Everything is easier when you understand with what exactly you’re dealing with. To recognize procrastination reasons and to comprehend the justifications of your actions can help you take your behaviours under control. What is procrastination? It’s basically a habit of putting off something you were supposed to be doing. It can bring negative effects on your academic opportunities, your career, your relationships, your pride and more. Procrastination can result in stress, a sense of guilt, consequential loss of personal productivity, social disapproval and, done chronically, an underlying psychological disorder.

          Here are causes of procrastination (source from Yuen Burka, Richard L. Strub and James R. Evans):
The psychological causes of procrastination vary greatly, but generally surround issues of anxiety, low sense of self-worth, and a self-defeating mentality. Procrastinators are also thought to have a lower-than-normal level of conscientiousness, more based on the “dreams and wishes” of perfection or achievement in contrast to a realistic appreciation of their obligations and potential.
Research on the physiological roots of procrastination mostly surrounds the role of the prefrontal cortex. This area of the brain is responsible for executive brain functions such as planning, impulse control, attention, and acts as a filter by decreasing distracting stimuli from other brain regions. Damage or low activation in this area can reduce an individual’s ability to filter out distracting stimuli, ultimately resulting in poorer organization, a loss of attention and increased procrastination. This is similar to the prefrontal lobe’s role in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), where under activation is common.

            Finally, how do we avoid this bad habit in academic matters? Here are a few tips! Note down the deadline and make your own little countdown, it’ll motivate you to work before it comes down to “1 day left!” Think in advance. Imagine how much you would have to work in the end if you don’t start the work when you have to. Try calculating the quantity of time it will take you to complete your task and remind yourself of this amount of time every morning. Reward yourself whenever you feel you’re doing the right thing, having an encouragement can make all the difference. Like William James says, “Nothing is as fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.”

First of all, despite how comfortable it can be, curling up while sleeping isn’t the best way to position yourself when falling asleep. Sleeping all curled up can result to back pain. The most ideal way to sleep is flat out on your back. It may not be everyone’s favorite sleeping position, but it’s the most advantageous one when it comes to your body. Sleeping in a straight position on your back will give your internal organs more space to breathe. By giving your organs more time to “breathe” while you’re in your sleeping state, you’ll feel way better when waking up. Putting a pillow under your knees can maintain the natural curve of your body, making the position possibly more comfortable.

Second of all, this one is generally addressed to the females. Falling asleep with makeup on can cause dark circles around your eyes. Not only that, but it may cause irritation to your eyes while you’re asleep. Even the friendliest makeup isn’t made to be worn on a 24 hour day. Having makeup on for a long period of time can cause dermatitis, an inflammation of the skin. So, despite how tired or lazy you are at night, force yourself to remove your facial cosmetics. Make a simple effort to avoid further consequences.

Lastly, the most common one of them all is having an inadequate amount of sleep. Sleeping too much is as insufficient as not sleeping enough. We undoubtedly all love to sleep and whenever we have the chance, we sleep as long as we want leaving us a feeling of exhaustion. We tend to feel drowsy or sluggish when we don’t get the good quantity of sleep. It’s best to avoid afternoon naps. Generally, the amount of sleep varies on your age. The smart thing to do would be to consult your doctor and get the required number of hours of sleep you need to wake up at your best!

Now, here are some facts about sleep to enhance your knowledge! Did you know that:

- We naturally feel tired at two different times of the day: about 2:00 AM and 2:00 PM.
– Scientists still don’t know if animals dream during REM sleep, as humans do.
– Exercising regularly makes it easier to fall asleep yet exercising at irregular times or right before going to bed will make falling asleep more difficult.
– A desert snail can sleep for 3 years.
– People who don’t get enough sleep are most likely to have bigger appetites.
– Experts say one of the most alluring sleep distractions is the 24-hour accessibility of the internet.
– Divorced, widowed and separated people report more insomnia.
– A woman needs more sleep than a man does.
– The record for the longest period without sleep is 18 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes during a rocking chair marathon. The record holder reported hallucinations, slurred speech and memory, paranoia, blurred vision and concentration lapses.

