You’re Not Lazy…How to STOP Procrastinating

By Linh, Grade 10 

It’s been a long day, and you have just gotten home from school. You have so much work to do, and while there are some easy Spanish and science assignments, there’s also the terrible English project you have been dreading starting, as well as the math test in two days. Since you don’t know where to start, and you’re hungry and tired, you decide to jump into bed first and start scrolling. Ten minutes later, you still can’t seem to stop…and it’s only 3:21…so you decide to keep scrolling until 3:30 (a nice, even number). 

However, the next time that you look at the time, it's 6:30! How, and why did that happen? 

Procrastination occurs due to a variety of reasons, including a lack of energy, motivation, or poor time-management, but in some cases, it could simply be sheer anxiety. When something seems too overwhelming, difficult, or big, avoiding it seems like a much easier option. In fact, according to the New York Post, 71% of adults in America admit to procrastinating, and 42% also scroll on social media in order to procrastinate - you aren’t alone. 

Procrastination isn’t necessarily harmful if it only happens once in a while, but the issue is that if you start to build a bad habit of continually procrastinating, it becomes harder and harder to break it, leading to an unhealthy cycle of stress. Somehow, I feel like I always make the deadline - if only barely - but it always involves much unnecessary stress that could have been avoided if I had simply pushed myself to start. I have a few techniques that I have used this year, and although some of them are less appealing than others, they have truly helped me become a more efficient student.

1.Take away the tools you would use to procrastinate, primarily your phone!

No one wants to hear this, and I completely understand why, since I myself am addicted to my phone. I feel like many teens, including myself, love having our phones next to us as we work to “help us” with homework. The problem with this is that every single notification from social media, which gives us instant gratification and excitement, whether that’s Insta, TikTok, or Snap, draws our attention away from the intensive and boring task at hand. This quickly turns into the situation described above (doom scrolling for hours), and it's hard to drag yourself out of that hole. 

A great way to put away your phone without feeling tempted to grab it is to have your sibling hide it - they will be perfectly willing. However, if you do need your phone accessible, power it off completely and place it face down next to you. Without your phone as a constant distraction, I promise that you will get much more work done. 

2. Lie! Tell yourself that you’ll only work for five minutes or that you will do a smaller chunk of the task.

By doing so, you’ll trick your brain into thinking that the task will be easier, and once you start, it’s easier to keep going. For example, I’ve had the idea to write this article for weeks now, yet I’ve been procrastinating until now. I made myself start by telling myself that I would only write a small portion of it - the introduction and thesis - and that I’d work for half an hour, then scroll on shorts. After starting, I realized that it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be and was able to get a large portion of it done without having to check up on social media.

If you are writing an essay, break it down into more manageable increments. Instead of putting “write the essay” on your to-do list, you could write “draft essay”, “write the intro”, “find evidence for body paragraphs”, and “revise”. This concept can apply to anything, including studying for tests and even non-school-related tasks like cleaning your room. 

3. Turn studying and homework social! 

Even if it seems like doing your homework and hanging out with friends are completely unrelated spheres, it doesn’t have to be. This isn’t to say that you should be doing homework when you are out with your friends, because you should still be present. However, I really enjoy FaceTiming my friends when I’m stuck on a math assignment because even if they are just as clueless and can’t help, their being there gives me the company I need as well as keeps me accountable to do my work. 

4. Forgive yourself if you do procrastinate!

While avoiding procrastination is certainly possible and recommended, it is unrealistic to be efficient every minute of your day, especially if you are sleep-deprived or have no energy. For this reason, it's also important to forgive yourself if you procrastinate.

After seeing how much time I waste, I always have extreme feelings of guilt, which in turn makes me even more unmotivated to start. These feelings are normal, but they can also be counterproductive. If you do catch yourself being unproductive, give yourself the break you need and start working after.

So, to conclude, although procrastination is both a universal experience and a hard habit to break, it is definitely possible. Implementing two, or even one of these tips, you will see a great improvement in the amount of work you get done and the time it is done in. The best tip I have is to simply start working, since it really does get easier from there. Good luck!