Procrastination refers to behaviour related to delaying, avoiding, postponing and waiting for the very last minute to carry out a task or set of tasks. Most people who procrastinate know the behaviours are negative and that they are acting against their better judgement or despite good intentions but do it anyway.

There are many reasons for why people procrastinate, and it might be helpful to know yours.

Some tips to challenge procrastination include:
1. Making a future reward a present reward instead – for example, only listen to your favourite music when you are doing your math homework.

2. Remind yourself of the negative repercussions of of what you are doing. You may need to make this real rather than something you tell yourself – so for example, tell your teacher to take away five marks for every day you are late in handing in a piece of timed work.

3. Get rid of distractions. This means deleting or blocking games or apps, giving the most tempting distractor to a parent/friend to keep safe.

4. Do something you find hard first. Then the things that are easier flow quicker.

5. In order to learn a new habit, you have to practice it several times so don’t expect change after one go. Give yourself a month to learn a new habit.