BUT STEVE, I'M BEHIND ON EVERYTHING! - Steve Vogel Learning Strategist

It’s been a month now, and the excitement, the newness have passed, and, whoa! How did this happen? Whether you’re frosh or into grad school, there can be that sinking feeling of how on earth are you going to get everything done?!

Or maybe you’re overwhelmed by the challenge of a STEM course, where it seems like everyone else in class gets it, and you don’t. Maybe you blew a snap quiz, from not having worked the practice problems, or not having time to do the assigned reading. Everything is coming at once; midterms are in two weeks; the year is just starting and already you are fatigued!

It seems like you’re the only one who isn’t getting it, who isn’t managing. You may fear that you don’t belong here, that you will disgrace yourself among your friends and family, that you will never get your degree, and in general are going to disappoint yourself and you’ll never amount to anything.

So, I’m going to tell you, being behind on the work from time to time is normal at university. It’s normal at work.

It’s normal to be lost when new STEM concepts are introduced, or a new way of analyzing English literature or history is introduced.

It is NOT normal to go through post-secondary programs and NOT run into condition overload. Not fun, but normal. You are not the only one who went home scratching their head after a Statistics 200 or Statistics 601 class. You are not the only one whose practice clinical interview was a dud.

If this is you, take a moment to reflect. Especially if you’re frosh, the work probably didn’t come as quickly in high school. Before now, teachers and parents pretty much laid out how to get things done, and followed up with you. Doesn’t happen now, so you have, as have many, many students, fallen into the trap of “That’s easy. That won’t take too long. I’ll do it later.”

For the challenge material, it can be easy to think you’re the only one who doesn’t get it. This is almost certainly not the case. At the other extreme is the trap of thinking it’s easy, you don’t need help, you can do it on your own. Then it’s tougher than you thought. And sometimes the prof or instructor really just isn’t a master teacher. But you need to understand the material anyway.

What to do?

As I said last week, knowing where you’re behind is the first step to getting ahead! There are three areas to manage:

project management,
challenge material,
your mental/emotional approach to the stress of feeling overloaded and overwhelmed.

Managing these areas works within the context of being an effective student.

Project management:

To manage getting the work caught up and maintaining being not too far behind, print out the syllabus, mark it up, and make a list of what you need to catch up on. Look ahead, to see what is upcoming in terms of readings, projects, papers, and presentations–and when they are due.

Prioritize the catch-up work, accepting that you may have to sacrifice a little perfectionism to get everything done. Break the catch-up into chunks. Chunk those catch-up items into your calendar.

Challenge material:

Now for the challenge material. Here is where you access resources. Check with your instructor about the areas you’re having trouble with. They may know the best peer tutoring groups. Having a hard time with research or papers? Check with librarians. Check for writing workshops. Choose tutors who not only know the material, but can help you gain comfort in dealing with the material.

Dealing with overload:

Feeling overwhelmed at times is normal. Here self-endorsement, self-validation, reinforcers, and rewards go far to combat negative self-assessment that feeds the self-despair that harms rather than helps.

And call on student services if your anxiety/stress level could use some outside spotting.

It’s tempting to cut down on maintaining the person that has to do all of this by pulling all-nighters, skipping meals, skipping exercise, and cutting out social ties.

The engine that finishes the race is the engine that is maintained. So do that. You might have to get creative, but don’t skip your pit stops.

Effective studentship:

The final area that will reduce your overload is the practice of good studentship. Learn how to use the tools that will increase your effectiveness: Check out study techniques, note-taking, material retention, exam writing, and effective reading techniques, for example.

This brings us back full circle to the key practice of effective students—and that is time management. If you know me or have worked with me, you will know that time management is at the core of all of the other academic strategies in the toolkit I coach my students on.

Again, it’s normal to be overwhelmed from time to time. It’s the tools and techniques you use that make the difference between staying stuck and moving forward.

Connect with me if you’d like to explore how we might work together on tools for your academic success. [email protected] .

The information in this blog cannot take the place of support from your own mental health professional or community health resources. Reach out to them. And IF YOU ARE IN CRISIS, PLEASE DIAL 911.