           Plastic:
1) Americans use 2,500,000 plastic bottles every hour! Most of them are thrown away!
2) Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1,000,000 sea creatures every year!
3) Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.
4) American throw away 25,000,000,000 styrofoam coffee cups every year.

           Glass:
1) Every month, we throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. All of these jars are recyclable!
2) The energy saved from recycling one glass bottle can run a 100-watt light bulb for four hours. It also causes 20% less air 
      pollution and 50% less water pollution than when a new bottle is made from raw materials.
3) A modern glass bottle would take 4,000 years or more to decompose — and even longer if it’s in the landfill.
4) Mining and transporting raw materials for glass produces about 385 pounds of waste for every ton of glass that is made. 
      If recycled glass is substituted for half of the raw materials, the waste is cut by more than 80%.

Energy is essential to our daily activities. It is needed to provide us with light, heat and powers such as cooking facilities and electronic devices. We are now relying on energy for communication, transportation and industrial measures. So, how would our everyday life be without energy? It would doubtlessly become much more difficult! To avoid that from happening, let us not be abusive.  Basically, we should start conserving energy in our homes, so, in this article, I will suggest some ideas, hoping you readers would be more careful with your daily activities.

First of all, switch to eco-friendly energy. Renewable energy is energy produced from natural resources (wind, sunlight, rain, tides, and geothermal heat) which are naturally replenished, or in other words: renewable. Not having non-disposable energy would obligate you to buy that certain object that requires energy constantly. The following would waste a great amount of money and not to mention, electricity.

Second of all, turn off unused appliances and lighting. Leaving them on for a long period of time can waste a huge amount of energy without you even realizing it! Simple things like switching off the lights can help enormously. If ever you need light during the day, open the curtains and let the sun shine through! It’s effective if you require light and  heat. It is equally a valuable source of vitamin D.  And also, don’t leave fridge or freezer doors open longer than necessary.

Third of all, wash economically. Did you know that taking a shower instead of a bath uses around 50% less energy? A shower is much more faster than a bath. It saves time and is quick and efficient.

So generally, a bath is for relaxation whereas using baths to particularly clean only your body is a waste of water. Washing economically doesn’t just apply to your body, the clothes you wash are definitely included. Avoid using the washing machine with a partial load. And also, tumble dryers uses a big amount of energy. Try hanging your clothes on a line instead, besides, this is also better for your clothes.

Almost all of the energy that we use in our homes comes from burning fossil fuels. The greenhouse effect is in danger since the burning fossil fuels releases big quantities of carbon dioxide into the air. Following my suggestions will not only save you hundreds in bills, but also help rebuild a state of equality to your life and to the planet

Everyday we pollute our atmosphere by doing simple things such as driving our cars, traveling in airplanes and lots of other stuff that produces carbonic acid gas. We ignore the fact that our actions intensify the greenhouse effect.

I will now explain briefly the impact on human health, the sea level that increases and finally, the climatic changes.

The central issue is how this has great impact in human beings and how it affects personal lives. Let us consider the consequences on our health. Our health suffers because of the rising heat and the presence of numerous sicknesses that are spread by insects (malaria, Nile virus, etc.), not to mention: asthma, skin disease and epidemic.

Second of all, the melting ice and the expansion of the sea water caused by the climatic rise is the reason why the sea level increases. It rises at 15 to 95 centimeters causing people to lose their home. Because several people live in coastal regions of lowlands, the ground risks getting flooded seriously or permanently. This incident happened to 600 villagers from Alaska and thousands of habitants from the north of Quebec.

Finally, unexpected climatic changes are coming our way. Forest  fires are more frequent and will damage big areas. Farmers will take advantage of long vegetative seasons but long cycles of dryness and floods will make crops more difficult. In short, global warming causes several problems. 

Conclusively, I would like to propose certain suggestions that would help our planet. We should often use renewable products so we can re-use them instead of wasting them. We should also start recycling habitually. These little actions can make big differences in the world that will satisfy us and our planet. So, please… the planet’s begging you to use your every effort to SAVE THE PLANET.