There are many causes of procrastination, and as many solutions to it. It seems strange that with all the abundance of information available on this problem, it would not exist anymore. However, with the growing number of distractions every year, the issue only keeps exacerbating.

In this article I will explain the roots of procrastination and how to fight it effectively. Hopefully, it will inspire you not to postpone on your homework anymore, but actually do it now.

What Is the Reason?

People postpone for miscellaneous reasons. It is very important to pinpoint your own rationale, so that you can fight the cause and not the consequence.

Some may feel like they are simply not smart enough or not hard-working enough to finish the assignment. Because of such low-esteem issues, they will never even start, avoiding the task as if it was some ailment.

There are those who do not find the assignment rewarding. In many cases, it is that class which they have to take for graduation that they do not like at all. There are students who are just not capable of ignoring the outside stimuli like a new video game or a funny video their friend just posted.

Sometimes your deadline is so far in the future that you just cannot take it seriously. However, when it finally arrives, it is too late to produce any kind of good content.

How to Deal with It?

After you figure out your personal problem with procrastination, it is high time to choose a strategy for combating it. Of course, it will depend on the issue you revealed.

For instance, if you doubt your intelligence, it is best for you to reach out for the outside opinion from your friends and family. You are usually your worst critic, but your thoughts are not the objective reality. Simply sharing your concerns can go a long way in boosting your morale and inspiriting you to sit down and finish that nagging homework.

It is much harder to bring yourself to work, if you do not see any value in it. In a situation like that it is hard to make the reward more appealing. Thus, you can either create some extraneous award like watching a movie or playing a video game to make yourself speed up with the assignment or you can add more fun to it. Get yourself a nice cup of coffee and a clean table. It will help you stay more focused and not be as revolted by the task at hand.

If you are too easily distracted, block all the outside stimuli with apps like Cold Turkey or Forest. Pomadoro is also a useful tool for those who are having a hard time staying focused for some time. Concentrating for 25 minutes may seem like a piece of cake, but it is a decent amount of time to get in the flow and stop slacking. With long deadlines, it is useful to break the assignment into chunks and set times to complete each of them. Thus, you won’t have to do everything in the last night.

Conclusion

You are not alone with this problem. Every day thousands of students all over the world are struggling to tackle procrastination. Transform your work into a more fun enterprise, a bit more like a video game. Never settle for less.