It always seems that when life outside of school gets more hectic, teachers start piling on the projects. Life gets in the way of things, and all of those papers and posters get pushed to the side. Before you know it, it is the night before a huge project is due. You can feel your heartbeat as your stress level rises through the roof.
Procrastination is a part of pretty much every teenager’s life. Here are some tips to prevent putting off assignments.
Write down due dates or, better yet, make a calendar. It helps to have a visual of when everything is due and how long you have between now and then.
Break down large projects into smaller tasks, and give yourself due dates for each part. Plan to finish the project a few days ahead of time, so if something goes wrong, you have time to fix it.
Take extracurriculars into account. Plan to do a little less on days when you have other commitments to attend meetings, practices, rehearsals, lessons or other events.
Even though you may try to plan ahead, some assignments still get pushed to the back burner. Here’s what to do when you’ve already procrastinated and need to get things finished:
- Take a short break to relax. If you are panicking, you won’t be able to focus as well as when you are calm.
- Make a “battle” plan. Before you jump straight into an assignment, figure out exactly what you need to do and how long each part will take.
- Recruit some help if you can. If a parent or sibling is not doing anything, ask them to help with some simple tasks, such as gluing pictures to a poster.
