Combating Procrastination: My Full Guide

Let’s be brutally honest right now—studying is a chore. So much so that when given the option, most people would choose not to do it. This probably wasn’t much of a problem during high school, with teachers helping you at every turn. In university, however, you become one face in a pool of hundreds, and chances are you’ll get overlooked.

As such, this blog exists to help you combat procrastination and actually begin studying. Before I list the methods that helped me, here’s the first key point you need to follow:

Make your study sessions enjoyable.

Though I pray it never happens to you, if you find yourself getting bad grades, one of your first reactions will likely be self-blame. This marks the start of a harmful cycle, where studying becomes heavier and more burdensome than it really is. You begin desperately studying, driven by the idea of redeeming both your grades and yourself—an “academic comeback.”

You might succeed. Your grades improve, and despite the exhaustion, it feels worth it. But repeat this enough times, and burnout becomes inevitable. Eventually, you’ll start subconsciously avoiding studying because, deep down, you’ve come to despise it.

You might also fail to see improvement. Then the self-blame intensifies, and you place studying on an even higher pedestal. You push yourself harder, study with more intensity—and once again, burn out.

Regardless of the outcome, studying becomes a heavy burden.

Therefore—

1. Reduce its weight.

It’s easy to delay studying until exams are near, but sacrificing sleep for long study sessions harms both your health and performance. Instead of one exhausting 8-hour session, break it into four 2-hour sessions across the week. As a general rule of thumb, aim to study as many hours as you spend in class. If you have 15 credit hours, that’s 15 hours of study per week. Spread across 5 days, that’s just 3 hours daily.

1. Make tiny goals

For each of these three-hour sessions, give yourself a clear set of goals. They don’t need to be ambitious—completing a subsection or five questions is enough. The key is to keep them small. There’s no better feeling than finishing a task, so why not multiply that feeling? Instead of assigning one large objective like completing a full chapter, break it into smaller tasks. Each completion gives immediate satisfaction, and before long, you’ll find yourself progressing much faster.

1. DO EXERCISES

One of the most overlooked parts of studying is doing exercises. It’s far easier to read and take notes than to actively apply what you’ve learned. Unfortunately, the easier route rarely leads to better grades. Following the same principle, don’t overload yourself with too many questions per session—keep it manageable. If you get stuck, seek help or revisit the theory; you may have missed something important.

1. DON’T study alone

Holding yourself accountable is difficult and often ineffective. External accountability, however, works surprisingly well. Study with someone else—they don’t even need to be in the same course or faculty. Simply having someone else studying while you’re not creates a subtle pressure that pushes you back into focus. Over time, this can gradually pull you out of procrastination and into consistent study habits. It’s genuinely astounding how effective this is.

In a nutshell, studying should never be a burdensome chore, but just another routine in your daily life. Pushing yourself does work like a charm, but for visible and actual improvement nothing beats gradual changes.