Tips to Overcome Procrastination in School
byElizabeth Preston
5 min to read
While some studies estimate that up to 87 percent of high school and college students engage in some degree of procrastination, it is ultimately a habit that can impede academic success, reduce mental happiness, and cause physical distress—including increased fatigue, headaches, anxiety, and depression.
Here are some tips for procrastination that will help students learn how to focus and stop procrastinating.
Identify the Cause of Procrastination
Procrastination is a symptom of a problem. This means that you need to identify what is causing the procrastination before you can figure out a solution that will work long-term.
Oftentimes, procrastination is not because of laziness. Rather, student procrastination is frequently symptomatic of a student feeling exhausted, overworked, anxious about failing, or fearful of receiving criticism.
Procrastination can also be the result of a student being confused about the work. Perhaps they don’t understand the directions. Or maybe they don’t know where to begin on an assignment because it seems overwhelming or confusing.
Being aware of the “why” behind procrastination will help you learn how to get yourself to stop procrastinating.
Break Down Tasks into Manageable Chunks
Breaking down an assignment into small, manageable chunks can help to deemphasize the work’s magnitude and make it feel less intimidating and anxiety-inducing, which will help your student focus and stop procrastinating.
If the task is to write a five-page paper and a student feels as if they need to complete the paper all at once, then the enormity of that paper can feel crushing to a student. However, if the student breaks down that paper into ideas or paragraphs (i.e., write two paragraphs at a time or tackle a particular idea), then it can feel much more manageable.
The same principle goes for deadlines. Instead of focusing on the final deadline, break up the assignment into multiple deadlines. For instance, if your student is assigned to read three chapters of biology to study for their test by a certain date, then encourage them to work backwards and give themselves multiple deadlines by which to have the reading done. Maybe they can have the first chapter read two weeks before the test, the second chapter read a week-and-a-half before the test, and then the third chapter read one week before the test.
Estimate Time for Tasks and Then Plan
Be realistic about how long completing each assignment is going to take. Write that estimation next to each assignment and then schedule times to complete these tasks. This will help your student be realistic about their workload.
Students may even want to write out the time estimation for each of the steps necessary to complete their assignments.
For instance, if your student has a research paper due, then the steps would be to research, outline, draft the paper, and make revisions/proofread. Perhaps researching will take three hours, outlining will take two hours, writing the introduction will take 20 minutes (remember, we’re breaking up big assignments into small steps), writing about the first aspect of the paper will take two hours, writing about the second aspect will take another two hours, writing the conclusion will take 30 minutes, and then making revisions and proofreading the paper will take one hour.
Now that they have the estimated time for each step, they can plan and schedule time to complete these tasks while taking into account their other commitments as well as when they are the most productive during the day.
Prioritize Tasks
Encourage your student to work on the assignment that is due the soonest and focus on that one task instead of trying to tackle all their deadlines at once.
For example, if they have a science project due in two weeks but a Spanish test in two days, then they might not want to worry about the science project right now. Instead, prioritize tasks by focusing on the Spanish test only and then tackling the science project after the test will help them to focus and stop procrastinating.
Also, as they prioritize their tasks, they should write down what they need to do on a piece of paper or in a planner and mark off the tasks as they are completed. At the end of the day, they will be able to see how much they have accomplished and what they have left to do.
Work in a Distraction-Free Zone
Distractions fuel student procrastination. So, one way to combat procrastination is to eliminate as many distractions as possible. Find a place that is low-traffic and quiet, and put away electronic devices that are not necessary to complete the assignment.
Use a Reward System and Take Breaks
Having a reward system can make seemingly boring tasks have meaning for students.
For instance, if a student is bored by a math assignment, then instilling a reward system can make doing the math assignment feel “worth it” and can motivate the student to complete the assignment in order to receive the reward.
The reward can be something tangible but can also be a break from the work. So, for instance, if a student works for 30 minutes on their math assignment, then they can reward themselves by doing something they enjoy for 15 minutes.
Having a reward system will ultimately give your student’s brain the necessary rest for them to stay motivated, to focus, and to stop procrastinating. You can create a reward system that suits their interests and schedule, or you can try out different work-break techniques such as the Pomodoro technique.
Play around with different techniques, work-break combinations, organizational tools, and schedules to find what works best for your student. Even changing up their current routine or environment could help shake them out of the cycle to stop procrastinating.
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