Richard G. had a problem. For two months he had put off starting his science project, and now, the night before the project was due, he had to think of something. And fast. Finally, an idea popped into his head. He grabbed some pieces of paper and got busy.
The next day, kid after kid made presentations about projects that, like the one on the growth of plants in different kinds of materials, obviously took the whole two months to complete. Then it was Richard’s turn.
“I did mine on which paper airplanes flew the farthest,” said Richard, recalling what he did with those pieces of paper. The result? C-.
Richard, an 8th grader at Irving Park Middle School, is not alone. Talk to kids and their teachers and they will all tell you the same thing: For many kids, when it comes to homework, there is no better day to do it than tomorrow.
And there’s no easier kid to spot. “You can always tell the ones who waited until the last minute,” said Jessica S., another Irving Park Middle School 8th grader. “Their papers are all over the place, messy.” Or, said her classmate Jennifer, “They want to copy off you.”
It doesn’t have to be that way. We talked to Joseph Ferrari, a psychology teacher at DePaul University who specializes in the study of procrastination. (That’s basically a fancy word for putting work off until the last minute.) He came up with some tips to help you keep your work from piling up on you.
First, break down an assignment into little pieces. In other words, look at a big assignment as a bunch of smaller ones that are more manageable. “If you break it down it’s not so overwhelming,” Ferrari said.
Reward yourself when you accomplish a small goal. “Tell yourself, “If I write two paragraphs, I can talk on the phone for five minutes,’ ” Ferrari advised.
If you think you might cheat, bring one of your parents or a brother, sister or friend into it. Say you like to play with your Gameboy. Hand it over to somebody with instructions not to give it back unless you finish the job you promised to finish. You may even want to write it down in a contract that says if you do the assignment you will get the Gameboy back.
Ferrari said procrastinators forget things, like books, they need to do an assignment. Then when these kids get to school they have a ready-made excuse. If that sounds like you, put what you will need where you won’t forget it – like right on top of the jacket you know you’ll wear tomorrow.
Finally, Ferrari said, look to kids who aren’t procrastinators and see how they do their assignments. Instead of hating those kids, learn from them. Watch how they do their assignments, how they get started right away. Maybe if you copy how those kids do their assignments, you won’t have to beg them on Monday morning to copy the assignments themselves. Because there will come a time when those kids won’t let you. Then about the only thing you can do with your paper is make a paper airplane out of it.
