Avoiding the exam time procrastination pit fall.

[mutzy]

I am a procrastinator.


Big stylee.


I have procrastinating down to a motherfucking tee.


Basically I had a rough year last year and as a result I'm repeating my second year of college. My parents weren't exactly thrilled but they were still supportive and didn't get annoyed or angry at me having to do another year of college.
Because I'm only repeating parts of subjects I have waaaay less hours than last year. I went from ~40hours a week (between classes&reports) to about 6 hours a week.

I'm also pretty bad at attending class unless they take attendance, which they don't. Coupled with all classes being before 11am and me having a night job that doesn't see me getting home till 4am, classes just sort of didn't happen this year.

Any ways, in true me form, I left it all till the last minute, I mean nearly everything. Exam stress sends to send me into a pretty bad state, leaves me in an emotional wreck and I basically become an entirely different person that I hate for as long as exam season goes on for.

I've accepted this year is probably another write off (I'm currently in the resignation/acceptance phase of the exam mood swings cycle) but other people must have this problem?
Where they become slaves to their own procrastination and let things get so bad that they resign themselves to doing nothing and let themselves do things that they know aren't going help (for me, I got off work early the last few nights and ended up drinking and smoking till hours even though I didn't intend to)

Any help/advice/words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.
I'm sure other people here have this problem and it does horrible things to their heads.

 

[Oxycondone]

I am like you, I have a major, I'd say clinical even, procrastination problem. I can watch a whole TV season in a night and not even enjoy the show, I just do it to put off studying. Anyway here are my tips that work for me:

I find that making to do lists with even simple tasks on it (ring someone, make appointment, ect) helps motivate me cause you get a good feeling striking things off the list.

I also find placing yourself in an environment with less distractions helps, for example I find the computers and the internet a HUGE distraction (I can surf random shit for days on end) so going somewhere with my textbook and not taking a laptop helps (library for example).

I also find setting myself artificial deadlines which are before the actual deadlines helps because I work better when there is a sense or urgency involved (ie I have to do something rather than want to do something). So say exams are a bit away I will say I have to revise all these chapters by next week and pretend the exam is next week just to put the pressure on myself. That helps me stay focussed and lowers the temptation of procrastination. This however is one of the harder tricks to implement because you can't get lazy and just say "well it doesn't really matter if I don't do this job now".

Finally there are medical aids, I take Ritalin (methylphenidate) rarely when I want/need to get lots of work done combined with the other techniques to improve focus, concentration, productivity and motivation. If you are interested in something like this see a psychatrist and let them know your procrastination issue and they may look into pharmaceutical help. Don't rely on pharms though, they don't work if there is no motivation in the back of your mind, you have to want to work at least a bit.

 

[wooger]

I can 100% understand your situation.... I have mastered the art of procrastination too...

but yes... would it be possible for you to go to a library or something? Maybe walk there instead of driving would encourage you to stay there longer too...

Once you start, as long as you have at least some interest in your subject you will probably get quite into it.. do you have access to past exam papers? Obviously it's really late in the academic year now and it's probably best to avoid learning stuff that is unlikely to be on the test. I would go through some past papers and see patterns of topics etc to see what is likely to be tested.

Not going to classes for whatever reason I found makes it seem less real. I mean, hell you kinow you are doing the course but if you don't even know what you are supposed to have learnt you don't realise how far behind you are. This makes it so much easier in the short run to convince your self that everything is fine.... you prolly already noticed all this though. Maybe you need someone to be harsh (for your own good) and give you a kick up the backside and tell you its either now or never, no more excuses/second chances and just do it. It sounds harsh but this seems to cure alot of procrastination problems....

You will amaze yourself what you are capable of and even if you don't feel like you had long enough to learn stuff you will probably surprise yourself in your exams - your brain is like a sponge it soaks up information and you don't even realise it until you really need it!

but seriously yes, past exams papers and library! do you have blackboard at ur uni? if you do you can get reading lists/lecture slides off there if you haven't been to classes but if not ask to photocopy some peoples notes or something and not to be rude but once you get into the habit of 'I can repeat the year again' then thats gunna make things so much worse.

Good luck with your exams - I know you can do it .

 

[Oxycondone]

Ohh Yeh Wooger just reminded me of one huge helping tip! Also a really hard one to follow sometimes (I realise you mentioned having a problem with this already):

If you attentionally attend (not falling asleep) all your classes you will be 100% in front than if you don't. I have had units where I have been to every lecture and written things down but have done no private study in my own time (or very little) and have done great. Conversely I have had the opposite for classes I have studied lots for and not attended classes.

I think it works for me because I am a audio/visual learner. I retain information a lot better if I hear/see it rather than learn from a book (youtube is a great resource). Also generally in class you will learn what you need for the exams rather than a book which may go off track a lot and teach you things you don't need.

 

[mutzy]

Cheers guys,
Meds are out, first off it's pretty fucking difficult to get prescribed that stuff over here but I really don't want to rely on some pill to help me. Sure there are times when I sit down to do something and my concentration is just shot, I can't focus on any thing. But the bigger problem is getting myself to sit down and pull out the books in the first place.

Sadly I can't just shut off my laptop and internet to go study seeing as I need them for my course work and to work through problems. (Also there are waaaaaaaaaaay too many things I need on here to print off)

Exam's this evening. Done/still trying to do what I can for it.
If needs be I have to repeat my exam at the end of the summer but there's no way it's getting like this again. One way or another I will be in third year next year so it's just a matter of trying to get an attack plan in place. One which I can stick too even with two jobs and a lot of travelling.
(Also, having an unhelpful dick of a subject supervisor does not help chill my nerves.)