As I do a combined honours degree (BA(Hons) Economics/Politics), I sometimes have multiple deadlines for different topics.  For example, just before the Christmas break, I had two essays due in for Politics and a class test for Economics that I had to revise for – that was a very stressful week!!  Luckily I had planned ahead and figured out when I was going to work on each assignment. Here are my ways of managing my time at uni, and more specifically, how I manage to complete assignments when they all come rushing at me at once…

As soon as you are set an assignment, check when it’s due: The good thing about uni is that you usually get about a month or two to complete and essay or a case study. This means that – providing you don’t forget about it – you have enough time to prepare, plan, and write an essay without the time constraints that made A levels so stressful. But, of course you’ll usually leave it until the last two weeks before it’s due. Big mistake. The reason you’re given so long to do these assignments is because that’s how long  they’ll take.

If you begin the assignment as soon as you’re given the brief for it, you won’t have a huge end-of-term-panic-writing week to deal with before you can go on your Christmas break.

Avoid doing assignments in your bedroom: The great thing about uni is the huge amount of resources available to you. The library at MMU is really conveniently placed right in the middle of campus so that you can go there before or after lectures for a few hours. When I go, I write my essays. I don’t know about anyone else, but I find writing essays in my bedroom (especially living in Halls) absolutely impossible. There are so many distractions (such as friends and Netflix) and often it’s just not a great atmosphere to concentrate. The library is a perfect place to work because there are very few distractions and I get in the productive mood while I’m there. Plus there’s a vending machine.

Choose particular days to do particular essays: When I have two assignments for different subjects, I choose to do one assignment on one day, and another assignment on another day. I have Economics lectures on Mondays and Fridays, so I usually keep Economics to those days. I have Politics on Wednesdays and Thursdays so do my Politics work on those days. This really helps with my productivity because I’m able to get into a Politics or an Economics mindset, and I’m able to talk to my lecturers about the essays on the same day as I’m writing them, meaning the advice is fresh in my mind and I’m more keen to get writing.

Overall, I like to keep my essay writing time separate to my relaxing time, and having a definite barrier between the two helps me focus and be more productive