One big lesson you will learn at UNE, or as a college student on any campus, is that procrastinating your assignments will not be an option when it comes to your work. Schoolwork in college is more rigorous than high school and it might seem overwhelming at first. However, it’s important to stay on top of your assignments, particularly those accounting for a large portion of your grade. Prioritizing assignments that account for a large part of your grade can help, especially if you work on them little by little over time. You’re much more likely to retain information if you work on something over the course of a few days as opposed to the night before it is due. While sometimes it seems possible to leave assignments to the last minute, stressing about the assignment while procrastinating takes more time than it would take to simply complete the assignment. Some things that can help with procrastination habits are attending class and creating a planner.
While skipping class is much easier in college than it may have been in high school because there are no immediate consequences, the consequence of getting behind on work can be much worse than a call home to your parents. You also miss key information that you might not be able to get from a slideshow posted on Brightspace or notes that your friend has taken in class. Making sure you have all of the information by attending class can make assignments feel much easier and less time consuming because you’ve learned the material in class.
Be it physical or digital, keeping a planner is a must. The easiest way to fall behind in classes is to miss assignments because you “forgot” about them, or didn’t write them down. Buying a planner might work best for some people, as having a physical book you can handwrite your assignments in will make it easier to have something tangible to keep you organized. Another option would be a digital planner. One example of a digital planner is the site Notion which allows you to create a website that you can customize into a planner, listing your assignments, their due dates, as well as organize them by class. Some students also use the calendar app or the reminders app on their phones, as these will send you notifications for when you should be working on them. The most important thing is to write down your assignments somewhere you can check daily.
