College students have very busy schedules and often feel overwhelmed living under constant pressure to complete numerous assignments on time. But when you have to juggle many responsibilities and feel tired and stressed, it is not easy to stay motivated to work hard, and as a result, some students tend to procrastinate during their study sessions.
Although procrastination is a common problem, there are effective ways to overcome it. Here are some important tips on how to avoid procrastination when doing your assignments and stay motivated.
Get Organized
If you don’t remember the dates when each assignment is due or which exams you have coming up, you can easily get confused and feel stressed. And that typically leads to procrastination. So you need to create a detailed schedule, plan ahead when you will work on each of your tasks, and stick to it. This way, you’ll feel more confident that everything is under your control and be more productive.
Here are some tips on how you can get organized:
- Create to-do lists and include all the assignments you have to complete
- Write all the important things down and don’t rely on your memory
- Note all the important dates in a calendar
- Make a plan for the next day every evening
- Put all study materials for each class in a separate folder
- Declutter your desk once a week
Set Small Goals
It’s really hard to stay motivated if you are working to achieve a big goal, such as completing a lengthy-term paper that requires a lot of time and effort on doing extensive research, making a good outline, and writing chapters.
One of the most effective ways to get yourself motivated to do coursework projects is dividing the arduous assignments into small chunks. It may be daunting to think about finishing the entire academic paper, but it’s much easier to get down to work when your task for today is creating a paper outline.
So every time you sit down to study, set a specific and achievable goal for what you want to learn during that time. That will make the task manageable, and you will be able to increase your productivity and feel less stressed.
Reward Yourself
Create a system to reward yourself for your study efforts, which will help you feel good about studying effectively. When you set yourself a goal to finish a particular project by the end of the week, don’t forget to assign a small reward for when you hit that goal. Take a moment for yourself after an accomplishment.
According to science, positive rewards reinforce our behaviors and decisions, so they will improve our study focus. Anyone is more likely to work harder if they know they will get a reward upon the completion of the project. Rewards will keep you energized through the process of working on your college tasks and will help you avoid procrastination.
It doesn’t mean that your reward should be something huge or costly. Choose something enjoyable that will make you feel good, for example, reward yourself with a longer break and watch your favorite TV show, meet your friends, give yourself 30 minutes to listen to your favorite music, go for a walk in nature, or take a relaxing bath. Such rewards will help keep your physical and mental health in order. They will make it easier to stick with a habit of studying effectively.
Focus on Progress and Not on Perfection
Many students procrastinate because they strive for perfection. They keep putting off their assignment until the last minute because they are obsessed with it being just right. Trying to be perfect in everything is pointless because you are unlikely to complete your task perfectly. It will be enough if you just do your best. So you should focus on progress and improvement that will get you closer to achieving your study goals, and try to make it a habit.
But it’s also important to be kind to yourself. Don’t rely on self-criticism and negative self-talk to force yourself to study because it will lead to stress and anxiety. Positivity is the key to stay motivated and study effectively.
