Fall semester is right around the corner! Like many new and returning students everyone has high goals of not procrastinating and in return having a successful semester. While this holds up for the first few weeks, it quickly crashes and burns into a blender of "all-nighters". Protect yourself and your sanity with these 10 tips!
1. Keep track of all of your syllabi
Laminate them and hang them up like a work of art in your dorm room. A syllabus is the bible of college
2. Incorporate all the syllabi into a calendar
Most syllabi have all assignment due dates, quizzes, exams, mid terms, final projects, and finals. Typically, this schedule is set in stone so don't be surprised when you ask your professor and question and they give you the classic "check the syllabus". Additionally, 20 pages of words are confusing; arrange all the tasks on one easy to understand calendar.
3. Color code classes
Ditch the blue and black ink. Fill in your calendar with specific colors for each class. Bio is blue, chem is purple, lit is green and so on. Assignment three in turquoise is way different than assignment 3 in yellow.
4. Write your assignments down in more than one place
I personally have three calendars, an agenda, a large (wall sized) monthly calendar, and a weekly calendar. My agenda has every event from dinner dates to mid-term presentations. My monthly has pretty much the same information only on a large scale so you can't miss it when you’re lying in bed binge watching Grey's Anatomy. Thirdly, a weekly calendar allows you to tune out other distractions lingering around and focus on what needs to be immediately done. Once that is done, you can look on to the future.
5. Create your own due date
Very simple, if the syllabus says it's due March 22, make it a goal to have it complete March 20. By never waiting until the last minute you have a safety net for when your computer crashes or the internet is down.
6. Break up the work
Some projects are going to take an upwards of 20 hours. Why would you want to do that on a Sunday, hungover? Start two weeks in advance! Two hours a day will have you done in no time and protect your hair from being ripped at its roots
7. Be responsible
There will be times when an assignment gets in the way of a party, please remember that drinking is not an Olympic sport so you really need an education to fall back on
8. Stay organized
A 30 minute assignment takes you an hour after you've flipped through a semesters worth of papers in your catch 22 folder (or “folder of fun” as I call it, because hey everyone has one)
9. Use the reward system
If you study for four hours then you can watch Netflix. If you get all of your assignments done then you can visit home
10. Never put yourself in a position to pull an all-nighter
Some people claim "the adrenaline rush makes me do better", that is bulls***. I don't know the statistics but I would bet money that that research paper you've had three months to write looks like garbage written at 3am. Don't be garbage and don't produce garbage because your professors have a garbage detector and will tear it up.
Stay focused, stay ahead, and plan in some spare time for fun!
