{"id":153,"date":"2016-04-16T07:24:51","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T07:24:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gibsters.eu\/?p=153"},"modified":"2016-04-24T07:21:04","modified_gmt":"2016-04-24T07:21:04","slug":"every-students-worst-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gibsters.eu\/?p=153","title":{"rendered":"Every Student’s Worst Enemy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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What would you say is stopping you the most from being successful in school? Teachers who have their favorites? Jealous pupils? No. It\u2019s procrastination. You can\u2019t imagine how many days I\u2019ve procrastinated writing this post and how much time I\u2019ve spent on the internet looking at procrastination memes to prepare to write this text.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure every one of you has procrastinated at least once, whether it was doing homework, studying for a test or cleaning your room. Right now I am procrastinating studying for my Maths exam, because this text is actually due next week, but my Maths exam is on Friday. So, you can actually procrastinate by being productive.<\/p>\n

You can say that I am very organized, I always hand in my homework on time and my grades are good as well. But you can also say that I tend to do things last minute, which is totally annoying and cost me a lot of valuable time to sleep.<\/p>\n

I never used to be a big procrastinator, until one or two years ago, when I started studying for tests (in subjects like History or Chemistry) the day before. Sometimes because we have lots of tests and exams in short periods of time, but sometimes because I just couldn\u2019t get myself to study. This happens to me all the time: Let\u2019s say I have a Biology test on Wednesday and it\u2019s Monday. I know I won\u2019t have much time tomorrow, because I have a sports class and I will have to do homework. I sit at my desk, scrolling through YouTube or Tumblr on my computer and I can\u2019t make myself stop. And even if I open my Biology notebook and read through the pages, we have to know for the test, I can\u2019t really focus on them. This might sound like I have a problem, but I just prefer to study under pressure. Definitely not for a Maths or French exam, but for subjects in which you have to know lots of pages of information, I can remember things much better when I\u2019m under time pressure. Then the day before the test, I even wait until 6 P.M. so I really have pressure to study under. Crazy, right?<\/p>\n

I found a definition for procrastination online on a page called \u2018Wait But Why\u2019:<\/p>\n

pro-cras-ti-na-tion |pr\u0259\u02cckrast\u0259\u02c8n\u0101SH\u0259n, pr\u014d-|
\nnoun
\nthe action of ruining your own life for no apparent reason<\/em><\/p>\n

On the same page I also found a great comparison: Your brain is controlled by a miniature of yourself with a steering wheel. In addition to that, procrastinators have a little monkey in there, which sometimes just grabs the steering wheel away from you and does whatever he wants. He takes you to the \u2018Dark Playground\u2019, where you do activities like constantly refreshing your Instagram feed, stalking somebody on Facebook or having a look in the fridge to make sure nothing new has appeared in the last 5 minutes. And the only thing that can make the monkey stop is the panic monster. If you only have a short amount of time left to finish your assignment or whatever you need to do, it will come and scare the hell out of the monkey until he\u2019s gone and you can finally get to the steering wheel again.<\/p>\n

While doing work, I like to take lots of breaks, which are important. On a page called Inc.com, I read that you can reach \u2018perfect productivity\u2018 by working for 52 minutes and then taking a break for 17. For me, 52 minutes is too long to study and I think that 35 minutes of studying and a 15 minute break is best. Even better would be studying a little longer and taking a longer break outside. Just try not to spend all your breaks on the Internet, which can easily keep you distracted for more than 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

There is also a really cool app called: Pomodoro, on which you choose a task you want to work on and start the timer (25 minutes). You work until it rings and then you\u2019re allowed to take a 5-minute break. When you have done 4 \u2018pomodori\u2018 you can take a longer break (15-30 minutes). I think it\u2019s a helpful app because you can see and compare your progress over a three day period.<\/p>\n

But what to do about procrastination? I did some research and here are some tips:<\/p>\n

PLAN:<\/strong><\/p>\n