While partying it up all weekend seemed to be a good choice at the time, I’m sure you’ll regret it when the final hours of your Sunday night tick down.
While having fun in college is important, so is finishing your school work (unfortunately). While I consider myself to be a procrastinator extraordinaire, I have found a couple of things that have helped me give up my slacker ways.
1. Buy a planner… and use it.
There’s nothing that will make you procrastinate more than if you don’t plan accordingly. Writing down every single one of your exams, papers and homework assignments into your planner will help you see the big picture. If you can see that you have three tests in the same week down the road, you’ll be a heck of a lot more likely to start studying in advance.
2. Create a checklist.
Write down everything you need to do that day and try your best to complete everything on the list each day. Use your planner to coordinate. Try to be realistic about what you can get done – if you know you’re typically exhausted from class on Wednesday nights, try not to cram a lot into your Wednesdays.
3. Find a study buddy.
This person doesn’t even have to be in your class, but find someone who you know can help keep you on track – and stick with them. Whether it’s your roommate, your sorority sister/fraternity brother or your lab partner, have someone who keeps you accountable. You’ll be a lot less likely to goof off for hours on Facebook if someone’s dragging you to the library with them.
4. Turn in things early.
Most professors will look over your assignments for you if you turn them in ahead of time. Think about it: You’ll receive a much better grade if you have your teacher look over it first and give you feedback than if you’re rushing to type something up at 5 a.m. the morning it’s due. Now I know this isn’t possible all the time, but try to do this every once in a while.
While all of this might seem overwhelming at first, try to tackle these once at a time and see if it helps you.
