http://www.sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/procrastination.html
Motivation: Mastery, Autonomy, Purpose [Pink, Drive]
Completing Assignments: Irving's Model for Completing Assignments [Nancy Pickering Thomas, I.L.A.I.S.I]
Setting SMART Goals - Growth Mindset [Dweck]
http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_keep_your_goals_to_yourself?language=en
Controlling your behavior
http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2014/07/7-things-good-communicators-avoid.html
https://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=32124
https://llk.media.mit.edu/courses/readings/Dweck.pdf
http://www.kipp.org/our-approach/character
http://www.edutopia.org/resilience-grit-resources
16 possible ways to deal with procrastination
Just get started
Break up The Job. It’s much easier to get started on a small job than a big one – so break
that big job like the writing the EE draft into lots of small jobs (write the opening sentence
only, bullet point the abstract, write the first point in the body...) and do them one by one.
Do something, anything. Just write the first sentence, only that. Or the last sentence. Or
the title. Or bullet point the three main ideas. You’ve started.
Buy a timer. Set it for 15 minutes. Do as much as you can until the timer sounds, then –
and here’s the really important thing - walk away. Finish. Don’t feel bad, don’t think of the
rest to do, don’t worry about it – just do something else. You can go back to it some other
time.
See the issue
Get a calendar. Cross off all the days you can’t or won’t work – trips, holidays, visits,
Friday evenings, Saturday nights, competitions, matches, performances... Be absolutely
ruthless / realistic. You start seeing when you have to work.
The Big List. Produce a List of all the jobs you need to do. Colour code just the ones
which are both Important and Urgent. See if you can do just those.
The Big List 2. On that Big List, colour code the jobs you just know you’re not doing
because you don’t want to do them. It’s awful to think of doing all of them. Try doing just
one unpleasant job a day until they’ve gone away.
Target. Don’t say in the evening,‘I’ll do my homework...’. List exactly what you need to do,
as specifically as possible: ‘Three maths problems, write the plan for the history essay, and
write up one lab.’ As you finish each one, give yourself a few minutes of something fun. If
you get stuck on one of them, don’t fight it, move on to another task, get it done, have some
fun...
Use people
Work with a friend. Set a joint deadline when you have to meet to meet after school and
show the work to each other. In drastic cases, put 50 rupees into a pot – if either of you
don’t have the work, the other person gets the money.
Confess. Talk to your teacher – before the last minute. Tell them it’s a real problem. See if
they can understand, or even help...
Contracts with your parents. Arrange some system with them that will just be
embarrassing for you if you don’t live up to it: ‘If I don’t meet 80% of my deadlines this
month, you can choose which two nights I can’t go out...’ ‘I’ll write all my deadlines on a
calendar in the kitchen and cook every day that I miss a deadline, until it’s done...’
Routines
Get some routines. It takes energy to decide to do something, and makes it harder to
start. Make a decision once that e.g. you’ll always work from say 7 to 9 on four evenings a
week, and Tuesdays and Thursdays after school in a classroom. Just keep that routine.
You’re not having to fight that decision every day and so every day giving yourself chance
to think of good reasons to work... tomorrow...
Morning routines. Once a fortnight, on the same morning each time, get up early and do
two hours of work before school. Fewer distractions, a clear end to the work each time, it’s
all bonus achievement... you may be surprised how much you can get done.
Live with it
Plan when to be distracted. You may know that you just have to spend two hours a day
on Facebook or you’ll be a social outcast. So - schedule that, maybe in two routine evening
blocks. Makes it harder to persuade yourself you’ll just check for 5 minutes, really, just
five...
Sometimes you do get work done. So work out what makes it happen then – is it
because the job is easy, or quick, or you don’t care, or you can do it 90% okay, or you
have more energy sometimes, or you worked with a friend, or got started at school... And
then start re-creating those conditions occasionally.
Switch off (permanently) alerts for Facebook and texting and Twitter. Easily done.
Switch off the Internet connection (temporarily); make a written note of the
questions and queries you have in working whilst not connected.
Get a dirt-cheap ratty old second-hand computer with no modem, and use it for
typing up essays – so you’re not tempted to just quickly check Facebook...
Give your phone to your father and ask him to give it back once you show him the
finished work (not to your mother – you know she’ll read your messages...).
Know how much time you spend online doing stupid things – get something like
Timesnapper, which shows you how much time you spend on different sites – ouch.
Get an app. Ironic or what? But those apps like ‘Self control’ or the facebook
blockers – they may work for you.
Work without a computer – leave your bag and computer, just use pen and paper
and plan your ideas. Doubly useful as practice for exams.
Work somewhere else – take that pen and paper and work in the guest room, the
dining room, an empty classroom after school, a public library...
167 Tips