Written by Elissa Cirio

I do not understand. How is it that we can spend 8 straight hours on our screens just watching videos, scrolling through social media, or playing games, yet feel defeated after spending 8 minutes creating an outline for a paper? How is it that we would sooner plan for ways on how we could get the best deals in Shopee 12.12 sale than plan on how we will delegate time for each task to create a healthy and conducive schedule? How is it that we find such a sudden bout of motivation when the deadline is just hours away? What exactly is the pro, to procrastinating? Why do we do it time and time again, despite knowing how terrible we will feel afterwards?

Oftentimes, procrastination is not the cause but rather, the byproduct. We procrastinate because we are unmotivated; we see the point of doing the task ahead of time before it is due, but we somehow just do not understand it.

Take for instance a paper due in a week. Logically, it would be best to start researching now then carve out time throughout the week to accomplish the task thus, not risking being late nor burnt out. But you see, most of the time we’d rather do it like this: read the task, convince ourselves it is easy, look at the deadline and then promptly set it aside until its near its deadline.

We do not see the point in making it when we were already piled up with tasks that should have been done yesterday. We are unmotivated because today, that paper due in a week meant having a week more to finish it.

This becomes a vicious cycle of pushing things to the very last minute because that urgency is the ONLY motivation we have. Trust me when I say that not every task given will titillate your braincells. The task itself will not spark enough passion in you to actually be motivated to do them.

This is risky; we now find ourselves in a balancing act of whether accomplishing a task because we need to or because we want to. We risk ourselves in the process of procrastinating. We are aware of how this can hurt us and how it will cause us sleepless nights and anxiety. We look on our screens to provide us distractions so that we would not have to think about the work. We would rather do other things to still feel productive even though the thought of the work is weighing down our minds.

When the task itself is not enough to motivate us to do them, then what do we do?

Here are some tips that could help us avoid or overcome procrastination:

1. Plan.

Planning for a task may be daunting, but we must remember that what you plan is not set in stone; you hold the power to change it anytime. We plan so that the task is not just one big block. Instead of seeing it tower over us casting a dark shadow, when we plan, we cut up that block into manageable chunks that we can carry. Every time we manage to clear a chunk away, it leaves us with a feeling of accomplishment, making us want to do more.

1. Picture your goal.

Look back so that you can move forward. Reflect and pull from your core motivation – goals and dreams -. Think of what led you to this point and think if it is worth to continue on.

It is not just school tasks we procrastinate on; we even do so with our everyday lives. It could simply be putting off washing the dishes or could be as big as delaying your decision on what path to take in the future. Without clear goals, we will not move towards where we want to be but rather, we are holding traffic for all that we could be.

1. Begin.

To begin is the hardest action we must take. Let us not put pressure in the idea of beginning a task. Accept that what is created at this point will not be anywhere near perfect; it is going to be wonky and frankly confusing. But it is a start, something we can work more on to improve. It is the draft not the final work, and the draft can be “mema!”. Rather, focus on the fact that you took a step towards the direction you want to be in.

It would be hypocritical of me to say that if we plan and know our goals then surely, we will never procrastinate again. This would be a blatant lie; we cannot always be in a state that allows us to be our optimum selves because we are humans, and we need breaks too. All we can really do is not let these breaks keep us down for long. Let us plan, reflect, and adjust. I believe in you and I know that the effort you are giving is the best you could give right now but that does not mean that it is all that you are and could be.