The official thread of ''Tips for avoiding procrastination''

Pre-College Issues High School Life
41

<p>I used to be better at not procrastinating... (despite ranting about it so much on my blog)</p>

<p>then i became relativistic. which totally wrapped my values and belief systems around (hey, i no longer compared my grades and test scores to everyone around me anymore and i don't really have a future). which made me stop caring</p>

<p>most people there are more successful than me, since they still cared about their grades, whereas i stopped caring due to relativism</p>

<p>i'm stuck in relativism now. it's a vicious cycle. gah</p>

42

<p>I created a work account on my mac, in which most applications (such as Mail) are blocked. In addition, I installed an add-on for firefox which lets me block certain sites (or rather, whitelist others). No clutter on the desktop, nothing in the dock. Helps a little.
Yeah, I'm a geek.</p>

<p>Oh, and here's another trick that helps me: set yourself time goals. Not huge ones, more like "for the next hour, I am gonna work on my essay and won't do ANYTHING else." Set a stopwatch, start work, and push through, without surfing or checking mail. I tell you, it's awfully hard, but it helps.
After one hour, reward yourself.</p>

43

<p>Sometimes, I just work better when I'm pressured to do it. Having the deadline right in front of my face and having your anxiety levels skyrocket help me do my work efficiently. Although they have sometimes been my best pieces of work (especially essays), it can pose a problem later in life, but I just love working under pressure. Can anyone relate to this?</p>

44

<p>Totally- I don't like studying for stuff until like the period before, just for that "rush" of anxiety. It's addictive. Tests are my "zone" though, so probably isn't a good tip for everyone.</p>

<p>Case in point- never looked at Latin quiz sheet given out last week until thirty seconds before class. I knew I could learn the words beforehand in aobut 5 minutes, but what is the fun of that? Of course, vocab quizzes are generally easy, but still I was pleased at my 100%. </p>

<p>I am a huge procrastinator and I really really hate it though. </p>

<p>However, the tips that have worked a handful of times:
- Find a suitablely procrastinating friends on AIM. Set a time limit. Check back with eachother and say what you've gotten done.<br>
- Reward yourself (reasonably). With candy!
- Do not reward yourself with Youtube/CC/whatever until you are more than halfway done
- Do not do more work than is necessary!<br>
- Give yourself a time limit for each subject. Then double it. Then work on that subject for ONLY that amount of time. Don't finish. . . do it in the morning or after all the other subjects.
-Always have some work WITH you at all times. Even if you don't really work on it, you'll probably get a teensy bit done, which is more than if the work was in your back pack. Ex. I love to watch hockey. I'll take my calc homework or latin vocab (easy, portable homework) in the living room for between periods.<br>
-And there is always structured procrastination. Do something to avoid doing something else. You work on Bio to avoid Legal, and when you work on Legal, you are avoiding English. When you finally get to the most avoided thing, though, I'm not sure what you do. Google for a better explanation.</p>

<p>At the people who procrastinate by finding out how NOT to procratinate- I am not alone! Seriously though, there are some excellent websites that help out. Just make sure you have the time to read them.</p>

45

<p>"I created a work account on my mac, in which most applications (such as Mail) are blocked. In addition, I installed an add-on for firefox which lets me block certain sites (or rather, whitelist others). No clutter on the desktop, nothing in the dock. Helps a little.
Yeah, I'm a geek."</p>

<p>Sorry, I want to do this too with my Mac but I don't know how. I already made a work account but how exactly do I ban applications and block website? Thanks in advance!</p>

46

<p>you know what you also can't do? right click</p>

47

<p>OK, no problem:
First of all, make sure you're logged in as an admin as you will need to make some changes to the system preferences.
1. Open System Preferences
2. Choose "Accounts" (under System)
3. As you have already created a new account, click on it to modify it (you might need to click the lock first to be able to make changes)
4. Go to "Parental Controls" ( :D ), check "Finder & System", and click on "Configure" next to it
5. Check "this user can only use these applications" and adjust the list. That's it! You also might want to check "modify the dock" so you can delete all the clutter.</p>

<p>I'm using Tiger, it might be slightly different on other MacOS X versions. Feel free to contact me if it doesn't work.</p>

<p>Oh, and in case someone's interested in it: Here's the link for the firefox addon.</p>

<p><a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3145%5B/URL%5D"&gt;https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3145&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

48

<p>Thanks awelex! That helped a lot.</p>

<p>futureguy210: Funny thing is, macs do right click.</p>

49

<p>classical music. Or actually just any music that doesn't have words you can sing along to. It keeps me focused on whatever I'm working on because it drowns outside noise. I like classical music because it makes me feel intelligent while I work, although I have some techno-remixes of classical music in order to add some variety, and I actually really like them.</p>

