It’s 11 p.m. on a Sunday, that five page history paper is due tomorrow. You had one whole month to do the paper, yet you have just written down your first words, which consist of your first and last name. It’s time to break out the 5-Hour Energy, Monster, or whatever poison will keep you awake.

Sound familiar? Well if it does, you have probably fallen victim to the beast we call procrastination. It’s nothing special, a large amount of students procrastinate, whether it be because other things in life take priority, we don’t feel like doing the assignment at that particular time, or the assignment is just to hard or confusing.

Fear not I’ve reached into my box of tips to help alleviate this foul beast we call procrastination from everyones shoulder.

My first tip to help avoid procrastination is to set a clear date, on which, you will work on the assignment. Make sure this predates the actual turn in date of the assignment by a couple of days. This will ensure that you are not working on the assignment at the last minute. You are not giving yourself enough time to work on the assignment if you set the date to the night before. Be sure that you are completely free on the time you allot for studying, and do not push that time back unless an emergency arises; otherwise, guess what, you are procrastinating.

Tip number two is for when you decide to start working on your assignment. Go to a place where no one can bother you. Basically shut yourself away from the world to the best of your abilities. A study room in the library or a place where not to many people are present. Basically you want to keep anything that can distract you to a minimum.

The method that works best for me is listening to music. Plus with headphones blasting when someone tries to bother me, I point to my headphones, then to my work, look at them and shrug. 90% of the time the person gets the hint to shove off. Also put your Phone on silent, and your laptop away, unless necessary.

This leads me into my third tip. Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, Video games, and any other website or object that does not pertain to your immediate work; should be considered evil entities that you want to avoid at all cost. If you have to, think that each time you check your Facebook your grade on that assignment drops by one letter, and eventually will drop to an F.

Tip number four is for the procrastinators that put the assignment to the back of their head, because it’s too hard or they don’t understand it completely. This one is simple. Ask for help!

Skyline has so many resources for students it is absurd. First off, if anything is unclear on the assignment ask your professor, they are there to help. If you feel you need more help, Skyline has the Learning Center in building five, room 5100 first floor it’s really hard to miss. The Learning Center offers many tutors that are well informed in various subject matters like, Math, English, ESOL, Social Sciences, Business, and much more. There may be some requirements in being able to use all the resources at the Learning Center, but for the most part it is free. Remember help is available, you just have to actively look for it

My sixth and final tip for beating procrastination, is to take a five minute breaks for every 30 minutes you spend working. If you set specific slack off times, instead of doing it at random intervals. You have something to work towards. These preset slack off times will give you a chance to go on Facebook,grab a snack, or just break for a bit. But it’s not enough time to let you completely get engrossed into something else. Remember you want to finish that assignment so you can get back to not doing that assignment.

Whoops looks like an Extra tip escaped. Do not rush the assignment to just be finished with it. Be sure to re-read, double check, and make sure you fulfilled the assignment’s requirements. It would suck to to spend a good chunk of time on something, only to get it marked down on a simple mistake, that could have easily been fixed if only you had taken that extra 15 minutes to look over it again.

Be sure to finish your assignments on time. For the most part you are paying for these classes, failure should not be an option. If you don’t have time to do school work because of a job or something that you feel is more important, you probably should not have enrolled in classes at that time. Procrastination is something that can easily be avoided if one only tries. Don’t let the beast rest on your shoulders.