How To Avoid Procrastination As An Undergraduate Student

Are you an undergraduate student who is fond of procrastination? Do you get lazy and do things immediately instead of waiting until later? If your answer to these questions is YES, this article is for you. Ensure to read to the end.

This article will guide you and give you useful tips to eliminate procrastination from your life. It will also furnish you with practical examples to emulate.

What Is Procrastination?

Procrastination has been defined in various ways by several authors. The simplest definition is intentionally putting off something that should be done immediately for a later time.

You often find yourself shifting responsibilities and activities you are supposed to do immediately for a later time. More often than not, you end up not carrying out the activity or finding yourself under unnecessary pressure to get it done.

For undergraduate students, procrastination is mainly associated with deadlines. In many cases, students are given activities or responsibilities such as class assignments, payment of school fees, registration of courses, etc.

These activities often come with a defined deadline to get them done. When you keep on postponing doing the activity, the days keep trickling by until the deadline approaches. This often puts one under undue pressure to finish things quickly.

Causes Of Procrastination

There are several possible causes of procrastination. The following are some of the most common causes:

• Laziness:

This is the most likely cause of procrastination. You often find yourself “too tired” or uninterested to finish things at that moment. This is not usually because you are carrying out any other activity but because you believe time is still available to do the task later.

• Indiscipline:

This is often the inability of a student to stick to a schedule or plans. You usually make excellent plans to carry out tasks quickly so as not to pile them up. However, you find yourself postponing such tasks to a later time.

This is the hallmark of indiscipline in a student. Without a justifiable excuse, activities that should be carried out immediately are often postponed. This is not helpful to an undergraduate student’s progress.

• Lack Of Good Planning:

This is another major cause of procrastination. It goes with the saying, “He who fails to plan plans to fail.” As an undergraduate, you cannot afford not to make good daily plans for how to go about daily school activities.

Every student should make decisive plans to help them carry out school work and other activities more efficiently. When you fail to make good plans, you live aimlessly and often postpone activities that should have been carried out immediately.

Tips To Take In Avoiding Procrastination As An Undergraduate Student

As an undergraduate student who intends to eliminate procrastination from my daily lifestyle, the following will serve as valuable tips to help defeat procrastination. You need to:

• Be Intentional About Eliminating Procrastination:

Everyone who wants to get anything done must have sheer determination and zeal to make progress. It would be best if you built up your mind to eliminate the nemesis called procrastination. Reading this article to this point is a good indicator of your zeal to change, and as such, you must strive to maintain this zeal.

• Make Daily Plans And Work Towards Achieving Them:

Getting rid of procrastination may take a bit of time if you have been addicted to it. You have to take baby steps, one day at a time, to reverse the psychological impacts of this attitude.

As an undergraduate, you should have a vision board on which you write down your daily goals. Write down everything you intend to do for that particular day, including the time you expect to get it done. This daily planning will help you better strategize which activities take utmost priority.

• Be Focused And Disciplined:

To get any task done at the right time, you must develop the focus and discipline needed to achieve your goals. You must ensure that you stand up from your bed and work when you are supposed to do so.

For instance, if you are given a class assignment on Monday to be submitted on Friday, you need not wait until Thursday night to complete it. You should, however, start the assignment right away so that you can complete it by Wednesday at the earliest.

See Also:

How To Balance Your Business And Academics As A Student

• Be Mindful Of Deadlines:

Procrastination has denied many students lifetime opportunities. It often comes with a cost that could be severe at times. Therefore, you must plan to avert this. Get a journal and write down all the tasks you need to carry out, along with their deadlines.

Keeping track of your expected deadlines will help you prioritize activities. For example, if you are applying for a scholarship or planning to register for your courses, you should affix the deadlines to your weekly plan book to ensure that those with closer deadlines receive the utmost priority.

• Set Personal Deadlines:

Setting personal deadlines, which could be days or weeks before the actual deadline, is a good step in eliminating procrastination. Working towards meeting your deadline gives you room for manoeuvrability if you cannot complete all tasks.

It ensures that before the actual deadline comes around, you have completed the task effectively.

By applying the above tips, you can successfully eliminate procrastination from your lifestyle. I hope you enjoyed the read.

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