Procrastination & Time Management

Introduction

“Procrastinators end up suffering more and performing worse than other people” (Tice and Baumeister 1997).

According to So Yeon Lee, over 70% of undergraduate students report procrastinating on academic tasks (Ellis and Knaus 1977; Ferrari et al. 2007; Schraw et al. 2007; Steel 2007). At the UNE Student Academic Success Center, many incoming students have reported their concerns over successfully managing a college workload and balancing their time between academic, social, family, and work commitments. Procrastination is not only a threat to students’ academic success, it is also a form of self-harm.

This workshop helps students get control of their time by offering them proven strategies for planning a realistic schedule of working sessions to complete their work and stay on track for the semester.

Workshop Plan

• Procrastination Test
• College learning time is different from HS learning time
• Time Management Calculator

Consequences of Procrastination

• Stress
• Guilt
• Anxiety
• Poor Performance
• Self-loathing

Why People Procrastinate

• Prefer more pleasant behaviors to less pleasant ones
  • People protect their mood by avoiding tasks that make them feel boredom, anxiety, insecurity, frustration, resentment, self-doubt, low self-esteem, self-blame or other negative emotions
• False belief that they’ll be better equipped to complete the task later
• Fooling themselves that they’re being productive by completing less important tasks
• Emotional dysregulation/low self-discipline

How to Stop Procrastinating

• Behavioral Strategies
  • Monitoring How You Spend Your Time
• Heat Mapping
• Sample Heat Map
  • Get a blank heatmap
  • Task Interpretation
  • Backwards Planning
• Psychological Strategies
  • Be Kind to Future You
  • Find Personal Meaning in the Task – how is what you’re doing moving you a step closer to your goals
  • Forgive Yourself for Procrastinating and Commit to Doing Better Next time
  • Give Your Brain a “Bigger Better Offer” than the relief that comes with avoiding a task: imagine how you’ll feel having completed the task or remind yourself how you felt when you procrastinated in the past

Readings

• Why You Procrastinate – It’s About Managing Your Emotions Not Self-Control or Laziness
• The Science of Procrastination
• How to Beat Procrastination
• 10 Scientifically Proven Tips for Beating Procrastination
• Identify Your Most Productive Times of Day (heat mapping)
• Backward (or Reverse) Planning for Academic Success

Resources

• Planners
  • MyStudyLife.com – all platforms planner app – planner, scheduler, task planning, reminder (IOS, Android, desktop/laptop)
  • MyHomeworkApp.com – similar to MyStudyLife.com
  • Make a “Whole-Life” Planner – why you should plan non-academic aspects of your life as well, with a template
  • Simple Assignment Planner (Tik Tok) – doesn’t encourage task analysis, but some students like it
  • Semester-At-A-Glance Calendar Template – see important dates for the semester “in-a-glance”
  • Week-At-A-Glance Calendar Template – see important dates for the week “in-a-glance”
  • SAMPLE – Filled in Month-At-A-Glance calendar
  • SAMPLE – Filled in Week-At-A-Glance calendar
• Backward Planning
  • Backward (or Reverse) Planning for Academic Success
    • Reverse Plan for a Paper Due in 14 Days (Sample)
    • Reverse Plan to Prepare for a Final Exam (Sample – Bucknell Teaching and Learning Center)
• The Study Cycle
  • The Study Cycle & Focused Study Sessions – integrate study sessions into a cycle of activities to maximize your academic success; learn how to structure your study sessions and know how many you should schedule
  • Bloom’s Taxonomy
    • How to Study Using Bloom’s Taxonomy (Iowa State)
    • List of individual and group study strategies keyed to the different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Metacognitive Tools to Understand Where Your Time Goes
  • Log Your Daily Activities – find out how you really spend your time by completing this daily log, which analyzes the amount and quality of time spent on your activities and encourages reflection
  • Metacognitive Assignment Planner & Tracker – keep track of your progress on assigned work, encourages task planning and prioritizing
  • Heat Mapping
  • Organization, Time Management, Planning Self-Report
  • Time Management Tools Usage Self-Report

Link