50

<p>lol! scheduling 3-5 to be homework time. that's such a surefire way to not get anything done for me. I need to be out of the house with a scheduled activity from 3 - 11 for me to be really productive (hence why it's 6PM and i'm on wiki lol). If the activity isn't scheduled, best thing for me is to go to the library. super way to get things done. plus there are cool books :-)</p>

51

<p>also, I sing to classical music (I play classical piano/only listen to classical music, so I guess that's why) (it's not necessarily a pretty sound, heh). hence I really can't listen to music when I work haha. It'll get to the point where I'm like OMG THIS IS AWESOME MUSIC SO EXCITING <em>prances about the house while conducting... or something to that effect :-)</em> and stop getting anything done. lol</p>

52

<p>Listening to classical music actually helps me concentrate whenever I'm writing a paper or something, but sometimes the music can be so soothing that I will fall asleep.</p>

53

<p>classical music makes me feel smart and composers dumb....therefore i think i don't have to study...no classical music for me :(</p>

54

<p>Eh, I'll tell you guys tomorrow.</p>

55

<p>Play Canon in D over and over again. The best song for concentration.</p>

56

<p>canon d destroys my soul! haha have you seen the canon rant on youtube? (haha youtube) if not, you must. i shall link you to it. </p>

<p>YouTube</a> - Pachelbel Rant</p>

<p>i just spent an hour on cc. nice...</p>

<p>"i hate pachalbel with a passion... i don't even know his first name. it's probably johann.. they were all named johann" HAHAH</p>

57

<p>somebody may have already said this but:
NO FACEBOOK.</p>

58

<p>I must be the biggest procrastinator on the planet. No exaggeration. </p>

<p>I'm a freshman at Queen's university and I don't recall ever having worked seriously this year, or.. ever. In fact, I haven't even opened a book in the past 2 weeks.
Somehow, however, despite doing next to nothing, I've always managed to slip by and achieve what I want... Like getting 38 on my IB or getting into top colleges.
Is it that, for some obscure and twisted reason, Lady Luck insists on smiling upon me, despite the obvious fact that I don't deserve it?</p>

<p>Whatever the reason, I always seem to be the exception to the universe's rule of karma. If I don't flunk out of college and become homeless, or die in the next two weeks, let it be known: there is no God.</p>

<p>Anyway...</p>

<p>For as long as I can remember, I've tried everything to avoid procrastination. It's never worked.</p>

<p>Recently, however, I experienced an epiphany of sorts: procrastination is avoidant behaviour, yes? (that's not the epiphany, the next part is.)
Avoiding avoidant behaviour doesn't work. It's redundant.
It's the wrong mentality. Instead of thinking, "how do I avoid procrastination?" you need to ask yourself "how do I get to work?".
You will be much more predisposed to actually start working when the word 'procrastination' has left your thoughts altogether.</p>

<p>Essentially, what I'm saying is, eliminate negative thought patterns like "avoid procrastination" and replace them with positive patterns, like "get to work". Simple dumb psychology, I know.. but it works, on some level.</p>

<p>Then again, what do I know... I'm just giving anti-procrastination advice as a means to procrastinate further. I have 3 essays that are way past overdue and yet I'm writing about this crap.
Hypocritical? Very. Ironic? A bit, but in a tragic sort of way.</p>

59

<p>I have something to add. </p>

<p>If any of you are like me, you probably think you're just about the sharpest tool in the proverbial shed. That's forgivable. Unlike a certain omnipotent biblical entity, I don't consider vanity a sin.</p>

<p>Still, this sense of entitlement (I'm smart as hell, I can do better than the morons around me with less than half the work), reinforced by actual events that confirm it (getting straight As on essays you pulled out of your arse in half an hour), is nothing but a vicious cycle of mental masturbation.</p>

<p>The mention of 'Lady Luck' in my previous post is a reflection of that sad fact. I feel like the universe owes me. I feel that it's part of the natural order of things that I can get results without working for them.</p>

<p>Well I'm wrong. We're wrong. The universe owes us nothing.
In fact, we're lucky it doesn't strike us down and crush us under its cosmic heel like the insects we are.</p>

<p>It's too late for me, but perhaps some of you can save yourselves... go on without me... save... yourselves... before it's too late.</p>

60

<p>DUDE procrastination is okay. Its break now!</p>

<p>Heres a great way to procrastinate: [url=<a href="http://www.planarity.net/%5DPlanarity.net%5B/url"&gt;http://www.planarity.net/]Planarity.net[/url&lt;/a&gt;] (a smart game; no virus or anything)</p>