Tip of the week: Four ways to fight procrastination today

By Narena Nerahoo ’24 and Jenna Bruckman ’24

The word “procrastination” is derived from the Latin verb procrastinare, meaning to put off until tomorrow. 

Researchers say that students who procrastinate tend to overestimate how much time they have left to perform tasks and how motivated they will be in the future. They also underestimate how long certain activities take to finish and wrongly assume that they need to be in the right frame of mind to complete a task.

Bailey Health Center shares tips on how to overcome procrastination:

• Make a to-do list with a due date next to each task and break down the items on your list into smaller, more manageable steps so that your tasks don’t seem so overwhelming. 
• Pay special attention to any thoughts of procrastination. If you begin to consider procrastinating, force yourself to spend a few minutes working on your task. 
• Eliminate your distractions.
• Identify what pulls your attention away from the task at hand, like your phone or TV, and turn off these sources of distraction.

For more tips to deal with procrastination, visit Bailey Health Center’s website.