by Amy Mirabelli, student success and development coordinator

Procrastination is the practice of delaying a task that needs to be completed. We all do this, but left unchecked it can cause stress, anxiety, frustration, and ultimately can jeopardize your academic success.

Procrastination is not always easy to understand. Preventing this habit means recognizing those feelings, activities, and behaviors and developing a management strategy.

Sometimes, we would rather go do anything but sit down and read that chapter, write that discussion post, or start a research paper, even if it means staying up late or waking up early to complete the task. We have every intention of finishing what we set out to do. In this instance, we feel productive. We experience the opposite when our focus shifts, and we’re left scrambling to get the job done. This can feel like a never-ending cycle. All too often, we just don’t know how to complete the assignment until the looming deadline causes a shut down.

With a structured plan, procrastination is preventable, and you can stay on top of things more easily, while managing your time and lessening stress. Procrastination is not always easy to understand, but to break this habit, you must first recognizing feelings, activities, and behaviors that fuel this practice. Once you identify what is keeping you from completing a task, you can develop a healthier relationship with timelines and meet your goals.

To prevent procrastination, it is important to:

• Make a weekly schedule and prioritize your work so that you know what needs to be done and when.
• Be honest with yourself and others – sometimes this means sacrificing social obligations.
• Ask questions of your professor, well before the due date, if you’re unsure how to complete an assignment.
• Reach out to Academic Support early and often if you need assistance with an assignment or course material.
• Realize that it takes more energy to put something off than it actually takes to get what you need to done.
• Reward yourself and relish your accomplishments when you finish what you set out to do.
• Remember that procrastination ruins your leisure time!

If you would like to talk with someone more about how to prevent procrastination, please feel free to reach out to Student Success and Development.