Get your academic act together
Mind tricks for meeting your deadlines
Are unfinished assignments threatening to blow up your social life and mangle your peace of mind? Wondering what happened to your deadline discipline?
Staying on top of our workload is about more than organizational skills (although those matter). Research is highlighting the importance of how we think about deadlines and goals—and the findings are sometimes surprising.
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1. Revamp your daily routine
Commit specific times every day to working on your assignments. “Committing time to every course every day, even if just to organize future times to work on those courses, keeps you in the game,” says Catherine Smythe, Student Advisor at the University of Alberta, Edmonton.
“Even if the progress is a small win, something that looks incremental, almost trivial, it can provide a tremendous boost to people’s intrinsic motivation and positive emotions. That’s what we call the power of ‘small wins.’ There is a feedback loop: Creativity and productivity feed on each other,” said Teresa Amabile, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and co-author of The Progress Principle (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011) (quoted in a Toronto publication).
Student strategies
- If you’ve fallen behind with your academic requirements, prioritize your current work
to avoid additional late penalties. - “I try to prioritize correctly. By catching up on one assignment, I make sure not to fall behind on 10 others.” —Daniel K., second-year student at Mount Royal University, Calgary, Alberta
2. Practice this mind trick
Focus on the due date. As soon as you’re given an assignment, get the due date onto your calendar. But that’s just the start.
Manipulate time
We do better with deadlines when we deliberately play with our sense of time, studies suggest. Deadlines within the current month feel closer than deadlines that fall outside it, even if the timeframe is the same, according to a 2014 study published in the Journal of Consumer Research.
Here’s how to capitalize on this mind quirk:
- Instead of focusing on a next-month due date, try thinking in terms of the number of days to get there. This way, the task seems more current, motivating you to get started and work on it consistently.
- On your calendar, colour-code the timeframe for each project (e.g., a blue band spanning from the date the history paper was assigned to the date it’s due). In a study, this simple technique helped people meet their deadlines.
3. Stretch and break down (Your assignments)
Guesstimate how long each assignment will take—then stretch it out and add some. “Break the assignment down into all of its elements. This will help you judge the amount of time it will take,” says Smythe.
Stretch and break down (your assignments)
Break up larger assignments into smaller tasks—e.g., research the topic; outline the paper; draft the first section.
Give each component task its own interim deadline on your calendar.
This is a motivational trick as well as a practical one: “Some small wins people set up for themselves through interim goals. That’s the progress principle, how small wins can help you move forward,” said Dr. Amabile.
5 apps for making calendars and lists that work
- Helps you organize and sort through your tasks.
- Can be shared with others for group projects.
- Make a list and swipe tasks away as you complete them.
- Created by teenagers, this app helps with academic prioritization.
- Starts your day with a quick review of tasks.
- Organizes them by “today,” “tomorrow,” and “later.”
- Offers prompts for recurring tasks.
- Provides easy-to-read due dates.
- Helps break down major tasks.
4. Know how to talk to yourself
Ask, “Will I complete this assignment?” This can be more powerful than telling yourself, “I will complete this assignment,” according to research published in Psychological Science (2010).
This seems counterintuitive after everything we’ve heard about self-affirmation. But in studies, participants who spent a minute asking themselves that question were more likely to get the job done than were those who spent a minute telling themselves they would.
Researchers suspect that asking “Will I?” builds motivation to complete the task.
Their findings provide more evidence that the way we talk to ourselves can predict our future actions.
5. Bring on the reinforcements
Colleges and universities recruit potential allies for you. Call on them, says Smythe.
Professor
“Talk assignments through with professors to help clarify any confusion that might cause anxiety. Don’t feel intimidated approaching a professor. Rather, feel empowered by taking an active role.”
Library staff
“One of the best resources is the library staff. Librarians are not only research experts, they can also show you how to search the web effectively, evaluate websites, avoid plagiarism, and research from home.”
Tutor
“Tutors can [help] guide you through the content of your studies and lead you to your own understanding of managing studies and relieving stress along the way.”
Peer mentor
“Peer support is built on shared personal experience and empathy. A mentor can provide moral and emotional support for you to be successful.”
Catherine Smythe, Student Advisor, University of Alberta, Edmonton
6. Find your place(s) on campus
Where’s your head at? Switching your study location can reset your attitude, spare you distractions, and even help you remember what you’re learning. That’s not all.
Student strategy
Find several spots that work for you. Head to the library, wi-fi café, or sit outside. “Find a quiet space on campus to focus on your work.”
—Denise P., fourth-year student at Humber College, Toronto, Ontario
Unpack your schedule
This is about finding your place on campus in the broader sense: Instead of taking on multiple clubs and activities, fully commit to one or two. You’ll gather more meaningful resumé material while sparing yourself a lot of stress.
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