When things get hard, we begin to procrastinate. That makes sense, right? The work piles up, so what do we do – avoid it. Logically, this doesn’t make sense. But, we are humans, and we are all guilty of it, and we just aren’t always logical all of the time. Let’s talk about what to do when we feel the desire to procrastinate creep upon us.
Whatever you do, do NOT avoid the work. Avoidance is the biggest cause of procrastination. Just because you avoid something, does not mean it goes away. It’s still there, and now the act of avoiding caused you to be behind, increasing the stress you already have. Trust me: things get worse the longer you put them off. Tackle the study head on.
Get out of any state of denial. Denial is more than just avoiding a potential circumstance – it’s outright denying the fact that it even exists. I often hear, “It’s okay to pick up the bar study in a couple of days, I’ll catch up, I’m not worried about it.” That’s denial. Getting behind creates a snowball effect, and when this becomes reality, it’s difficult to deal with. Get in this mindset: it’s important to do my work, because if I slack off, I will fall behind, and it will be difficult to catch up.
If you find yourself making excuses, stop doing this. It’s easy to make excuses as to why we don’t do something. It’s harder to say you missed assignments or study days because you started studying too late or put it off is harder. You have to come to terms if you have procrastinated and face it. Excuses do not help you, they only hurt you.
If you’ve realized you’ve taken on some of these behaviors – take a step back. Take a deep breath. Come up with a plan. Edit your study schedule to catch up, and try to get out of these thoughts that create procrastination if it happens again. Perseverance, not procrastination, passes the bar exam!
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