4 Types of Procrastination and How to Beat Them
Academic life demands students to put up with the excessive workload. Students are assigned multiple writing obligations, assessment exercises, and projects at a time. And although working through this stringent process requires students to be on their toes 24/7, they keep delaying the work to seek temporary escape.
This procrastinating approach does not buy students any favours. Instead, they struggle to produce results at the eleventh hour, which leads to a grade ‘F,’ in their scorecards.
In short, procrastination is a vice that restricts students from fulfilling their academic duties. Thus, students should take active measures to eliminate this practice from their routine.
How to Beat Procrastination?
By definition, procrastination is an act of prioritising the least important tasks over the urgent ones. If you are a procrastinator, then adhere to the tips mentioned below and overcome the destructive habit:
Identify the Reason
Every student has a different reason to procrastinate. Some do it because of the strenuous academic tasks while others are simply bored by the subject. To devise an adequate solution to your problem, you should first identify the main reason why you procrastinate.
You need to assess your behaviour in depth so that you can get to the root of the problem. Since it is easier said than done, you can also take your friend’s assistance in this regard.
Schedule Your Time
According to experts, creating a timetable allows individuals to keep their responsibilities in check. It helps you keep a tab on your work performance and equips you with good time management skills which are beneficial even in the professional field.
Don’t Be Too Hard on Yourself
Remember, it takes time to break free from the hold of procrastination. Thus, you should take small steps, one at a time, to ease yourself into the working process. For this purpose, you can consider splitting the assigned task into small segments. For example, if you have an essay writing to submit shortly, you should break it into the steps of researching, writing, editing, and proofreading. In this manner, you can concentrate on one task at a time and execute it effectively. Since there is not much on the plate, you can keep yourself from procrastinating.
Cut Off Distractions
You should shun distractions from your surroundings after you have identified the cause behind your procrastination. For instance, you can turn off your cell phone or sign out from your social media accounts during the study session. Doing so will not only keep you from procrastinating but will also help you cover the maximum syllabus in a limited time.
Push Yourself
If you want to lead a successful academic life, you need to set challenges for yourself. In this connection, you should set your own stringent deadlines so that you can get done with all your projects before the actual submission date. For instance, if an essay is due in seven days, you can stretch yourself to complete this document within four days and utilise the next three days for other constructive activities.
In case you struggle with self-control, you can also delegate a person to keep an eye on your conduct. In this manner, you can control procrastination from getting the best of you.
Set Rewards
You must reward yourself if you succeed to live up to academia’s expectations. You can consider going out for a stroll, catching up with a friend, or engaging in a similar activity to appreciate your hard work and dedication. Doing so will motivate you to invest more effort and, hence, improve further.
How Many Types of Procrastination Are There?
As previously discussed, various reasons can compel a student to procrastinate. Thus, procrastination has many forms which are briefly discussed below:
Anxious Procrastination
These procrastinators keep so much work on pending that they later become anxious by the workload. They use procrastination as an escape to retrieve their lost mental peace and to calm their nerves. But while they are at it, they lose track of time which makes them incapable of performing their responsibilities effectively.
In short, anxious procrastination stems from overworking and it can be avoided if fun-activities are incorporated into the daily routine. So, if you are an anxious procrastinator, at least assign an hour of your day for leisure activities while dedicating the rest of the time for work. This would create a perfect balance which would mitigate the chances of stress build-up.
Fun Procrastination
“Why should I write this boring essay? I will hire professional assignment writing service to write it for me.” If that’s how your thought process works, you are a fun procrastinator that dreads tough jobs. You procrastinate to buy time so that you can keep yourself from working on a difficult task.
To beat this type of procrastination, you must first let go of all your fears. Next, you should break the assigned task into smaller activities so that you can execute them without intimidating yourself.
Perfectionist Procrastination
These types of procrastinators want everything to be perfect. The fear of failure gets to their head and, in such a situation, it gets challenging for them even to start the working process. Since they are too critical towards their work, they often fail to produce any tangible results until the last minute.
To combat perfectionist procrastination, experts suggest such individuals to ask themselves if their previous submissions were flawless and perfect. If not, then stressing until the last minute is pointless and they should get their job done as soon as possible.
“Plenty of Time” Procrastination
Every student struggles to work on a project that has a longer deadline. This procrastination can be controlled if the student comes up with his own working deadlines. For example, if the project is due in February, the student can push himself to complete the task by January. In this manner, they can keep themselves from falling for the excuse of having “plenty of time” left.
The information mentioned above outlines procrastination, its types, and effective techniques to tackle the habit. By using this knowledge, you can monitor your academic performance to an optimum level. So, why not beat procrastination once and for all? All the best!
