Procrastinating and reformed procrastinators

[Virgil]

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Procrastination isn't working anymore. There's just too much material, and med school will be worse. Procrastination has become a very strong habit (studying is "tough" so I keep sweeping it under the rug until I find it's the night before the exam) but I'm determined to change. I want to be able to study weeks in advance for an exam and keep up with the material like I'm supposed to. I want to be in control of my education and actually enjoy the stuff I'm learning instead of feeling guilty and stressed all the time. Has anyone here broken the habit? Can you tell me how you did it?

 

[Thewrongstuff]

Virgil, I broke the habit at the start of this semester (studied 2 hrs a day) and reverted back to my lazy ways within a few weeks...

It cant be done because we KNOW laziness and good grades are still a viable option w/ procrastination running full speed.

 

[armybound]

getting off SDN is probably the first step... but one I'm unwilling to make.

 

[154241]

for me, it was reaching a low point... utterly failing at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity entirely because of my own laziness. i hope that you can figure out how to overcome it before that happens to you. something i learned: guilt is only useful as far as helping you to realize you have a problem. after that it can just bring you down and sap you of the energy it takes to make the necessary changes in your life. admit your mistakes, be honest with yourself, then move on. another thing: for me, there really was no magic solution; you just start doing what you need to do. it is very unpleasant at first but you keep at it and eventually start reaping the rewards. finally: never start thinking that it is impossible to change your ways, that you are wired to be a procrastinator forever or something. i was the worst of the worst and i came around. good luck to you, i probably know exactly how you feel. there is hope!!

 

[neuro1617]

I hear you, virgil. I am afraid for med school b/c I constantly procrastinate and still do really well. It's a bad cycle, one I'm trying to figure out how to stop, too. And I'm always stressed b/c I either know I am procrastinating or I have procrastinated and now am flying through notes to study or write a paper really quickly. Problem is that I memorize quickly so I study better under pressure (cramming) and..my last medical ethics paper I typed really quickly the 2 days before it was due, 7 pages, and apparently it's so great my prof wants me to take it to the philosophy ugrad conference. So what is that teaching me?😎I do things better last minute.

I have tried to sit and study 2-3 days before an exam, but all I do is stare at the notes or review, I can't make it stick.

 

[0Complications]

Procrastination isn't working anymore. There's just too much material, and med school will be worse. Procrastination has become a very strong habit (studying is "tough" so I keep sweeping it under the rug until I find it's the night before the exam) but I'm determined to change. I want to be able to study weeks in advance for an exam and keep up with the material like I'm supposed to. I want to be in control of my education and actually enjoy the stuff I'm learning instead of feeling guilty and stressed all the time. Has anyone here broken the habit? Can you tell me how you did it?

I know what you mean. Procrastination is a nasty habit that has been reinforced through good grades and no real long-term consequences.

I can only tell you what's worked for me:

Leave the house and study elsewhere. If you are out somewhere else you'll feel extremely guilty not studying. DON'T BRING A CPU. And bring just what you want to study that night (be realistic, don't bring books from every class).

This has been an enormous help to me. I am going to start writing a study schedule beginning the week after next for the MCAT and will roll that into a study time for regular classes next semester as well.

Good luck, Virgil.

 

[Auron]

This might help:

How To Stop Procrastinating

Recognize that procrastination stems from habit. New habits will be needed, and these take time and commitment to develop.
Harold Taylor defines procrastination as the intentional and habitual postponement of an important task that should be done now.
Understand the cause for procrastination, then develop strategies to fix it.
Recognize the difference between an appropriate decision to delay, and an irrational postponement without justification.
Fix procrastination by working on a) tasks and b) your environment:


TASK STRATEGIES

Unpleasant tasks

Unpleasant tasks rarely turn out to be as bad as you think.
Complete these tasks first. Schedule them for early in the day. Give yourself a reward for doing them.

Complex Projects

Something looms ahead of you: starting a small business, getting a job, preparing the annual budget. The job is too big or will take too long to do now, so you put it off.
Break large jobs into smaller, more manageable tasks. Plan and complete a start-up task, no matter how small.
Indecision
People delay because they can't make up their minds.
Determine a time for making a decision and the criteria for making it. Share your deadline with someone else.


Fear of failure (lack of self confidence)

People don't want to face the consequences of failure, so they delay. (Some people suffer from fear of success too!)
Develop a clear mental picture of the completed task and how you will feel at that time. Maintain a focus on the end result, not just the process. Remind yourself how good you'll feel when you're finished.


