No matter how smart the student, everyone faces the force that is procrastination. Procrastination can be the difference between a capable student who fails or an honor roll student who uses their potential.

Most of the problem with putting off work is just not having the discipline to get up and do it. A whole list of tips to help you get work done won’t help if you’re reading this while laying in bed. While just picking up the work can be the hardest step, it is also the most important.

Another piece of advice that could help any procrastinator is to break up your work into tiny tasks. For example, an essay could be broken down into research, writing paragraph one, writing paragraph two, etc.  One paragraph seems much less daunting than a whole ten-page essay.

Waiting until the last minute shortens your time by a great amount, so setting yourself a due date before the assigned deadline can prevent doing the assignment on the day it’s due. If your assignment is due on Friday, pretending it’s actually due on Thursday will make you complete the assignment two days before it is actually due.

Getting a friend to do homework with you stay accountable for your work. The friend doesn’t have to help you do the work itself, but having someone else in the same room as you can help you stay on task, as long as it is someone responsible. You may not like your friend at the time, but you’ll be glad that they kept you focused when your work is done ahead of time.

Some people procrastinate because they feel they don’t have enough time, but minutes of time can be found throughout your day even if you don’t notice it. After finishing a test, you could get out your work (if it’s okay with your teacher) instead of going on your phone or talking with your friends.

Even if you only have one extra minute every period, it still adds up to seven minutes a day. While that may not seem like much, you can get a lot of work done in just seven minutes.

Using your lunch period as work time is also another 50 minutes a day where homework, projects, and assignments can be done. Sacrificing even one lunch period a week can expand your time, since home can be extremely distracting.

Putting off work until the last minute can be tremendously stressful on any student, but procrastination habits can be fixed and avoided with just the slightest amount of effort.