Procrastinating means not doing something now, postponing and delaying its achievement later, which often leads to the task not being performed or a partial, incomplete, and poor-quality result.

Procrastination is normal behaviour, but it can be quite harmful when it affects people's lives, coexistence and productivity. Procrastination and anxiety are linked because when a person neglects tasks for a long time, it ends up harming their work, studies and other activities. In this context, the feeling of frustration generates anxiety, stress and, in more severe cases, depression.

So, how do I get rid of procrastination?

Before that happens, put into practice tips that prevent the act of procrastinating from spreading into your life. However, if you've already adopted this bad habit, don't worry. We have brought 5 tips to help you avoid it.

1- Start your day super active

How to avoid procrastination and make my time worth it? It is not always easy, because it can have psychological and even physiological reasons. If you cannot overcome this phase alone, it may be time to enlist the help of a psychologist.

Try, at first, to schedule yourself with several activities in the morning. This action prevents you from staying in bed enjoying that laziness. Studying at home, for example, is an invitation to postpone the start of the day. Do not let it happens: set up the right hours to do the tasks and follow your morning routine to complete what you have planned before.

2- Keep your routine

Routine deserves to be highlighted, as it is a key point in students' lives. Maintaining a healthy day-to-day task that includes time to study, review materials, do work, and rest and leisure periods is essential.

Once you have created your study schedule, try to stick to it as much as possible. Of course, unforeseen events can happen, but they should not become usual. Include in your routine the habit of leaving smartphones and other electronics only if you need them to study. Turning off social media and ensuring focus on reading and exercise time are essential to save time for executing useful things.

3- See that big task as several small ones

Are you the type who makes plans for the coming year? Thinking about giant acts requires great effort. That is why our tip is to transform a huge task into smaller jobs, which can be completed in stages.

You may believe that you are more successful at breaking down your Final University Assessments into several steps than thinking that you need to do a lot of work. Concerns discourage our brains. If we think we're not going to accomplish the task, it's better not to start!

On the other hand, completing a task, even a simple one, activates the brain's reward system and gives us more motivation to move forward.

4- Value to be organised and tidy

This is the other keyword to avoid postponing tasks: organisation. There are several ways to start organising:

•           make the study plan;

•           launch tasks in a paper diary or an app;

•           list priorities and adjust the number of tasks to the available deadline.

Don't forget that little time destined to enjoy family and friends, because everyone needs that leisure enjoyable time. The idea here is to free the mind from small worries.

5- Visualise the reward for effort

Those who are going to take the entrance exam for Medicine, for example, may take years to prepare. Knowing this, it's easier to focus on studies because the reward will come at some point.

When challenged to meet goals, we can use a strategy adopted in companies, the SMART methodology. It is about evaluating the potential of the goal: Specific; Measurable; Attainable; Relevant; Temporal.

These factors help to organise the way the goal is going to be accomplished. This way, you avoid frustrating situations if you are not successful and discouragement during the process.

Stopping procrastinating is important for your career, everyday life, personal relationships and, above all, for you to be able to live well with yourself, without charging yourself all the time for something you should be doing at that moment. Therefore, routine and organisation sense are essential.