If you’re reading this, you probably either clicked my article by accident or you actually wanted to learn how to not procrastinate. I hope you came for the second reason, but if you came for the first, stick around because you might learn something that may even boost your C to a B or B to an A – all by just not procrastinating.

    Ok, so I’m hoping you know what procrastination is. If you don’t know, the word “procrastination” is actually two Latin words put together: “pro” meaning “for” and “cras” meaning “tomorrow.” Put it together and it literally translates as “for tomorrow.” Procrastination is also something spreading across high school students all around the world, and this is how to stop it!

      1. USE YOUR PLANNER!

    Duh, why did the school give you a planner in the first place? The point of using a planner is to write down all of your assignments given to you during the day, which you can complete later. Planners also work as reminders. You can’t possibly remember every single homework assignment for very single class, so by using your planner, you won’t have to forcibly recall your day to remember homework assignments. Anyway, if you’re unfortunate enough not to have your planner, you can always buy a planner or use paper!

     2.   Clump it!

    Once you have the assignments for the day written down, organize the work into manageable clumps or clusters. This is an easy way to both manage your time and workload. This is best to use for large, long-term projects, like formal labs or posters that contain multiple elements. This clumping strategy works well with both projects and homework!

      3.  Get started.

    After you’ve organized your work, the best thing to do is to start it ASAP! By starting earlier, you finish earlier and have extra time all to yourself.

     4.    Set goals.

    When working, you need to set goals of completion. Setting goals helps to ensure that you will have completed certain amounts of your work by the end of the night. Accomplishing your goals also gives you a huge sense of relief!

      5.  It’s okay to be lonely!

    One of the best things you can to prevent procrastination is to isolate yourself when working. Without anyone else (or any other animal) to divert your concentration, you will fly through work twice as fast. Isolation creates a fine line between work and everything other than work when the job needs to be completed.

     6.  Throw away your cell phone, iPod, laptop, TV, etc.

    Along the lines of isolation, you must remove ALL distractions. Now that everyone, every animal, and everything distracting is nowhere near, you can fly through work even faster than before!

     7.  Go hard in the beginning!

    What I’m trying to say here is to start with the hardest work, get that done and over with, and end with the easy work. This will cause less stress knowing that easier work will be ahead after a long session of reading and answering comprehension questions, per se.

     8.   Stay focused.

    Now that you’re waist deep into your work, you can’t turn back! You have to stay focused and push through everything. Focus leads to determination and a will to complete your goals. Focus involves being confident with the answers/content that you are putting down.

     9.  You deserve a reward!

    It can sometimes be difficult being lonely, trucking through problems, and staying focused. To combat this difficulty, reward yourself after you have completed certain amounts of your work!

    Going back to what I said in the beginning, not procrastinating can raise your grades! Having the time to complete work thoroughly before the due date or earlier than expected turns out to be a better strategy than cramming in all that work at midnight. So do yourself a favor: start studying and stop procrastinating!