How to deal with procrastination

04.03.202221.04.2022 Sam

Procrastination is the eternal postponing of important things “for later” and the main problem of all freelancers. Some remote workers even deliberately leave the comfort of their home and cozy atmosphere for offices with strict discipline. At first glance, it may seem that working for yourself and your result is the best motivation for more efficient and fruitful activities, but in reality everything turns out differently. Although the customer often sets certain deadlines for completing the task, the lack of constant control relaxes the freelancer, who, at times, has too much confidence in himself or does not want to accept the harsh reality. It turns out, as in student years: we stretch the execution of the task until the last day, and then during the night we try to do what, under normal conditions, takes several days. It would seem that if, as a result, everything is done on time, then maybe procrastination is not so harmful to the work of freelancers? But this phenomenon is fraught with many dangers.

What is the danger of procrastination?

Note that in some life situations, postponing things for later can even be useful. First, there is time to think about the essence of the problem and ways to solve it. Secondly, by doing everything on the last day, you are likely to discard all unnecessary ideas and not overthink anything. Thirdly, sometimes procrastination is a signal that it’s time for you to take a break from your routine and do something new. But these advantages are more related to deliberate procrastination, when you know for sure that you will be able to complete everything on the last day, but want to leave time for other worries. In the case of freelance work, procrastination is often the main enemy for the following reasons:

Even if you managed to complete the task on time, tight deadlines will most likely affect the quality of the result. The copywriter will not notice a few mistakes in the text, the designer will not have time to work out the idea, and so on.
Having done the task at the last moment, you will not be able to look at the result after a while and note possible shortcomings that are usually invisible during execution. This also affects the quality.
Procrastination is always harmful to health due to unstable schedules, distribution of forces and high levels of stress. Staying awake at night, trying to activate all vital forces for the sake of completing the task, is inefficient and unreasonable.
While postponing work for later, the procrastinator does not forget about it and experiences a constant feeling of anxiety.

At the same time, all freelancers are at risk of procrastination: copywriters, designers, programmers or translators. That’s just why?

What causes procrastination

For starters, it should be clarified that procrastination is not identical to laziness, which is caused by the lack of desire to do something without a twinge of conscience or excitement. By procrastinating, a person does not save energy, but spends it on other things and a constant feeling of anxiety for unfinished work. It is possible to overcome this state, but first you need to determine what caused it.

“I procrastinate because I don’t know how to do it.” A common case, especially when you first encounter some type of work and do not have the skills to do it.
“I procrastinate because I’m afraid of failing.” This fear can be caused by a negative past experience or a difficult circumstance that causes you to put off doing the scary work until later.
“I procrastinate because I don’t want to.” Perhaps you have come across a boring and uninteresting task, for which there is simply not enough motivation.
“I procrastinate because I’m distracted.” Not only people are distracting, but also more interesting things: watching the news feed, TV shows, playing with the cat, and so on. At home, it is difficult to concentrate – and this is a fact.

Having found out the cause of the problem, you can proceed to solve it.

Effective methods of struggle

Time management. Plan your day in advance, preferably by the hour. Estimate approximately how long it will take you to complete the task. A little trick for those who are used to working at the last moment: define fewer hours than you need – a sense of deadline helps not to be distracted by extraneous stimuli.
Don’t set abstract goals. When planning your schedule, clearly define the tasks to be done. Not “work”, but “write five pages of diploma for Author24”.
Take breaks. It is recommended to rest every hour when working with an average level of intensity. Try to do short things that fit within the allotted time.
Prioritize. Even if the work itself does not generate interest, the payment received for it will definitely become an incentive to do it if you focus on this aspect.

Radical ways

If the methods of controlling your own activity do not help and you continue to be distracted by extraneous stimuli, then you need to eliminate them by all means. For example, before starting work, log out of all social networks and turn off the phone. If this does not help, then you can resort to using special programs that block access to entertainment sites and literally force you to focus on work.

