If you’re anything like me, you’re a chronic procrastinator and you’re maybe a little bit lazy sometimes! I used to be terrible–ignoring important work I knew was due soon even–but have since improved a lot by doing these things.
Read a lot: Reading lots of books and articles, especially ones that challenge you, forces you to focus for a long period of time. For me, these periods of focus got longer and longer over time with practise. You’ll also have to finish a project that doesn’t supply instant gratification. Having a reward (finishing) that only comes after a lot of hard work was (and is!) important to me, because it trained my brain to not expect things so quickly. Plus, who doesn’t love books?
No zero days: I sometimes see that this is bad advice for mentally ill students. You know you best! Always go with what you think is best for you. But, as a mentally ill student, I actually found the concept of no zero days extremely powerful as a means to gain discipline and stay productive. I only forced myself to work for five minutes every day. On bad days that was all I did, but I got into the habit of doing something, which was important. Most days I worked for at least half an hour!
Have a job or large project on the side: If you have the free time, I highly recommend getting a job or finding another project that you’d like to work on. Even in the best jobs for you, there will be days when you don’t want to go. When I have to go to work on days I don’t want to, I’m establishing discipline that can be applied to my academic life. Plus, the change of scenery and extra cash are nice!
Make challenges for yourself: I use Habitica for this. Basically, I’ll take a long term project of some sort and break it into smaller tasks, tick off boxes as I go, and get a sense of accomplishment when the challenge is complete. It’s more fun and better for long term projects than just a to-do list, and it (again) instills in me that good things come to those who work hard consistently, not just when there’s instant gratification to be found. You can start these challenges off small, then build up to larger ones. The important things are that they’re actually challenging to you at the time of making them, and that you actually complete them. And, if you complete a challenge, you might want to….
Reward yourself: You deserve it when you work hard! I reward for completion and for diligence. For example, if I’m really depressed, and I do more than the minimum five minutes of work, I reward myself with a trip to the café, or something nice for dinner. If I complete something I rent a film and have a relaxing night, or take a bubble bath. This just makes me associate working with nice things!
Hopefully some of these tips are helpful to you. Diligence pays off in establishing good habits! I’ve got a long way to go, but I’ve improved my discipline and focus so much in the past year doing these things. xxx