tips to fight procrastination
we’ve all been there - that awful feeling when your brain gets hazy, your body heavy, and all you can really do is lie in bed berating yourself. here are some tried and true methods I use to get back to work:
Use a physical activity to reset. Dump all your study materials in a corner and forget about them for 5-10 minutes. Listen to the loudest/most inspiring music you can find, vacuum your room, take a shower. Something that overwhelms the senses and starts your system going. Yesterday, I was in a slump post-breakfast and used BTS’s Don’t Leave Me to reset, and it worked perfectly (I alternate between rock, kpop and musical soundtracks). It doesn’t have to be motivating, as long as it’s energetic and emotional enough to break out of the haze. Dancing to them is even better.
Get out of the bed by breaking down each step. I’m a morning person until the weather gets colder and the bed’s too toasty to get away from. First thing, I try to break down the process - get the blanket off me, sit up, swing my legs over the bed, stand up (or roll off, like I do sometimes when it’s particularly difficult to leave). Breaking it up into the smallest chunks and just going step by step works wonders - whether you’re still sleepy or in a funk.
Get out of bed by setting a time when you wake up. I usually wait for a good number to get out (say I wake up at 8.24am, so the time I’ll be using is 8.30am). The trick is to start moving before it gets to 8.30am; by 8.28am I’m pushing myself up and rolling off the edge - it’s kind of a fun little thing to race against myself and be out before 8.30am. Note: always get out as fast as possible. Don’t even let yourself think about how nice and warm the bed is; when you’re awake you should move, or else you’ll be stuck for the next 2 hours.
Dress for the occasion. Particularly during breaks, or by virtue of being in university, you might find yourself at home a lot. I’m fortunate enough to have a nice enough room to do work in, so I end up staying at home for 1-3 days straight studying, writing, cooking, etc. It might be tempting to be in PJs throughout, but this just puts you in comfort mode literally all the time, and is counterproductive when what you want is to get in The Zone. Brush your teeth, shower, have breakfast, then change into something cute, make a tea or cup of coffee, and get to work.
The first step to writing almost anything should be a brain dump. I’m studying a essay-heavy course, and the biggest thing that makes me spend a whole week on a single 3000-word essay draft instead of 2-3 days is the fact that I always feel like I need to read every single thing I can find on the topic, organise that information, and then start. That’s incredibly demoralising and just the perfect reason to procrastinate. Instead of that, I’ve learnt to type out the essay question on a blank document, and then approach it as if it was my professor putting me on the spot and asking me the question in a lecture or class. If you have no idea what the question means, limit yourself to googling the definitions of certain terms, but don’t check for sources yet. Do it creatively and as best as you can so that you have at least one topic sentence, and then go find your sources. That way, you’ve already cleared the biggest step of the essay process, starting, and have also gotten your brain going without dealing with 27 tabs first.
there are so many tips in the community about how to fight procrastination and get cracking, and I love every one of them, so I decided to compile the things that work for me best. let me know if you find these tips helpful/if you’ve got another way of doing things! will probably do a part 2 in the near future 💕
