9 Unique Tips to Stop Procrastinating and Start Studying

Two peach notebooks, pens and a blue pencil case on a table

If you want to get anywhere in life, you need to study, one way or the other. You might be a college student or someone who simply wants to learn something new. Maybe you need to learn a new language. In any case, you’re probably wondering how you can stop procrastinating and just start studying.

Procrastination is a very common problem, and it often causes people unnecessary stress. It makes your life harder because first worrying about your tasks and then doing them at the last minute really doesn’t make you feel good. That’s why you have to change your habits.

I know you have big goals in life, and you want to become better. You want to know a lot and have marketable skills. You want to get a good job and make more money. But why is it so hard to just sit down and study?

I’m sure you have already tried the most common study tips out there, like making flashcards, putting your phone on airplane mode, and listening to music while you study. Maybe you have even been in a study group. These tips may help some, but for me, they never worked. That’s why I had to find other ways to stop procrastinating and start studying.

In this post, I will share the tips I used to quit procrastinating when I was in university. I hope these tips will help you as much as they helped me. Go through this list and then get back to studying, this time hopefully with some more motivation. Never forget that you are doing this for yourself so that you can have a better future.

Why it’s so easy to procrastinate when you should study

Procrastination is a bad habit that makes you waste your time and leave everything till the last minute. You might find yourself planning to study hard, only to end up watching Youtube videos till midnight. Unless you happen to be a night owl, putting things off until late in the evening just means that you won’t get anything done today and you will have to go to sleep feeling bad about yourself.

Procrastination is very common among college students and that’s no wonder since college is harder than high school. The increasing difficulty can cause fear of failure and make you feel like you can’t possibly get good enough grades. Naturally, this will also affect your mental health badly and that will make it even harder to study hard and not procrastinate.

Fortunately, there are many ways to deal with chronic procrastination and it’s not necessarily as hard as you might think. The first step is to write a list of all the things you have to do and create a clear study schedule that isn’t too overwhelming.

Secondly, you want to set small goals for yourself that are easy enough to achieve. This will boost your confidence and make it easier to not procrastinate in the future.

Make sure you take enough study breaks so that you don’t get the feeling that you should be working all the time. The goal is that you get things done in time and then you have enough time to do whatever you want. Over time you will get better at time management and focusing on the task at hand. Then you won’t even think of leaving something till the next day!

1. Use a timer

This is a tip I still use whenever I don’t feel like working. It works every time! Basically, I just set a timer for as long as I can commit to the task without making it too overwhelming. 20 or 30 minutes is usually good. It’s enough time to get something done and to start feeling that the task actually isn’t so hard after all.

Usually when the timer goes off, you feel like continuing to study. If not, you can take a small break and then set the timer for another 20 or 30 minutes. Even if you’re not exactly enjoying yourself, at least you’re making progress.

You have probably heard of the Pomodoro technique. It’s very simple: just set a timer for 25 minutes, take a 5-minute break, and repeat. You can try it if it sounds like a technique that could help you. I don’t benefit from short breaks, so I don’t usually do this, but it is a good technique for when you’re working on something you really don’t want to do, but have to get done.

2. Write down estimates of how much time everything takes

This can motivate you to study because it shows you that your to-do list actually doesn’t take all day if you just get started and use your time well.

So, what you want to do is to simply get a piece of paper and list all the things you have to get done today. Then write down estimates of how much you think each task will take. Keep in mind that things often take a little bit longer than you think.

This is a great way to make you want to start studying because the list shows that even though you might feel like getting everything done will take till midnight, being efficient and avoiding procrastination can help you get it all done in a reasonable amount of time. If it’s still morning and according to your estimates you need to work for three hours, that means you could be free by noon!

3. Reward yourself

One way to stop procrastinating and start building good habits for studying is to reward yourself for being productive. It’s very simple: you just choose a small reward that you will get if you study and get everything done in time.

You can choose how you want to reward yourself. You can for example buy something you’ve wanted to get when you get good grades or complete a big project. Or you can reward yourself for each day or week you’ve been really productive and completed every task you were supposed to.

If you have a hard time getting anything done because of procrastination, you can also come up with some small rewards for yourself for completing each task on your to-do list or for studying for 30 minutes. A good reward could be reading a chapter in a book your reading, watching an episode of your favorite tv show, or maybe even eating ice cream.

The important thing is that you choose rewards that aren’t too big or too small. They should be big enough to motivate you, but small enough to still be reasonable.

Related article: How to Reward Yourself for a Job Well Done

4. Break all your tasks into easily actionable steps

This is the most important tip of all. It’s natural to be intimidated by big, important tasks and projects. That’s why it’s a good idea to break the big tasks into smaller tasks.

What you need to do, is to write a detailed list of everything you need to do. Each specific task needs to be clear and actionable, and you should be able to complete it in one sitting.

