5 Tips to Help Students Avoid Procrastination

Taking up a nursing course in college is difficult and challenging as it requires a lot of hard work memorizing so many things. This is the reason why nursing students are, in general, very studious. They are always very busy, being so diligent with their academic responsibilities. But just like any student, even nursing students succumb to the persuading temptation of procrastination. According to the StudiCare Procrastination study published in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) in 2019, 50-70 % of college students show frequent and significant procrastination behavior.

The American Psychological Association (APA) wrote about procrastination and intentional delay for students. Procrastination is the action of delaying something that needs to be done now, even though there will be adverse consequences later. But don’t worry, this is just part of the matriculation experience and there are a few ways to avoid it.

Here are five tips to help you, our nursing student, avoid procrastination:

1. Work from a list
Since nursing students are always preoccupied with so many things, such as studying, reading, homework, quizzes, exams, projects and goals, you must write down everything you need to do down on paper or type it into your gadgets in the form of a to-do list. It doesn’t matter what method you use, the concept is to make a list of everything that needs to be done within a certain time so as not to forget anything. To make it more comprehensive, the list can include a priority level of tasks, deadlines, reminders, and follow-ups. This is one of the key tips listed in a post on ‘Fight Procrastination Day’ by SymptomFind. This is an irregular holiday, but a necessary one, because it focuses on how to accomplish more by taking your time to organize your tasks and priorities. Sometimes, taking a short pause to organize your thoughts, tasks, and creating a plan on how to accomplish your goals can actually save you time because it prevents you from just frantically going around doing everything and accomplishing nothing on time.

2. Improve time management

Time is the most valuable resource for any nursing student. For this reason, after you have made your list, spend time in advance planning out your week. For example, on a Sunday night, plan out every event that makes up your agenda Monday to Friday. This means scheduling your priorities (from your list #1) into your weekly agenda. You can save hours during the week by spending minutes in advance to plan your agenda.

3. Study in a quiet place
If where you study is not conducive to your learning style, change it. It is difficult to study in places where there are many distractions, temptations, unwanted noise or even people that persuade you to drift away. Yes, people – even friends – can be distractions because the is a large tendency to allot a certain amount of time socializing, which takes away from your precious studying time.

Set up your environment so that it is quiet and comfortable, suitable for focusing on the task at hand. Make room on your study table for easy access to all of your important supplies. In a previous Nursing Uncensored post, we identified the ‘Top 10 School Supplies for Nursing Students’, including binders, tabbed dividers and correction tape, to name a few. Don’t forget proper lighting and a comfortable chair. Concentrate on what you are reading and you will find that you can easily absorb all the information you are trying to learn. This way, you can’t make any excuses to procrastinate over reasons such as lack of pens or poor lighting.

4. Eliminate distractions
Distractions come in many forms, like background noise, loud music, casual people talking, our friends asking us random questions, and the most common nowadays, our cell phone notifications from our social media accounts. As much as possible, turn off the notifications on your cell phone from your most tempting distractions, like social media, internet shopping and other unimportant news.

5. Upgrade your perspective
Your perspective will directly affect your level of motivation. If you do not see the purpose of taking up this course, you will not be motivated to succeed. However, if you see taking up nursing as a way to comfort sick people, as a fulfilment of your childhood dreams, or as a means to financial freedom, then you will be highly motivated to study hard and to succeed in school. Constantly remind yourself of the great reasons of why you want to pursue the prestigious profession of nursing.

Nursing school is challenging, but it is also very rewarding. By following these simple recommendations, you will be closer to achieving your ultimate goal of becoming a nurse.

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