With being a college student, it can be difficult to learn how to manage your time. With not having a set schedule or teachers telling you when things are due, it can be easy to put things off and fall behind. Putting assignments and studying off can often lead to a buildup of things to do which can sometimes feel almost impossible to recover from and is extremely overwhelming.
To avoid this, I have come up with some tactics to avoid procrastination and stay ahead of your school work. Overall you will feel less stressed and will be able to perform better!
Create a Schedule and Stick To It
Creating a schedule can help you avoid procrastination all together. Having an upcoming test on your calendar weeks away, can help you make an outline of what days you will study which material.
This will help you to stay on track without feeling overwhelmed. Breaking up studying or assignments can help you manage your time more efficiently and help you grasp the material better.
Set Deadlines
Creating a deadline a couple days before an assignment is due can help you avoid waiting till the last minute to complete it. This can also help ensure that if something were to come up, the assignment is already completed.
It is easy to think that you will one day start the assignment or organize class notes but setting a deadline to do these tasks will ensure that they are completed and will help hold you accountable.
Set Goals and Work Towards Them
When starting a project or assignment, it can be intimidating to work toward the “big picture” or overall task. This can be overwhelming and can often make you put off even starting the task. Coming up with small goals that lead up to the end product can help you achieve more with making the task way less intimidating.
Work With a Friend
Working with a friend or other students in your classes can help you stay on task without falling behind. Studying with other students can also make it a lot more fun! When figuring out who to work with, make sure it is someone who has goals. Even if you both don’t have the same goals, this will help you both work toward your goals which can be a lot more rewarding.
Stop Overthinking
When doing work, you may often think there has to be a “perfect” time to do something which can make you put schoolwork off. In reality, there is never a perfect time to do something, you have to just do it. Going in with a mindset without over complicating things will help you in the long run and allow you to start work even when the timing is not “perfect.”
Time Yourself
It can be really easy to get distracted when doing schoolwork from looking at your phone to doing other tasks around the house. To avoid this, try setting a time limit on the work you are doing. Timing yourself in increments where you have to fully focus can help you get more work done. Try finding an amount of time that allows you to fully focus and start using that timer while allowing for breaks.
Use Rewards
Rewarding yourself after completing tasks can help you use your time more efficiently and help you complete tasks in increments so that you aren’t getting burnt out. For instance, saying “If I study for this test for an hour, I can go hangout with my friends tonight.” When making rewards, it can make you think something is at stake so it holds you more accountable.
CircleIn also has a rewards program on the app for using the app to put your assignments and tests in. This can also help you work toward getting things done to win those gift cards!
Tackling procrastination can help you with future jobs, so it’s important to start overcoming this in college. Completing work ahead of time, can make you a better student overall. Thanks for reading, I hope these tips can help keep you on top of your work!
