011. Welcome to the Procrastination Station
There has to be some cure to procrastination. Honestly, I keep putting things off and it’s so bad. It’s not that what I have to do is hard, but everything else (youtube, tumblr, facebook, bbm etc) is so much more interesting! How do people concentrate in university? If you know how, please pass your amazing knowledge on. I would really appreciate it. That way I could accomplish things and then have fun lurking browsing around the internet. This is my official SOS to the world. Come rescue me!
1 comment
1 Eastwood { 09.28.10 at 8:18 pm }
What are we putting off? Let’s start with the “why” and examine the causes behind our procrastination. Is it because we are not interested in what needs to be done? Why is that? Is it because studying is not intrinsically motivating or is it simply because we’re unable to concentrate?
According to Lazarus, stress is experienced when “environmental or internal demands tax or exceed the individual’s resources for managing them.” I used to procrastinate a lot in first year: for a long time, I had difficulties with time management and figuring out my priorities. I think my procrastination back then — to the point where I would stay up late and simply do nothing, resulting in my sleeping in the next day — was a manifestation of poor coping. That is, there were so many changes in my life, so many rather dull subjects which I had to learn but did not enjoy, so many stressors that I resorted to coping ineffectively through putting things off till tomorrow.
Procrastination is a vicious cycle. It’s a poor coping technique because we feel bad at it, because it gives us more stress.
How to break the cycle? Easy. Understand why we’re here. We’re here not only to learn but also to discover ourselves during the process. Learning with passion helps. But the textbooks are so dull to read, one may suggest. No worries: reward yourself by finishing your reading for the day. I think it’s also crucial that we eliminate distractions. That is: don’t study in the bedroom, but at the library. Don’t bring the laptop and turn off the cell phone while studying. While we’re at it, perhaps we could bring a leisure read to the library: use it as a means of “procrastinating” effectively. That is, finish reading a chapter of the textbook and then read a favourite novel for fifteen minutes, or something like that.
At the end of the day, I think starting with the “why” — understanding why we’re here and why it is that we put things off — and eliminating distractions are key to academic success. Speaking of which, check out the CLASS conference: http://class.ubc.ca
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