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Procrastination: what is it and why does it happen?

Why is it that so often when there is something that we have to do, we find a million other things we ‘need’ to do first? Your essay’s due in at the end of the week - but suddenly it’s terribly important to tidy your room – or put your bookshelf in alphabetical order – and you really ought to just check Facebook before you start. Not to mention all those interesting things you can see out of the window…

Whether you call it putting things off, being stuck, writer’s block or just having trouble getting started, procrastination can have a serious impact on your ability to manage your study time. When you waste study time by procrastinating, you risk not having enough time to complete your work well, or even at all. At the very least, you will have less time for the things you choose to do outside of studying.

It may seem obvious to say that you are more likely to put off doing something you don’t want to do, but it’s usually true. To solve the problem you need to take the next step, which is to ask yourself why you don’t want to do it. For instance:

Once you’ve identified why you’re procrastinating, you can start to think about how to solve the problem.

For resources and strategies to help you do this, have a look at:

Overcoming Procrastination

Dealing with Distractions