How to defeat bad work habits Written by Johanna Salu
An academic environment can be unforgiving for the casual procrastinator. On the one hand, work to be done abounds while on the other hand, the lack of direct oversight and clear deadlines may lead even the more diligent of us down the wormhole of procrastination.
It can be difficult to admit to yourself, not to mention to others, how much you procrastinate and this dynamic can easily lead to a familiar but false(!) perception that everyone but you is on top of their work. I’ ve found that opening up about my own bad habits often elicits a relieved sigh from my conversation partner, followed by an eager enumeration of all the bad habits they wish that they could change. The apparent high prevalence of procrastination does not, of course, validate it as acceptable. However, this initial confession of sins can be cathartic. It can relieve one of feeling like an unusually weak-willed, lazy or unmotivated individual – a damning mindset which, like a self-fulfilling prophecy, can transform anyone into exactly that.
In addition to making one feel alone in their problems, concealing bad habits engenders reluctance and embarrassment towards implementing antiprocrastination tools and techniques. If willpower is enough to keep everyone else on the right track, why can’ t I pull myself together and do the same? Admitting that you need certain rules and limitations can feel like admitting defeat.
There is no use in entertaining the illusion that one would( and should) be able to overcome bad habits with determination alone. While it may seem infantilizing at first, employing a few simple rules and techniques to keep your irrational compulsions in check is a much more mature approach than ignoring the problem altogether. Here are a few techniques that I have employed at various times, as well as others that have been recommended to me by friends and colleagues.
16 | NEUROMAG | July 2018