Have you been there before? You have a task, plenty of time for it and because of that you delay doing it. Maybe I will play a little bit of Minecraft or I will watch a new Disney movie? So many options. And then you delay again because you really want to play with your friends. So you delay. And you delay until Sunday night when you are swamped with homework and assignments and you can’t believe how this has happened. And then you promise yourself that next time you won’t do it, that you will make the best of the free time you have and avoid nervous Sunday nights. But you don’t.
Maybe you are not aware of it now, but every time you delay something or move it for another day, when you have plenty of time at hand, you are building a habit of procrastinating. But what is procrastinating? Let’s dive deeper. Imagine you have a big project to do for school. Let's say it's making a poster about your favorite movie. You know you have plenty of time to do it because it's due in a week. But instead of starting right away, you decide to play video games or watch TV.
Procrastinating is when you delay doing something you need to do.
Procrastinating is when you delay doing something you need to do, like your homework or chores, even though you know you should do it sooner. It's like telling yourself, "I'll do it later," and then putting it off until the last minute.
Sometimes, procrastinating can feel good in the moment because you get to do something fun instead of the work you're supposed to do. But later on, it can cause stress and make things harder because you might not have enough time to do your best work. It might not seem that serious at the moment, it’s just one episode, but you are exercising a muscle of procrastination and a little voice in your head that says you have time is getting louder.
There is an old saying in my culture that says: "Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today."
Because tomorrow, you will wake up and see all these things you need to do and regret it. Early bird catches the worm for a reason, because even if it fails a couple of times, the bird has plenty of time to try again and again and spend the rest of the day playing Minecraft. The bird doesn’t actually play Minecraft but the point is, when you do something early and on time you are doing yourself a huge favor in the future.
Make time work for you and, every time you do this, you are practicing the habit of discipline. And discipline gives you the most freedom. So how do you do this in practice?
That uninteresting subject that annoys you a bit? Do it first and step by step. You don’t have to do everything at once but just start and it will be so much easier to get back to it.
Have a dedicated time in a day just for studying or working on your special project. Don’t just ‘’go with the flow’’. Arrange your schedule so you actually have time dedicated to important activities. Preferably, this would be the same time every day.
Do your homework the same day. This way, you remember most of the information from the class and it will be easier for you to do it.
Don’t forget to play and have time for fun as well. But it is so much more fun to play when you have finished all the assignments and homework.
