Apr 29, 2019
Postgraduate Procrastination
By Holly from the Student Team
Teaching is over, your friends and colleagues are starting to disperse, you can feel the Spring sun on your face at last! If you are a postgraduate student like me, it can feel enormously tempting to procrastinate starting your dissertation for just…one…more…week.
In these situations you need to remember that you are not alone! Still, you do need to find a way to tackle it that works for you. Thankfully, My Learning Essentials workshops and resources can help kickstart your summer of independent learning. For starters, check out this blog full of dedicated postgraduate-level tips and let’s send procrastination packing!
Start really small
The trick to tackling a procrastination habit is to allow yourself to do some procrastination activities. Sounds counterintuitive — but read on. Use the Pomodoro technique. Here, you set a timer* and work uninterrupted for a period of 25 minutes. Then, you have a timed five-minute break — and this is when you can do your favourite procrastination activities. Once the five minutes are up, you are back to work for another 25. You’ll be surprised how much you can accomplish in these short Pomodoro bursts. Next, you can expand the working stint to fifty minutes, with the same five minute break.
Move beyond the usual procrastination drains (social media, tidying up) and use the five minutes to take a proper break. Assistive software like StayFocused can help you to step away from social media or other time-wasting websites. Feel the Spring sun on your face, take a stretch, water your houseplants. You deserve your planned breaks when they arrive, safe in the knowledge that your work is progressing. Pomodoro aficionados suggest you take longer break of fifteen to thirty minutes after four pomodori ‘sets’.
Working with Pomodoro, I can sustain concentrated work for up to four hours a day. Yet I find Pomodoro is only a crack tactic to tackle my procrastination minute-by-minute. What happens when I want a strategy which works for whole days and eventually is sustainable throughout the summer?
Play to your own circadian rhythm
You may already know about circadian rhythms — think about the time of day where you have laser-focused concentration. Is it early morning, afternoon or evening? Now plan your study activities so that reading and writing can be done during these high-energy hours, and use your low-energy hours to do routine work, such as literature searching or transcribing interviews. In this way, you can get much more out of your day.
You can naturally boost your concentration if you anticipate low energy or you are finding procrastination is setting in. I go for a swim at lunch to fire up my afternoon — the exercise re-oxygenates my blood and helps clear thinking. Ensuring I catch some sunlight for half an hour really helps too — why not try University Green or Brunswick Park?
Changing where you study can also boost your focus and keep procrastination at bay. I keep favourite study spaces in mind and move to new spots twice a day. This takes some planning, but you can take advantage of the natural sunlight spots which occur on campus at different times of day. Finally, know when to give up for the day and go home; maintaining a regular sleep routine will help you sustain workrate throughout the summer.
Flexibility
If you know you are a procrastinator, build some flexibility into your dissertation planning. When doing research, things do inevitably deviate from your original plan. Having a flexible slot in your schedule will save you from this daily stress. I use a ‘power hour’ first thing each day while a friend plans his day with a one-hour free slot in his afternoon to catch up outstanding tasks. Whichever way you do it, it works wonders for dealing with nagging tasks and allowing you to focus when needed.
Study Communities
Sometimes tricking your mind might be necessary to beat your procrastination habit. Why not create ‘practice’ deadlines in advance of your real deadlines? Team up with like-minded colleagues to make this feel authentic — arrange to meet as a ‘study community’ and exchange feedback on dissertation chapters. In this way, you’ll have regular ‘practice’ deadlines throughout the summer. When your colleagues are poised to give feedback, you are more likely to draft your chapters steadily and give procrastination the heave-ho!
Upcoming Workshops
There are lots of great methods for addressing procrastination and managing time in the upcoming My Learning Essentials and University Counselling workshops. The workshops are quick and effective — they only take one-and-a-half hours — a short time investment for a big productivity boost. Coming up, we have:
- Managing Procrastination (My Learning Essentials) — for undergraduate and postgraduate students - Mon 29th April 2019 13:00–14:30. Where does your need to procrastinate come from? How can your break your habit loop?
- Manage your time: Make the most of it! (My Learning Essentials) — for undergraduate and postgraduate students — Tue 30th April 2019 14:30–16:00.
- Mindfulness for concentration (University of Manchester Counselling Service) — Tue 30th April 2019 16:15–17:00. Practice a type of mediation which can improve your ability to concentrate and your overall wellbeing. Mindfulness is also useful when you are not studying; being mindful allows you to get more relaxation out of your break times.
- Shut up and Write (My Research Essentials) — Wed 15th May 2019 10:30–12:00 and more sessions scheduled throughout the summer.
Did you miss the workshops? Not a problem. My Learning Essentials can still help. Try our online training session Now or Never? Overcoming procrastination to learn to recognise and overcome your procrastination habit.
Trust the Plan
Let’s be honest — being a postgraduate student places high demands on your time and can feel restrictive. There is often no time for procrastination! Think differently though — managing your time can allow you much-needed freedom to relax. Armed with a study plan to optimise your time and sustain your energy, all that is left to think about is your academic work and choosing which fun activities to put into breaks. Trust yourself and trust your plan. You’ve got this!
