Study

10 Ways to Give Procrastination a Bypass

Forget fear. Toss out time constraints. When you put things off, it’s rarely about these things.

You’re much more likely to procrastinate when your assignment isn’t interesting, when it’s limited in scope, and when you don’t have clear instructions.

Even group work changes your attitude. You’re more likely to stall for time over collaborative tasks compared with working on your own.

photo by mar.al

photo by mar.al

Procrastination isn’t a simple beast. There are many reasons behind it. Even when you know you’re doing it, the way to recover from procrastination isn’t always obvious.

But don’t panic, there is hope! Check out these ten tips to turn procrastination into productivity. Don’t take any more risks, act now!

  1. Find an angle to suit you – There were times when I was trudging through the most boring texts, so I tried to find ways to make it more exciting. True, that can be difficult at times and I didn’t always manage it. But when I did, I was much happier putting the work in. If you can pull something out the bag, do it and watch everything fall into place more easily.
  2. Beat the bore – When you simply can’t find an interesting angle, move past the yawn by forcing yourself to work for a really short time.
    Promise yourself 10 – 15 minutes. Just get started and see where it takes you. When you begin, it’s easier to keep going. You never know, you may even find something that takes your interest by then!
  3. Don’t look at what is necessary. Look at what is possible! – Working out the bare minimum you can get away with is actually a recipe for procrastination. The moment you artificially restrict yourself, you’re telling yourself to work less. No wonder it feels easier to put things off.
    Instead of closing down your options, stretch yourself further. By framing the task this way, you’ll do yourself a massive favour.
  4. Keep trying to understand the task until you really do – We’ve all had that moment of doom when we don’t have a clue what’s expected of us. The temptation to put it off is strong, because it’s easier to bury your head in the sand than to attempt what you don’t understand.
    Better than either tactic, however, is to ask for clarification. If nobody on your course is sure (or you don’t understand/trust their explanations), explain to your tutor what you’re struggling with. Don’t leave it at “I don’t understand what you want”, but try to explain what you think is expected and ask them to clarify where you’re uncertain. The sooner you know where you’re headed, the sooner you’re likely to move in that direction.
  5. Clear your head – With too much going on around you, it’s not the best environment to work in. Even locked in your own room, a smart phone is a gateway to the world and untold treasures. An Internet connection takes you wherever you want. Music can consume you.
    Sometimes you just need to breathe.
    Short bursts of meditation can help you work on tasks with more focus and clarity of mind. If you set aside an hour to work and find the hour slips away with nothing done, schedule another hour and meditate for 20 minutes first. Work for the remaining 40 minutes. Do this meditation two or three times a week. A smart phone may be a gateway to the world, but meditation may be a gateway to your mind.
  6. Clear your social calendar – Some deadlines may feel reasonable, but they are very rarely unworkable. If time is strapped to the point that you even cannot schedule time to study, you’re doing too much. This isn’t procrastination (unless you deliberately over-scheduled!). This is trying to do too many things.
    You’re at uni for many reasons. One of those reasons is to complete your degree. If you’re not in the right position to do that, you may have to change your position and give up on some of your other commitments.
  7. Be wary of ‘unequal’ task setting in long-term assignments – O’Donoghue and Rabin argue:
    “When the costs of completing different stages [of a project] are more unequal, procrastination is more likely, and it is when later stages are more costly that people start but don’t finish projects.”
    Dissertations have unequal elements, because some areas will require more time than others. However, by boxing those elements as if they are a ‘task’ to complete, you may dread the time when longer ‘tasks’ arrive. Instead, set time out differently.
    Break things down further. Find an equality to the tasks you are dishing out within the overall project. You may need to write Chapter 3, but it’s not helpful putting ‘Write Chapter 3’ on your to-do list. Keep breaking it down until you can visualise the tasks at hand and have a grasp on what you need to do to complete them.
  8. See the difference between team assignments and individual projects – Gafni and Geri studied 160 MBA students and found that individual deadlines were more likely to be less problematic than group deadlines. Even when an individual task was voluntary, students were punctual. With group deadlines, tasks were more likely to be left until much nearer the last minute. If the group task was voluntary, it was often not completed at all.
    Is collective procrastination easier to fall into? Next time you’re faced with a group assignment, take individual responsibility. Make it about you first and make it about the group once you get into gear.
  9. Set your own deadlines – Your assignment may not be due for a couple of months. The procrastinator in you may tell you, “Don’t worry, there’s plenty of time to do that. Forget about it. Even when there’s just a fortnight left, you’ll have enough time. Go on, you already have enough on your plate”.
    Simply leaving everything until later is not best practice for effective work. And you can manage your time far better than that.
    Keep a rough schedule diary for the semester/term at the very least. Then give yourself your own deadlines for work, much earlier than that official date.
  10. Ask “Why am I doing this?” – When the work becomes a blur of pointlessness, you’re likely to procrastinate just the same as when you’re bored. Find a reference point to help you hold on to why you’re working on this assignment. It may be a long-term reason, it may be a short-term reason, but whatever you make of it, your aim is to give clear reason behind your study.
    “If the process isn’t getting you the outcome you want, you need to change the process.” – Mike Reeves-McMillan

Want to look a bit further into combating procrastination? Here are a couple more related links:

Are you asking enough questions?

