School is back! I hope everyone is excited for the year, happy with their teachers, and prepared to meet any challenge your school has for you. Since the year is still young, I want to share my experience with procrastination with the hope that some of you will see yourselves in my story and course-correct. I’ll then go over some tips for how to overcome the procrastination demon, based on what has helped me in the past.
High school was a wonderful time for me. I made some of the best friends I have ever had, was inspired by some of my favorite teachers, and learned things that changed my life for the better. Despite all of that, I struggled to keep my grades up. It wasn’t that school was hard for me. I had always been the kid who coasted through classes, passing tests and answering questions with ease. That ease was actually my greatest weakness. I was unprepared for how much more work I had to do for high school, and had developed a nasty procrastination habit.
Each semester, I would start strong. My grades were great, the teachers liked me, and I figured that this would be an easy semester. Then, I would fall into the Homework Hole.
- One missed assignment: “Not a huge deal. I can make this grade up no problem”
- Two missed assignments: “I had to focus on another, more important thing for another class. It slipped my mind. It won’t happen again.”
- Five missed assignments: Teachers are starting to make phone calls. “I can turn this around. I’m a smart kid. I can get out of this.”
- More than half of the homework that I was assigned in every class was never turned in. The semester is half-over. Parents are mad. I’m scraping by on good test scores. Time to lock in and beg for extra/half credit so I don’t fail. The stress is horrible.
Sometimes I’d be able to pull myself out of the Homework Hole before finals. Sometimes, however, I would have to do math that no student should have to do: the “how much do I need on the final exam to not ruin my GPA” calculation. It was always slightly different in each class. Tests were weighted differently. The stress I was under always made me think more slowly, so the calculation took longer than it needed to. It always worked out to an A+ minimum on the final. At least once, I needed more than 100% on the final to move up a letter grade. I love math, but I hate doing this math problem. It did nothing but prove how dire the situation I placed myself in was. It would have been better to have not needed to do it at all: to have never fallen down the Homework Hole.
Every year, I have students who need help digging their way out of their personal Homework Hole. Just like here, I tell them my story, then share with them my tips for fighting back against procrastination:
- Block out time each day for homework
Set aside some block of time every day to do nothing except schoolwork. I recommend 2 hours. If you have after-school activities this can be especially difficult to accomplish, but make sure there is some kind of consistent part of your day (NOT during school) where you are working on homework. If you need motivation, establish a reward for the end of your homework time. If you need a break in the middle of homework time, set a timer. If you don’t set a clear end time for your break, you are likely to never return to homework that day.
- Get organized
My backpack in high school was crammed full of loose papers. My notebooks were full of haphazard, hard-to-read notes. It took a full semester for me to even separate my notes by subject. I had to learn the hard way; you don’t. Binders are your friend. For each subject, set up a folder with one side full of homework you still need to do and the other side full of completed homework to turn in. It can be very satisfying to take homework out of the “to do” side and slot it into the “completed” side. Do whatever you need to do to add extra structure to your study system.
- Remove distractions
Odds are that this will be the hardest part for most of us. Smartphones are always in our pockets, and a big, bright screen is usually somewhere tempting us away from our books. You need to make the deliberate choice to study somewhere that is free of these distractions. Libraries are a wonderful option for this, and I’m sure the librarians will be happy to see you! If you have to work in your room, put every distraction somewhere you can’t see or easily reach them. Hang curtains in a corner if you have to, but you cannot have any distraction in view of your homework space.
- Involve your friends
This is an advanced technique, one that students often don’t take full advantage of until college. The study group is a great way to make hanging out with your friends productive. Everything I said before still applies: decide how long the study time is, be organized, and remove all distractions. Work together on your homework; the act of explaining something to a friend is practice for you, and learning for them. Only talk about class until time is up or everyone is done. After that, you are with your friends already. Have fun!
The best way to escape a Homework Hole is to never fall into one to begin with. Hopefully you will find these tips useful, either in preventing procrastination or for recovering from the damage procrastination has done. As always, if you need help or have questions, we at College Tutors can’t wait to meet you.
