Teentalk

Almost everyone around us is on social media, has access to few or more apps and has shopped for something online. All these activities require you to fill in your details, personal and financial. This may, however, also lead to many threats online. So here we are with few useful tips that will help you stay safe online and free from any harm.

1. Passwords

Passwords are meant to protect your information so make sure your passwords are strong with a combination of letters (upper and lowercase), numbers and special characters that are difficult for others to guess. Do not share your passwords with anyone and keep them changing on a regular basis.

2. Privacy settings

Wisely you can use the privacy settings on various social media and apps to control who can see what information about you.

3. Personal information

Don’t share your personal information like email, phone number, address or name of your school to people you don’t know well or at all.

4. Profiles

Keep your bio and information short and precise. Also try to make sure no stranger work out much about you from your profile picture’s background, bio, and other information.

5. Padlock

Have you ever noticed a padlock symbol in the browser address bar? It means that specific website is secure, so before you give your private or financial details on any website check that padlock icon is there in the address bar. If it’s not there, do not share any such information.

Procrastination has been widely researched by psychologists, maybe because they have some world-class procrastinators close to them: students. Not that it’s only the students who procrastinate but almost every student has a habit of delaying things. Some of them learn to fight it while others never do because...well, they are procrastinating.

Here are ten scientific tips to combat procrastination:

1. Begin with the easiest

Start with the easiest and most manageable task, which you don’t mind doing at the moment. If you have a project to do, start by doing the easiest bit first. This builds momentum to get things going and the harder bits are then likely to flow smoothly.

The best way to get something done is to begin.

2. Start from anywhere

The problem with ‘starting easy’ is that it can be hard to know where to start exactly: there might be plenty of easy bits, or it might not be easy to tell what should be done and what shouldn’t. Here, planning can help, although remember that planning is also a trap. Too much of planning and not enough actual doing is yet another form of procrastination. 

3. Beware of the excuses

Excuses will come to your mind no matter what. Here are a few of the excuses that psychologists have found people express to themselves:

• Not feeling in the mood to do it.
• Believing that you work better under pressure.
• Thinking that you can finish it at the last minute.
• Blaming sickness or poor health.
• Waiting for the right moment

Be mindful of anything that’s expressed like an excuse and label it as such. It’s natural, but it will also stop you from getting anywhere.

4. Up the value

A massive cause of procrastination is simply not valuing the goal enough. If we don’t care that much, we’re not going to be that motivated. Other times the goal is unpleasant or aversive and we need to be super-motivated to do it.

Cleaning is a great example of something people often procrastinate on.

The value of this task could be increased by making a game out of it or setting time limits or unusual conditions. For any task, though, thinking about why it’s important and trying to up its value in our minds will help fight demotivation.

5. Procrastination personality

Some people are just born procrastinators. These people are easily distracted, impulsive and have low self-control. The bad news is that you can’t change your personality but the good news is that you can change your environment. You can put yourself in an environment in which there are fewer distractions, temptations and all the right reinforcing signals. Procrastination tends to strike when you have to stop and think, so have everything you need to hand and then lock yourself away.

The more you have a procrastination personality, the more the environment needs to be just right for you to get it done.