Reasons why students procrastinate and how to stop them
Despite of all the worries and burdens that students bear due to some projects, there’s a habit they endure that makes them put off a big project until the last minute. It’s one of the most common concerns that we hear these days from parents. For parents, this can be extremely frustrating, because it seems so easy to avoid things. Well, according to some parents’ belief, it’s not because their child is lazy, they just don’t want to work, or they might have a bad work ethic. However, most of the time, procrastination has very little to do with laziness. There are many different concerns and deeper issues that lead students towards the problem of procrastination.
Students often put more value to the things that happen today instead of worrying about tomorrow. Whether it’s waiting to start an assignment until the night before the due date or beginning the work on submission day, procrastination has become a regular way of how students live these days. Not to mention, but many students dislike the idea of doing schoolwork at home because they don’t see how a project or assignment is important to them.
Procrastination itself is just a symptom; it usually occurs because of confidence, comprehension and motivation issues. To actually solve this problem, it’s important for a person to first identify and then address the underlying cause(s) for behavior. So, here we have mentioned a few reasons as to why students procrastinate.
Forgetting about it
Students often forget the things assigned to them at school by their teachers. The reasons for this could be- missing class, not bothering about the announcements made in the class, not noting down the statements, or forgetting to check the homework diary because of being involved in some other work. Most of the time, students leave their homework until the last minute because they genuinely have no idea that there’s something, which needs to be done at home. This is one of the most common causes as to why students leave their work for the last minute because they don’t realize that they have any work.
Not knowing where to start
Most of the time, when students are assigned with some homework or project, they get confused about where to begin things. So, they just simply end up putting the whole project for the last minute; until it’s close to the deadline, they do not actually worry about it. Until and unless their behavior of not bothering things is overshadowed by the fear of not having enough to complete the work, they will not tempt to work on such things.
Perfectionism
Students, who often get preoccupied with making their projects perfect, either get nervous about making mistakes or are concerned about doing them incorrectly that they completely put them off to avoid anxiety. This develops an irrational behavior among students of avoiding their projects, even more as the deadline approaches. And when the deadline finally approaches, and they have no option left other than just completing it, they make it look like a complete chaos, turning things into an imperfect job.
Too many commitments
Many times, students get involved in different scheduled activities, with little or no time left for their projects or homework. Here, they might use procrastination as a method to artificially obligate free time for themselves.
Resistance
Students also procrastinate as a form of resistance, where they view their work as something that is being forced upon them. Here, procrastination acts as a medium of resistance against authority. This further becomes their way of resisting the message that they were told to complete, as per their respected teachers or parents.
What can be now done to stop procrastination? Following are the strategies that will help you in this scenario.
Break the project into smaller tasks
At times, big projects can be overwhelming for students. So, all you need to do is break the project in manageable parts such as conducting research, writing content, and then editing it later. Then you can easily handle the burden of a big project step by step until it gets done.
Think about the project being meaningful
Make sure that you find relevant ways of making your project act meaningful before you. This will help you connect your interests with the project, which will further help build confidence and motivation in you to complete it. This makes the project look less like some work and more like an interesting entity.
Boost your confidence
Most of you procrastinate because you think of failing a project, or you can’t live up to your own set expectations. At this time, what you need to do is point out towards your own made endless efforts and past achievements that will eventually boost your confidence level. Develop a more positive attitude, and things would get easier for you.
Set clear goals
In the midst of failing things or fearing about perfectionism, help yourself by setting clear and realistic goals to manage your expectations and needs. Track your progress, and even if you fail, just let it go and treat it as a lesson for next time.
Develop good study skills
Focus more on your learning process, as this will help improve your study skills. Though getting good grades should be your goal, but it is good skills that will help achieve success. Develop critical problem-solving and active thinking skills in order to complete your homework on time with perfection.
