In the book The Time Robber, published by Oxford Publishing House, procrastination is considered as an ancient art, without which philosophy would not exist. To be human is to procrastinate, the authors of Quartz are encouraging us. Most students wonder how to do homework fast? After a lot of effort, sometimes it’s hard to get results. Then the process of self-blame begins. The student is depressed, his mind is filled with negative thoughts. If this occupation has completely consumed you and interferes with your productive life, here are seven tips to take.
- Make a micro-effort. Do not promise yourself the impossible: learn English in two weeks or write a diploma overnight. Take up what you can do in the next hour, maximum – a day. And it’s okay if the work still needs to be polished. Pay in your favor the “Zeigarnik effect”: the person remembers the interrupted actions better than the completed ones.
- Learn to manage your emotions. Often we put things off because “not in the spirit”, or because we are waiting for inspiration. Getting out of the vicious circle of excuses is not easy. Most likely, you take time off from the work that brings you negative emotions. Honestly to admit this to yourself and determine what exactly frightens you – already an achievement. As scientists have proven, people who control their emotions less often prokrastiruyut.
- Not all delays and delays are procrastination. Canadian psychologist Mohsen Hagbin divided the difficulties associated with time management into categories. There are inevitable ones among them, but there are also those that are connected with the peculiarities of motivation (a person is urged on by stress – and he does everything at the last minute) or a tendency towards hedonism (pleasure in the first place, but they will wait for things). Sometimes we really need to postpone a task for a while in order to better cope with it.
- Practice “structured” procrastination. This method was proposed in 1996 by John Perry, professor of philosophy at Stanford University. The most difficult and urgent task needs to be placed at the top of the list – of course, you will avoid it, but you will redo a lot of small, equally important things. Perry notes that procrastinators, who try to minimize the number of tasks, make a mistake: after all, then they will not be distracted by anything, and they will turn into ordinary idlers.
- Visualize yourself in the future. In the New Year promises, we present ourselves as productive and energetic, and then we come up with the reasons for the failure. A psychologist at Carleton University in Canada, Ev Marie Bluin-Hadon, came up with a 10-minute exercise akin to meditating for anyone who still wants to be the best version of himself. Follow the link to listen to the instructions in English. The essence of the exercise is to look at yourself in the future as a character in a film, and think about what to do now to get closer to this image.
- Prepare for the moment “yes, burn it all!” Scientists know at least 93 ways to change human behavior. Psychologist Thomas Webb recommends one of them: the “if-then” method. One day the will power will let you down, you will want to quit your good habits and return to your old friend – procrastination. In this case, you must have a plan. Gaps in the sentence “if I do / do not do … – then …” each fills himself.
- Stop blaming yourself. Everyone has already experienced that you once failed a deadline or were late for an important meeting. Time to think about what’s next.