5 Ways to Not Let Homework Ruin Your Life

Students surely have a lot on their shoulders. Apart from obvious college assignments, there’s extracurriculars, social life, chores and other obligations. Often, students tend to think that college papers and other homework is a simple waste of time. That’s why, the initial disgust for assignments makes learners procrastinate. But in reality, it’s not the homework that ruins one’s life. The real problem is procrastination. Let us explain.

source: https://unsplash.com/photos/DC_gMe5H95k 

Benefits of Homework

Nowadays, professors leave more and more course materials for self-study. It doesn’t make that material optional or unnecessary, though. It only means that one is to study it on their own. 

One of the main skills a student develops while at college or university is the ability to study. It includes proper time management, delegation, teamwork and many more skills. Whether it’s about googling a site to write an essay for me to get a good sample paper, or helping your friend with one, you will learn to structure your time properly. It also trains your problem-solving skills.

Other than that, when you do your homework alone, you see clearly what you understood during class and what raises further questions. Homework teaches you independence. When you see that you didn’t understand some concepts during class, you’ll have to explore them alone in order to do homework. This will teach you to self-study and to pay more attention in class.

Get Organized

Your best helper when it comes to homework is your study schedule. Straight from the beginning of the school year or term, you need to figure out how many classes you have, how many papers you are to write by the end of the semester and what other things you need to dedicate your time to.

Creating a proper schedule to follow is a must if you don’t want to get buried under a pile of forgotten deadlines and failed assignments. Keep track of all your classes, assignment deadlines and other responsibilities. Get a pretty notebook you’ll like or download an app if you’re afraid you can forget the notebook at home. Mark all the important dates in every single medium available: your Google calendar, notebook, a calendar on the wall, the organization app. This way, you’ll exclude any chance of forgetting about a deadline. 

Here are a few apps you could use:

• Trello

• Evernote

• Google Keep

• Any.do

Start Early

You know what feels much better than realizing you’ve forgotten about a paper due? Knowing you can hand it in early! A calendar can help you with that immensely. Yet, there’s another trick. Always setting deadlines in your notebooks a little earlier will leave you with enough time to complete them and then chill! So, whenever you enter a deadline into your schedule, trick yourself and make it a few days early.

source: https://unsplash.com/photos/PypjzKTUqLo 

Your Space Matters

Finding the right place to study is paramount to your success as a student. Set up a table, a comfortable chair and remove all distractions. Wipe the table clean, put away all the unnecessary things and bring everything you’ll need to study a particular class. Make sure you have all your necessities at hand so you don’t have to get up every other minute and interrupt your study flow. 

Change the items in between classes, this will make you take a small beak and reset your brain. That means, for a history class, you might need maps, books and notebooks. Make sure there’s nothing else on the table but those items. Then, to study geometry, you’ll put away the history things and pull out your rulers and all the other stuff.

Don’t study in your bed. Ever. Just don’t do it. At first, you’ll feel sleepy while studying. Then, your brain will start associating your bed with education and you won’t be able to get any sleep, hence, disrupting your sleep pattern. Our brains make strong associations of actions with spaces. That’s why a separate place for studying is important.

In the same way, if you’re a writer and you like to write on a particular bench in a park, you’ll get ‘inspired’ immediately as you sit on it. In reality, it’s not inspiration. It’s just that the brain has created a bond between sitting on that bench and writing. Create the same bond for studying and your table.

Take Breaks

Last but not least, many students underestimate the importance of taking breaks. They think that they can just sit down and quickly learn everything they need in a few hours to then go out and have fun. Sure, you might be able to complete your homework that way. But the next day, when your professor asks you a question, you’ll be surprised to find out that you didn’t remember the material. 

Our brains cannot focus for as long as we would like them to, they need breaks to function right. Try the Pomodoro technique. There are millions of apps, sites and platforms that do essentially the same thing: make you work for 25 minutes and take a small break after. This technique has been proven effective and many students swear by it. Besides, you can use it later in life for work, too.

Other than benefiting our brains, breaks can also prove good for our bodies, It’s important to stand up, stretch and do a few exercises when you study. Your body will thank you later.

Wrapping Up

The habit of doing your homework can greatly benefit you later in life. You’ll develop skills that are essential for being a responsible adult. Time management, independence, problem solving, ability to create schedules and follow them are some of the most important ones.

Pay attention to creating the right study schedule for yourself. Take even more care to actually follow it. Download every single planning app out there and use it. Trick yourself by setting deadlines a little earlier, this will give some free time once you’re done. 

Don’t forget to arrange a good study space for yourself, and to never study in your bed. Take breaks often and stretch from time to time.