Hello Procrastination, my old friend. I’ve come to bash you over the head with a stick.

Let’s be honest here. We’ve all done it. “Ooh, I’ll just have one more biscuit and then I’ll do my homework.” “I’ll just watch 9 episodes of Gossip Girl and then I’ll tidy my bedroom”. I said both of those things today. In my head. Obviously.

The basic thing is this: procrastination is fun. That’s why we do it – it gives us something else to think about before the inevitable happens and we’re forced to – shock horror! – do something useful. Here are my tips for beating procrastination.

1) Mix business with pleasure.

My personal favourite – give yourself a little reward when you do something productive. If it’s hoovering your bedroom or writing your dissertation, celebrate! You’re fabulous and productive and amazing, and you deserve to eat a KitKat. I’m particularly enjoying the orange flavour ones at the moment.

2. To Do! (The more sensible “Ta Da!”)

Make a list. Start with the most horrendous thing first. Pop in a couple of fun things along the way – “lip sync to ‘Shake It Off’ in the mirror”; “order a pizza”; “take the most unattractive selfie and send it to your best friend”. Working your way down the list (and ticking everything off with a big fat felt tip pen) feels surprisingly good. You can even set yourself time limits. By 10PM tonight, for example, I aim to have eaten a 12 inch garlic bread with cheese. These things are important to me.

3. Tidy Sock Drawer, Tidy Mind

I actually got this one from one of “The Princess Diaries” books. The weird one where Princess Mia gets depressed and gets carried out to the car in her duvet or something. Didn’t like that one. In the book, Mia tries to avoid having to leave her bedroom by cleaning out her sock drawer and has a bit of a life crisis. I’m not recommending the life crisis part, although it might add a bit of drama.
Working in a tidy environment does wonders for productivity. When my bedroom is tidy and my open window is letting in all the fresh air (and swearing from the couple who live over the road), I feel like I’ve got my life together. This means I can get a start on my To Do list, which currently includes “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, TIDY YOUR BEDROOM”.

Hilariously, I wrote this post as a way of avoiding having to do my university assignments. I’m judging myself a bit now.