Are you staying up till 2.30 in the morning scrolling through YouTube and Instagram posts? Struggling with science but keep telling yourself you have plenty of time to revise later? Maybe you’ve put off yet another homework or school assignment. If any of these sounds familiar, you’re probably suffering from student procrastination.
What is student procrastination?
To procrastinate means to delay or postpone an important task. When you procrastinate, you typically do things like watch television or scroll through social media; instead of doing something more productive like studying or even going to bed on time. Procrastination is a challenge that all humans have faced since the beginning of time, no matter our age. For students, procrastination can mean, putting off revision sessions, not doing homework, or simply getting out of bed at the last minute before school.
Why do students procrastinate?
Students procrastinate for a myriad of reasons. Amongst the top includes low self-confidence, overwhelm with school work, lack of interest and motivation with certain subjects and fear of failure. To add to this, it can be very difficult to motivate yourself to put in the time and energy into something when you’re not seeing an instant result.
Why beat student procrastination?
While in the short-term procrastinating might seem like the best thing to do, in the long term, it is harmful. The most obvious harmful side-effect of delaying work for students is poor grades. But, to add to that, people who procrastinate generally have higher levels of stress levels and lower well-being. [1], [2]
How to overcome student procrastination?
1. Eat the Frog
Right now, you must be thinking…what?? Let me explain! The ‘frog’ is that one thing you hate or despise doing the most. The one thing that demotivates you and that you’d rather put off till the last minute. If you had to eat one frog every day as part of your daily meals, wouldn’t you gobble down the frog first and leave the more appetising meal and dessert for later? Well, this is how you should approach your studies. Whatever experience you dread the most at school, you should always aim to tackle that first.
Perhaps you hate biology with a passion. Then when you sit down to study, that’s what you should be doing first. To make it easier, you can reward yourself by studying one of your favourite subjects after. Maybe you dread homework? Immediately you come home from school sit at your desk for 20 to 30 minutes to complete your homework. That way, you’ll have the rest of the evening to yourself.
As you begin to do the ‘hard’ things first, you will notice that you start to develop discipline. You build a mental muscle that pushes you to tackle difficult tasks without running away from them. This will serve you well not only throughout your GCSE but several years to come.
2. Set goals
Goal setting is powerful. Goal setting helps you break down seemingly large tasks into smaller manageable ones. When you set goals, you become motivated to work towards and accomplish small tasks. Over time, you are able to reach your big goals effortlessly. So how can you set goals for school? Well, let’s assume that your big goal is to pass our GCSE exams. You can break down this goal into a smaller one. E.g. to pass GCSE biology exams. You’ll need to ask yourself; how do I know that I have achieved this goal. The answer – when you’ve studied everything the GCSE biology specification.
You can use your book to count the number of topics you need to cover; then spread that over the length of time you have left to revise. For example, if you have to cover 12 topics over three months, that works out as 4 topics in a month and 1 topic every week. So, your goal for February, for example, could be to learn everything on cells and transport. And, this can be broken down further into even smaller goals e.g. week 1 learn cell structure, week 2 learn cell division and so on.
Setting goals in this makes it easier for you to tackle small tasks. Which over time, develops into one big accomplishment. It also minimises overwhelm because you can clearly see what tasks need to be completed and how and when you are going to get there. This way, you are much less likely to procrastinate.
3. Start small, build it up
Hate revising? Know that you should probably be spending one hour a day studying but not doing this? Try this approach. Start small. Let’s say you should be studying the immune system, for biology. Instead of trying to understand everything in one go, pick one thing and make it your goal to learn that one thing. E.g. you can spend 5 minutes learning how phagocytes protect us from diseases. Over time, when you are ready, build that revision time up to 10 mins, 15 minutes and so on. This way you gradually become used to it.
This method reminds me of how I went from having 2 teaspoons of sugar in my tea to none. For years, I used to add two teaspoons of sugar to my tea, then I dropped it to 1 tsp. I stayed at 1 tsp again for some time and then reduced it to ½ teaspoon and ¼ teaspoon. Then recently, I made tea and realised that I didn’t need the sugar. This method took years, but my body had gotten used to it so much that each time I made the change, I didn’t notice any difference.
Obviously, you don’t have years to develop your study habits but you get the point! Just make sure that your short bursts of study sessions are effective. Provided you go in with a goal in mind, a 30-minute revision session can be more effective than a 2-hour session for instance.
Another tip for starting small is to do one exam question a day. Over time, you’ll be able to gradually move this up to do an entire exam paper in a day.
4. Use the Pomodoro Technique.
Distractions are a major reason for student procrastination. Today’s world is full of distractions. With a wealth of easily accessible social media platforms, TV shows and movie sites like Netflix, distractions are everywhere. This is where the Pomodoro technique can help.
The method works like this. You set your timer for 25 minutes. During those 25 minutes, you avoid all distractions. Turn off your phone or put it on silent mode and away from you, and don’t access the internet unless it’s absolutely essential for your revision. Then focus for that 25 minutes. When the timer goes off, take a 5 minutes break. Grab a cup of tea or stretch your legs. Then repeat.
This is a great method as it allows you to do a full 50 minutes of focused studying in 25 minutes short bursts. Depending on your focused level or how much revision you need to cover, you can take a 20 minutes break after your first 50 minutes. Then do another 50 minutes, split into two 25 minutes sessions. However, if you can get into a routine of doing 50 minutes daily, then that’s a great place to start.
5. Get a study partner
Having a study partner is great as it takes the routineness out of studying. It is also good for accountability. If you arrange to meet your friend for a study session, you’re more likely to show up as you don’t want to break your promise to them. You’ll also be able to spur each other on, which helps with your motivation.
I have this experience with exercising. I know exercising is good for me but when it comes to getting out and doing a workout, I can be lazy. But, if I go with a friend or join a group class, then not only am I more likely to show up but I put in so much more than if I were to exercise alone.
You’ll need to make sure you have the right study partner. Someone who is focused and will encourage studying as opposed to a friend who uses your study sessions as a chit-chat time.
Final thoughts
Procrastination is a challenge human have faced since the beginning of time. While in the short run delaying tasks and projects may seem like a safe haven; in the long term, this can have massive side effects. These side effects range from poor grades to depression and anxiety. Use the tips given in this post to help you fight procrastination. In time, you will develop discipline and student procrastination will become a thing of the past.
Help your child beat student procrastination.
Are you a parent reading this and looking for more tips to help your child eliminate student procrastination? Join my Facebook group GCSE Support for Parents, were we provide tips and advice to help parents support their child through secondary school.
