It’s 6 p.m. on a Thursday night, and you’re thinking it’s probably time to start your homework.
But first, you put out a quick tweet about how annoying your assignments are. You “favorite” enough Tweets that you’ve reached the limit of acceptable stalking, so you move on to Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Finally, you decide to start your homework. It’s 11:30.
If this is pretty much play-by-play of your Thursday nights, consider this your intervention.
Procrastination is a curable sickness (much like “tanorexia” or the unhealthy need to have orange skin), and a myriad of new apps for your computer and phone will do all the work for you.
For example, the site “RescueTime” plots out the websites you visit most frequently.
Senior Sami Schreiner “wasn’t surprised” when she recently used “RescueTime” and learned she spends most of her time on Facebook. “This will motivate me to start my homework sooner,” she said.
If you get most distracted on your phone, the iOS6 iPhone update offers a “Do Not Disturb” function that turns off notifications for social media and texts, a favorite of students like senior Olivia Sisson, who turns on the setting at 3:45 every day when she begins her homework.
“I am accountable for a set time each day that I have to start working,” she said.
Apps like “Wunderlist” and “TeuxDeux” for both Android phones and the iPhone allow you to make categorized to-do lists. If you’ve tried all of these suggestions to no avail, the Android app “Stop Procrastination” offers audio hypnosis (seriously) to break you of your bad habits.
If these high-tech methods aren’t for you, there’s always the old-fashioned way: just focusing and getting everything done before you have fun.
“I put away anything distracting,” said junior Mac McDermott.
Sophomore Connor Kianpour added, “I divide everything into manageable chunks. I sit down and designate time during the day to do part of each thing.”
Whatever method you use, procrastination is something that can be avoided if you put your mind to it. So go do your homework…right now.