1.4 My Most Asked Question…

… How Do I Avoid Procrastination?

The question I receive the most in my Writing and Rhetoric courses is how to avoid procrastination and have better time management. The introduction below should equip you with tools to understand procrastination and manage your time more effectively.

Time Management

The philosophical approach towards time management emphasizes embracing the fact that we have the freedom to choose what we want to do with our time. It is critical to understand that time is limited and that it is up to our own to judge where we want to spend it. Time management is not just about being more productive and efficient; this can lead us towards stress and overworking.

The TED talk by Brad Aeon explores the philosophy of time management. Aeon is a Ph.D. researcher at the John Molson School of Business focused on time management, temporality, and work-life balance. He focuses on the improvement of our temporal decision-making as a solution to achieving more success by leading a less busy life. In this talk, Brad engages the audience with this question “Will you fill whatever lifetime you have left with so-called time management techniques and shortcuts? Or will you see time management as a way to infuse your life with meaning and purpose?”

An unfortunate situation in higher education is the danger students face from poor time management. One instance of poor time management can trigger a cascading situation with disastrous results. It’s not just your academic performance that can be affected by cascading events that have a domino effect on your college path, personal life, and much more. And dropping out of school is not your only danger. Other consequences affect the financial cost to you as a student if your lack of time management skills causes you to delay when you finish college. While it may not be possible to prevent life challenges while you are in college, you can do a great deal to prevent the chaos and the chain reaction of unfortunate events that they can cause. This can be accomplished through thoughtful prioritization and time management efforts.

In college, there is a significant difference because a great deal of time management is left up to you. While it is true that there are assignment due dates and organized classroom activities, learning at the college level requires more than just the simple completion of work. It involves decision-making and the ability to evaluate information. This is best accomplished when you are an active partner in your learning activities.

Procrastination

Procrastination can be defined as an act of delaying tasks that are required to be completed.

It is something we all do to greater and lesser degrees. For most people, minor procrastination is not a cause for great concern. But there are situations where procrastination can become a serious problem with a lot of risk. These include: when it becomes a chronic habit, when there are several tasks to complete and little time, or when the task being avoided is very important.

Because we all procrastinate from time to time, we usually do not give it much thought, let alone think about its causes or effects. Ironically, many of the psychological reasons why we avoid a given task also keep us from using critical thinking to understand why procrastination can be extremely detrimental, and in some cases difficult to overcome. To succeed at time management, you must understand some of the hurdles that may stand in your way. Procrastination is often one of the biggest. What follows is an overview of procrastination with a few suggestions on how to avoid it.

Causes of Procrastination

There can be many contributors to procrastination that have their roots in our physical well-being or our psychological motivations, such as:

1. Lack of Energy – This could be due to lack of sleep, juggling multiple jobs, family situations and responsibilities, or illness. Whatever the reason for lack of energy is, it is critical to identify and find solutions to overcome this condition.
2. Lack of Focus – Distractions are very common and can result from mental fatigue, lack of interest, or distractions from other things in your life. Just like a lack of energy, a lack of focus can impact how you manage your time.
3. Fear of Failure –  It is important to note that a fear of failure may not have anything to do with the actual ability of the person suffering from it. They could be quite capable of doing the task and performing well, but it is the fear that holds them back.

Impact of Procrastination

Procrastination can impact you in several ways. Most of these impacts are obvious and commonly understood, but some may not be so obvious and may cause other issues.

1. Loss of time – Procrastination can be thought of as using the time you have to complete a task in ways that do not accomplish what needs to be done. Thus causing you to lose valuable time on unnecessary tasks, leaving you little to no time on the most important tasks that need to be accomplished.
2. Loss of goals – Completing a task can lead you to achieve a goal. When tasks get delayed due to procrastination, the goals are not accomplished. The risk of the loss of goals is very impactful.
3. Low self-esteem – Often, when we procrastinate we become frustrated and disappointed in ourselves for not getting important tasks completed. If this continues to happen, we can begin to develop a low opinion of ourselves and our abilities. We begin to suffer from low self-esteem and might even begin to feel like there is something wrong with us.
4. Stress – When tasks that need to be completed are delayed, it can cause stress and anxiety. Putting off tasks until the last minute is a stressful thing, as it causes restlessness and uncertainty. Procrastinating when it comes to college work almost always includes an underestimation of the tasks to be completed— sometimes with disastrous results.

