Too often, students find themselves scrolling on TikTok mindlessly, texting friends or binging a Netflix TV show, all in order to procrastinate the homework and study they should be doing. Whilst procrastination can be a difficult obstacle to overcome, with the right mindset and a few helpful strategies, you can learn how to stay on track and achieve all of your study goals.
Before we get into these strategies, it is important to briefly address why procrastination impacts many students. First, students sometimes feel overwhelmed by large tasks that they have to complete and so they put off starting their homework or assignments because it appears to be too daunting. Also, students may feel unmotivated with their study if they do not have clear goals. These barriers can be worked through with some of the below strategies:
1. Break down large tasks into smaller, concrete goals. For example, if you have to work on writing an English essay that is due in two weeks, separate the task into brainstorming ideas about the question, collecting relevant notes and quotes, writing an introduction, writing body paragraphs etc. This way, you can assign when you want to have each smaller goal achieved by and it gives you a sense of accomplishment to tick off each small goal that you have completed.
2. Set yourself a study timer. If you are feeling particularly unmotivated one day, set yourself a 20 minute timer to work on a task and then take a short break afterwards. Once you keep repeating the process, you will likely find yourself wanting to work for slightly longer periods. Working in these short bursts over a few hours in an afternoon means you are keeping consistent with your study!
3. Set goals with your tutor. Especially with HSC students, setting goals with tutors helps to keep students accountable and on track with their study.
Overall, I recommend for all students to try a range of different strategies to work out what works best for them to ensure that they are not procrastinating so that all study goals can be achieved whilst still taking meaningful breaks!
Kristina McLean