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Dear Dish-It: Procrastination Problems

Dear Dish-it,

How can I stop procrastinating and do things on time? I am always too lazy to get things done!

HomestarRunner

A Day in the Life of a Procrastinator

Dear HomestarRunner,

I used to be a HUGE procrastinator, too. Seems like the older and more responsible I get, the better I am at making sure I do things on time – even early! But when you’re a kid, it’s definitely easy to put things off until the last minute – I can totally relate. Luckily, there are things you can do to start practicing not being such a procrastinator!

Plan Ahead

The first thing you should do is get yourself a planner – a date book or a calendar that you can use to write down all your upcoming assignments, projects and goals. Whenever you get a new due date for something, write it down in your planner right away so that you won’t forget that you have to get it done!

Jot it Down

Writing down ALL of your upcoming projects, assignments and even things you have to attend, like a birthday party or a soccer game, is a very important part of learning not to procrastinate! There’s a saying that goes, “out of sight, out of mind.” That means that if you can’t see it, you’ll forget about it. So, writing things down in your planner or on your calendar – and looking through it regularly – will definitely remind you that you gotta get things done!

Set Goals

Procrastination is especially tough because, when you leave things to the last minute, you don’t leave yourself enough time to do them properly. A good idea is to break every assignment you get down into daily or weekly goals. So, if you have to hand in an essay in a month’s time, set weekly goals of getting a certain number of pages written until the due date, and write down those weekly goals so you don’t forget to meet them!