4 Steps to Beat Procrastination
Updated December 7th 2023
Originally published March 20th, 2023
6 min read
Stop feeling intimidated by your workload and learn to keep yourself motivated.
Written by Simon Spichak and Mathieu Taddeo
More than 80% of students procrastinate, pushing off studying and working on big presentations until the very last minute. But procrastination doesn’t mean you’re an awful student, there are many factors that may make you more prone to procrastination. It’s important to get procrastination under control because it can worsen your physical and mental health.
Why do we procrastinate?
Procrastinating doesn’t make you a terrible, lazy, or unmotivated student. You might put off studying or important assignments for many different reasons.
Getting procrastination under control might involve reckoning with one or more of these underlying reasons:
Perfectionism. Many people fall into a cycle of procrastination because doing something perfectly the first time is tough. Just the thought of making a small mistake might cause you to delay the entire task.
Fear of criticism. People might worry about finishing and submitting tasks or assignments for review because they are uncomfortable with potential criticism or being told they did something wrong.
Feeling of being overwhelmed. When you have trouble prioritizing or planning, completing large assignments or studying for tests becomes hard to tackle.
Difficulty with executive function and focus. Some people with ADHD, OCD, and depression might have trouble thinking and focusing on their work, making it easier to get distracted by video games or a Netflix binge.
What happens when we procrastinate?
A lot of the time, procrastination leads to worse test scores and more stress. Even though some students can still succeed in studying last minute, it is a lot healthier not to have to pull an all-nighter.
Here are some of the other downsides of procrastination:
You lose a lot of sleep and eat unhealthy food while finishing work at the last minute.
You figure out that you don’t understand the test topics too late to get help.
You become more stressed and anxious about upcoming tests and deadlines.
You develop difficulties staying motivated throughout the year.
It causes you to push off other commitments, leading to more procrastination.
How procrastination affects your health
There are a lot of ways that procrastinating affects your physical and mental health. A 2023 study published by researchers in the journal JAMA Open Network looked at 3525 Swedish university students to see how procrastination affected them over nine months.
Students who procrastinated the most were more likely to have higher levels of:
The study’s results back up previous research, which associated many health conditions with procrastination. Even though this is one of the most extensive studies of procrastination, it is still difficult to determine cause and effect.
4 Steps to Beat Procrastination
#1: Control your work, don’t let it control you.
Your coursework, your schedule. If you dread getting started with assignments and studying from the moment you walk through the front door, take a break. Going from school or university to arriving home only to study some more can be demotivating and demoralizing.
To build motivation, start scheduling personal time during the week. That means there is something to look forward to when you come home. While busy with hobbies, your brain gets to take a much-deserved break. Don’t forget this advice once you get started: Schedule regular breaks every hour to break from the monotony of studying.
#2: Build momentum with the “snowball” strategy.
A 3,000-word essay feels like an impossible burden. You start doubting yourself, and you have no idea where to start. That’s when you begin subdividing the essay into smaller and smaller tasks.
Breaking the essay down into smaller subtasks and starting with the smallest and easiest helps build momentum: Finding academic sources, writing an outline, creating an introduction. Once you’re done with a tiny piece, it becomes easier and easier to keep rolling, snowballing your way to the finish line.
#3: Visualize your progress and reward yourself.
You can use this with a checklist or whiteboard, crossing off tasks from your to-do list as you go. Speaking of visual progress, making a list of things to accomplish before sitting down to work can also reduce stress.
You don’t need to do everything at once. Focus on the low-hanging fruit. Once you’re done with a few minor tasks, take a breather and go for a walk. Reward yourself for the progress. After all, it can be easy to forget, your health is more important than your grades.
#4: Plan ahead.
Don’t wait until the last week before starting on your work. Look at the course syllabi at the beginning of the semester and mark down the dates of major tests and assignments.
This allows you to look ahead past a few weeks, break down work into smaller manageable chunks, and avoid the stress and dread of procrastination. Set goals for what you want to accomplish, whether a chapter of course readings each day or summarizing your course notes at the end of the week.
Time to get started
So what are you waiting for? We’ve provided you with some of the tools you’ll need to beat procrastination. If you need more help understanding why you’re procrastinating, you can meet with a therapist. They can use therapy techniques like CBT and DBT to address these concerns and help you succeed in school.
**Please note, this article is not therapy or a replacement for it. Engaging with it does not constitute a therapeutic relationship with the writer. Please seek professional help if needed.**