Strategies to Manage Procrastination

1. Get organized – Several strategies to get organized are discussed in this unit. Remember that one size doesn’t fit all, and each situation will call for you to try a variety of time management strategies. The next chapter discusses ways to combat procrastination is to using time management strategies such as schedules, goal setting, and other techniques to get tasks accomplished promptly.
2. Eliminate Distractions –  Distractions are time-killers and are the primary way people procrastinate. It is too easy to just play a video game a little while longer, check out social media, or finish watching a movie when we are avoiding a task. Putting aside distractions is one of the primary functions of setting priorities.
3. Reward Yourself – Rewarding yourself for the completion of tasks or meeting goals is a good way to avoid procrastination. An example of this would be rewarding yourself with the time to watch a movie you would enjoy after you have finished the things you need to do, rather than using the movie to keep yourself from getting things done.
4. Be Accountable – A strong motivational tool is to hold ourselves accountable by telling someone else we are going to do something and when we are going to do it. This may not seem like it would be very effective, but on a psychological level, we feel more compelled to do something if we tell someone else.

Prioritization

It is an act of allocating time where it is most needed and assigning specific time for tasks based on their identified need or values. For example, if you have a paper due tomorrow and a quiz in three weeks. What do you prioritize? The paper, as it is due first. Students must identify their priorities to successfully manage time. So how do you identify your priorities?

Make Certain You Understand the Requirements of Each Task

One of the best ways to make good decisions about the prioritization of tasks is to understand the requirements of each. If you have multiple assignments to complete and you assume one of those assignments will only take an hour, you may decide to put it off until the others are finished. Your assumption could be disastrous if you find, once you begin the assignment, that there are several extra components that you did not account for and the time to complete will be four times as long as you estimated. Or, one of the assignments may be dependent on the results of another—like participating in a study and then writing a report on the results. If you are not aware that one assignment depends upon the completion of the other before you begin, you could inadvertently do the assignments out of order and have to start over. Because of situations like this, it is critically important to understand exactly what needs to be done to complete a task before you determine its priority.

Make Decisions on Importance, Impact on Other Priorities, and Urgency

After you are aware of the requirements for each task, you can then decide your priorities based on the importance of the task and what things need to be finished in which order.

To summarize: the key components to prioritization are making certain you understand each task and making decisions based on importance, impact, and urgency.

Knowing How You Will Get It Done

After you have a clear understanding of what needs to be done to complete a task (or the parts of a task), the next step is to create a plan for completing everything.

This may not be as easy or as simple as declaring that you will finish part one, then move on to part two, and so on. Each component may need different resources or skills to complete, and it is in your best interest to identify those ahead of time and include them as part of your plan.

What follows is a planning list that can help you think about and prepare for the tasks you are about to begin.

1. What resources will you need?  Resources are not limited to physical objects such as pen and paper but also include information, it can be a critical resource as well. One of the most often overlooked aspects in planning by new college students is just how much research, reading, and information they will need to complete assignments.
2. What skills will you need? Poor planning or a bad assumption in this area can be disastrous, especially if some part of the task has a steep learning curve. No matter how well you planned the other parts of the project, if there is some skill needed that you do not have and you have no idea how long it will take to learn, it can be a bad situation. An example could be using a specific program to create a video for an assignment , or using a computer software to create a poster.
3. Set Deadlines  Of course, the best way to approach time management is to set realistic deadlines that take into account which elements are dependent on which others and the order in which they should be completed.
4. Be Flexible It is ironic that the item on this list that comes just after a strong encouragement to make deadlines and stick to them is the suggestion to be flexible. The reason that being flexible has made this list is because even the best-laid plans and most accurate time management efforts can take an unexpected turn. The idea behind being flexible is to readjust your plans and deadlines when something does happen to throw things off. The worst thing you could do in such a situation is panic or just stop working because the next step in your careful planning has suddenly become a roadblock. The moment when you see that something in your plan may become an issue is when to begin readjusting your plan.

The Importance of Where You Do Your Work

A large part of ensuring that you can complete tasks on time comes in setting up conditions that will allow you to do the work well. Much of this has to do with the environment where you will do your work. This not only includes physical space such as a work area, but other conditions like being free from distractions and your physical well-being and mental attitude.

1. Right Space
2. Distraction Free
3. Working at the Right Time

Take Notes/Ask Questions/Ask for Help