Last week, I talked about understanding questions as a whole and then breaking them down into parts. Both stages are in order for you to get as much meaning from a question as possible.

Questions are important. You need to understand questions, answer questions, and ask questions.

photo by e-magic
photo by e-magic

Assignments go beyond asking how much information you can remember on a topic. Assignment questions also require you to:

  • create an argument;
  • weigh up different views;
  • provide examples and workings, as opposed to regurgitations;
  • demonstrate understanding of the topics under discussion.

It’s easy to get stuck on key topic words that you have a lot of knowledge on. But dig deeper and you’ll notice more to the question. The closer you come to answering the question clearly, deeply, and effectively, the more likely your grade (and enjoyment!) will benefit.

Look for:

  • What’s being asked of you – Does the question ask you to discuss, compare, analyse, argue, evaluate…? The question is probably worded so that you should talk about what you know, but relate to why that’s the case and explain how it could be different or why people have different theories on the matter.
  • Specific focus points – Some questions can be vague, but many ask you to concentrate on a particular feature to base your answer on. You may also notice the question is guiding you to frame your answer in a certain context, such as a single culture, time period, object, opinion, text, and so on.
  • Leading words and phrases – For example, you may be asked to analyse the benefits of something. This is not an invitation to lavish praise upon the subject. To analyse the benefits means to weigh up, to argue whether they really are benefits, and to discuss alternatives. You aren’t being asked a trick question, but you do need to show awareness that there is more than one side to any story. You are welcome to have an opinion on the matter, so long as you explain why you have reached that conclusion and show why you don’t share the same enthusiasm for the alternatives. You’re not stating right/wrong, yes/no, good/bad answers. Instead, you’re reaching a conclusion after exploring the topic.

You also need to ask a lot of questions. Unanswered questions, questions that arise from your study, and questioning assumptions.

Even after you’ve written up a good draft of an essay and you’re happy with it, read through the draft again. Ask yourself — and try to answer — these 15 questions throughout your draft:

  1. How did I come to say that?
  2. Have I backed this up?
  3. Can I say this any clearer?
  4. Does this point follow on?
  5. Should I give more detail here?
  6. Does this assume something I haven’t mentioned?
  7. Does this need referencing?
  8. Will a relevant quotation and/or summary help before I move on?
  9. Is this relevant to the question/title?
  10. Could my main point be made more prominently?
  11. Am I making sense here?
  12. Am I being critical or opinionated?
  13. Does this require an example or demonstration?
  14. Has there been a more recent development?
  15. Is something missing?

These questions are simple enough to make you think, and challenging enough to make you respond. If you’re not asking these questions about your writing, answer this question: Why not?

Always check what you’re being asked to do

I learned an important lesson at school that stayed with me throughout my time at university.

My Home Economics teacher announced to class that, as a change of plan, everyone would be completing a short test during the lesson. We had planned on doing some baking that day, so the alternative was a rough deal. I could make a mean flapjack…

“Don’t worry,” said the teacher. “Maybe we’ll still make stuff after the test. There should be time…”

When the paper was handed out, the teacher said we could start and she told us to read through all the questions first so we understood what we were being asked to do. Naturally, we were more concerned with finishing the test as quickly as possible. So when the time started, we raced off.

photo by Cathdew
photo by Cathdew

The test didn’t seem too hard. Slightly bizarre, but not difficult:

  1. Read through this test.
  2. Write today’s date at the top of the page.
  3. Write your name in any corner of the page.
  4. What is 100 minus 99?
  5. Touch your nose for 5 seconds.
  6. Get out of your chair, jump up twice, and sit down again.
  7. Draw a circle in the middle of the page.
  8. Wave your arms in the air.

And the list went on like this over a couple of pages. The tasks got increasingly lengthy and ridiculous. And before long, the entire class was all over the place and laughing at each other.

But some people grew suspicious and confused. Instead of carrying on, more and more of us started to read through the test. The final task said, “To complete this test, you only need to complete the first task. Everything else is irrelevant. Thanks for reading through the test first.”

The teacher wasn’t trying to make fun of the class. She said that it may have been a laugh, but there was a serious point: It pays to check what you are being asked to do. If you don’t truly know what’s being asked, how can you be sure you’re on the right track?

From that point, I understood the importance of treating essay and exam questions as seriously as the answers. Your assignments aren’t likely to have tricks like the one I’ve described, but it shows how easily you can end up answering the wrong question and lose big marks as a result.

So what do you do?

  • Don’t rush in – Always allow a few moments to take in and read through questions and requirements.
  • Don’t look for key words in isolation – You’re unlikely to be asked to write everything you know about a particular word or subject, so take the question as a whole before you do anything else.
  • Now break the question down into pieces – When you understand the full question (and only once you do), dissect it for clues and pointers. Have you been given a specific target to frame your answer? Does the question ask you to discuss, evaluate, compare, examine, demonstrate…?
  • Look for vague comments and anything that’s open to question – Practically nothing can be boiled down to a right or wrong answer. If you can spot a flaw or anything that’s open to interpretation, it may hold the key to how you should answer. Academic writing usually involves explanations and conclusions, but it also involves asking many more questions in return.
  • If in doubt, ask your tutor – This may not be possible in exam conditions, but for other coursework and class assignments, it’s better to ask for clarification before you rush ahead.

