So, you have a half-hour to somehow make some progress on your schoolwork. Here are some tips to help make this happen. Keeping the intro short so you can jump right in. Also made it skimmable in case this is an emergency.
Make a plan & task list.
In order to make the most of a half hour, you need to have clarity on whatever you’re working on. You can do this on paper or in your notes app.
Give yourself a maximum of 3 accomplishable tasks in a 30 minute window.
Sometimes, depending on how long your tasks take, you may only be able to do 1 out of the 3. When I have readings to go through, I can often only make it through readings for 1 class in a 30 minute period, and maybe start on the other class.
Find the most efficient way to complete the task.
When it comes to a task, there can be many ways to complete it. In our case, though, we need to find the fastest way to do so.
If you’re working on a paper, for example, use speech-to-text. You talk faster than you type, and the hard part is often getting your thoughts onto paper. I have learned that there is truly no honor in making things unnecessarily complicated, especially when you’re on a time crunch.
Don’t worry about perfection.
Especially when you’re busy juggling other things like work, perfection just may not be in the cards right now.
It can be hard to get over the need to have a 100 on every assignment, or spend an hour grappling over instructions.
Here’s one tip that especially helped me with this: stop caring. I don’t mean stop caring as in don’t do the assignment. Rather, I mean stop obsessing.
I just make it a goal to take the first answers I come up with on the questions in the instructions, find a way to support it with evidence (if required), and meet the word count and formatting instructions.
The rest of it (like the grade), I can’t control. These are just the best ways I can influence it.
When you’re trying to complete something like a discussion post in a short period of time, having this mindset allows me to get more done and turn it in faster.
Batch similar tasks together.
A great way to keep momentum going in your brain is by batching a bunch of similar tasks together.
For me, I like to do this with my weekly required readings. On my lunch break at work, instead of reading for one class and then starting on an assignment for that class, I work on my readings for all my classes consecutively (one after the other).
Do a bunch of small tasks to get momentum.
If you don’t have enough time or mental capacity to work on a big college assignment right now, do some small tasks.
For me, that means making quick outlines for a research paper. It can also be something as simple as copying and pasting the instructions into my Obsidian Dashboard, so that I can reference them when I am able to start the assignment.
Organization is a great way to get stuff done, even if you’re not working on the actual assignment (as long as you’re not procrastinating).
Be rid of distractions.
A huge thing for me is getting distracted when I need to do something I don’t want to do.
To help with this, I hide my phone somewhere if possible.
Another thing that helps is setting really small goals to reach before I allow myself to be distracted. The important thing with this one is actually sticking to the goals (which I find difficulty with).
Conclusion
Don’t be sad if you don’t get everything on your list done. Whatever you don’t finish in 30 minutes, you can always do later. It’s not the end of the world. Even doing something in that half-hour is better than doing nothing.
I hope these tips helped you to get stuff done in a short amount of time. Save this post on Pinterest in case you need to get a lot done in a short period of time in the future!
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