Alright, you’ve spent the day scrolling, gaming, or sleeping to avoid the pile of assignments or projects you have due. This is the post to help you salvage your day as a working student, no matter how messy your day has been.
Here are 5 steps that will help you snap out of that trance and get stuff done before you go to bed tonight.
#1 Come to terms with the fact that you’ve been procrastinating.
If you’re reading this post, you have probably gotten to the point where the blaring siren screaming ‘Hey. You’ve got stuff to do’ is too loud to ignore.
Good for you! Now make sure that you don’t fall back into whatever is distracting you by completing step 2.
#2 Close out of whatever is distracting you.
This means closing out of Instagram, YouTube, Call of Duty, Stardew Valley, or whatever else has a chokehold on your fingers and brain.
Don’t only close the app, hide the device.
If I need to get important stuff done, I give my phone to my husband, and he puts it in phone prison. Whatever works.
#3 Build a little confidence.
You can do this by picking 1 small thing you know you need to do to get you out of the slump.
Could be a quick 5 minute exercise, copying and pasting homework assignment instructions into a Google doc, or even just putting a load of clothes in the washing machine counts.
This also helps jolt your mind out of the ‘need to scroll’ rush.
#4 Create a to-do list with 3 things you’re looking to accomplish this evening.
When choosing these items, make sure it’s something realistic, reasonable, and clear.
A bad example is “Write government paper.” This is bad because it doesn’t give you a clear starting point.
A better starting place is something like “Outline the headers and main points of the government paper.” This is better because it is specifically tailored to where you are in the process of writing that assignment.
Lack of clarity on what you need to do and when you need to do it is the biggest proponent of procrastination. Clarity crushes that.
You can also think of it this way: “Government paper” is a big project that can be overwhelming.
To make it more digestible, we break it down into little steps like outlining, drafting the thesis statement, or finding 3 pieces of evidence for supporting argument #1.
For more specific tips on writing a research paper, you can check out this post here.
#5 Re-assess at the end of the day.
How much of your 3 tasks did you complete? Even if you didn’t get through everything, a little progress is better than doing nothing at all.
Bask in your accomplishments for a moment, and give yourself a pat on the back. You could have kept pushing off your obligations by continuing to doom scroll. But you didn’t.
For the tasks that you didn’t complete, analyze what still needs to be done, and make sure to commit to chipping away at it tomorrow. Make sure that you assign a time to when you’ll complete the task, so that you don’t fall back into scrolling.
Again, clarity is key.
BONUS: Read this if you are in dire need of further intervention.
If you’ve been procrastinating for the last few days or even weeks, you probably have a camel’s load of work to catch up on that won’t be completed in a single day.
That’s where you’ll need a plan more intense, but still actionable to get back on track. If this sounds like you, make sure to read this post next to learn how you can dig yourself out of a hole and take back control of your life now.