I don’t think I ever thanked my Home Economics teacher for giving us that test. It may not have improved my flapjack recipe, but it was still a great recipe for success…

Why being ‘involved’ is so important to learning

How much do you care about your degree?

Seriously. When you’re given an assignment, how does it make you feel? Excited? Interested? Antsy to start reading up on things?

Or do you ignore it? Dread it? Groan at another piece of work hanging around your neck?

Your degree may be in a subject you love, but the work itself may not automatically grab you.

This post will explain why you need to get more involved and how to become more involved than the average punter without breaking into a sweat.

photo by *(xava du)
photo by *(xava du)

True involvement in what you’re doing gets you feeling positive about the work you’re set. You’ll know you’re involved, because you’ll want to look beyond the task and constantly challenge your own assumptions. Not only does it feel good, but the work won’t feel such a drag either.

Interested yet?

Good. So — other than the above reasons that are awesome anyway — here’s why being involved in what you are learning is crucial to getting a grip of everything, including your grade:

  • Sparks natural interest – You go from consuming information to engaging with it. You start to do ask more questions. Greater depth brings with it greater curiosity. Without this involvement, it’s easy to give up at the sheer amount of detail covered. Once you become involved, you look forward to what’s next.
  • Natural flow, as opposed to letting off a firehose – As your involvement grows deeper, so does the constant rhythm of your work. Think for a second about the last minute essay rush that we all know too well. Days, even weeks, of nothing suddenly turn into a mad dash to meet deadline in a day. Intense pressure!
    Luckily, all that becomes a thing of the past when involvement grows. Procrastination isn’t entirely banished, but the monster is less likely to call on you.
  • Desire to query things at face value – Not satisfied with a basic answer (or perhaps ANY answer), the involved scholar isn’t satisfied without more detail. This isn’t out of spite or to trip anyone up; it’s because your personal focus on the subject is growing deeper.
  • Desire to seek out and create answers – You won’t stop at questions. The more you become involved, the more you’ll become a natural researcher for the topic. Far from being overwhelmed by it all, increased involvement makes the work a breeze. Ish. 😉
  • Opportunities present themselves more freely – You’ll look out for new things, next steps, and the latest information. It’ll feel like everything is coming to you. But you create your own luck. You just won’t have noticed your own hard work.
  • Others notice your enthusiasm and want to take things further – Take involvement all the way and you’ll get seen. Perhaps stuff *will* start coming to you before you seek it out! There’s no limit to how involved you could become. So what if you’re only an undergraduate? Who cares if you’re a Fresher? These days, you’re encouraged to start everything early for your future prospects. So jump in. Get involved. Do it right away.

How do you build up the inclination to be involved to this extent?

First off, shape what you do to reflect what you want out of life. If you have no big and bold reason staring you in the face, you won’t see the point. When you see relationships between doing and achieving, you care more convincingly.

Don’t sell yourself short. Here’s how to get more involved in whatever you like. It doesn’t have to be your degree, but that’s as good a place as any to start. Especially on this blog!

  • Write down what you want from this – Armed with this information, you have a proper idea why you need to do it. It’s not good enough to have a vague idea about the future (though a bit a vagueness can help in other ways). Note down the deeper meaning behind the work. Even the most enviable lifestyle requires moments of boredom and annoyance. Keep your eyes focused on the bigger picture to cope with these moments.
  • Frame it as a time-saving exercise – Look again at all the reasons why greater involvement is so awesome. Time and again, it’s because involvement helps everything feel natural. Increased focus doesn’t automatically require more time in the long run. Dedicated initial effort brings huge time savings. The hardest part is sometimes simply starting off.
  • Think long-term – As with the previous point, good beginnings are slightly more intense, but pay off many times over as you carry on. A short-term view means a hard slog rather than a light load. Look ahead and let your involvement grow with ease.
  • A light load still equals heavyweight commitment – You have to want to be involved for things to work out. No matter how long-term you project, and regardless of how much time you think you’ll save, you still need to be totally behind what you’re doing. Without true dedication to the subject itself, the momentum simply won’t develop.

There is an element of training yourself into an attitude here. While that might sound a bit forced, it isn’t all that frustrating. Above everything, give due importance to what is being asked of you, and recognise that the most you can get out of your experience is only ever less than or equal to what you gave in the first place. Short of giving you the answers, no amount of academic hand holding can help you if you don’t put the effort in yourself.

I don’t expect you want your hand held too much anyway.

Getting from A to B, obstructions will always litter your path. That’s why you need solid reasons why you’re travelling to point B. If it’s only in order to reach point C, you won’t give point B time of day. And when you finally reach point B, you won’t be thinking about point C because you’ll be looking forward to point D.

Life is full of pathways, but the adventure starts from the moment you set off. The more involved you are in that adventure, the more you can achieve.