For example, if you are writing an essay, you can break it into small tasks by listing down “choose the topic”, “write the intro”, “choose the title” and so on. Some of the tasks won’t take more than a couple of minutes to complete, which will encourage you to keep working.

If you often leave things till the last day, you can use this method to make sure that you’ll do some of the work earlier on. You don’t need to be intimidated by difficult tasks when you break them into smaller chunks and simply do a couple of things every day. You might even have your whole essay written before the due date!

5. Tell yourself that everything is actually easy

This is something I love to do. It’s easy to think that everything is difficult and that achieving anything at all requires a lot of hard work. But the truth is, usually when you look back, everything was actually rather easy.

So, next time you feel like the essay you should write or the homework you should do is too hard, simply tell yourself that you know how to do it and that it’s really not that hard. Look back at all the work you’ve done before. If you’d have to write your latest essay again, it would be much easier, right? And if you didn’t procrastinate, you could have done it much faster, too.

Writing a list of tasks helps here too because it clearly shows you how simple writing that essay or completing any other big task actually is. There’s literally no need to procrastinate because doing those small tasks on your to-do list really isn’t that hard. And it’s much nicer to just get things done and then enjoy your free time feeling accomplished.

6. Create a schedule that is easy to follow

If you have a lot of things to do, you might feel like you have literally no time for free time. This can make it hard to get things done.

But, if you use the second tip to write down estimated times for completing all of your tasks, you can create a study schedule that will help you study when it’s time to do that. Having a schedule helps you see that you don’t need to work all day long. You just need to focus on your work during your study hours and after that, you will be free.

Create the study schedule by estimating how much time you need for everything and when is the best time for each task. Maybe you should write your essays in the afternoon if you find it hard to work on something difficult after 6 pm. Make sure that your schedule allows you to take regular breaks. Otherwise, you might get overwhelmed or frustrated.

In the long run, having a schedule will help you build better habits and get more work done. It’s also easy to edit it if you feel like your current schedule isn’t working.

7. Use headphones or earplugs

Your phone can of course be a major distraction and getting a text message or a social media notification can easily distract you every few minutes if you have your phone on. You might already have created some good study habits like always taking your phone to a different room when it’s study time.

But even if you have a tidy study space and you try to complete all of your tasks in a timely manner and do everything right, it can be very hard to focus if there’s a lot of noise around you or you can for example hear a family member in the other room talking on the phone.

The good news is that this problem is very easy to fix. Try using earplugs or headphones when you’re studying. I don’t recommend listening to music unless you are absolutely sure that it helps you concentrate. Even if the earplugs or the headphones don’t block out all the noise, they still make it much easier to study and break your procrastination habit.

8. Tell yourself that completing your tasks makes you hardworking and more disciplined

One way to stop procrastinating and simply start studying is to be mindful of what it gives you. Of course, you need to get everything on your to-do list done at some point. And you do want to graduate. But studying and being productive gives you much more than that.

If you work hard and study when you are supposed to study, you will become more hardworking and disciplined, which will make it much easier to be productive in the future. One of the most important things when it comes to success is to know how to be consistent and disciplined.

Consider your study sessions as opportunities to practice these skills. If you work hard now, you are more likely to get what you want in the future because you will know how to get things done even when you don’t feel like it.

9. Focus on progress over perfection

Possibly the best way to beat perfectionism and procrastination is to understand that making progress really is perfection.

Whatever you are working on, the end result can’t really be “perfect” per se. Your goal should be to get that thing done well enough. And if you can do that, that in itself is perfect. That’s why you should focus on making progress instead of trying to be perfect.

It’s better to just start, do things as well as you can, and then edit later if necessary. This way you can tackle your to-do list fast and spend the rest of the day doing something fun.

Final thoughts on how to stop procrastinating and start studying

It’s not easy to be productive. And it’s not easy to just stop procrastinating and start studying when you don’t feel like it at all. You have a long list of things to do and possibly more upcoming tasks than you can count.

The best thing to do is to learn to be consistent and disciplined and work on building a growth mindset so that you always remember that not being perfect just means that you are learning.

Other than following these tips, make sure to get enough sleep and eat well. It’s much easier to get those boring tasks done if you’re feeling well. I would also avoid drinking coffee because it easily interferes with your sleep without you even realizing it.

There are many different reasons why someone might procrastinate. It’s definitely worth it to try to figure out why exactly you are having such a hard time getting things done. To fix your procrastination problem, you need to be clear about your tasks, have a written to-do list and simply go and get started when you have something to do.

Always remember that nothing is as hard as it seems. Just start and you will get it done.

What did you think about this post? Do you already do some of the things listed in this post? Comment your thoughts down below!

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Read these quotes about overcoming procrastination next to get more motivated!

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