(energepic.com)
Procrastination! If there was one word that was on top of the trending list in highschool that would be procrastination. I would hear it all the time from my friends, teachers and even parents. The word was used in so many different ways. "Don't procrastinate", or "bro I feel so bad I procrastinated yesterday and I need your help for the test" or even better "I know I'm gonna procrastinate guys". We are becoming so distracted, disorganized and worst of all we don't admit the fact that we are lazy to learn. In fact, we are lazy to explain to people that we are distracted and disorganized that we use the word procrastination instead. I was the number one procrastinator of my family and every time I heard the word procrastination I felt like I failed an exam or failed in life itself. Till this day it is the most disturbing word that I hear from people as it makes me think about how horrible my past was when I got distracted over the most unimportant things.
According to verywellmind.com, research was conducted by a university and they discovered that 25 to 75 percent of college students procrastinated on academic work only. Another research from the year of 2007 also found out that 90 to 95 percent of the students in college were subject to procrastination. This data was taken 12 years ago so imagine the percentage it would be at right now. Procrastination is almost like a disease that is spreading throughout the lives of college students because they can't organize their time. I have personally met so many people on my social media platforms that were class toppers and are now struggling to pass because of procrastination. Once this procrastination virus works it's way into your study life, it slowly destroys your study fundamentals and then slowly moves on to your life preventing you from doing any task at the right time and paralyzing your capabilities.
As a college student, I endured through one of the toughest times in my life due to procrastination. I failed important courses in high school because of procrastination and I even had to change my career choice because of this problem. I got depressed through high school at one point of time because I was not able to cope up with the work and I did not understand what was happening to my studying abilities. I turned to the wrong habits and ruined my health and my life. This virus of procrastination started building into my daily life. When all seemed lost, I got this sudden motivation to outwork anyone around me and instead of failing and falling down I got back on track and I re-obtained all that I lost in just half a semester. Right now I want to share with you all that I've learned in defeating this problem. I want to show you the exact ways in defeating it and please remember that this is how I did it, and if you really want to destroy procrastination once and for all, read till the very end I'm positive I won't disappoint you.
How it all started
(Kobe Michael)
From a young age, I had a habit of finishing tasks very fast. I would have my homework done before I even got home and at one point in time, my parents were really proud that I was doing this. As I moved on to higher grades my assignments became a little complicated and required a little more time but I started to rush those tasks as well. Soon because of rushing tasks my grades started to get affected and a topper of the class was now at the very bottom. Something along the way had disappeared from my academic life and I was not able to figure out what it was. I was once the class topper and now I was meeting at the coordinator's office about getting extra help because they thought I had a learning disability. I would go to extra classes that told us we were there because we had problems and that did great damage to my self-confidence. I gave in to the thought that I was bad at studying and that I just got lucky earlier. What people didn't tell me was the fact that I got poor grades because I had a tendency to finish things early and rush my work without checking the quality of my work. If my parents, friends or teachers were able to just help me solve this problem I would have not gone into a state of total depression and loss of self-confidence.
Starting from the time that I was deemed academically disoriented, I had to try very hard to pass any test or assignment. Moving from one grade to the other was horrific as I thought I would fail in each and every step. My parents were becoming more concerned about my grades rather than taking time to understand the problem that I had. My friends started teasing me about my grades and told me about how to not joke around with them because they had better grades than me. It hurt so much to be pushed away and not given the chance to fix myself. I started working super hard on myself and worked on the areas I was really bad at. Slowly I lost confidence in areas I was good at and even after all that hard work I was still failing in my tests and getting bad grades.
Eventually, I got tired of this pattern and I gave up and just accepted myself as a loser who was not capable of getting good grades. I dreamed of being a pilot, that got destroyed because my Math grades were bad and everyone told me "you won't even make it to the qualification list". Dream after dream people crushed me down and I kept pushing away the time I needed to study. I became a mediocre student and did mediocre things until one day when an event changed my life.
The event that triggered the change
(Pixabay.com)
My chemistry teacher called my mother in for a meeting one day to help me get better grades. It was hard for my chemistry teacher to help me but she still gave it a chance and I appreciated that. We had a good talk and she told my mom about my weakness especially about how I get distracted so easily. At that time I was in a relationship with a beautiful girl and many deemed that to be my distraction. I believed that that was the only thing that ever worked out in my life and felt proud of having her. As we were talking out of nowhere, the lab assistant that hated me came into the room and she told my mom straight in her face "your son is a waste of investment." My mom did not reply to her comment neither did she defend me. My heart shattered into pieces. Distressed and confused, I realized that instant, the only one who had my back was myself.
I decided right after that incident I was not going to take any more crap from people. I wasn't going to allow some third rate person to come up to my face and tell me that I am not worth it. I also realized that I was running my race alone and that no one was going to help me. I set out to prove them wrong and I began the fight.
