October 15, 2024
We’re at the halfway point on most of your syllabi. Now is a good time to start planning how you will manage the rest of the semester. Last-minute panic isn’t inevitable. Stress may be, but panic can be avoided.
One way to avoid the end-of-semester crunch is to start planning - and working - now. List all your upcoming academic deadlines on your calendar and map out what’s due and when. Then, map the steps between here and there. For example, if you have a paper due on December 9th, it makes sense to have a final draft done by the 7th, so you can sleep on it for a day and give the paper one last edit before turning it in - so write down that you want a draft done on the 7th. That probably means a rough draft by the 5th. Which means research done by the 2nd. That means starting research a few weeks before that. If you have two papers due on the 9th, you should build time to focus on both. For example, pretend one is really due on the 8th and make a plan for each of them.
Repeat the process for every assignment and exam between now and when your last paper is due, and your last exam is scheduled. You likely have a lot of papers and exams all at the same time, so you will have to stagger when you start studying and writing so you can get it all in. Block time on your calendar for each assignment the same way you block time for class, work, and internships.
As you realistically (‘realistically’ is an important word here) schedule your academic time, bear in mind that things will probably go wrong, and things tend to take longer than you think they will. You will get sick, you’ll lose an important file, you’ll struggle with an idea you thought you understood, and so on. Also, block time to rest, spend with friends and family, and to take advantage of last-minute opportunities. You might even block time for sleep. If something goes wrong (your computer crashes at exactly the wrong moment, or you get sick), you will have built-in time to recover. If everything goes to plan, you’ll have time to relax and maybe polish a project or make a paper that much better.
Halloween and the election are a few weeks away, Thanksgiving will be here before you know it, and then everything is due. Planning now won’t make exams stress-free, but it will decrease panic and make the stress much more manageable.