Empowering Students: Strategies for Tackling Procrastination

The start of a new year is the perfect time to help students resolve to change a bad habit that can plague them throughout the year: procrastination. While, ultimately, it’s up to them whether they’ll change, we’re here to arm you with some effective strategies designed to minimize procrastination and power students to reach their peak potential.

1. Encourage Setting Clear Goals: Help your students define their objectives with precision, focusing on specific, measurable, action-oriented, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. Clear goals provide direction and motivation, helping students get started and stay on track.
2. Break Down Tasks: Address the root of procrastination—complex tasks. Educate students on breaking them down into manageable steps. Progressing in small increments builds momentum and alleviates overwhelm.
3. Prioritize with Purpose: Work with your students to create a task-ranking system that aligns with their goals. Identify the high-impact activities and start with those. By focusing on things that genuinely matter, you help students create a roadmap to success.
4. Try Out Time Blocking: Encourage your students to harness the power of time blocking, a technique that involves scheduling dedicated time slots for specific tasks. Set aside uninterrupted periods solely for focused work, allowing your students to avoid distractions, stay focused, and minimize the temptation to procrastinate.
5. Fight Fear: Sometimes students won’t start a task because they’re afraid they’ll do it wrong, or poorly. Help them adopt a growth mindset, which values learning from mistakes and values progress over perfection.
6. Find Productivity Peaks: Everyone has their preferred productivity patterns. Help your students identify the times of day when they feel most energized and focused. This knowledge can then be used to schedule the most challenging tasks during their "prime productivity zone."
7. Delete Distractions: A well-organized environment will enable your students to work effectively. Encourage them to minimize distractions by silencing notifications, decluttering their workspace, and creating strategies to minimize possible disruptions.
8. Pick Up a Planner: A student planner can help students implement the tips outlined above. It gives them a place to break down tasks, prioritize steps, and block out time to start and work on their projects.

We all have moments where we’re resistant to starting a task or project. Helping students recognize this can alleviate some of the guilt or shame that often accompanies procrastination. Then, by empowering them with strategies they can implement when they’re feeling stuck, we can help them out of the negative cycle procrastination can create. With your passion, guidance, and perseverance, your students can outsmart procrastination and transform their dreams into reality.

Let's continue building better futures, together!