TO PROCRASTINATE OR NOT TO PROCRASTINATE- THAT IS THE QUESTION

As an add-on to the last post where a lot of us could relate to school and the pressure and those useless to-do lists, I decided to highlight the reason some of us are pulling all-nighters finishing assignments and homework which we obviously could have done like three days ago but pssht- Ain't nobody got time for that. It must've been the 'weekend' or a 'favourite TV show' or feeling the need to 'binge watch every single video on Buzzfeed' (but really cmon everyone's done that at least once)- all of which were much more important (obviously) than those chapters of physics and math problems- the ones you look at and give that long *sigh* to every time your eyes find them stacked on your desk, before you walk away avoiding the long hours of hard work you'll have to put in to complete them.

Flash forward to 12am Sunday night- you're probably still texting your friends telling them about all the work you didn't do and how you're gonna stay up all night doing it....which turns into a whole new convo about the latest gossip at school....and before you know it its 3am, yet again you procrastinated- I would know. This is kind of how my Sunday goes, every Sunday- giving me even lesser credit to talk about this.

Anyway in the spirit of school and grade 10 I did some research- after much procrastination- and figured out what makes us procrastinate so much.

WHY DO WE PROCRASTINATE?
Of course- its all in the mind. Being a regular highly-experienced-procrastinator you would know there's always this argument before you finally make the wrong decision. The argument (okay here's the science part, its more interesting than your textbooks at school so keep reading) takes place between the limbic region and the pre-frontal cortex of the brain. The pre-frontal cortex being a region of higher thinking is the one that makes the right decisions better known as the part that always loses that argument. The limbic region being more primitive in nature makes the stupid choices A.K.A the part of your brain that gives the response '5 more minutes' to every task by-default.
Now you're probably kind of happy that its your brains fault and not necessarily yours. Technically, yes. Practically, no. Keep reading.

WHY DOES THE STUPID PART OF THE BRAIN ALWAYS WIN?
The Limbic region contains the 'Amygdala' which controls emotions of fear and anxiety. It basically dominates this area. When a task is put forward the Amygdala being a subconscious reaction, is excited giving rise to feelings of anxiety and pressure (because you clearly don't want to do the task at hand) which as a result shut down the pre-frontal cortex and leaves you with the idiotic conclusion to procrastinate.

Being a built in state of mind in all human beings- here's how to get over it:

1.  Break your tasks into bite-size chunks
2.  Make sure you're aware of what you find distracting and keep it far away from you. Having a    distracted personality myself- I find it helpful to make a list for literally everything including    distractions.
3.  Set goals for whatever it is your doing, be it homework or a long-term project. Give yourself a  starting and ending time. Make your goals realistic and substantial. Understand that 'goals' are  different from hopes and dreams and there's a very fine line between them that we all ever so    often cross. Still procrastinating?
4.  Ask yourself these three simple questions:
                    a. Where are you and what are you doing
                    b. What should you be doing
                    c. How will you feel after you finish doing what should be done
Imagining what it would feel like to be done- believe it or not- helps to stop procrastinating and actually start. 
5. Use the 'Feel Good Technique'
   The feel goof technique goes as follows:
             a. Pick a task
             b. Imagine having completed the task
             c. Notice how you feel
             d. Act upon this
   
   For eg. In a messy room, imagining everything to be clean, de-cluttered and smelling lemony-fresh makes a person feel slightly hopeful and motivated to getting it the way he's imagined it, because the brain- when imagining the task successfully complete- believes that its been done before and it can be done again.
6. Use a stopwatch/Timer and time your study intervals and breaks strategically. This way your      shameless self will hopefully feel guilty about wasted time and you will be able to keep a track on those "10 minute breaks" of yours. We all know where we end up "10 minutes later" and its definitely not back in front of that book, studying.

Now that I did the research and came up with the steps to over come procrastination and hopefully increase levels of productivity, the least you could do is convince yourself to implement them! Yeah, that's the hardest part and Yes. I'm procrastinating doing my homework right now telling you how not to procrastinate. How ironic.

Remember that Lack of direction not lack of time, is the problem. We all have 24 hour days.

Now go and do what you're supposed to be doing.....or...you know...you could just...do it tomorrow :D
~Nidhi xo