Students, no matter what age or grade, struggle with procrastinating on their schoolwork. Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing something and for students that something is their homework. Now, with the majority of a student’s week still being online, they have to keep themselves accountable for not falling behind.

“Students often procrastinate because they don’t see how a project is relevant or important to them, don’t understand the material, or just don’t know how to get started. When you boil it down, procrastination is a combination of motivation, confidence, and comprehension issues,” says a study by Oxford Learning.

If a student faces the problem of procrastination it is most likely because they don’t understand the best thing to do would be to go to their teacher and ask for help. Even a simple explanation might make all the difference between turning something in late or on time.

It’s extremely easy to say to oneself, “I’ll just do it later” or “I have so much time, I don’t need to do it right now”. But to be successful at keeping up with schoolwork as a student that mindset isn’t the most helpful. The best way to avoid being a procrastinator is to have a set plan of how you are going to accomplish your goal and when you need it done by.  

According to College Xpress student writer Regan Collins, the best ways to avoid procrastination include setting simple and achievable goals, creating a timeline/schedule, setting a deadline, getting rid of distractions, timing yourself, taking breaks, using incentives, getting the hard stuff done first, and telling someone about your goals. All of these things, if stuck to throughout the school year, would be beneficial to a student struggling with procrastination. 

If students are able to organize their school lives in a way that works for them, be able to hold themselves accountable for their deadlines, and get help from teachers when they need it falling behind shouldn’t be an issue for them. Once a student is able to keep up and avoids procrastinating on their work their anxiety and stress diminishes when it comes to school.