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Procrastination, there’s something strange about this phenomena. Sometimes I observe that students felt a little bit “proud” about this term. Sometimes it’s so “inspiring” for them… so they start to put it as their identity. I can see it in their IM status. Also in some social network service (like Friendster, Facebook or StudiVZ), they have some groups of people revered them self as a procrastinator… Yes it’s you! You don’t have to raise your hand. I know you… .

Don’t ask me why… I don’t know the answer, maybe because it’s sound so nice: procrastination… procrastination…

Procrastinating is basically delaying to do something that you should do until the last minute, if not totally abandoned them. There are some classifications of procrastination; one from Sapadin (1997) summarized it very well. According to Sapadin there are six styles of procrastination: the perfectionist, the defier, the dreamer, the crisis-maker, the overdoer, and the worrier. If you have access to the book, go and read them, it’s worth it! Next time I will post an article discussing these styles, if I’m not procrastinating again… just kidding. You know I already healed, right?

Academic procrastination is referring to procrastination which occurs in academic setting. To mention some examples: cramming all night before exam, asking for extended time for delivering paper, delaying cleaning that horrible dormitory room, delaying grading students paper (in the case of professors), etc. Sounds familiar right? This habit is really a huge problem in academic live, according to William Knaus, 90% of college students procrastinate. 25% of them are chronic procrastinators who end up not finishing their study or dropping out.

Actually everybody procrastinate for certain reason. like having too many things to do or a matter of priority. But most of us procrastinate just because feeling lazy; not motivated or just set the wrong priority. As it gets more chronic it could lead to feeling of guilt, depression and low self-esteem. Why did I mention about the wrong priority? As we know beside studying students usually also work somewhere for some extra pocket money. I observed that sometime students get so enthusiastic with their job and put their study aside. Maybe they argued that their job is so important, they can earn enough money not only for pocket money but also for supporting their live, and they start to belief that their job is more important than their study. One fact that I want to say is that the younger you are when you graduated is the better. A lot of graduate study confirms this fact. If you graduated there will be more opportunity out there: more challenging job, more salary, further education, etc. So stop delaying to graduate just because you belief than your condition now (as a student) is already good enough for you. Like Anthony Robbins said: don’t settle less than you can be!

OK now the important question: how can we kick this habit away? Here are some tips that I pick from here and there. Not really scientifically proven. But most of them work for me.



Define your goal. This is the most important step in every success. It helps a lot when you write your goals. Not only for huge goals like: finishing master or doctor thesis but also for simple daily task you have. First, it helps you to really focus on your goals. Second, it can motivate you when you know you have some progress. And always remember to write it! Make a to-do list. As you finish it you can put a straight line over the list like this. This simple thing can make you work more efficient.

Just say you have a term paper to write. You have to write 15 pages or so. Start by defining your goal and write it on a paper. What is a term paper content usually? More or less it will be: introduction, some theoretical based, methodology, result, and discussion. Ok now you have 5 parts of goals, that’s mean you have to write an average of 3 pages in each part. Just think how easy it is… write just 3 pages each time. Look it’s just 3 pages! Just like high school paper, you can knock them down in no time, right?

After you finish each part, celebrate! I don’t mean like going to a party or something, just small reward like a cup of cappuccino or chocolate candy that you love so much. Always does something like this to help your self enjoying the victory of doing something instead of procrastinate! May be some of you will say: C’mon is it that simple? Is it that easy? My answer is Yes! It is that easy. Erase the thought in your mind which saying it’s difficult. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! I’m sure you heard this old saying before.

Remember goal setting theory? A goal should be specific, challenging and achievable. Make your goal as specific as you can. Instead of saying: “I will finish my paper!” saying something more specific like: “I will finish my term-paper this week!” Or even more specific like: “today I will write 3 pages for my term-paper!” The more you break it into small step the more a goal can be accomplished.

A goal should be challenging, this means not too difficult and also not too easy. Set a reasonable deadline. Saying: ‘I will write my term-paper in 1 day!’ is really not a reasonable goal. Hei, I know you… If you still reading this article that means you have somehow a procrastination habit : )). Set more reasonable date line. And make your goal challenging, not too easy. If you set an easy goal, it won’t motivate you!

Always challenge your self. For me the biggest temptation is always coming from the internet. Sometimes I start to write about something then I will say: ok I need some data from the internet. I start to googling, the next 15 minutes I usually already lost in the internet jungle. Reading something that’s not related to the topic I write at all…
You can limited this by isolate your working time from potential distraction. You can completely cut off your internet access for 1 hour then concentrate your self only on writing.
I usually set some small goals before doing something in the internet. For example I will say to my self:
I will check my email only after I finish this paragraph.
I will read the news after I make this table.
I will call my friend after I correct these references.

It looks simple but it sure helps me a lot to finish writing a paper.

One friend of mine suggested interesting tips. Because she usually easily distracted by something while writing a paper she decided to work in the library. In the library of course there are other students who sit and reading or writing something. She will sit down there and challenge her self: I will keep on write until the student in front of me leaves his/her chair. Sometimes it takes about 3 hours .

Create your own game, it will be fun. Not only for writing, do it for other routine stuff around the house. You can say: OK, I will watch tv after I finish this dirty dishes. I will eat this food after I wash my clothes. I will watch this dvd after I tidy up my messy table. Belief me the movie you watch will be more interesting, the food will taste better, the sleep will be more tight if you did your job before you take the pleasure.

I am absolutely sure that you somehow already new the answer to your procrastination, even before you read this article. You have to kill this habit if you want to do better in your live, no other choice! You knew it already, right? Galileo once wrote, “You cannot teach a person something he does not already know; you can only bring what he does know to his awareness.”

So what are you waiting for? Take an action! Start doing something now, not later, not tomorrow!

If you know some other tips, please don’t be so greedy. Share it with us, write it on the comments area below.

image source: Ghettyimages