But this may seem too cruel a method. The best way to get rid of procrastination is to choose a job that you enjoy. Copywriters on Avtor24 can choose the topic and type of task themselves and do what they are interested in.

When, after many sleepless nights, the diploma is finally ready, I want to pass it and forget it. But the university will not lag behind the student so easily. After all, the full text of the diploma was read only by the supervisor, and a whole commission will gather to evaluate it. Therefore, in many respects, his assessment depends on how a student defends a diploma.

So what is a successful defense?

Competent protection text
positive diploma review
confident answers to commission questions

In the introduction to the course it is necessary to indicate many important points. One of them is methodology. The student is required to indicate what methods he will use in the study of the topic. This is not the easiest task, and often students cannot cope with this task themselves. In this case, you can contact us. Our experts will write you a paper of any complexity, and you can discuss the price with them personally.

Speech structure

Of course, what exactly to say in the defense depends mainly on the topic of the thesis and on what exactly is written in it, but there are general recommendations that are suitable for everyone.

First of all, we need to greet the members of the evaluation committee. (“Dear members of the attestation commission! Your attention is presented to the final qualifying work on the topic …”)
Introductory part. Here you need to reveal the topic and identify the issues that are raised in the work.
Relevance of the topic. At this stage, it is important to prove the relevance of the chosen topic and the degree of its development in other people’s works. Indicate the subject, object, objectives and purpose of the study.
Theme disclosure structure. Here you just need to list the paragraphs that are in the work and briefly describe them.
Problem statement. To confirm the relevance of the topic, it is necessary to state the problem and indicate the debatable opinions on this matter.
Conclusions. At the end of the speech, the commission should hear the conclusions that the student came to in the course of writing the diploma, in which there are ways and methods for solving the stated problems.

On the one hand, it seems that it is much easier to write a graduation speech than the diploma itself. However, high-quality speech is a skillful squeeze out of the work, as well as its competent presentation. And it often happens that a diploma is written with the highest score, and a student gets a worse grade. Therefore, if there is a lack of self-confidence, you can order a speech on our website. And then the probability of failure due to bad speech will disappear. After all, we give a twenty-day guarantee for the work, and if something does not suit you, you can demand that the author finalize the order for free. We make sure that students are satisfied, so if the final version of the work does not meet the stated requirements, you will get your money back.

Formal requirements

When writing a speech for a thesis, you must also take into account that there are purely formal requirements.

Time. Do not forget that there are many students, but the commission is one. Therefore, the time for a defensive speech is regulated and ranges from 5 to 7 minutes. At the same time, you should remember about the time that will be spent on commission questions.
Intonation. Where, no matter how on the defense of a diploma, is it important to win over listeners? Therefore, it is better not to read the speech monotonously, making accents with intonation.
Style. When presenting a speech, it should be remembered that the main goal is understanding on the part of the commission. Therefore, you should not be too smart, but you can’t switch to colloquial speech either. In this matter, you need to observe the golden mean.
Pronouns. As in the diploma itself, it is important to remember during the defense that although the author of the diploma is clearly spelled out, there are a lot of true owners of knowledge reflected in the work (the authors of all the sources the student relied on plus the supervisor), so first-person pronouns are not appropriate here.
Questions. After the end of the speech, questions from the commission will inevitably follow, and you need to be ready for them. Suggested questions should be written down in the course of writing the thesis, work through all the questions that arose during the pre-defense, and you can also look at the questions at the end of chapters from textbooks on this topic.
Pre-protection. In such a matter as defending a diploma, it is better not to be presumptuous and neglect pre-defense. On it, you can practice giving a speech and write down possible questions from the audience. This will allow you to feel more confident in the official defense.

Of course, these are only recommendations, and no one forces you to strictly follow them. However, the rejection of some positions during the defense will create additional questions from the certification committee, which is not always loyal. Therefore, it is best to think through all possible questions and answer them in advance in a defensive speech. Then the teachers will have a minimum of questions, and they will be grateful for the saved time.