<p>Some suggestions that have helped me when I'm under pressure...</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The rewards system. As in, "If I finish this paragraph of my paper, I can get up and go have a cookie" or "If I finish my math homework I get to play on my Wii for fifteen minutes" The problem with this is that you must be able to discipline yourself with keeping your breaks short.</p></li>
<li><p>Get other people in on it. I do this with my parents, siblings, and other friends who need to get to work. Go find a parent or sibling who isn't otherwise distracted, and tell them to come bother you in an hour or so and check that you have your essay/physics homework/Spanish project/whatever done. I also do this with my friend--we call each other, tell each other our homework, and then agree to call again at a predetermined time to check on the other's progress. It's easy to get stuff done when you know somebody's going to give you a hard time if you haven't. This has always worked really well for me.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>you should create an environment where you can focus and find the time when you really want to study. I find myself study best when its during fall season in the evening and when I am all alone in a slightly dark room. I could study for 6 hours straight with very little break in that kind of setting.</p>
<p>It's true that procrastination was here even before the internet. When I don't have my computer, I still find something to postpone homework. It doesn't even matter if I'm not that interested in whatever I'm doing just as long as it's not homework.</p>
<p>I have a picture of my dream school above my computer with the caption "Hard work will get you HERE" and next to it there's a picture of a particularly dreary looking community college with the caption "And procrastinating will get you here..."</p>
<p>The captions aren't necessarily true and it's kind of lame but it works. =]</p>
<p>I just scanned this thread, so sorry if this is out of sync, but ...
CCRunner, I'm Anon<em>Person</em>1 and I procrastinate by reading books. Like, last night for instance, I read until after 2...though I have an english paper due.</p>
<p>Can we talk about this later, or tomorrow? :)</p>
<p>Here's a thought: try productive procrastination. When I was in business school and wanted to postpone studying or writing a paper, I'd only let myself read classics. I managed to read at least one Thackery novel that way, and I certainly wouldn't have done it had the alternative of, say, reading 50-page Business Law cases, been more attractive. I still goofed off, sort of, but I read stuff I never would have read otherwise.</p>
<p>After reading a few dozen pages of Thackery or Hugo, it wasn't all that difficult to get back to work. :)</p>
<p>Haha, thats kind of like me. Except not that extreme. I would usually come home, watch TV for a an hour or so, go to my room, turn on my pc and get online to chat, play games, etc and usally starting my hw around 11 or 12. So now what I do is come home watch a little tv, but instead of going to my room where I have my souped up computer and 21" monitor right in front of me, I go to our formal dinning room and bust out my older laptop that can barely play games and has crappy speakers. There is always the temptation to check myspace/facebook every 10 mins, but at least that is better than gaming/chatting for hours on end.</p>
<p>I mean, I still get distracted, but at least I usually get my hw done before 12 now :)</p>
<p>When you get home, relax. I eat dinner first and then shower, and only then do I start homework. I feel clean and focused and ready to work.</p>
<p>Then, I make a list of what I need to do in the next week and then a shorter one including only the stuff that has to be done for the next day. I do all the smaller, daily assignments first and get them out of the way. You can, as people have said, institute a "reward" system, but I find that what's better for me is just getting up for a few minutes and stretching and maybe singing a song or two. Sometimes if I'm really stressed I just go and stand outside for a few minutes. Either way, I come back rather refreshed.</p>
<p>I can't really help with the bigger assignments, because I tend to do them mostly the night before. I do, however, think about them all that day and pretty much know what I have to do by the time I get home, so I get straight to it. And I actually tend to do better on them then, doing them mostly in one sitting, because I'm really focused on them and I've done all of my other homework already.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses to this thread so far everyone. I struggle with pretty bad procrastination as well, and I'm not exactly highly organized either. This has been very helpful.</p>
<p>ralicgun -- you must be in high school. There is no such thing as "finishing" your work in college. There is always more you can do, more you can study. You are never, ever done. It's just a question of deciding how much you are going to do.</p>
<p>@rendered_truth: chill. claysoul makes a valid point- in high school, its nice to have a definite end in sight, so we had all better get our acts together(especially me!--right now i have a ton of stuff to do...>.<) before we have a lot more to do in college</p>
<p>disconnect internet unless you absolutely need it
if i do need to use the computer, i go on the family one rather than my laptop so i don't procrastinate... like i am doing right now.
it's stupid, i know but still
also turn off the phone and go into a room with no TV
and get everything you can done at school</p>
<p>I found that going to a bookstore cafe(say barnes and noble) every sunday and not leaving till I've done the work I've needed to get done:)
g'night:)</p>