I don’t know about you, but within the first week of classes as a college freshman, the frequency and quantity of the workload slapped me in the face. Although I was aware that it would take some adjustment from the work I was doing in high school, I was completely unprepared for the transition, especially after having an academically non-challenging summer. I had every intention of being on top of my work and not procrastinating one bit in this next chapter of my academic career, but unfortunately, my slow start put me way behind the ball compared to my peers.
It took me a while to find my groove for managing my workload, but after I adjusted, I made sure to share some of my anti-procrastination tips to get ahead of the curve with my home town friends. I figured that I might as well try to inform my fellow Her Campus girlies how to beat procrastination to the punch to make sure we’re all staying on top of everything going into exam season so we can finish this semester strong!
COnsolidATING YOUR Syllabi
My first tip to counteract procrastination is to try to plan out your semester the second you get your syllabi. I didn’t start organizing my calendar until the weekend after school started and I wasted a lot of time. I should have been using my homework time to catch myself up on consolidating my syllabi into one place.
Personally for this, I have found using a Google Calendar to be very helpful for organizing my classes and allowing me to allocate time to complete each of my assignments. I have friends that either use physical journals and planners or other online programs such as Notion, which are all great options, but I have personally found that Google Calendar is a bit more user-friendly and it is easy to make quick adjustments.
A way that I easily organized my schedule was by making separate calendars for each of my classes, extracurriculars and personal events, such as friends’ birthdays or school breaks. This is especially helpful because you can turn on and off a particular calendar at any given moment to easily identify any deadlines or upcoming events. Also, you can color coordinate these calendars which helps you know what work you have to do with a glance.
I know that this may sound like a lot of work, but future you will thank yourself for doing the hard work early instead of trying to play catch up later.
STaying on top of Notes
My next tip for counteracting procrastination is to look over your notes as soon as you get back from class. Trust me, I know—the last thing I want to do after a long day of classes is to sit back down, open my notes back up and turn them into notecards or a Quizlet set, but you will be so happy that you did it right then compared to a week before your exams. It is also extremely beneficial to review the concepts and terms you learned in class right away instead of forgetting about them until your next class or homework assignment.
Then as soon as you review your notes, you can take your well-deserved post-class nap!
Parallel Studying
My final recommendation for staying on top of your work and combatting procrastination is parallel studying—which can be studying in common areas or with friends. While I don’t know what this necessarily says about me, I have found that I typically work harder if other people are around. I enjoy going to the library, common areas around campus and especially coffee shops by myself or occasionally with friends to do homework and study.
If you do this with friends, you don’t have to be studying the same topics, or even necessarily talking (because this can become a major distraction) but in my experience, I believe that having people to hold me accountable is very beneficial for keeping me focused enough to finish my work.
Overall, I hope these tips give you some ideas for how to manage your school work going into the end of the semester and hopefully they help you combat procrastination before stress has the chance to kick in!