A lot of students may find themselves procrastinating school assignments or cramming for big tests, especially around this time in the school year. As much as students like to believe they work best under pressure, the last minute efforts result in low quality work.
To help combat these behaviors, here is a list of a few tips and tricks that students can try to help reduce procrastination and cramming.
1. Reasoning for Procrastinating
The most important skill students need to have is awareness and self-knowledge. Students should ask themselves the why; why is it that I am pushing aside a certain task for a different time? Does the reasoning for procrastinating fall under any patterns; can students catch themselves as they begin to procrastinate? Finding the root cause for why someone may be procrastinating is very important in stopping the behavior. According to The McGraw Center for Teaching & Learning, psychologists Jane Burka and Lenora Yuen have reported in their article, “Mind Games Procrastinators play” that for many students “understanding the hidden roots of procrastination seems to weaken them.”
2. Time Management
One of the main reasons as to why students procrastinate is because of the stress carried by the amount of work that needs to be done. No one wants to spend hours on a lot of assignments, that would be very demotivational. How to overcome this burden is by setting achievable (manageable) goals for assignments. A great tip that is recommended is breaking down larger assignments into smaller, more manageable steps to complete. This would help remove the burden of feeling overwhelmed with all the work that needs to be done. Another tip that students could do is rewarding themselves after finishing assignments on time. Setting goals for assignments and earning rewards for completing those goals can help motivate students to do their schoolwork. After all, who wouldn’t love to reward themselves after completing a difficult or consuming task.
3. Motivation
In order to overcome procrastination, students need to stay motivated for productive reasons. Being motivated for productive reasons would mean reasons for wanting to learn and achieve that create positive and satisfying feelings and actions. The best way to have positive motivation is to set and focus on your own goals. Another way to help boost motivation is by staying actively engaged in class. Being actively engaged in class would be trying to pick out what is interesting and relevant to you in the material, setting your own purpose for every class session and asking questions (whether to yourself or others) about what you are learning.
And that is the tips and tricks to help stop procrastination and cramming. Hopefully this has helped in some way to help limit or even eliminate your procrastination.
