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Dealing with deadlines

Every student will have to deal with deadlines. Not only are they essential for assessment hand-ins, they’ll be a key part of most jobs that you’ll be working in after University.

There are two halves of dealing with deadlines – meeting them and managing them.

Meeting deadlines involves being able to complete your deadlines and get them handed in on time. Whilst managing them involves being able to juggle multiple deadlines alongside everyday life.

Both can work hand in hand together to achieve successful hand-ins.

Taking control of the time you have

The first step to meeting your deadlines is to knowing when they need to be handed in and arranging that around your schedule. Always check hand-in dates!

If you struggle to remember dates and this is why you don’t meet them, you can easily fix this by making the dates noticeable.

Save your work with the assessment and due date visible in the save title or on the top line of the page. Alternatively, when you have to do paper copy work, make a note or stick a post it to the page so that the date is visible.

Furthermore, you could also invest in a wall planner or weekly planner so you can write down important deadlines, so you know you can always reach them in time. Doing this will be beneficial in the future, to the point where it will become a part of your routine.

Prioritise your workload

If you know that you have many deadlines – it’s important to prioritise your time.

Consider which task will be longer to complete and do that before a shorter exercise, even if it’s going to be harder.

This means that if you do struggle – you will have enough time to come back to it again later without missing the deadline.

Set study time

If you struggle to find the time to work towards deadlines or if you procrastinate, set yourself study time. It could be just an hour, but dedicate that time to the task at hand.

You might not find timetabling study time easy at first. So, why not try leaving time free to do whatever you like in between your study time.

Split up workload

By splitting up a deadline over a number of days you’re more likely to avoid putting off a hand in and finishing it within the time of a deadline.

Completing it in bite-size chunks will ease the pressure of completing an assignment all in one session and lessens the chance of leaving anything to the last minute.

This also lends to planning your essays and making sure you have a clear idea of deadlines and timescales.

Leaving it to the last minute isn’t the best idea…

As long as you get deadlines in, leaving work until the last minute doesn’t discredit the work you’ve done.

But, do consider how leaving it late will likely lessen the quality of your work.

Always leave time to proofread and check your work before handing it in, so that there are no errors, which can be easily missed when meeting a deadline.

It’s always better to be able to take your time checking your work, just in case.

Hopefully, by following these tips, you’ll be able to avoid missing deadlines, effectively meet them and lessen stress.

If you want more tips and advice on deadlines and time management – click here!

This article is featured on Learning at Lincoln.