August 4, 2009

The life of a college student is filled with so many temptations that can derail even the most serious student. Picture a campus on the first warm day after a long cold winter: everyone is sitting outside with friends, Frisbees are whizzing around, music is blasting, and, seemingly, nobody is doing any work. Even during the most mundane days of a semester there are countless diversions that take students away from studying. Try living in a dorm with a couple hundred other students. It is extremely difficult to stay on task. Unfortunately, many students do wait until the absolute last minute to get their work completed. This makes for less than stellar quality and students’ grades suffer.

Procrastinating often seems like the easy way to tackle your workload, but the earlier you realize how detrimental this can be to your grades and your ability to learn the better off you will be in the long run. If you feel like you are getting sucked into the vicious cycle of procrastination, then there are some ways you can break this habit. Your first move is to stay away from your dorm. After your last class of the day go to the library and do some work, even for just an hour. This will give you a sense of control over the work that hangs over your head. Look over your syllabi and decide what is most pressing and attend to those assignments first.

Working in the library is a surefire way to eliminate the distractions of the dorm: friends, music, and television. Abide by the rule that you will not surf the internet on your laptop or phone while in the library. So many hours are wasted sitting on the computer checking out social networking sites and whatever else you stumble upon while surfing the web. Find a quiet area of the library, away from other people, and open up your book bag and put in some quality time every day in the peace and quiet of this sanctuary.

Learn to say no to your friends. If you have an important paper on the horizon, you must recognize that it is more important than missing out on a night out with your friends. There will be countless other nights. You need to be strong as your friends are sure to tell that you can always do the paper another night. However, if you feel like it is important then it definitely is. Your most important role at college is being a student despite the pressure to go out and have fun every possible moment.