Week 7: Combatting procrastination

As you can probably tell, I am a serial procrastinator. I’ve struggled with deadlines and work speed for as long as I can remember. I struggle especially with long projects that have a distant deadline. I have seen many kids my age struggle with the same problems I face while working, so I’d like to mention two things that have helped me progress on my senior project.

Firstly, I stopped listening to music while working on this project. More specifically, I cut out listening to music with lyrics. I know for others like me with ADHD, listening to ambient music without lyrics can actually help. For me this is also the case. Simple background music without lyrics or crazy instrumentals has helped put me into flow states much faster.

Secondly, I have worked on recognizing when I lie to myself. As a procrastinator, I often find myself saying “I’ll do that later” many times a day. The truth is, I will either forget to do it altogether or put out work that I am not proud of because I rushed to finish it. Catching myself when I try to push back work has helped me refocus and keep researching/writing for the project.

In conclusion, I still am far from winning my battle with procrastination, but I have made some progress by cutting out unnecessary distractions when I work, and being mindful of procrastinatory thoughts.