minutes off) works best for you, but for me it’s candy.

 you need to sit down and get something done, first run to Lahasa Quickmart or the Chat and grab a bag of candy. Whenever you feel you deserve candy, eat candy. That could be after you write an entire essay, finish 1/2 of a worksheet, or just finish one particularly hard problem. The key is to not make anything too rigid for yourself. If you set an exact point in time when you’re going to get another candy, you’ll just be holding over until that time instead of motivating yourself. Of course, this only works if you choose a candy you like. May I suggest Werther’s chewy caramels—they’re delicious and last a bit longer in your mouth because of the chewiness (they’re so yummy omg they’re so good).

I cannot get anything done in my room. If I have something that I know needs to be done before 4:00 that only takes an hour, I’m dragging myself out of my apartment at 12 p.m. This gives me 4 hours to linger around campus and get bored enough that I’ll eventually find myself in the library and have nothing better to do but study.

Of course, this only works if you are lucky enough to have enough free time to do so, but I’ve found that the more free time I have, the worse my procrastination is. Trick yourself into thinking you have no free time. Sleep in only 2 hours instead of 4 when you can and get up and walk around. Sit in strange places, don’t let yourself get too comfortable so you get sucked into a hole that you’ll only dig yourself deeper into.

This tip I got from a friend has been the most obvious-sounding but most helpful tip I’ve gotten on procrastination. The only problem is it is only applicable very rarely if you’re anything like me.

If you find yourself in a mood that you feel like you’ll be able to get something done, (whether it be homework, chores, or calling someone back) do it RIGHT THEN. If you catch a glimpse of motivation, grip onto it tight and run. You’ll regret it so much if you don’t. It could be just a fleeting moment, so you have to make sure your reaction to it is immediate because your procrastinator brain could forget about it in seconds.

You must have a strong support system of people who want to help you and hold you accountable so that they understand if you see that moment of motivation, sometimes you need to drop everything you’re doing at that moment to get it done.

Please take all this advice I’ve given you with a grain of salt knowing that these tips aren’t going to work for everyone. I’m trying to reach those like me who live by the words “easier said than done” when it comes to generalized advice on something they’ve struggled with their whole academic career.

Happy studying, and above everything, make sure you’re being kind to yourself.