Lack of interest

You are tired or lazy. You're just not very interested in the task.
Reward yourself for accomplishments. Go out for special lunches when major projects are completed. If you don't earn the reward, don't take it.
Schedule the task for when you will be at your peak.
Perfectionism

People delay because they want to get the project perfect.
Set deadlines for yourself. Tell other people your deadlines and encourage them to check up on you.
Maintain your high standards, but recognize that sometimes 80% for you may well be 100% for someone else. Don't spend hours conducting a detailed cost breakdown when a rough estimate would suffice.


Hostility towards a boss

People delay because they don't like the person who assigned the task.
Review with your boss what exactly is needed. Clarify the expectations.
Make a game out of unpleasant tasks. Give yourself points, or do a running commentary on yourself as you do the task.


Distraction, lack of focus

Sometimes losing concentration causes delays.
Create a to-do list with priorities.
Block your time for projects.
As you get distracted from a work project, make a rule that you are not allowed to move out of your chair, make a call, surf the net, pick up a book etc. until you return to your task.
Complete something. Make a very small task for yourself and finish it. Very small. Then, make another one.


ENVIRONMENT STRATEGIES

Tailor your environment for work. Close your door, clean up the clutter on your desk.
Remove distractions such as water coolers, snacks, in-boxes, coffee machines and magazine racks.
If you work at home, treat your office as an office. Don't go out to lunch before lunchtime or watch television before the end of the day.
Tell your family that you are not to be disturbed in your home office.

 

[Drogba]

for me, it was reaching a low point... utterly failing at a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity entirely because of my own laziness. i hope that you can figure out how to overcome it before that happens to you. something i learned: guilt is only useful as far as helping you to realize you have a problem. after that it can just bring you down and sap you of the energy it takes to make the necessary changes in your life. admit your mistakes, be honest with yourself, then move on. another thing: for me, there really was no magic solution; you just start doing what you need to do. it is very unpleasant at first but you keep at it and eventually start reaping the rewards. finally: never start thinking that it is impossible to change your ways, that you are wired to be a procrastinator forever or something. i was the worst of the worst and i came around. good luck to you, i probably know exactly how you feel. there is hope!!

In everyone moment you have the chance to reinvent yourself. I find that truth very liberating. Just because you have acted in one way every moment leading up until now does not mean you have to act in the same way this moment or the next. Every moment is new and consequentially full of possibility.

Anyway, thats a philosophical take on the matter. Others have given practical advice ;]

 

[bluesTank]

Just worry about it later

 

[psych]

This thread is my lifestory. Every semester I promise myself I will not procrastinate...

Yet it seems like every semester I become an even worse procrastinator.

Like many have said before, I do believe it's because I'm never punished.

There are too many times for me to count, that I've waited til the night b4 an exam to study (while other people have been studying notecards for a week) and I'll still get the highest grade on the exam.

I also think I study best under pressure: there's nothing like pulling an all-nighter under pressure!

The only real punishment is the constant feeling of stress/anxiety.

This has got to stop and is no way to go into medical school.

Ok, no more procrastinating by describing my procrastinating

Good thread though. People have offered good advice I will use.

 

[Drogba]

This thread is my lifestory. Every semester I promise myself I will not procrastinate...

Yet it seems like every semester I become an even worse procrastinator.

Like many have said before, I do believe it's because I'm never punished.

There are too many times for me to count, that I've waited til the night b4 an exam to study (while other people have been studying notecards for a week) and I'll still get the highest grade on the exam.

I also think I study best under pressure: there's nothing like pulling an all-nighter under pressure!

The only real punishment is the constant feeling of stress/anxiety.

This has got to stop and is no way to go into medical school.

Ok, no more procrastinating by describing my procrastinating

Good thread though. People have offered good advice I will use.

Bad grades won't shorten your life but stress and axiety could surely contribute to your untimely demise. No punishment could be bigger. 🙂

 

[Vihsadas]

It can be done. I am the ultimate example of this. You can develop study habits after being a horrible procrastinator. It's still tough, but its like the gym...even on those days where you know it'll suck YOU JUST DO IT. No ifs, ands or buts about it. I know this is the sticking point, but there comes a time when you are so fed up with how you've been treating school that you get angry and change...well at least that's what happened to me.

 

[Virgil]

It can be done. I am the ultimate example of this. You can develop study habits after being a horrible procrastinator. It's still tough, but its like the gym...even on those days where you know it'll suck YOU JUST DO IT. No ifs, ands or buts about it. I know this is the sticking point, but there comes a time when you are so fed up with how you've been treating school that you get angry and change...well at least that's what happened to me.

