<p>I'm a sophomore in my major and I should have this down pat by now but the thing is, I have trouble sticking to one task for long or I just avoid the task all together by finding ways to procrastinate. I am a perfectionist and I think one of the reasons I procrastinate is because I love the time crunch. It motivates me and if my work isn't perfect then I have an excuse and avoid my debilitating perfectionist mindset. </p>
<p>I really want to do well, my classes are hard and I need to break this habit? Any suggestions? What do you do to avoid procrastination?</p>
<p>To be quite honest, thats just how some people work. I usually do like 90% of my studying/homework the night before the test/it is due and it pretty much has worked for me. Some people just work better under pressure.</p>
<p>I am the same way. Everything I do has to be perfect, and I always put things off until the last minute because I either don’t think I have any good ideas or I want to mess around. The time crunch certainly helps as well to produce lots of ideas, but I really want to stop procrastinating as well. I basically do 85% of my homework in the morning, and hardly study for any tests, but so far it’s been working out for me ( no idea how). I have 100% + in all my classes, (except for my health class, I missed one on a quiz and now it’s annoyingly at 99.83% or something like that) it’s probably because my school is easy. It’s just the way I do things, and sometimes it works out for you.</p>
<p>I keep myself from doing something until it’s done or give myself little rewards as I go along. Like, I’ll turn off the wifi and give my ethernet cable to someone else until I’m done. Or I say that I have to finish x before I eat dinner. Or I say “once I get through ten pages of this reading, I’ll give myself a five minute break” and do that till the end of the section I need to read.
I’m a super bad procrastinator, but this normally helps a lot.</p>
<p>I agree that some people work better under pressure (I’m one of them) and that makes it tempting to put things off til the last minute. I did well using that strategy, but I decided I wanted to stay more on top of things this year.
Rewarding yourself is a really good way to stay motivated. For long readings, I get a bag of something like gummy bears and allow myself to eat one (slowly) per page. It really helps for me. :)</p>
<p>Personally, my writing is significantly better when I am under the pressure to get it done quickly. If I try starting early, I struggle with writer’s block.</p>
<p>However, if you find that you can’t stick to things for long, then start early and just do little things to prepare. If you’re doing a research paper, spend 10-15 minutes at a time at the library researching articles and books, then set them aside and work on something else, and take frequent breaks to help keep you energized. I find that my concentration is maxed when I try to work on something for more than 30 minutes. You should take frequent breaks with studying as well to help with your retention. </p>
<p>I found that making a schedule of what has to be done did not work for me. I needed to jump around to whatever I was in the mood for (whether it was reading, writing, etc. at that moment). Frequent breaks to check Facebook or get a snack helped to “reset” me so that I could handle another X minutes of work.</p>
<p>I used to procrastinate a lot but then my Fraternity taught me time management, work ethic, discipline, and a bunch of other things. If I have to get something done I don’t think about it, I just do it instead so my nights are free.</p>