Autumn has arrived. After battling with the spring semester, we now face the autumn semester, aka the “sudden-chaos” semester. If we don’t pay attention, assignments pile up really in quickly and by the time you realized, it becomes too late to handle all of them. The way I’ve been managing my time and organizing myself has helped me succeed in autumn semester two years in a row, so here are some tips I want to share with you guys!
- Make a To-Do List For Each Class
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Let’s start with a syllabus journey. Check all of the syllabi for classes you’re taking and list up your readings (optional) and scheduled assignments (mandatory). Some student-friendly professors even write their schedule weekly, so please at least highlight what is coming up each week and try to delete each assignment once finished. Now you can see all of your assignments in each class including your main mid-terms and finals. If you can, try to write due dates next to your assignments so that you can easily know which to make a priority.
- Divide All Tasks Into Small Portions
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Now that you know your class assignments and schedule, prepare another to-do list sheet (you can easily download and print them from the internet, so find your favourite one!). Then list all of your major tasks (weekly lists work well) and divide them into smaller tasks. Assign each of these to a specific day to face them. Now, you can visualize what you will do in each week of the semester.
- Set a Rest Day
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After or while making a to-do list, don’t forget to make a “rest day” as well. It looks organized if your to-do list is filled with tasks every day, but it doesn’t make any sense. We aren’t robots, we’re human beings who often forget and run away from our tasks.
It’s really important to feel achievement while you’re busy doing your tasks. Otherwise you will wind up losing your motivation and become overwhelmed which eventually leads you to start thinking about ways to avoid your work. It’s important to set rest days to keep yourself from burning out. The best day to rest is on days where you only have one or two classes and have no clubs or part-time work. On that day, you can do a few small tasks like reading, but try to finish them as soon as possible and rest well alone orwith friends and family.
So basically, that’s it! When you feel tired because you’re busy, it often means that you can’t organize things well and can’t be kind to yourself. Try to stay organized and avoid “last-minute chaos” with me!
Read my article next week to find out how you can prevent getting tired from boredom!