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| Image: A Writer's Journey |
It is that time of year when university students have spent
all their Christmas money, gained a few pounds having enjoyed home cooked food
far too much and are starting to fear the looming January exams. Procrastination
is at an all-time high, visibly demonstrated by the sheer numbers of people on
Facebook chat and the abuse of the Facebook status. As a fellow sufferer, I have
tried to discover a few simple steps in order to battle this terrible affliction.
Tea Breaks. One
of my most successful ways of avoiding the random need to get up and wander
around is to decide when I am going to take my tea breaks (or booze breaks for
those in desperate need) before I start working. Knowing that I have an
end-point certainly helps me concentrate. 15 minutes to go…10 minutes to go… 5
minutes to go… break… 1 hour 30 to go… and so on. NB if you decide you need abnormally
common tea breaks, you might need to factor in loo breaks as well…
Website Blockers. I
have recently had my attention drawn to these God-given gifts that have the
power to disarm you from Facebook/Twitter/YouTube for a certain period of time
of your choice. LeechBlock for Firefox or WebsiteBlocker for Chrome are good
examples of programmes that can block the websites that your procrastination
habits abuse. If extra precautions are to be taken, ask a friend to set the
password. NB unless you don’t mind a fairly severe frape, I suggest you
carefully consider which friend to ask…
To Do Lists. This
one may sound obvious, but rather than face a mountain of notes in one go, it
may be easier to set yourself lots of little tasks. Particularly satisfying if
you write a list of tasks at the beginning of the session and then get to tick
them off as you go. Learn 2 equations: tick. Read 10 pages: tick. Repeat 2
equations: tick. NB abuse of this rule may lead to time wasting…
Rewards. Working
is hard, revising is really hard and exams are horrible. Encourage yourself to
work harder by treating yourself if you are productive. Learnt 20 pages of
notes? Watch a movie. Finished that essay? Have an ice cream. Didn’t go on
Facebook for an entire day? Celebrate. NB Try to avoid rewards that involve
alcohol, working is already hard enough.
Do Not Start A Blog. But
if your body needs its procrastination fix, I suppose you could read this one.
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