So you’re sitting in your room at your computer, your fingers drumming at your keyboard, and you decide to open your internet browser. Perhaps it is initially to open an email from a professor or even to direct yourself to the ominous Blackboard website, but somehow you remember how your friends were laughing about a cat video, you wanted to find the attractive fellow from last weekend’s party on Facebook, or you have recently hooked yourself onto Orange is the New Black on Netflix. You find yourself in a daze of opening and closing tabs, clicking through pictures, and suddenly it is 11:00pm—your eyes are exhausted from staring at your laptop screen, and you have a pile of unopened textbooks.
I am here to make sure that this does not happen. Not this semester. Not for midterms and not for finals. The following are some hints as to how to avoid stress and procrastination:
1. Wake up
Try setting an alarm an hour or so before you would normally wake up for your first class. Your eye lids may refuse, you may feel the impulse to smack snooze down on your iHome, but trust me, once you rip your sheets off and get dressed, your body will forget how to fall asleep again until at least midnight. So now that you are awake, you can crack open that book you have been putting off, and begin the studying.
2. Start off easy
It is not easy to study for midterms and this seems to make students apprehensive to start studying. If you start with something easier, such as reading a short essay for a class or sitting back in your chair and rewatching a lecture online, you will soon realize that you have already begun studying without even doing much work at all. There, you are already on your way towards an A!
3. Don’t dwell on what you don’t know
Perhaps the biggest mistake students make is looking at all of the work on the syllabus at once, and thinking “Wow, there is no way I can get this done in time.” Begin slowly; take one date on your syllabus, check out the material, and if you know it well enough, do not dwell on the parts you are already certain of. Move on, and use your time wisely.
4. Find your best working method
For me, flashcards work best. Since high school, I have been using the online website Quizlet, which allows students to create virtual flashcards. That way, I will always have them on me—on my phone, tablet, or computer. Some people find that rewriting their notes, creating chapter outlines, or highlighting vigorously, are all easy ways to review the material.
5. Reward yourself
Now, I am definitely not trying to advocate for you to spend the night getting swallowed up in an internet hole, but I do want to acknowledge that giving yourself a reward for fifteen minutes and returning to your books can ultimately improve your work ethic. Set a timer, and make sure that you are back to highlighting and Post-it sticking within your allotted time.
Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor!