SLIGHTLY UNRELATED- How to stop procrastination?

Seanf999

90% of my friends procrastinate, we're all currently in 5th year and I personally would like to nip this is in the bud.
+ I thought it may be of use to others!

And yes I'm procrastinating asking this..

DublinArnie

When you get home from a busy day - get straight into work. Sure, you could have something to eat beforehand, but don't go on your phone or anything. I find it very efficient, and always do my homework/study straight away when I get home. Might as well get it done so you can have the day free, eh?

It's a habit, and once you realise how much free time you have later, it will stick .

Seanf999

DublinArnie wrote: »

When you get home from a busy day - get straight into work. Sure, you could have something to eat beforehand, but don't go on your phone or anything. I find it very efficient, and always do my homework/study straight away when I get home. Might as well get it done so you can have the day free, eh?

It's a habit, and once you realise how much free time you have later, it will stick .

Sounds like a plan! I've a habit of starting mine at 6 and finishing around 10 which isn't working..

AMG999222

Currently repeating, Got my wake up call last August on results day, heres a few things I've learnt along the way. Long post but sure look.

Libraries - All libraries have somewhere for you to do a bit of study, and they're absolutely invaluable. Everyone else there is just getting on with their work so if your mind wanders you just take one look around you and see that you're not doing what everyone else is there to do and that is to work. It removes all distractions around you and you can't chat to your mates, so it's super productive.

Keep a Journal/Diary/Timetable - The way I discovered that libraries are good for me was that my guidance councillor told me to make a timetable in Excel, from 7am to 12pm fill in all my classes, and print it out. Whenever I did some out of class school work or took a bus somewhere, I would fill in the little hour block on the sheet. Brought it back to him the following Monday and we could see clearly the problem areas that were causing my procrastination.

So for example, I could see that on a few of the days there would be a 3 to 4 hour solid block of Netflix after school that could easily be time used for studying. So I cut out the Netflix. Another thing I realised was that any form of commuting will kill any drive to study. Because my commute is so long, as soon as I got home I would just crash literally anywhere, So I know that as soon as I leave Rathmines, nothing will be done, and the day is a write off.

The other thing about this is that it helps you quantify roughly how much study you're doing, and my guidance councillor would briefly check up on me every week, just to see how I'm getting on. I know that I'll feel great if I can turn around and tell him oh, I've done 14 hours of study this week. And on the flip side, I know he'll feel a bit let down if he found out that I was slacking.

Those little notes cards - I've found these great for French and Economics. Go down to your local stationary shop and buy those notes cards some of your teachers might harp on about. They're only about €1.50 for a pack, even try and get the ring bound ones. Then read a chapter in your book and re write it onto one of those 2.5" by 5" cards in a super condensed format. I'm talking create your own alphabet of symbols if you need to. Just the act of carefully rewriting a chapter can make a load of info stick in your head. Then once its done, you can go back and revise an entire chapter just by looking over the card. They're also small enough to carry around in your bag at all times so you can glance over stuff on the bus or in the car.

Turn the immersion on - For your language(s), If you can develop a passion for the language and the culture, and surround yourself with it, its 10x easier to do well in the subject. For me, I've been watching French TV and movies with the subtitles, playing video games in French, reading Les Aventures de Tintin on the bus every morning, and I've kept a "little black book of vocab and phrases" which I always use to jot down phrases that I'll have some use for in the future. The black book is important because theres no point in immersion if you don't absorb and reuse anything form it.

The other thing is that you'll also pick up some phrases and words you won't learn in class that would be useful in your oral, or in my case when I go over to France in 2 weeks to study in a Lycée, I'll have a lot of everyday language so I can get along with the locals and at the same time not sound like a total robot.

--

I know I rambled on a bit there but I hope it helps.

Bon courage, mon ami !

Seanf999

AMG999222 wrote: »

Currently repeating, Got my wake up call last August on results day, heres a few things I've learnt along the way. Long post but sure look.

Libraries - All libraries have somewhere for you to do a bit of study, and they're absolutely invaluable. Everyone else there is just getting on with their work so if your mind wanders you just take one look around you and see that you're not doing what everyone else is there to do and that is to work. It removes all distractions around you and you can't chat to your mates, so it's super productive.

Keep a Journal/Diary/Timetable - The way I discovered that libraries are good for me was that my guidance councillor told me to make a timetable in Excel, from 7am to 12pm fill in all my classes, and print it out. Whenever I did some out of class school work or took a bus somewhere, I would fill in the little hour block on the sheet. Brought it back to him the following Monday and we could see clearly the problem areas that were causing my procrastination.

So for example, I could see that on a few of the days there would be a 3 to 4 hour solid block of Netflix after school that could easily be time used for studying. So I cut out the Netflix. Another thing I realised was that any form of commuting will kill any drive to study. Because my commute is so long, as soon as I got home I would just crash literally anywhere, So I know that as soon as I leave Rathmines, nothing will be done, and the day is a write off.

The other thing about this is that it helps you quantify roughly how much study you're doing, and my guidance councillor would briefly check up on me every week, just to see how I'm getting on. I know that I'll feel great if I can turn around and tell him oh, I've done 14 hours of study this week. And on the flip side, I know he'll feel a bit let down if he found out that I was slacking.

Those little notes cards - I've found these great for French and Economics. Go down to your local stationary shop and buy those notes cards some of your teachers might harp on about. They're only about €1.50 for a pack, even try and get the ring bound ones. Then read a chapter in your book and re write it onto one of those 2.5" by 5" cards in a super condensed format. I'm talking create your own alphabet of symbols if you need to. Just the act of carefully rewriting a chapter can make a load of info stick in your head. Then once its done, you can go back and revise an entire chapter just by looking over the card. They're also small enough to carry around in your bag at all times so you can glance over stuff on the bus or in the car.

Turn the immersion on - For your language(s), If you can develop a passion for the language and the culture, and surround yourself with it, its 10x easier to do well in the subject. For me, I've been watching French TV and movies with the subtitles, playing video games in French, reading Les Aventures de Tintin on the bus every morning, and I've kept a "little black book of vocab and phrases" which I always use to jot down phrases that I'll have some use for in the future. The black book is important because theres no point in immersion if you don't absorb and reuse anything form it.

The other thing is that you'll also pick up some phrases and words you won't learn in class that would be useful in your oral, or in my case when I go over to France in 2 weeks to study in a Lycée, I'll have a lot of everyday language so I can get along with the locals and at the same time not sound like a total robot.

--

I know I rambled on a bit there but I hope it helps.

Bon courage, mon ami !

Jesus your the Samon of knowledge of study tips! Thanks I'll definitely be putting these into practise..
Even without filling in the blocks I know my phone takes up far too much of my time..