Getting Work Done on Time

Every student, at one point of life, has felt like they are drowning in work. It's sort of a rite of passage of being a student. Me, I don't feel like I'm being productive until I have a pile of work to complete the night before their submission. But, as much as I like the rush I get from finishing everything just before their deadlines, I like having no pending work, even more.

Methods of getting work done, that have worked for me, are:

1. Work, uninterrupted

2. Give yourself a head start

3. Prioritize

1. Work, uninterrupted:

Ages ago I read this tumblr post that said: if you aren’t feeling motivated to write, write for just 5 minutes. Even if you write only 100 words, you’ll have written. You’ll have made progress.

I live by this. I used to get a lot of English assignments in Dubai, and most of them were due around the same time; the deadline being, at most, a week away from the date of assignment. Now, with as much homework and exam preparations as we had, it’s understandable for a student to run out ideas or the strength to write. So, I would task myself with writing anything relevant that came to mind for a minimum of five minutes. I would write and write without stopping to edit or to think of a synonym.

The most I’ve ever written before stopping for a break was about 3 pages. I did have to cut it down to 2 pages because some sentences weren’t as relevant as they were in my head and some were just repetitive. But what I had after cutting it down and what I had after a little editing and brush up were both good enough to submit.

I let my thoughts flow, uninterrupted. I’ve since increased the minimum amount to be written in a day because I have taken on more tasks of this kind. I like to write short stories and this method helps me combat my very bad habit starting things and dropping them halfway.

2. Give yourself a head start:

Another trick I learnt from tumblr, for similar scenarios, is to have one keyword, like elephant or trumpet or rainbow, that you can use as a placeholder for a word you can’t think of. This helps because you won’t have to break your flow of writing to stop and think of an appropriate word.

I used to keep thesaurus.com open while writing, but the back and forth between the website and my document would make me forget what I was thinking of. For example, your sentence is ‘she danced gracefully’ but you can’t think of the word gracefully; all that’s coming to your head is smoothly and you know that isn’t the right word, you can write ‘she danced trumpet’ and move on. When you come back to edit your document, you’ll see this odd word and you’ll be reminded of what you wanted instead.

That was how you can get writing assignments done, even without any motivation. But what about other subjects; ones where typing ‘trumpet’ instead of ‘graceful’ won’t work. Here’s where listening to your teachers comes in handy. My teachers always tell us to do our homework in the free time they give us, so there won’t be much to do when you get home. I love completing all my homework in class, so I have time to develop good habits at homes.

Giving your future self head starts on homework/assignments/work, that seems super boring at present, may be the best gift you can give to yourself. No one’s asking you to complete all 50-word problems in 10 minutes. But, finishing 10 of those long math problems means 10 less minutes of homework tonight. If you have an essay to write, use the free time you get in class or at lunch to finish your brainstorming, so you have a general idea of what you’ll write when you get home.

It’s fun to socialize at school whenever you have free time, but those 10 extra minutes at home could give you time to take up a new hobby or learn a new skill or build a new habit that is helpful to your well being. It’s at times like this you have to prioritize what’s important, what’s urgent and what’s important & urgent.

3. Prioritize:

One of my favourite moral science stories is of a teacher who asks his students if they think an array of rocks, varying in size, can fit in a small jar. Everybody says no, and the teacher proves them wrong by first adding the largest rocks, then the smaller ones and finally the smallest ones. The medium and small rocks can find space to fit into, whereas if the larger rocks were added after the smaller, they wouldn’t have the flexibility to fit into the remaining space. Here, the large rocks are important, priority one, tasks and the smaller ones are ones that can fit into empty spaces of your schedule.

Making a list of tasks you have on hand and sorting them into important and unimportant can help give you clarity of what your large rocks are. From there, you can assign the rest of your work the position of a medium or a small rock.

Getting work done on time is an integral part of keeping your grades steady and up. Managing time is an integral part of getting work done. Find techniques that help you manage your time efficiently. Don’t forget to leave time for self care and good habits.

I hope this helps you. Have a good time prioritizing your tasks. - Aarushi