I had the pleasure of working for the Queen’s Learning Commons for the two months that covered midterms and exams this fall. www.queensu.ca/qlc I was “borrowed” from Queen’s counselling to help students get on top of procrastination, make realistic exam schedules, set and make plans for reaching goals and to deal with all of the inevitable stressors that go along with being a student.
Many students lameted “it was so much easier in high school”. When I asked “why” the answer was that their parents were around to make sure they were working. In fact, this reason was used more often than the fact that the material is more advanced and compacted into a shorter period of time. When a particular client is having trouble getting moving I often provide a very simple yet effective service. While I don’t play the role of a parent, I do offer to help them be accountable to their immediate goal.
For example, a client today said that she wanted to start studying for her exam, my favorite strategy for procrastination is hands down to “start now”. Never never later. Since she didn’t have her material with her, it meant that she would have to go home first (to a university residence) to get her things that she required to study. A university residence is ripe with distractions and she feared that she wouldn’t return to the library to work. I made a simple offer. Would you like to be able to return to my office to have me witness that you have returned to study? She said that she loved the idea and you should have seen her face when she knocked on my door at the agreed upon time. She was glowing and thanked me profusely for the simple and easy service that I provided. She was proud of herself and had started the journey that is required to break the spell of procrastination, building her confidence by keeping her promises to herself.
Sometimes this strategy can sound patronizing, but it really works. It is all in the presentation. Is there someone who could be your accountability check in? Someone to whom you can say “I’m going to do this tomorrow and then I’m going to call you and tell you that its done”. They are not there to lecture you if you don’t do it or to praise you if you do, they are there to simply be a witness to your success.
Sometimes our pride or track record of broken promises keeps us from telling others about our goals. Consider the people you know, is there someone who you could trust to help you be accountable to yourself?
