Beating procrastination
All people struggle, at times, to find the motivation to complete tasks. Students may feel that their moments of procrastination are a barrier to success. It is important to reassure them that it is very normal to experience a lack of motivation sometimes. Supporting them to find and apply some simple strategies that they can use by themselves is vital for developing their resilience. Teaching your students some quick and easy tips for restoring motivation will give them strategies to draw on when they are experiencing periods of procrastination.
Year level
7-12
Duration
5 minutes
Type
In class activity
Take away activity
SEL Competencies
Self-awareness
Self-management
Learning intention
Students will learn strategies they can use to motivate themselves during moments of procrastination.
Key outcomes
By the end of the lesson, students will be able to:
identify motivation strategies they can utilise to overcome procrastination
explore new ways to become motivated to complete tasks.
Materials needed
Access to the ReachOut.com article ‘Top 5 motivation boosters’
Mapped to
Australian Curriculum: General Capabilities
Personal and Social Capability:
Self-awareness
Self-management
Activity 1
Instructions
5 minutes
Explain to students that everyone experiences periods when they lack motivation to complete tasks.
Ask students to draw or write about a time when they experienced a lack of motivation to complete a task.
Encourage students to consider the ‘why ’ of overcoming their procrastination: what will be the benefit of completing the task? This can be motivating.
Provide access to the ReachOut.com article ‘Top 5 motivation boosters’
Encourage students to explore the provided links for the tips they are interested in.
Ask students which of the tips they would find most useful in overcoming the moment of procrastination they recorded. These could be shared through an online learning platform, with a partner, or as a class group.
Beside each tip, tally how many students found it most useful, to find the overall most useful tip for the class.
Debrief
Emphasise to students that we all experience times where we are unable to act when faced with a challenge, or moments of low motivation. To get motivated, we might have to try more than one strategy. Reassure students that we can beat procrastination and achieve any goal we set ourselves, no matter how big or small.
