Eating chocolate and complimenting yourself is great and all but in the nitty gritty when you need to help yourself you’ve often been procrastinating and have that task looming over you that’s really getting you down.
1. Prepare. Preparation is the first step to actually starting. Get all of your equipment and resources together, open up your program, go take a shower if you need to. Having a nice drink or snack there to enjoy whilst you start work is good too.
Don’t drag this out too much though! When there’s something to do it’s easy to go spend 40 minutes in the shower under the excuse of preparing to do it. The sooner you do it, the better you will feel!
2. Start. I know it feels really hard, but it’s not going to stop feeling like that until you’ve started. The work isn’t going to do itself, love! You don’t need to rush, and you don’t need to do it all in one sitting! The task at hand is important, whether it be a report or an assignment, so dividing your time can help you a lot. In fact, I think you’ll find yourself somewhat addicted to the work and feeling of productivity once you start.
If it’s a 1500 word report that you have to get done in 2 days, you have 48 hours. So for 15 of those 48 hours, write 100 words. Just 100. That’ll take you 25 minutes tops, and you don’t do them hour after hour - as long as you do that 15 times, your report will be finished, and you’ll still have time to edit!
Alternatively, do it section by section. Scientific reports usually have 8 sections. Instead of doing it all in one sitting, break it up and focus on smaller areas rather than the big picture. Don’t scare yourself!
3. Reward yourself. I’m not saying write 200 words and then go eat a massive bar of chocolate (unless that 200 words was the last 200!) but acknowledge your effort! Half way through? Go take 15 minutes to listen to some music and come back to it. No really, come back to it. I see you trying to extend your break. Just remember that you’ll enjoy those treats so much more without something looming over you that you have to do once you’re finished. It’s so much better to eat a nice snack thinking of what cartoon or movie you’ll watch after rather than how much time you’re wasting and how much faster you’ll have to work on your assignment.
4. After you’re finished, relax. You did it! You should be proud of yourself - you kicked that procrastination in the butt! That said, let this be a lesson. You shouldn’t leave things to the last minute! You save yourself so much stress by doing things early, especially if you do that time dividing trick! Allocate an hour to just write 100 or 200 words and do that until the assignment is done. This makes scheduling a lot easier too!
So now, if you do have that big assignment or report to get done, go and start. Right now. Don’t put it off any longer, love. p l u i e f r o g believes in you!
ALSO if you like, I’m willing to help you or read through your draft for you! The subjects I take are in my faq, so if you feel like you need help or you want help editing, just send me a message and I’d be more than willing to do that for you. <3