I read a post you wrote describing how you studied for the MCAT and I was astonished. If I am able to get myself to do what you did, I know that I'd be scoring up there with you. I can't believe that you were once a procrastinator...I guess it can be done.

 

[Virgil]

This thread is my lifestory. Every semester I promise myself I will not procrastinate...

Yet it seems like every semester I become an even worse procrastinator.

Like many have said before, I do believe it's because I'm never punished.

There are too many times for me to count, that I've waited til the night b4 an exam to study (while other people have been studying notecards for a week) and I'll still get the highest grade on the exam.

I also think I study best under pressure: there's nothing like pulling an all-nighter under pressure!

The only real punishment is the constant feeling of stress/anxiety.

This has got to stop and is no way to go into medical school.

Ok, no more procrastinating by describing my procrastinating

Good thread though. People have offered good advice I will use.

That describes me too. The habit is constantly reinforced whenever I get rewarded (for example, doing better on an exam than someone who studied for a much longer period of time). Hell, maybe I feel clever for putting in less hours and getting a much better result. But of course, I can't compete with the top of the class by procrastinating. What kills me is I know I can if I just stop being lazy and do what needs to be done.

 

[Picklesali]

Oh, my home! I've found you at last!

 

[gotmeds?]

Can you tell me how you did it?

I really wish I could but...well...I'm still working on it. I better hit the books.

 

[CultureDoc]

This thread is my lifestory. Every semester I promise myself I will not procrastinate...

Yet it seems like every semester I become an even worse procrastinator.

Like many have said before, I do believe it's because I'm never punished.

Same here - in high school, I was voted biggest procrastinator, and all of my teachers thought it was a huge joke (little did they know . . .)!!

However, my procrastinating has since caught up with me, and I have been punished (gotten low grades, missed deadlines for things that were important to me), and I still do it!! 👎

I know that I need to develop good habits to replace the bad ones, but it's certainly not easy. One of the things that seems to help (when I actually bother to do it) is to set myself a hard deadline that's before the actual deadline . . . and to schedule something fun for right after that hard deadline, AND to not do the fun thing if I haven't finished the work first. (but that doesn't really work with studying for tests or something that needs to be sustained.) Scheduling, in general, is what I know I need to keep my procrastination at bay. Carving out that time to study every day and actually sticking to the schedule is so important . . . but SOOOO tough! But I think scheduling short breaks (and sticking to that schedule) is also important.

Well, this procrastinator is out of here for tonight! 😀

to all of us attempting to reform.

 

[Vihsadas]

I read a post you wrote describing how you studied for the MCAT and I was astonished. If I am able to get myself to do what you did, I know that I'd be scoring up there with you. I can't believe that you were once a procrastinator...I guess it can be done.

My GPA is prime evidence of how little I cared, and how toxic a set of core habits I had developed in highschool. If mostly anyone worked like I did during my MCAT for their undergraduate degrees there's no way they'd have a 3.3...save maybe in Engineering. 😀

 

[Mayday]

If someone figures out the answer to this - let me know! doing everything at the last minute really sucks.

 

[0Complications]

I'm not sure if anyone else is the same way, but I would always say, "I'm going to hit the books hard this weekend. Enough with the procrastination stuff, I'm going for all 100's on the next series of exams!" Then you have visions of yourself working all weekend on your material.

Well, then the weekend rolls around and things keep coming up. Before you know it it's 8 or 9 PM and you're starting to feel tired, so you say to yourself that you'll just start tomorrow (Sunday). Then the same thing on Sunday!!!


Well, this is what I used to do. I would set these huge blocks of time as time to study. It wasn't that I just want to study for an hour or two, but rather, I'm going to study alllllllll weekend.

This was part of my problem. If I never had an end to my studying in sight (other than Monday), I wouldn't want to put aside everything else to do it. So I would keep putting it off.

Now I budget in hour to two hour increments on the weekends. Followed by, at the very least, a half hour break. Or even a few hours to go to a movie or hit the gym, whatever.

But the important thing for me was to make sure to specify an "end" time. Not just a start time.

I just thought of that as I finished my last hour bout of studying.

 

[Virgil]

In everyone moment you have the chance to reinvent yourself. I find that truth very liberating. Just because you have acted in one way every moment leading up until now does not mean you have to act in the same way this moment or the next. Every moment is new and consequentially full of possibility.

Anyway, thats a philosophical take on the matter. Others have given practical advice ;]

That's actually really powerful. Thank you for that bit of wisdom.

