HOW TO: COPE WITH ALL THOSE ASSIGNMENTS!

Assignments, assignments, assignments everywhere. Being thrown at you by teachers, circling around your head, spread out all across your desk.

Sound about right?

Whether you're studying for your degree, or your A-Levels, heck even your GCSEs, assignments can often get FAR TOO MUCH. It may feel like you're drowning in essays, tasks, questions, exams and that nothing is ever going to be good again. You're so deep in now, and it's terribly demotivating. There's nothing worse than a deadline to NOT make you want to do work. You find yourself in a never-ending circle of opening a textbook, napping, whipping out a highlighter, finding it all too much of a struggle, and then napping again. I imagine there's some comfort eating, and tweeting, and possibly a few tears thrown in there too.

I have some good news for you though.

IT'S GOING TO BE O-K-A-Y!

I am currently knee-deep, or possibly even shoulder-deep in assignments. I know it's only going to increase over the next few weeks too. But I'm trying not to panic. I'm instead trying to do some positive things to stop me entering the cycle of doom (the textbook-napping-highlighting-surrendering-napping cycle), and I thought it may help you guys out if you find yourself very much IN the cycle of doom.

Here's my guide on how to cope with all those assignments!

1) Well firstly, breathe. Oxygen in, carbon dioxide out. That's it, there you go.

2) Make a list of everything you have to do. Productivity always starts with a good old list! Literally write every teeny tiny task down, one by one. At least this way, the thoughts flying around your head are now out of your head and onto some paper.

3) Put this list in an order. Now, you have two choices here. You can either list by priority, or by deadline. These could be the same thing in some situations. Or you could be really clever and put them in order of priority WITHIN order of deadline. Cheeky.

4) It may also be beneficial to put these deadlines on a calendar. Maybe print one out and stick it on your wall, like I have here. Then you can count down the days or weeks until your next deadline! Clever stuff.



5) This is the hardest part now. Are you ready? You actually have to DO the work! Wahooo!
Hopefully, if my suggestions have been useful, you should find it a lot easier to sit down and get on with the work when you've organised it.

6) My best bit of advice is this - try and focus on one thing at a time. It's understandable, and probably quite useful for your sanity, if you mix things up sometimes because your motivation for one project may not last long, so switching to another project could mean that you get more done. Generally speaking, though, if you focus on one assignment at a time, you will feel less overwhelmed, a lot calmer, and therefore probably more productive!

7) Have breaks. I know this drummed into you during exam time, but it applies for assignments too. Having short breaks will help you rejuvenate. Talking to friends or family will let some steam out! Water and food too, guys. Water and food. And exercise is probably the best thing you could do during a break - it'll re-energise you. Just make sure you stay away from the social media. Tough, I know.

8) Give yourself rewards, but only if you do a sizeable chunk of work and really stay on top of it. Let yourself have that brownie once you've written another 4 paragraphs. Turn on the TV once you've finished those last ten questions. Give yourself something to work towards, to get through it.

9) Music, music, MUSIC! Not everyone works well if they have music playing in the background, and if you know you're one of those people, then adhere to that. If you work better with music, stick some on. But I think playing music in your breaks, or at the end of your task, will relax you and you'll feel a heck of a lot better.

10) Tell yourself you'll be okay, you'll get through it, you'll get those assignments in on time. Because you will, you really will. Don't get caught up in it all. It'll only make you feel worse, and there's really no point. Be kind to yourself. It's only an essay, or a question, or an hour of revision, at the end of the day. It's got to be done, but it doesn't have to stress you out. You're in control of that!

You got this, I believe in you my loves. x