After realizing the harsh realities of life and having complete disgust over my academic performance, I decided to change for the better. The hardest part about the beginning was trying to find out what I was doing wrong. I kept searching for YouTube videos on how to stop procrastination and I tried a few methods that were taught by some great people but I was still missing something. Finally, I decided to write down all the things that I thought were hindering me and my success. I divided it into two sides and on one I wrote all my weaknesses at that time and at the same time I wrote how it could become my strength. It wasn't easy but since I really took the time and put in the emotional effort I could see myself truly get closer to the roots of this problem. Writing down all my problems and issues made me realize what I was up against and gave me a picture of how much work I had to do. The amount of change that I had to implement in my life was as big as a mountain and it seemed overwhelming because this was my last hope.
Climbing the mountain
(Nappy)
Scared of trying to face the mountain of change in front of me I set back and slowly I could see myself getting back into the old routine. It was at this time that I realized the fact that to climb a mountain you don't need to take a big leap. All you had to do was take the first step and take another just like that. One step after the other I would be able to climb any mountain. So I set out to climb but I had to precisely plan my steps to make sure that the path to the top was laid out for me. I started scheduling and organizing my time. Everything from the amount of time I was to brush my teeth to the amount of time I was supposed to study was laid out for me. I made myself enter a void of extreme discipline. I wasn't afraid of the future anymore because I had already planned out each and every step with proper timing. Every morning I woke up early to schedule my day and what I was to do with each hour that I had. It was very hard for the first two weeks but after breaking the ice I had climbed almost half of the mountain.
Create a schedule for yourself. Don't go look online or follow someone else's plan. The reason that I say that is because you need to begin organizing your life and not wait on someone else to do it for you. Use your creativity to make a schedule that you understand and one that feels comfortable. It is important to be comfortable with the layout of your schedule even if you are not comfortable with the tasks that are in it. One thing that I can assure you is that this is not going to be easy. I am not here to give you easy tips, I am here to tell you what really works.
Discipline, my savior
(pixabay.com)
The organization process was a key factor that helped me get confidence over my life. When everything was where it had to be, it made so much more sense. I did not have to wake up 10 minutes before school started and search with fear over where I kept my textbooks because I would throw them in random places. After changing my ways I woke up two hours before school even started and spent a good amount of time getting my mind and body ready for the day and giving my brain some exercise. I began to wake up early and read useful material. I made it a habit to read something or the other that was related to my school work. I also spent time meditating and getting to know myself better. I spent time on myself because no one else was going to. I got closer to God and started to pray more. I embraced the fact that I had a purpose in life and I was not going to let other people say that I was a bad investment. My parents started to notice the change in my life and slowly started to say less about my academic performance as it was going uphill. Seeing my responsibility and hard work, my dad gave me a surprise gift for my 18th birthday and it was an eighteen thousand dollar luxury car. My hard work had paid off for more than I expected.
Have fun while you work hard
(Bayu Jefri)
Spending time on yourself to get you out of the pit that you fell in seems quite tough and of course challenging. The reward at the beginning is very less but as you keep moving forward you'll see the rewards coming one by one. By mentioning the fact that I had crazy discipline in my life I am not saying that I gave up time with my friends and studied 24 hours for seven days a week. I enjoyed my time whenever it was appropriate. I would party hard on Saturdays with my friends and of course, I would enjoy my Sunday evenings with my girlfriend. But if I had a test on Monday and I was required to prepare for it on Saturday and Sunday, I would immediately change plans with my friends or girlfriend even if they couldn't accept it. I always had a particular time to have fun. It is important to have fun when you are working hard, otherwise, the rewards of working hard become pointless.
Spending time on yourself to get you out of the pit that you fell in seems quite tough and of course challenging. The reward at the beginning is very less but as you keep moving forward you'll see the rewards coming one by one. By mentioning the fact that I had crazy discipline in my life I am not saying that I gave up time with my friends and studied 24 hours for seven days a week. I enjoyed my time whenever it was appropriate. I would party hard on Saturdays with my friends and of course, I would enjoy my Sunday evenings with my girlfriend. But if I had a test on Monday and I was required to prepare for it on Saturday and Sunday, I would immediately change plans with my friends or girlfriend even if they couldn't accept it. I always had a particular time to have fun. It is important to have fun when you are working hard, otherwise, the rewards of working hard become pointless.
So now you know what I did to overcome procrastination in my life and what all I did to identify where it started from. Right now, with the grace of God, I can enjoy studying medicine in the United States and I have been enjoying my life here because of the hard work I put in that final stretch back in high school. I might not have explained the actual steps that I took every day to overcome this problem but as I told you before it is better when you put your mind to work. The first step to overcome procrastination is to let your mind work and not be lazy. Take my example as motivation and do it yourself. Stop following people and their steps, create your own. Steps are different for each and everyone because their environments are different, however, the concepts mentioned in this blog are crucial. All the best to you guys! If I did it, you can too, after all, I am just a human being like you! Have a great day!
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