By Gabriella Pinos
Procrastination is a pastime that people love to indulge in, but it bites us back when graduation is just around the corner.
For a lot of seniors like Juliette Weiniger, a digital communications and media major, it’s difficult to focus on schoolwork when you’re busy counting down the semesters ‘til you walk on stage. It’s only recently, she said, that she started using her planner on a regular basis.
“I didn’t plan as much in freshman year, so I’ve definitely been trying to be more organized now,” Weiniger said. “I have to be as efficient as I can so I can graduate already.”
As students, juggling between personal lives, jobs and much more makes it difficult to focus on graduating, not to mention the fear we have of being thrown out into the real world. The pressures placed on us to graduate in four years only makes that dream seem more distant.
Thankfully, it’s never too late to get serious about graduating, even if it means another year of sleepless nights studying for exams.
Many seniors, including Weiniger, have been in college for more than four years, which has helped them raise their GPA and strike a balance between work, school and play.
The worst thing a student can do is rush through their education, and by not confining herself to a specific timeframe, Weiniger said she feels more relaxed.
“After the four years, all my friends had graduated and I was just happy that I was still in school,” Weiniger said.
But every student must graduate at some point, which can be as simple (or as difficult, depending on how you look at it) as breaking bad habits.
One thing I always suggest is that students write down their objectives for the day, no matter how redundant they may seem. Transcribing our thoughts on paper makes these goals seem tangible and attainable.
Doing so, however, takes a lot of discipline.
While I try to keep myself organized in my studies, I constantly forget to write things down. I have a whiteboard at home where I write down my assignments for the next month, but it’s easy to leave it blank when I get distracted by my phone or a TV show.
In these cases, it’s important to write down and complete your priorities before you get caught up in anything else.
Weiniger also suggests that planning out your semester in advance and balancing out classes helps prevent the stress of not being able to register for required courses. She tries to balance out her writing-heavy courses with those that are more discussion-based, for instance, and suggests meeting with advisors regularly.
Above all, seniors should motivate themselves to finish school, no matter how difficult it may be to do so. Perfectionism isn’t required to graduate, so don’t worry about stressing yourself out over small assignments or quizzes. Instead, incentivize yourself for finishing your work and see your degree as a step closer to your dream career.
“Senioritis is real, so just try to work with it and find your motivation somehow,” Weiniger said. “You’re already so close to the end and you don’t want to hold yourself back. Just push through the senioritis, do well and graduate.”
Entering the real world may seem terrifying at first, but if you practice disciplining yourself in college, it becomes a breeze. Trust me when I say that those long nights of studying and writing essays pay off immensely when you’re on stage wearing your cap and gown.
Photo retrieved by Flickr.
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