IB Diploma students the world over know the perils of procrastination. While two years may seem like a long time, in the life of an IB student it can rush by in the blink of an eye. Between life commitments and academic deadlines, there can be precious time left to complete all of the IB Diploma requirements let alone study for your exams. Throw in a healthy dose of procrastination and it can leave you feeling just a tad bit stressed.

This is normal and the best way to overcome this feeling is to adopt some strategies that will help you to avoid long-term procrastination and make strides toward achieving your IB Diploma goals. Below, Tim Williams, IB educator and author of our guide 167 IB Secrets Tips, hints, and cunning tricks for getting better IB Grades, shares his 14 ways to deal with procrastination as shared in his book.

Are you guilty of procrastinating?…We all are.

You often, or usually, leave your coursework to the last evening before it’s due.
You often find yourself doing lots of small unnecessary jobs when there’s a big job to do.
You have a pile-up of jobs to do that you really are ignoring, and you know it.
You quite often end up working really late, caffeine-fuelled, frenzied, irritated, swearing you’ll never do this again…

Okay, this is normal. It’s built into being human. There isn’t a language in the world without a word for ‘putting things off’. Aristotle wrote about it (‘malakia’); the ancient Egyptians had eight hieroglyphics for it; the Hawaiians call it ‘napa’ – what do you call it? There have been literally thousands of academic studies of it, all with the same conclusions. It occurs in all cultures. Adults learn ways to deal with it; adolescents find it harder. Men procrastinate more than women, in any culture. Students have the worst problems.

Does it matter? It may do – only you know. Below are 14 ways to deal with minor timewasting (70% of people do this) and chronic delaying that damages (20% of people have a major problem). Think – which one, or combination, of these, is preventing you from getting started?

It’s a horrible job.
You’re afraid of failing.
There are so much more enjoyable things to do.
You want it to be perfect.
It can be put off.
You just don’t want to spend hours of your life on it.
You suspect you can’t do it.
You’re sulking.
You can’t bring yourself to care.

14 possible ways to deal with procrastination

Just get started

1. Break up The Job. It’s much easier to get started on a small job than a big one – so break that big job like the writing of the Extended Essay draft into lots of small jobs (write the opening sentence only; bullet point the three main points; write the first point in the body…) and do them one by one.

2. Do something, anything. Just write the first sentence, only that. Or the last sentence. Or the title. Or bullet point the three main ideas. You’ve started.

3. Use a timer. Set it for 15 minutes. Do as much as you can until the timer sounds, then – and here’s the really important thing – walk away. Finish. Don’t feel bad; don’t think of the rest to do; don’t worry about it – just do something else. You can go back to it some other time.

See the issue

4. Get a calendar. Cross off all the days you can’t or won’t work – trips, holidays, visits, Friday evenings, Saturday nights, competitions, matches, performances…Be absolutely ruthless / realistic. You start seeing when you have to work.

5. The Big List. Produce a List of all the jobs you need to do. Colour code just the ones which are both important and urgent. See if you can do just those.

6. The Big List 2. On that Big List, colour code the jobs you just know you’re not doing because you don’t want to do them. It’s awful to think of doing all of them. Try doing just one unpleasant job a day until they’ve gone away.

7. Target. Don’t say in the evening, ‘I’ll do my homework…’. List exactly what you need to do, as specifically as possible. ‘Three maths problems, write the plan for the history essay, and write up on lab.’ As you finish each one, give yourself a few minutes of something fun. If you get stuck on one of them, don’t fight it, move on to another task, get it done, have some fun…

Use people

8. Work with a friend. Set a joint deadline when you have to meet after school and show the work to each other. In drastic cases, put 50 rupees into a pot – if either of you don’t have the work, the other person gets the money.

9. Confess. Talk to your teacher – before the last minute. Tell them it’s a real problem. See if they can understand, or even help…

10. Contracts with your parents. Arrange some system with them that will just be embarrassing for you if you don’t live up to it: ‘If I don’t meet 80% of my deadlines this month, you can choose which two nights I can’t go out…’ ‘I’ll write all my deadlines on a calendar in the kitchen and cook every day that I miss a deadline, until it’s done…’

Routines

11. Get some routines. It takes energy to decide to do something, and makes it harder to start. Make a decision once that, e.g. you’ll always work from say 7 to 9 on four evenings a week, and Tuesdays and Thursdays after school in a classroom. Just keep that routine. You’re not having to fight that decision every day and so every day giving yourself chance to think of good reasons to work…tomorrow…

12. Morning routines. Once a fortnight, on the same morning each time, get up early and do two hours of work before school. Fewer distractions, a clear end to the work each time, it’s all bonus achievement…you may be surprised how much you can get done.

Live with it

13. Plan when to be distracted. You may know that you have to spend two hours a day on Instagram or you’ll be a social outcast. So – schedule that, maybe in two routine evening blocks. Makes it harder to persuade yourself you’ll just check for five minutes, really, just five…

14. Sometimes you do get work done. So work out what makes it happen then – is it because the job is easy, or quick, or you don’t care, or you can do it 90% okay, or you have more energy sometimes, or you worked with a friend, or got started at school…And then start re-creating those conditions occasionally.

What are you waiting for? Get on with it.

Hopefully, the suggestions above have inspired you to get started with whatever part of your IB work you have been avoiding. Identify the tactics you think will work for you and give them a try. Don’t put it off until tomorrow, get started today. And, if you find they aren’t quite working for you, re-visit this article and try some of the others. Keep at it until you find the strategies that help you stay focused and keep you motivated. Maybe you’ll find your own along the way, if so let us know what works for you by commenting below - IB students of the future will thank you.

If you found Tim’s advice helpful, be sure to check out 167 IB Secrets for more insights, tips, and tricks on being a successful IB student. From guidance on CAS and the EE to advice on developing good study habits, the guide is essential reading for your IB journey. You can also find more articles on study skills and tips on our Study Skills resource page.

14 ways to avoid procrastination in the IB Diploma