NCIDQ Procrastination Lessons Learned

Everyone procrastinates sometimes. But habitual procrastinators repeatedly delay working on their projects. And they'll do it despite knowing they’ll suffer as a result. If you have this tendency, here's how to beat it up front and you can take some time off instead.

It's a common belief that procrastination is the result of poor time management. But, researchers find it's really an inability to manage one’s emotions.

While it’s true everyone procrastinates sometimes, the worst offenders make it a habit to delay working on a task. And they'll do it despite knowing they’ll suffer as a result.

Listen to Qpractice founder Lisa League share some tips to help you get back on track.

Learn how procrastination hurts your performance

An example is when you know you have the time to work on a task, but choose to do something else more fun instead. You might think that you “work better under pressure” or “as long as I meet my deadline, it doesn’t matter.”

The truth is it does matter.

Procrastinators earn lower grades than their fellow peers. They experience more stress and illness. In the end, procrastinators end up suffering more and performing worse than everyone else.

Putting your studies off until the last minute won’t work with preparing for the NCIDQ Exam. There’s just too much to cover. Cramming near the test date isn't a substitute for truly understanding the material. It just doesn't stick. It'll take you some time to connect what you've done at work to what you cover in your review.

If you put things off, let us help. Qpractice will walk you through the NCIDQ exam step-by-step, from start to finish.

Think about it this way:

Procrastination is like a credit card, it's great until you get the bill.

Break it down in smaller steps

Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income remembers procrastinating in architecture school at UC Berkeley. Flynn recalls a three-month long assignment and telling himself, “That’s a long time. I can do it later”. Instead, he ended up scrambling a couple weeks before the deadline to get it done. As a result, his project received poor jury reviews. He says:

Later I realized, that was absolutely the wrong way to go about it. You have to break it down into steps.

A lot of the people who seemed to be working the hardest in Flynn’s studio before the deadline were the students who got the worst reviews. It was because they put in all their work at the end.

The people who worked on their projects bit by bit weren’t stressing and had time to work on the details that made their project better. The procrastinators scraped by and just met the minimum requirements.

Break a large project like the NCIDQ Exam down into small steps when you want to be successful.

It’s like a jigsaw puzzle. Looking at the finished image on the front cover and all the tiny pieces can be overwhelming. Yet, starting with one piece and building upon it with another, then another, you start to see progress. Before you know it, you’re done.

Qpractice breaks down the steps for you – and they’re easy to see on the Qpractice Study Schedule.

For example, for Practicum we break everything into week-long study sessions. We cover each in a live office hours drawing review, plus we plan out two practice exams and catch-up time.

Create mini-deadlines

While breaking your study prep into steps is crucial, Flynn noticed his most successful peers took it one step further. They created mini-deadlines along the way. “They’d take that big goal and chunk it up into little goals…and sort of work backwards.”

Start at the end, and then work backwards a couple weeks before that. You’ll get an idea whether you’re on track or if you need to hustle more.

Let the Qpractice Study Schedule take the pressure off of you, by mapping out the deadlines for you. We post all assignments and due dates are posted in the study group, too. You can post your questions there ahead of time and as we work through it together.

Mark out the time frame

Deadlines are terrific, but kick it up a notch and give yourself a specific time frame to get things done. You’ll not be more likely to finish, and you’ll probably complete your project earlier. Then give yourself extra time to do something fun, or get a head start on your next task.

For example, if you’re planning on studying building construction on Sunday, get it done by 3:00pm. You’ll pick up a few hours in the late afternoon.