need some advice!

shannon_164

hey:) i’m just wondering if anyone has any advice on this situation / issue?

basically, i am really struggling to do coursework for college - i ALWAYS leave it until the last minute and every single time say “im going to do it week by week and not leave it until the last minute again” then go and do exactly what i said i won’t do lol

before christmas i was sat the night before the deadline doing my coursework for one of the units - i had to do learning aim A distinctions, learning aim B merits and distinctions and all of learning aim C & D passes, merits and distinctions, so a LOT of work and i had about 14 hour before the deadline to do the work, sleep and go to college so yeah really not the ideal situation i suppose - i had 12 pages of work done up until that point and ended up submitting 43, idk how i managed to do so but i somehow did

now we’ve started new units this week, i (again) have told myself i am NOT leaving it until the final minute again so i did actually come home from college and have already typed up all my notes for learning aim A passes, merits and distinctions - we only covered passes in class but the merits and distinctions are super easy i think - though i can’t bring myself to change my bullet pointed brief notes into an actual essay yet? it’s not going to be due until around late feb i think - i guarantee i wait until late feb or whenever the deadline is to do it BUT at least ive improved a little as i have all my notes typed up for learning aim A which is all we covered in class so its a bit of a better start lol

if anyone could pls tell me how you make yourself do work BEFORE the day of the deadline pls tell me because its really not a good idea to wait til the final minute - i clearly never learn from past situations here🤣

TheNightmare

Good start with typing your notes early. To avoid last-minute rushing:

Break tasks into chunks with mini deadlines Work a little each day, even 30 minutes Start drafts without overthinking

You’re already improving, keep it up

Laura_tigger82

Hey @shannon_164. You have done really well to even recognise what has been happening and even more so thinking about ways you might reduce such tight time periods moving forwards. I can see @TheNightmare has already provided some ideas about chunking the tasks, creating time blocks and being mindful of overthinking. Thank you for such a helpful contribution!

For me, I think I would be leaning towards encouraging you to reflect on why this might be happening. Is it that the deadlines provide pressure you need, is it that you are worried about making it perfect and a lack of time means it just needs to be 'done', rather than perfect or something else?

shannon_164

@TheNightmare thank you for your reply i appreciate it!! my problem is unless it’s an official deadline then i cannot seem to do the work🤣one of them wants work on tuesday, it’s not an official deadline, it’s not the end of the world if i miss it so it’s not enough pressure i suppose to make me do it lol

shannon_164

@Laura_tigger82 thank you for replying🩷

i honestly don’t know why im like this - when i was in school i was all for doing homework on the day i got it even if it wasn’t due for ages & getting revision notes/coursework done asap, i never left anything until last minute but now it’s all i do:( if it’s an official deadline, i wait for it to get closer and then do the work as i just can’t seem to otherwise?

this is so silly too but i have such a fear of failing as a result of plagiarism too, i don’t know why because i will always do my research etc and reword anything im using on my brief notes then when i go to type up my coursework i reword my own brief notes again - i never copy directly from anything unless it’s like legislation or whatever which i obviously cannot change haha but i’ll always make sure i reference it n everything. before submitting anything i always put it through like 5+ different plagiarism checkers just to make sure, and then STILL panic that im gonna get an email to say my work is not my own work n everything when it really is - im super lucky in terms of how since a really young age ive just learnt to reword everything in school work and not just copy directly from text books or anything so i find rewording quite easy.