<p>I'm a bit worried.</p>
<p>At the moment, I get no more than an hour a homework a night--and that's when I have a fair amount. Many days, I only have ten to fifteen minutes' worth, which I get done in history or precalc on the day it's due.</p>
<p>However, I'll have to step up next year; I'll be taking much harder classes that give a lot more homework (I'm taking one of the most rigorous schedules possible for a sophomore at my school, but I got all the teachers that give no work {except maybe Chem, but my teacher's methods just take a long time--he doesn't really give us lots of work} for some odd reason).</p>
<p>My friends already get, like, five hours of homework a night; but the most I've ever really gotten in my life is two hours (maybe three if I had an essay that I hadn't started yet), unless I procrastinated on a project (happens once a year, generally; last year, half the people who had the same English teacher as me pulled an all-nighter for a project, but I managed to finish it by like 1:30-ish). This has me really worried, since I'll be taking what's considered an extremely rigorous schedule for my (ultra-competitive) school. I've calculated that I'll probably get approximately five hours of homework a night, give or take one or two hours. I also have extracurriculars that take up huge chunks of my time, even on weekdays (actually, especially on weekdays; weekend events are usually only one day long).</p>
<p>Due to the fact that I never really get any homework, I have a huge tendency to procrastinate and watch TV or whatever; how can I stop procrastinating and learn to make my time more productive? </p>
<p>By the way, I also have horrible study habits since I don't really... er... study (except for finals--I actually sort of try for those). In my defense, all my classes so far in high school have been pretty easy. Last time I really studied, however (and not for a final), was probably either English last year or History in eighth grade. So some tips on that would be nice as well.</p>
<p>Also, chances are that I’ll become club officer for one of my clubs, and I’m already an editor of a literary magazine at the middle school (for which I do all the work, so it takes up a lot of my time).</p>
<p>I’ll start with adjusting to a harder schedule:
[ul]
[<em>]Stay on track: don’t fall behind. Last year I could be a few days behind in math and be okay. Now I can’t…I tried and failed miserably. Once you fall behind once, you’ll stay behind. (more on this below)
[</em>]Review the material before: if you can (if you’re way more disciplined than me), read the books/textbooks through quickly in the summer so you get an idea of what you’ll be covering.
[<em>]Understand what a harder schedule means: you’ll very likely have to give something up–time for relaxing, socializing, ECs, etc.
[li]Sleep: don’t forget to sleep! (I know, I’m a total hypocrite…but really, not sleeping enough = doing badly on tests, not being able to focus, being depressed, etc.)[/li][/ul]
Now some study tips:
[ul]
[li]Try not to have to study: make sure you’re understanding everything. Ask the teacher, your friends/parents, or google anything that’s confusing you. Don’t fall into the trap I did of thinking that it’s “not important” or “won’t come up.”[/li][</em>]Keep neat notes: retyping may help you remember, but not being able to read them is never good.
[<em>]Flashcards: I really like to use index cards for history, because of the way the tests are sectioned
[</em>]Outlines: for math, I wrote out the important theories, theorems, and applications of each chapter.
[/ul]</p>
<p>Finally some other stuff…copied from another post I made, so sorry if it’s not relevant and that it’s so long:
Finding time
- [<em>]Do homework at any time I can: during lunch, breaks, free time in class, etc.
[</em>]Get ahead, and don’t fall behind: I use weekends and holidays to get as far ahead as I can. For me, robotics takes ~10h a week offseason and ~30-40h a week during build season, so I have absolutely no fall back
Using time efficiently
- [<em>]Figure out what is important: if homework isn’t graded, I’ll do it later, or do less of it.
[</em>]Work efficiently: spending more time isn’t always more productive. Things like finding everything I need before I start and having a large space to work on make me work faster.
[<em>]Have a goal before I start: if I say I’ll spend 1h on math, I’ll spend the entire hour on math unless there is an emergency. If 1h is too long for you, try breaking up time into 30min increments.
[</em>]Break up time: I can only spend 3h straight on a few subjects; for most of the rest, I do 45min - 1h increments. Alternate subjects if you need to, or:
[<em>]Take a break: stretching, walking around a bit, getting a snack, etc. really helps me focus.
[</em>]Don’t get distracted: I use LeechBlock on Firefox to stay on track. When I’m doing homework, I try my best to not get distracted on my phone/tablet/computer.
[<em>]Track time: something I’ve been trying to do…I create a spreadsheet/table with ~10min increments, and every 10min I record what I did/accomplished. It’s a way to force me not to go do some random thing, but can also help me like I accomplished something.
[</em>]Track assignments: I use Sticky Notes (on Windows). I can copy a table from Word into it, and I have a column for the assignment, due date, approx time to complete, and status.
Wow, that was LONG…I hope something in there helped! If you have any other questions, I’ll be happy to try and answer them.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! Right now my classes are just really easy for me material-wise (the only reason I have any B+s are because of dumb mistakes/teachers being anal about the homework and not telling you that you were supposed to do something). Thankfully, all the classes I plan to take have really good teachers.</p>
<p>suffer through it and rent a time machine in 2040. then come back in time and help you young self out. my older future did that and it helped soo much. sadly, though im gonna be bald and fat and the dallas cowboys will never win a super bowl.</p>