For a procrastinator, productivity seems like a distant and hardly attainable dream. Plus, with how expansive the internet is, it is far too easy to dip your toe into the surface level of websites like Facebook or Youtube and, four hours later, find yourself deep into a friend's very interesting photo gallery or halfway through a lengthy playlist for movies that you've never watched, much less heard of. Have hope! While the internet is a undoubtedly cesspool of time-consuming distractions, it's also a wellspring of resources that can help keep you focused and increase your productivity, so here's a couple I like using.

A nifty little program that times you as you work and judges you when you don't. After downloading and extracting the program, open it up, run whatever you're using for work - whether it's a Word document or a Photoshop file - and it will keep track of how long you're on that program. Click out of your work program and the timer will turn a harsh red and stop. I've just recently started using it to track how long I take working on my digital art and doodles. It's free and can be found here.

Cold Turkey

"Focus on your school" is a phrase that my parents have been repeating to me for as long as I can remember. Television on while I'm trying to do homework? New interest that's rapidly consuming my time? Entertaining daydreams for who knows how long? My parents' lovingly chiding response to any of these situations would be "focus on your school!" And honestly, I'm hard-pressed to find a better response than that. There was a certain period of time where my work took pre-dominance over school and the results were... unsavory to say the least. Looking back at just this past week at UOG, if I had just focused on my school and not let myself get sidetracked so easily, I definitely would not have been as stressed as I was working on projects. Now keeping that in mind and looking ahead, school honestly doesn't have to be as stressful as it was then, so as long as I focus.

While focusing is one concept I consider key to academic success, balance would definitely be another one. You could be the most academically focused individual to ever exist, but if you can't balance that with your other responsibilities, as well as some time to wind down, you'll quickly find yourself burnt out and incapable of doing anything at that point. On the flipside of that example, if all you ever do is relax and let responsibilities pile up, you'll quickly find yourself floundering in a frugal attempt to get things done at the last moment. As an unfortunately chronic procrastinator, I have a very strong tendency to wait until the last minute to work on projects, whether it's school, responsibilities at home, or other things. Balance is something I've always struggled with, but I'm working hard to tip the scales just right and get it all balanced.