I Finally Stopped Procrastinating
Since high school, I have been a self-proclaimed master crammer. Back then, it is something that was met with admiration since not everyone can cram academic requirements and still be part of the Honors Class consistently.
I might even go as far to say that procrastination was one of my main skills. I did it everyday for 6 years of high school and I did not get a probationary grade. Most times, that will be enough reason why I never stopped.
I must admit that I carried this habit of mine in college wherein I never bothered to put in any additional effort for my academic works. I just put enough time to do an acceptable project that will get me good grades.
It works well enough. Although it did trigger my anxiety a lot and it caused me to break down more times than I can count.
Can you imagine doing 5 essays in one night? I usually start writing at 8PM for assignments that were due on 11:59PM. It was a race against time and it felt exhilarating.
Until it wasn't
It was just a game for me that I always ended up getting lucky at until luck seems to run out for me at the perfect time. I was all geared up for cramming all topics we discussed on Calculus on my head for a quiz, but then my mind turned on me. I broke down and I could not grasp any concept that should have been understandable enough.
My body has reached the point where it finally shuts down because of the continuous stress brought by my procrastination. And well, that is where it begins. Not my journey to ending procrastination but the pandemic.
We were taking a quiz
We were taking that quiz on Calculus when a student leader knocked on our doors to tell our professor that everyone is required to go home because of the class suspensions. Our professor did not take pity on us and told us to finish the test first then we can go home.
I honestly can not remember if I did well on the test but I remember feeling bitter about the difference of the levels in difficulty for the two sets of tests. From what we gathered, the Set B was easier to answer while the Set A was full of complicated questions to solve. Guess what set I got? Yup, that's right. I got the Set A.
For years, we would not know the result we would get on that subject. The professor ghosted us and we were stuck with just a placeholder grade for 2 years without knowing if we will pass or not. In the end, we all received a 2.50 grades even though many did not pass the required activities.
Procrastination stays with me
Perhaps it was the result of seeing that students who did not put in an effort gets rewarded, but I started to turn back to procrastination again. I never do my home works until the due date itself no matter how difficult it may be. I remember there was a time where I had to do 10 programs in one day for our Programming subject. It was nerve-wracking since I only managed to pass it on 11:58PM, the deadline was 11:59PM.
I imagine many times how that situation could have gone wrong. The internet could have had been disconnected, my laptop could have had suddenly restarted, there could have been an unannounced maintenance on the site, and other things that could have caused me problems.
I realized that I needed change. And I needed to start then.
I said goodbye to procrastination
I wish I could say that it was an easy thing to do. But I do not want to lie to you, who are reading this. It was one of the most difficult thing I had to do with my life. To be completely transparent, there are still times when I find myself almost drifting back to this habit. But I have been working on it for two years now and I thought I can share what I learned along the way.
Just answer 1 question
When I find myself full of excuses to start, I would just tell myself that I will answer just 1 question and stop. Sometimes, I would stop immediately after I answer it but most times, I continue to work on my activities until I unknowingly finished them.
Just do 2 minutes of looking at the syllabus
This helped me become more familiar with the subject as well as what the professors are expecting. Moreover, our syllabus usually include the grading system so I pay attention to that to remind me of where I should put in more effort and where can I slack off a little.
Just open my notes for 3 minutes
I hate reviewing. I never reviewed for anything in my life. Not even for my scholarship exam, not for my college admission test. Not until this online setup. I needed to review since I could not pay attention to class most times. So for me 3 minutes of opening my notes would sometimes turn into 30 minutes or more, depending on how interested I suddenly got about the topic.
Just listen to the class for 4 minutes
This is the hardest thing to do since I really hate virtual classes. My eyes hurt and my ears ache from wearing earphones/ headphones. But I found that paying attention to the class for 4 minutes then taking a break for 1 minute, helped me in learning new things while allowing myself time to be distracted by things.
Just read 5 pages of the module
Like I said earlier, I hate reviewing but it is a must in today's situation. So when I do decide to study, I set a goal of reading 5 pages every time. Sometimes, I would read 5 more pages, again and again until I reach the end of a 60-page document.
How does it work?
My technique works by breaking down seemingly difficult tasks into more manageable tasks. Instead of reading a whole module when I sit down, I only need to read a bit of it and then I can either go or continue reading.
But you know what I noticed? When I started to do something even if it just for 2 minutes, I find myself continuing to do it until it is mostly done. Just 2 minutes in and I know that I will be able to do what I have to do.
When I find myself hesitant to start, I will talk myself into just working for 2 minutes and see where it goes. 2 minutes do not look much but it is the push that I needed to just get out of my "excuses stage" and go straight into my work more.
This has been working for me well. I have been able to finish a lot of activities ahead of the deadlines when before, I would not have bothered to do that. Moreover, not procrastinating actually gave me more freedom.
I used to procrastinate since I want to have a lot of free time but what I was actually doing was reducing my free time by putting off my work. When I started doing things as early as I can, I find that I have more free time than I know what to do with. This gave me room to learn something else outside the course I am taking and also time for resting without guilt.
I beat procrastination out of my system by making it look unappealing. Procrastination is not equals to more free time, it actually gives me less free time and more anxiety. Procrastination does not help me do better in my projects, it actually pushes me to just be okay with subpar quality because that is the only thing I can do with limited time.
Those are just some examples of how I painted procrastination in a bad light on my mind. When I try to procrastinate, I ask myself if putting off my work that could be done in a few hours is worth the mindless hours of scrolling that I will do. Of course, I would not want to waste my time so I do what I need to do. And I know that you can do it too.
Thank you for reading this article!
If you want to read some more articles of mine, I have monthly summaries here:
December 2021 Articles Summary
November 2021 Articles Summary
September 2021 Articles Summary
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This one attacks me when my mind has all the ideas mix together and also distractions that's why I really like to be alone when writing articles...I can focus more. ..Wasting time is not good so let get rid of he bad habit..