• Dont be a perfectionist! Nobody is perfect. We often put off difficult tasks usually in avoidance and procrastination. Set achievable goals, but they should also be challenging. The point is that if you try to be perfect your setting yourself up for disappointment. Just do your best and put your best effort into everything you do and you will be surprised how much more you will accomplish.

• Learn to say NO! For example, say one of your friends wants to see a movie tonight and you already have social plans for tomorrow. Tonight you were just going to do some homework and study. You know you shouldn't go but lets face it your a teenager! you want to go out and have fun and be social. You also don't want to feel like a big geek by saying "no I have homework". Well you need to learn to deal with that. Politely saying "no" should become a habit. Saying "no" frees up time for the things that are most important. I know that when we have to say "no" to our friends they will get mad and frustrated sometimes. Thats really hard to deal with, but you have to remember what is most important (school) and if your friend is a true friend , they'll get over it! Life is about making sacrifices; dont sacrafice the wrong things! Always remember it will all pay off in the end.

• Learn to prioritize! Prioritizing your responsibilities is very important. Some people do not know how to prioritize and they become procrastinators. You have to keep in mind what is most important to you. Be smart! What will going out with your friends instead of doing homework get you? Sure you'll have fun that day, but think long term here! You won't turn in you assignemnet on time, your grades will be affected, and you will wind up working ten times harder to pull everything back together. You can't do it all! You will only make things harder for yourself if you don't realize this.

• Combine many activities! For example, while riding the train to and from school read your book for English class or study! That will free up an hour or so for you to do something else later in the day (like sleep or even watch a tv show).

What to do about excessive procrastination

• Commit yourself to a task once started
• Break large tasks into small maneagable parts.
• Get help from a student or teacher when you find something to be difficult
• Eliminate distractions that will keep you or distract you from working on a task
• Take short breaks when working on a task so that you don't wear yourself down
• Work on difficult and/or unpleasant tasks first
• Find a good place to work on tasks.

Remember not to  blame your teachers! It's not their fault! Your IB teachers give you assignments well in advance of the due date. Working on these as you get them (a bit every night) lightens your daily load.