Hey there… I have also been a mayor procrastinator all of my life and actually it has has a pretty negative impact on me and my life and people around me… so I clicked on this post with some interest when I saw it.
I think it's definitley a good idea to work on it if you notice you have problems with this because procrastination can definitley be a source of a los if problems in people's lives if they don't get a handle on it.
That said, I have definitley noticed among friends/relatives that their tendencies to procrastinate tend to get better as they get older… esp as they get into work & independent adult life. The pressures if all of that, where there's genuinely less space to procrastinate and get away with it, tend to force them to work on themselves. Over time, with more work experience and practice I've noticed people tend to get a lot better with this and procrastinate less and less over time. I think in a way it can be a bit like going to the gym. Got to put in the hours to get fit. And while you do need to work hard you also have to pace yourself and engage in good self-care (sleeping/eating etc.) to make that growth something that is sustainable for you and not likely to tip over into burn out.
Anway, some things to potentially try:
Getting into a good routine - I've definitley found that having a good morning routine with clear steps (getting up, making bed, showering, getting dressed, brushing teeth etc.) helps me to amp myself up in the morning to get ready to get work done
Excersising regularly: helps to control stress which helps also to focus and increase productivity
In fact, anything in life that helps to manage stress (seeing friends, sleeping well, spending time in nature) helps - there's nothing I've found that compounds desire to procrastinate as much as feeling overwhelmed
The whole 'just do it' thing: sometimes you really do need to push yourself, like when people do when the excersise they have to push themselves in order to get better
I think an important element in this is what I said before… it's like learning to run a marathon or climb a mountain… if you tried to achieve a goal like this by "going flat out" you might burn out or do yourself an injury
Instead you need to balance putting in real effort and focus everyday with genuine rest and activities that restore you.
The things that have really helped me on the past in this respect include:
Starting as early as reasonably possible, breaking your work on assignments into 'chunks' that seem more manageable, getting into a habit of real consistency i.e. working on assignments in a really focused way everyday during the working week, make sure to at least take a few short breaks every day to rest your mind, trying to make some time rest, relax and unwind at the end of the day
Eating well, sleeping well, trying to fit in at least some time at the end of every week to fully relax and/or do something fun
Ask for help! A lot of universities offer classses and workshops on procrastination, organisational skills, study skills
Always good to enquire and see what is available to you and make use of what you can
Getting good at this stuff is about developing skills… so it's a good idea to invest some of your time thoroughout adult life to learn about different techniques and to try to apply them to your life and figuring out which techniques work best for you
A lot of this is about the mental battle that many of is have to go through as we mature - really realising that avoiding doing the things we need to do actually leads to more stress and problems in the long term than if we had just done the bloody thing in the first place
Getting into positive and healthy working habits is what helps is build a sustainable life in the long term
Very hard to thrive as an adult without this - when for a lot of people at least - they need to be able to manage working life and their household in order to get by and the more on top of this they are then generally speaking the more at peace they tend to be
Really in my opinion we would all be encouraged and supported to develop there skills and habits from really young: it really is very important later
There's loads more that I could say about this but feel like this is going to become a whole essay… if you're interested in more comments then would be happy to post more…
Wishing you the best of luck with it… Certainly as a university student you have time to work on it, so grab that opportunity and really go for it :-)
