By Srabon Nath
Whether you admit it or not, you probably have procrastinated before. For some people,
it’s more common than others. But everyone knows the feeling of not being able to start a task
until it’s late at night and they have a hard deadline the next day. This usually leads to sleeping
very late and messing up your schedule for the next day. This can be especially deadly during
college and in the workplace, where your ability to finish work is really important.
One important thing to do is make use of to-do lists and calendars. You probably had a
late night doing work, where you promised yourself that you weren’t going to procrastinate the
next day. However, this usually doesn’t work, and to make it work, you have to take action. If you
know you have a busy day ahead of you, make a list of all your tasks and spread it out over the
day. By doing this you have an idea of what you have to do and when you have to do it.
Otherwise, all your work will seem very overwhelming and you will be too afraid to start doing it.
Another important tip is to make sure your work environment is suitable. It’s extremely easy
to procrastinate when you do your work in bed surrounded by different electronics. Move all your
distractions away from you so that they aren’t easy to access. Also, turn off all notifications. If
you receive a notification every second, it is no surprise why you’re suddenly spending hours
responding to all your messages. Make your workplace a clean environment where you have
only work around you.
Most people procrastinate because they have so much work that it seems almost
daunting to even start it. To solve this, take action on something that is doable in a few minutes.
Do something as simple as responding to emails from work or even turning your computer on.
Taking small actions such as this will start a chain reaction where you continue to do work
because you’re so focused on what you’re doing that you don’t think about how much work you
have left.
Most people who have a really busy day ahead of them and also don’t want to fall victim
to procrastination tend to do something that is actually detrimental to their work. They try to work non-stop without any breaks in hopes that they will finish their work. However, what usually
happens is that after an hour or so, they burn out and start procrastinating again. Breaks are as
important as doing work. Taking a 5-minute break is fine after an intense period of work. (Just
make sure that you time your breaks so that they don’t turn into a 3-hour break) There are many
ways to do it and one popular technique is the Pomodoro technique. Here you work non-stop for
25 minutes and take a break for 5 minutes. After doing a few of these 25-minute work periods,
you can increase the time for your break. This usually gets more done.