Every semester, I usually say something like this to myself, “I’m going to leave procrastination behind, and I’m going to do everything early this semester!”

It might start off well, but it usually goes downhill a few weeks into the semester. It’s apparent my procrastination problem needs a new approach.

After ruminating over the issue over break (not procrastinating), I came to one conclusion: my goal to stop procrastinating is too broad. I need to look at what causes me to procrastinate and why I keep coming back to it. Then, I need to adjust my behavior one step at a time.

I ruled out that watching Netflix all day provided me with any sort of reward. If anything, it makes me feel like a scrub at the end of the day. It might give me some brief satisfaction, but at the end of the day, it just adds onto the stress of looming deadlines.

The stress of procrastination is what really makes me want to make a change. It feels so much better when I get something done and then reward myself. Conversely, watching a show while waiting to finish an assignment or story makes it difficult to even enjoy it.

Admittedly, at the start of my college career, it was pretty fun to procrastinate (don’t let that fool you, though). However, it just got more stressful as my courses got harder, and none of us need any added stress in our lives, with college students experiencing some of the highest stress levels in history.

It’s still hard to get motivated with this in mind, but behavioral changes take time. We aren’t robots, so it’s not as simple as changing a code in our programming. If you made a New Year’s resolution related to procrastination, I suggest setting a simpler goal to start with. That way, you don’t get bummed if you mess up.

Phillippa Lally and colleagues from University College London recruited 96 people who were interested in forming a new habit. Here were their findings:

“Although the average was 66 days, there was marked variation in how long habits took to form, anywhere from 18 days up to 254 days in the habits examined in this study. As you’d imagine, drinking a daily glass of water became automatic very quickly, but doing 50 sit-ups before breakfast required more dedication.”

Setting broad goals is why many of us give up on a set goal. A dream can seem impossible to achieve, but the baby steps are often easily accomplishable.