Manage Schoolwork Like a Pro

What are some good tips for managing your time during busy periods of the school year?

If you’re someone like me who sleeps at almost 11:00 PM every night because of homework, then these tips may be for you!

Joining a new school for 6th grade where almost everybody knew each other — except me — was hard. But after finding time to have fun and meet new people, I found a change in the way that I functioned in my life, both at home and at school. I took advantage of the people I became friends with to motivate myself so that I could be productive in and out of school.

Now that I am in 7th grade, I’ve built my own routine for being successful. 

So how did I build up my grade to a GPA range of 3.98-4.0? With hard work and dedication for my classes, homework, projects, and tests. I am currently at a school that assigns at least one quiz during one of my core classes, and on top of that tons of homework. If you’re someone like me who sleeps at almost 11:00 PM every night because of homework, then these tips may be for you!

Many times, my friends have told me that I am very organized, but if you came to see how I lived then you would think differently. At school I am organized, positive, and hardworking, but when I get home I have a messy desk, a messy room, a tired nature, and procrastinate at times as well. I am inept at being focused for long periods of time and find this as my biggest weakness. Even though someone may seem smart, organized, timely, and clean, they may be struggling to keep up appearances.

When I realized this, I decided to make some changes, and to search for the best ways to organize myself. This is because I now know that I don’t have a large expanse of time compared to when I was in elementary school. Now I attempt to finish my homework and studies more efficiently so I have time for my personal life and extracurricular activities. From what I have observed, I am now sleeping earlier and able to enjoy the small things in life.

I wish that I could have known these techniques when I was in 6th grade, but I’m now going to share them with you instead. Here are top 9 that worked best for me.

1. Pomodoro technique 

• How to do it:

  • Set 25 min timer for work and choose a task(s)

  • Take a 5 min break

  • Repeat 4x

  • After doing it 4x, take a long 15-30 min break depending on how you feel

• What it does: 

• Helps maintain your focus

• Prevents yourself from burning out

• Motivates you to finish all the tasks you listed by the end of the time 

• Helps you be accountable for your actions, making sure that you don’t go off-track (since there is only a specific amount of time)

2. Morning person or night owl?

Ask yourself these questions and be honest if you don’t know:

• Do I wake up early and sleep early?

  • Yes: You may be a morning owl and have more time to be productive earlier in the day compared to the evening. This might give you time to do a little homework or studying/reviewing before going to school to keep your brain fresh 

  • No: If you sleep late you may want to keep sleeping until later in the morning, but since you have school try to sleep as early as possible but wake up a little later, giving yourself more time to recover 

• Do I have more energy in the morning or evening?

• Morning: As said before, wake up earlier and get some of the homework or studying from the previous day's review so that you can keep track of the material for the day 

• Evening: Sleep in whenever you can, but make sure to get to school on time! This is another sign that you’re a night owl and you should take advantage of this 

• Midday/Neither/IDK: If this is your case, then you might want to observe yourself more closely or change your schedule depending on what you feel like daily or weekly

3. Eat the frog (hardest tasks first)

This is a technique that is made to do the hardest or longest tasks first so that you can get it out of the way and get through your to do list even faster due to the motivation that your tasks are getting easier.

• How to do it:

• Make a list of everying thing you need to do (even the smallest things or things that don’t seem important because in the end it all counts)

• Rewrite the list in the order that is from hardest/longest to easiest/quickest

This will convince you to get through to the easier tasks and end your day

4. Prioritize

This is similar to the Eat the Frog technique but is more focused on what needs to be done and what can be postponed a day or two.

• How to do it: 

• Make a list of everything you need to do, big or small

• Put a red mark/star next to the most important things that cannot be ignore

• Put a blue mark/star next to things that are important but do not need to be absolutely done

• And finally leave the things that you won’t need to do that day without a mark

• Do the task from red →blue →nothing and continue until you are done with your time 

This will help you finish what needs to be done and not waste your time on unneeded tasks.

5. Lay it all out beforehand

Find how much homework you have before you begin. If you figure out how much homework you have and need to do you can have a general idea of what you need to do and how much time it will take

• How to do it: 

  • I recommend thinking that it will take at least 2x as much as it actually might because if something gets delayed or you get distracted, you can still finish your timeline

  • You should always find motivation and a prize for when you finish all your work and tasks

6. Work hard first, then play hard

Finish any homework early on so that you are rewarded with free time. Let’s say you have homework to do tomorrow, but today you have a bit of free time. Invert the equation so you do the work first and then have free time as your reward (not the other way around).

• How to do it: 

  • If you have enough time to get it done, get it done early so that over the weekend or the next day you can be free of stress from schoolwork

7. Time blocks

Time blocks can help you get things done in a certain amount of time preventing distractions and giving you a responsibility of staying on track.

• How to do it: 

  • Make a to do list of what you need to do

  • Write how long each task takes so that you can make a schedule for yourself 

  • Prioritize the longest tasks or the hardest tasks so that you can get things done

  • Use your to do list to get things done and to finish in time

  • Make sure to not take too long while making the timetable so that you don’t waste too much time

8. Just get it done

When you have a lot of homework or a big project, you might be procrastinating or just being really slow to get it done, perfecting every piece and such.

Instead, just think get it done. It doesn't have to be perfect, so just finish it and use your extra time to improve it by editing. Finish it well and quick so that you can use the spare time that you have to do other stuff or to make your project or piece of homework even better and stronger.

• How to  do it:

• Think about what task you have to complete and think about how long it will take you. For me I always take 10-20 minutes longer then I actually think that I’m going to take so keep that in mind as well. 

• Start your task but get the basic requirements down that will definitely get you a strong A. If you do this but still want to make the finalized version of your task even better, then do it! You don’t have to make it perfect, but this is good if you are a perfectionist like I am. 

• Finish what you need to do and have fun afterward! If you need some extra time try giving yourself a 5- minute break or get some help, it’s not a bad thing to do if you need help because then you will have better results and it doesn't hurt anybody either! 

9. Think before you sleep

If procrastinating is the biggest problem preventing you from finishing your homework or completing your to do list, this might help you stay accountable.

• How to do it: 

  • When the day is over, write a list of everything you need to do tomorrow

  • Since you don’t need to do them today you can sleep easy, yet you are still prepared for tomorrow

I think that this is the easiest technique to use because it’s so simple and can be so great if you need it!

10. Baby steps for the win

If you have a big project or test, study early little by little and have a big review the day before.

• How to do it: 

  • To do this you may need a reminder or a piece a paper that has a lot of important dates on it because this is helpful if you procrastinate on projects or studying for quizzes and tests

  • Make a list of tests and project (big or small) and remind yourself to study or work on these on certain days preventing you from doing it last minute

  • If you don’t have a reminder app then print out a monthly calendar and write down important days as the month goes on