A theory on how to conquer it the easy way
We all procrastinate. I was procrastinating as I was writing this article, and you are probably procrastinating now as you’re reading it. Procrastination is ok – it’s our brain’s response to long-term goals. Our brains aren’t very good at thinking about them, so they delay having to deal with long-term goals until they become short-term, for example: a final exam tomorrow, rather than a final in two months. Sadly, this response isn’t great when you’re procrastinating preparing for your midterms (which are in less than two weeks), making a victory over procrastination extremely necessary in order to get the grades you want.
For me, as for most people, starting to study (or do anything) is the hardest part. Once you start the process, it’s easier to get going (otherwise known as inertia). There are many ways to get yourself to work, two of which are: forcing yourself and experiencing lots of negative emotions, or tricking your brain and finding pleasure in studying. Honestly, I would pick the easy way, so here’s how to do it: knowing that your brain procrastinates when it recognizes a long-term goal, make your long-term goals short-term!
Basically, what you need to do is break up your pile of studying into bite-size pieces, and just start. For example: my goal right now is to do one study question each in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Calculus every day. Just one. Even if the question only asks to put one measly dot on a graph. It seems like nothing, right? Like I’m never going to be prepared for midterms, but guess what? That thinking is what gets me to start studying, which is the hardest part of studying to overcome. I think, “Oh, I only need to do one question in each subject, that’ll take about 20 minutes”, and I just start doing them. Once I do the first one, I gain momentum and the rest of the problems in the module, study set, or problem set don’t seem as daunting of a task. I end up doing a lot more than I anticipated, or maybe even wanted to do, which brings me one step closer to success rather than taking a step back by just looking at my pile of studying and not doing anything (which I used to do all the time).
This mind trick is my key tool in getting things done, and I hope it works for you. Remember, midterms are a very short-term goal right now! Go and do one – yes just one – problem! (Even if it is just putting a microscopic dot on a graph). Even if you don’t end up studying everything you wanted to today, you’ll have started, and you’ll have overcome the most difficult part of the study process. Good luck!