So everyone has experienced a group project where it seems like you are the only one pulling their weight and everyone else is just sitting around waiting for you to tell them what to do. This is the absolute worst because now this so-called “group project” is now all yours to handle but you have no great ideas and now the project is going to suffer. Nope think again, here’s a way to remain sane during these types of group projects.

So in order for this project to be successful, you may have to come up with all the great planning and ideas. You may have to take charge so the fate of your grade will not be left in someone else’s hands. What you need to do, is to sit down and come up with many ideas as if it were your own project and really do some of the heavy lifting. Because if you leave it up to your group members, your project may just suck or not get done at all. As group leader, tell everyone what to do. Make little jobs for everyone to do so everyone can have done their part even though you told them what to do. You now have total control of the project and your grade is not so much in the fate of someone else’s hands.

Another way to keep calm is to let your professor know what is going on. Tell them that your group members are not meeting with you, you cannot get in contact with them, or they are just waiting around not doing any work. Your professor may understand and perhaps give you extra time or amend the final project grade. If it is clear that you did all the work, your professor may penalize the other group members and give you the grade you honestly deserve. Just have an honest chat with your professor during office hours or even just shoot them an email to tell them what’s been going on. At the end of the day, it is your grade you need to be worried about and not anyone else’s.

Another way to make sure your grade is okay is to do all the work and dominate when it is time to present. Make sure all of your work is together and show that you have done all the work while the other group members have done nothing. Stand out and shine and your teacher will see that you have clearly done all the heavy lifting and you deserve to be evaluated as such. They only way to ensure that project is done your way is to do it yourself anyways. Do what needs to be done and kill the presentation.

In order to stay sane during these dreaded projects try some of these methods and see what works best for you. Try to remain optimistic and just make sure if all fails that you have your stuff together and that is apparent through the final product. So keep calm and get the project done!