Work a week ahead

It is very easy to put things off until the last possible moment. If you are working a week ahead, you are already ahead of the game. This way you can have a little break because you won't constantly be playing catch up. By working a week ahead (and staying ahead) you give yourself more time to focus on the small details, study and, at the end of the semester, focus on your finals, not the final assignment you have been putting off all semester (even though you knew about it from day one). It is possible to kick that procrastinator right out of you.

Give yourself time to be 20-something

School can be so consuming, especially if you also work on top of that. It can cause serious FOMO, which often means you are sacrificing school for doing those 20-something activities that everyone else seems to get to do. Well if you set aside time for that, like one weekend night a week, you can actually go have fun with your friends, and both work and school aren't going to take the brunt of it. Scheduling time for you is just as important at scheduling time for homework. It will pay off in the long run and it will guarantee you have time for some fun.

Put your quality foot first

I am quite guilty at taking too many credits which means I am not giving those classes my best work. It's time to stop. Try and limit yourself from taking too many credits; the fewer credits you take means the more quality work you can provide for that class. It ultimately means you can give more of your time to less classes, raising that GPA. It is not the number of credits that matters, it is the amount of work you put in. You should be focused on putting more quality work into fewer classes then less quality work into more classes, it will pay off in the end.

Prepare for finals as you go

I always think of outlining my readings at the end of the semester because it is helpful for studying, but it's also SOOO time-consuming when you save it for the end of the year. If you keep up on it, not only will you be learning the readings as you go, you will also be saving yourself a headache when it comes to studying for your finals. Thinking long term and how you can start preparing for finals now, is going to change your dead week life.

If you think ahead and make notecards, rewrite your notes, and keep up on readings and outlines, you aren't going to be flustered to do that at the end of the semester. That way when it comes to dead week all you have to do is study. You don't have to worry about spending long hours in the library trying to make the study material to study.

Get a game plan from the start

I am so good at using my planner. It's my life saver. One tip that helps you to stay ahead is having a game plan for the semester. If you write out paper, assignment, and test dates at the start, you already know when it is due. Use your planner to stay ahead that way you can plan for the upcoming months in advance and that test doesn't come as a surprise when the professor mentions it the week before. This way you know what your semester will look like. You also will be able to plan around weeks with a lighter load, so you can go do something fun, or grind out even more.