Everyone procrastinates, rather than getting on with what we really should be working on, we choose to do something else. Procrastination is not the same as laziness; you can be dead busy but doing the wrong things!
Recognising Procrastination
It's important to recognise when you are procrastinating. Below are some things you may say regularly that can indicate you are procrastinating:
- “I work better under pressure.” University will be full of deadlines, which are useful for organising your time. Ask yourself truthfully if you really work better under that pressure? Or are you forced to do the work nearer to the deadline as you are anxious as the time approaches. Will this really allow you to produce your best work? You need to focus on producing your best work not just getting it done or writing loads of words. What can I do? Not what do I have to do.
- “I'll fail.” Failing is a common fear. It can fuel your decision to put things off. If you are worried, then realistically you need to allow yourself more time to work through the problem or seek support to enable you to produce your best work.
- “There’s loads of time.” You can easily convince yourself to start things at the last minute, after all you can pull an all-nighter? Be mindful that you will have lots of deadlines and assignments to complete, so you need to carefully manage your time and allow yourself time to complete work well. Starting early is important.
Taking lots of breaks (and long breaks)!
This can be a useful tool, but too many will constantly break your concentration and lots of long ones will simply decrease the amount of time you have to complete the work.