How to Stop Procrastinating and Start Studying

Procrastination isn't laziness. Most students who put off studying care about the result, which is part of the problem. Studying feels uncomfortable: it's hard, it's boring, or it reminds you how far behind you are. Avoiding it gives instant relief. The relief doesn't last, the work is still there, and now there's less time.

This guide is about getting from "I should study" to actually studying, using small changes that are easier to act on than willpower.

Why we put off studying

Research on procrastination keeps finding the same thing: it's largely about managing feelings, not time. We delay tasks that make us feel anxious, bored, confused or overwhelmed, and we do something that feels better right now instead.

That's useful to know, because it means the fix isn't a better schedule alone. It's making the start of the task feel less bad.

Make the first step tiny

"Revise for the chemistry exam" is a huge, vague task, and vague tasks are easy to avoid. Shrink the start until it feels almost silly:

• "Open the notes for Topic 3."
• "Do the first two questions."
• "Read one page and write one line about it."

Once you've started, carrying on is usually much easier than starting was. The goal of the first step is just to get moving.

Use a timer to lower the stakes

Committing to "study all evening" is daunting. Committing to 25 minutes isn't. A timer sets a clear end point, so the discomfort feels limited, and many people find they want to continue when it rings.

On a really bad day, try 10 minutes. You're allowed to stop after 10. Often you won't. The Pomodoro guide covers how to run timed sessions well.

Remove friction, add it to distractions

Make studying the easy option and distractions the awkward one:

• Set up the night before. Notes open, books out, the first task written down.
• Put your phone in another room, or at least out of reach and face down. One study found that people did worse on attention tasks with their phone on the desk than with it in another room, though a later replication didn't find the same effect. Either way, a phone you can't reach is one fewer decision to make.
• Close every tab you don't need before you start.
• Study in the same place if you can. A spot linked with work makes starting more automatic.

Decide when, not just what

"I'll study tomorrow" usually means "I'll decide tomorrow", and tomorrow-you will feel the same reluctance. A specific plan works better: "At 4pm, after lunch, at the library desk, I'll do the first five practice questions." Psychologists call these implementation intentions, and they make a follow-through more likely than a general goal does.

A revision timetable is the bigger version of this: it decides in advance what each session is for.

Deal with the feeling, not just the task

If you notice yourself avoiding something, ask what the feeling is.

• Overwhelmed? The task is too big. Break it down further.
• Confused? You don't know how to start. Make the first step "find out how to start": reread the question, look at a worked example, ask someone.
• Anxious about being behind? Look at what you can do today, not everything you haven't done. Then do one small piece.
• Bored? Make it more active. Test yourself instead of rereading, or set a target such as "ten flashcards in five minutes".

Be kind to yourself about past procrastination. Students who forgive themselves for putting something off tend to procrastinate less on the next task than those who beat themselves up about it.

Build a routine that starts itself

The less you have to decide, the less there is to put off. A short study session at the same time each day, even 20 minutes, turns studying into a habit rather than a decision. Spreading your study time across several days also helps memory more than packing the same hours into one session, and it keeps a looming exam from becoming a crisis.

Common mistakes

• Waiting to feel motivated. Motivation often comes after you start.
• Making a perfect plan instead of starting. Planning can be its own kind of procrastination.
• All-or-nothing thinking. Twenty minutes of studying beats zero minutes of perfect studying.
• Rewarding yourself first. "One episode, then I'll start" rarely ends after one episode.

Doing this in Atheneum

The focus timer works without an account, so a 25-minute (or 10-minute) session is one click away. It keeps running while you move around the app. If you sign in, label the session with what you're working on and your sessions are saved.

Streaks in Atheneum are weekly: studying on one day in a week keeps them going, so a missed day doesn't wipe out your progress, which removes some of the all-or-nothing pressure. Badges reward showing up regularly, and they're optional. You can put the day's first tiny step on the task board the night before, so it's waiting for you.

A quick start

1. Tonight, write tomorrow's first study step. Make it tiny and specific.
2. Decide when and where you'll do it.
3. Put your phone in another room and start a 10-minute timer.
4. When it rings, decide whether to keep going. Either answer is fine.

You don't need to feel ready. You need to start small enough that starting is easy.

Read next: how to build a study habit that sticks, and phones and studying if your phone is where the time goes.

Sources

• Sirois, F., & Pychyl, T. (2013). Procrastination and the priority of short-term mood regulation: Consequences for future self. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7(2), 115–127. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12011
• Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 65–94. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.133.1.65
• Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1
• Wohl, M. J. A., Pychyl, T. A., & Bennett, S. H. (2010). I forgive myself, now I can study: How self-forgiveness for procrastinating can reduce future procrastination. Personality and Individual Differences, 48(7), 803–808. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.01.029
• Ward, A. F., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. W. (2017). Brain drain: The mere presence of one's own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2), 140–154. https://doi.org/10.1086/691462
• Ruiz Pardo, A. C., & Minda, J. P. (2022). Reexamining the "brain drain" effect: A replication of Ward et al. (2017). Acta Psychologica, 230, 103717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2022.103717
• Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354