Do not drink caffeine in the night. Every time I need to do an assignment, I would wait until the last possible time, start it, sleep two hours and drink a bunch of caffeine in the night. The next day, I would feel fine until late afternoon then fall asleep for 14 hours. Another important thing is to get all college applications done far in advance. It is easy to apply undecided and make the hard decisions later. Applying early boosts your chances of admittance and allows you to forget about it entirely. It also allows you to deal with important things such as financial aid and worrying about that. I was able to get all my applications in by the November 1 early decision I deadline and now can take the financial aid component slowly and create a budget with a relative idea of cost and total aid. Another important component is to thoroughly check whether you qualify for financial aid. Up until this point, I did not know that I could have qualified for the free common app waiver and that could have saved me a lot of money.
A large amount of change has taken place in the last 6 months. The most important thing is to take everything step by step otherwise it will become overwhelming. Another important lesson I learned is to not take two English classes. You only need 4 credits to graduate and for senior year, early dismissal and study halls help with time management. Next semester, I hope that film production will be much simpler and less time-consuming than Creative Writing. I will also take an early dismissal, and I hope that will make the semester easier because it is the last semester of senior year.
The most important class this year in my opinion was consumer economics. The small student loans unit was helpful, but I believe that this should be longer. It could also be helpful if we looked into examples of how to receive aid and possibly how to do the FAFSA in class and how to take out government loans. Many of the websites that explain how to do this are confusing and make it unclear about specifics. One of these unclear specifics is the timeline of how and when student aid is received and how familial situations affect how aid works, most of the time instructional websites just assume. I feel that an optional class with a school counselor that explains this would be helpful.
A lesson that I will take from this semester for this class is to get all the shorter assignments done ahead of time, as I quickly fell behind on many of them. Something that I believe will help me is to plan to do things by a certain date when I know ahead of time that I need to do them. Instead of planning to get something done by a due date, I believe that next semester it may be helpful to manage time better by creating my own completion dates that happen before the actual deadline. This is because when I aim to get something done over a week, I almost always finish it on the last day. By instead completing something on my own completion date, I will avoid the stress of having to complete several things within one night. The best way for me to do this is to use the calendar that I already have and instead of putting the deadlines on the actual days set them to a time in the week which is very open. This will mean that I have less very empty days and more half filled days which is more comfortable than an up and down cycle. My advice to incoming seniors is to enjoy the last year of high school and take easier classes so that you can focus on the other things that happen in the last year of high school.
December 20th, 2022 at 8:49 am
Hi Anton,
I was literally drinking caffeine in the night two days ago, so I already broke your first rule of advice. Mark Twain once said, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” I put this philosophy towards doing homework— you should do your most difficult stuff first, as that is the most pressing and you will not feel overwhelmed because of procrastination. The college admissions process is really wacky and confusing; I am sure that I could not have done it alone. I know that is the same for most students. We are lucky to be at such a good high school with so many resources, so we must use them to our advantage. The college and career center is great for most questions that you have. Taking things step by step is very helpful. It can be overwhelming to see all the things that you have to do and just freeze. Personally, I begin to play minesweeper and listen to music. I don’t know if you know this, but I’m actually a minesweeper fiend. My 99 bomb record time is ~220 seconds. The first win of the day is really getting out of bed in the morning. Getting assignments done as quickly as possible is a master strategy in avoiding procrastination. I am like you, in that I have turned in assignments late more times this year than in any other year. Doing small assignments first and breaking the big assignments into smaller, more manageable chunks is super important. Of course, we must remember to have fun throughout our senior year, as this will be the last year you have in high school. That is, unless you become a high school teacher or do not graduate. Thanks for sharing, Anton! Your blog was interesting and brought me insight in regards to who you are as a person.
December 20th, 2022 at 9:02 am
I am also in the same boat when it comes to procrastination. I love to wait until the last second to get things done and torture myself by getting no sleep at all. I did not apply for early action since I was being lazy but it ended up not mattering for me which was very convenient. My parents and I have barely done anything with FAFSA which is more their fault than mine but I can’t complain since they insist that they will do it. It would have been both smarter and much more advantageous to have it done much earlier but it is what it is. Your advice seems pretty sound since I do not know why anyone would take two English classes. The lesson that you learned also makes good sense because I noticed ever since the Literacy Narrative that you turn in your blog posts about two to three weeks late. I am sure that you will be able to improve upon that and I am sure it’ll be much better once the second semester starts. I would also tell incoming seniors to choose the right classes since I made the mistake of taking an AP class that I am doing rather poorly in at this moment.
December 20th, 2022 at 9:05 am
Hi Anton,
I thought I was the master procrastinator but it turns out you are. Waiting until the last day for college apps is probably not the best idea haha. Staying up overnight with coffee is definitely something I can relate to as well because I’ve done that so many times when I have a big test or assignment due the next day. Unfortunately coffee doesn’t help me that much so I end up falling asleep on accident sometimes which sucks. It’s cool you are taking two English classes but for me personally, I could never do that much writing it’s just too much for me. Creative writing would be something interesting though because it’s a lot different from the previous writing classes I have taken. All the writing classes I’ve been in are more analytically driven and we dont really get an opportunity to write more creatively. Although not related to this post I have loved reading your blogs over the past semester even if they were posted a little late. It was one of the few blogs I read because I wanted to not just because I needed to write another comment.
December 21st, 2022 at 12:22 pm
Hi, Anton, I think I will follow your advice as I have never drank coffee and I don’t think I ever will, so I’m good on that front. My procrastination pales in comparison compared to your method on procrastination, but I do respect another procrastinator when I see one. It is unfortunate that you didn’t get the free common app waiver as that does cost a lot of money. I also talked about the FAFSA in my blog post, however, I talked about how it was a waste of time for me because I knew I wasn’t going to get any financial aid. I agree that you should get all the shorter assignments done quickly so you can go do fun things like hang out with your friends. It is senior year and no one really wants to be in school anymore, so you might as well do as little schoolwork as possible while still maintaining your grade.