OPINION BY ASHLEY KIRKLAND
It’s Wednesday night, American Horror Story is on and your friends are all watching it together. If that isn’t tempting enough, you can smell their popcorn from your desk where you are ever so intently working on your reading assignment.
Then it occurs to you that if you close the book for a few hours you can always come back to it because ‘the night is still young’. Fast-forward two hours, and you are stuffed full of popcorn. Your head is spinning from endless plot twists and gory scenes featuring Lady Gaga.
Let’s just say you played the procrastination card and folded.
It’s not that procrastination is necessarily a bad thing. I need a little pressure to motivate me to get my work done. When it comes down to it, we all procrastinate every once in a while. I even procrastinated writing this article. I am going to lend you a few tips that may help you the next time you find yourself watching ‘just one more episode’.
Bribe yourself with food.
This is the oldest one in the book as far as bribery goes. Next time you are struggling, set out a container of your favorite snack (Oreos) and assign yourself a sequence of goals. For example, for every chapter completed you get a cookie. This method is effective because you motivate yourself to read to get more Oreos, just make sure you have discipline to not grab the Oreos and forget to flip the pages.
Listen to film scores.
If you are unaware of what a film score is, do not fret. The catchy tune you are humming as you walk out of the movie is most likely the film score from the film. These pieces are meant to be background music and keep an audience engaged during a film. This philosophy does the same for you and your homework.
Create accountability.
Find yourself a solid studying group from class. If there is a test you can study together and when there are assigned essays you can all proof read each other’s work. Odds are someone will be responsible enough to keep you on task and off of Netflix.
When all else fails and you have officially hit single digits until your homework is due, grab a coffee and find a quiet place for it’s time to crank it out.