 

[osli]

I'm still working on it. That scary part is that you can still do well in medical school while procrastinating... the biggest downer is that you always know you can do better. Med school has served to make me procrastinate a bit less, just because the volume is so large and I know I have to get started earlier to make it through everything. I know my limits, and I know that ultimately I'll start studying early enough to get through all the material well enough to make a good grade, I just won't start early enough and go through it enough times to really make it my bitch.

I'm slowly getting better though, so it can be done. One thing that has helped a lot was changing my environment. It's kind of like the gym thing... the hard part is getting off your ass and driving (or walking) to the gym. Once there, most people go through their full workout routine without a problem. Well, make studying something like going to the gym... pick a place away from your home/dorm/apartment that has few distractions in the way of computers (with internet), people (that you know), televisions you can see, etc. Maybe it is a Starbucks or Panera bread or Books-a-Million that you can go to where you will rarely run into your friends. Some place where there isn't really a lot to do other than what you came for... much like the gym. As some advice above said, take just what you know you can study in one sitting. Make a goal to get through "today's notes" or "two chapters" or whatever. When you're done, leave - don't punish yourself by staying and trying to study more. You did well by going and accomplishing your goal, and since you are (presumably) studying early there isn't the pressure to get through all the material you have right then.

You'll have ups and downs, but like the gym your goal should be to slowly make it more and more routine, so that eventually you go even when you don't feel good, are tired, busy, etc. It becomes a part of what you do, and you feel guilty for not doing it.

The USMLE step 1 is looming this coming spring, and I'm making a realistic but aggressive plan on studying that makes me get off my ass and start studying before it is too late. A huge part of that plan is choosing where and how I'll study. It looks like panera bread and a local library will be my two mainstay locations, and I'll develop a rough schedule for when to read books, when to do question banks, when to meet with a group for review, etc.


Erm... of course, I say all this as I sit in front of my computer facing an engineering task due tomorrow morning that I was supposed to complete Friday afternoon. I've put it off all weekend, and now have to pull an all-nighter to get it done.

Never said I was completely cured.

 

[Vihsadas]

In everyone moment you have the chance to reinvent yourself. I find that truth very liberating. Just because you have acted in one way every moment leading up until now does not mean you have to act in the same way this moment or the next. Every moment is new and consequentially full of possibility.

Anyway, thats a philosophical take on the matter. Others have given practical advice ;]

This is so true in my experience, it's basically been my mantra since a few years ago. Philosophize much? Me too.

 

[HumidBeing]

There are many good suggestions listed before my post.

Most people are procrastinators. It's normal to put off less pleasurable activities. I am not a procrastinator. The main reasons that I'm not are the very reasons that some of you have listed. I find that starting and completing tasks early means that I spend less overall time on the them, do a better job, and don't stress out. The more that I see other people stress out at the end of term, right before exams, and before major projects are due, the happier I am that I'm not. Yeah, it's wrong to take pleasure in other's misery, but it acts as a darn good positive reinforcement to me.

I work on things one at a time. If it's studying, then I study one subject before moving on to the next. I start projects almost immediately when they are assigned, working at them bit by bit, and always have a mental deadline well ahead of when it is due. I usually hand in work before it's due. No, I'm not a gunner. When I do that I don't have to worry that the printer will break down, the computer will crash, the car will break down, or that I'll be in some way incapacitated and unable to make it to class on the deadline.

I study excessively at the beginning of each semester, ease off after the first couple of weeks, and find that I have a lot of free time the last weeks of class. Every time I hear someone moaning and groaning about how much there is to study or review for finals, it reinforces my pleasure in not having to worry. It's not that I don't get any studying in late in the game. I go help others study when they ask, and flip through my notes a time or two, but that's about it. So far, I haven't met anyone who just crammed and did better than I.

I think of the way that I do things the same as putting money into a retirement fund early. I wind up spending less time overall while getting better results. I don't know how many times I've been able to take advantage of opportunities to do things right before exams that I wouldn't have been able to do if I had to prepare for them instead. Just knowing that has made taking off to do them all the sweeter.

Just like it's difficult to break the procrastination habit when you've been having good luck with it, once you start feeling the positive reinforcement from NOT procrastinating, it makes it all the easier to continue on that track. You never really realize how stressful the habit is until you break it.

I could have been a procrastinator to this day, and probably would have, if it hadn't been for a crisis several years ago. It didn't affect my schoolwork, but did make me realize how quickly everything can fall apart.

 

[metalgearHMN]

It's 12:20 AM and my chem final is in the morning. I'm STILL putting off studying haha. Man writing about it make me realize how dumb I am.