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Short answer: you procrastinate on studying because starting feels unpleasant, and putting it off makes that feeling go away for now. To stop, make the first step tiny (open the notes and answer one question), decide in advance exactly when and where you'll start, put your phone in another room, and forgive yourself for yesterday instead of trying to make up for it. Starting with questions rather than rereading gives you quick, visible progress, which makes the next session easier to begin.
Why do you procrastinate on studying?
Most people think procrastination is a time-management problem. The research says it's mostly a mood problem. Sirois and Pychyl (2013) describe procrastination as putting short-term mood repair ahead of your future self: the task makes you feel anxious, bored or overwhelmed, so you do something that feels better right now, and leave the cost for later you.
Some tasks are especially easy to put off. In a large review of the research, Steel (2007) found that people procrastinate most on tasks that feel unpleasant and whose rewards are far away, and that people who are more impulsive procrastinate more. Studying for an exam weeks away fits perfectly: the effort is now, the payoff is distant, and your phone is right there.
That's good news, because it points to what to fix. You don't need more willpower. You need starting to feel less unpleasant, and progress to feel closer.
8 ways to stop procrastinating on studying
1. Make the first step absurdly small
"Study biology" is a cloud. "Open the lecture 6 slides and answer one question about them" is a step. The dread is attached to the whole task, so shrink the task until there's nothing to dread. Once you've started, carrying on is much easier than starting was. If you stop after the one question, that still counts.
2. Decide when and where, in one sentence
Write it as: "When situation, I will action." For example: "When I get back from lunch, I'll sit at the kitchen table and do ten questions on chapter 4." These are called implementation intentions, and they're one of the best-tested tools in motivation research. A meta-analysis by Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006), covering 94 studies, found they substantially improved how often people followed through on their goals. The plan works because the decision is already made when the moment arrives.
3. Get your phone out of the room
Not face down, not on silent: out of the room. Ward and colleagues (2017) found that people performed worse on demanding mental tasks when their phone was simply on the desk, even switched off, than when it was in another room. Part of your attention goes to not checking it. Remove the option and you remove the fight.
4. Start with questions, not rereading
Rereading is the most popular way to start studying and one of the least rewarding: you don't feel progress, because you aren't making much. Answering questions from memory is the opposite. You can see right away what you know and what you don't, and every right answer is a small win. It's also simply the better way to learn: Roediger and Karpicke (2006) found that students who practised recalling material remembered far more of it a week later than students who spent the same time rereading. See our guide to active recall vs rereading.
5. Forgive yourself for yesterday
It sounds soft, but it's practical. Wohl, Pychyl and Bennett (2010) followed students through their exams and found that those who forgave themselves for procrastinating before the first exam procrastinated less before the next one. Guilt makes studying feel even worse, which is exactly the feeling you're trying to avoid. Don't try to make up for a lost day with a ten-hour session; just do today's small step.
6. Use a timer, and let yourself stop
Set a timer for 25 minutes and promise yourself you can stop when it rings. Knowing there's an end makes the start bearable, and a short, fixed block is easy to say yes to. This is the core of the Pomodoro technique, and most people find they keep going for a second block.
7. Make the distant reward feel closer
Because exam rewards are far away, add some that are near: a visible streak of days studied, a score you're trying to beat, or a friend you're competing against. Studying with someone else also creates a small, healthy obligation to turn up. Our guide to studying with friends covers how to do it without the session turning into a chat.
8. Make the materials already exist
A lot of procrastination is really avoiding the set-up: finding the slides, deciding what to cover, writing questions before you can answer any. Do the set-up when you have energy, so that the next session can start in seconds. One way is to let a tool do it: Ace turns your own lecture PDF, slides or a YouTube lecture into practice questions checked against that material, so "start studying" becomes "answer the first question".
What procrastination actually costs
Putting studying off does feel better in the short term, and the research agrees. In a study of university students, Tice and Baumeister (1997) found that procrastinators reported less stress than other students early in the term. By the end of the term, they reported more stress and more illness, and they earned lower grades. The relief is real; it's just borrowed, and it's paid back with interest at exam time.
A start-now plan for today
- Pick one topic you'll be tested on. Just one.
- Write your when-and-where sentence for the next session.
- Move your phone to another room before it starts.
- Set a 25-minute timer and answer questions on that topic from memory.
- When the timer rings, write down the two things you got wrong. They're where tomorrow's session starts, so tomorrow is already planned.
Frequently asked questions
Why do I procrastinate on studying even when I want to do well?
Because procrastination is mostly about how the task feels right now, not how much you care about the result. Caring more can even make starting feel worse, since there's more anxiety attached. Making the first step smaller helps more than trying to care harder.
How do I start studying when I have no motivation?
Don't wait for motivation; it usually comes after you start, not before. Commit to a tiny first step, such as answering one question, at a time and place you've decided in advance.
Is procrastination a sign of laziness?
No. Researchers describe it as a problem of managing emotions: people avoid tasks that make them feel anxious, bored or overwhelmed. Plenty of hard-working people procrastinate on specific tasks.
How do I stop procrastinating the night before an exam?
Close everything except the material, put your phone in another room, and work in short timed blocks of questions on the topics most likely to come up. Our guide to studying the night before an exam has a full plan.
Does studying with music help with procrastination?
It can make starting feel less unpleasant, which helps some people begin. Music without lyrics is less likely to compete with reading and recall than songs with words.
Sources
- Sirois, F., & Pychyl, T. (2013). Procrastination and the priority of short-term mood regulation: Consequences for future self. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 7(2), 115–127.
- Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: A meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychological Bulletin, 133(1), 65–94.
- Gollwitzer, P. M., & Sheeran, P. (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: A meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69–119.
- Ward, A. F., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. W. (2017). Brain drain: The mere presence of one's own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2), 140–154.
- Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255.
- Wohl, M. J. A., Pychyl, T. A., & Bennett, S. H. (2010). I forgive myself, now I can study: How self-forgiveness for procrastinating can reduce future procrastination. Personality and Individual Differences, 48(7), 803–808.
- Tice, D. M., & Baumeister, R. F. (1997). Longitudinal study of procrastination, performance, stress, and health: The costs and benefits of dawdling. Psychological Science, 8(6), 454–458.
