It's getting closer to exam time -- and that unfortunately means more work and revision. But with so much of a burden, I needed a way to make the workload more manageable. So far, I have 5 ways to help you get your work done!
1. Divide the task into categories/chunks
- 5 essays, 3 presentations, 6 exams. This makes it seem like you're over-burdened with work to do. While they are a lot of matters on your hand, dividing them will make it seem better. In a week, you might have 1 essay, 1 presentation, and 3 exams. Although you are still going to have to work hard to finish these, the overwhelming pressure is gone -- you've split the workload into smaller tasks that you can handle.
2. Maintain a 'work-life' balance
- One of the biggest mistakes that people tend to make when they have lots to do, is that they focus solely on the work. You might be worried that if you stop doing your work, you'll never finish it in time. But that's not a good strategy in the long run. You need to balance out your work and life to efficiently carry out the tasks you need to finish. Or else you might experience a 'burnout', where you're too exhausted to do anything, but the stress is eating you. So go to that party and have a good time!
3. Never stress over it too much
- The worse thing you can do under pressure is to panic and stress out. If you panic, there's a good chance that you won't even be able to make a start. In my case, it was my desire to make things 'perfect' that stopped me from beginning my work. So if there's a factor that's making you stressed about your work, try to eliminate it and it'll be much easier to complete the task.
4. Make sure you have a schedule
- If you feel like there are deadlines after deadlines, create a schedule that would help you oversee what tasks you have. I tend to put all my deadlines in a calendar app, so that it syncs across my devices in order for me to have access wherever and whenever I need it. But I do recommend writing down a to-do list on a small notebook or a sticky-note, because it's more flexible when you don't have a set date for you to do the task.
5. Don't 'do it tomorrow'
- There's one thing I learnt from school and that's to never put tasks until the last minute. It's so easy to look over your due dates to see that there are no tasks due the next day. You relax and make time to do what you want to do instead of finishing off the work earlier. But the work will keep increasing until there is 1. too much work for you to handle and/or 2. they are all due on similar dates, meaning that you have very little time to finish the tasks. Either way, I tend to finish simple tasks (worksheets, reading etc) on the day it was set, and bigger projects at least 3 days before the due date, for me to have time to go over what I've done.
These five methods really helped me through the craziest (and busiest) weeks of school.