Don’t Miss Add/Drop — and Don’t Sleepwalk Into March

This week includes one of those deadlines that doesn’t feel urgent — until it’s gone.

Add/Drop deadlines (for example, UBC’s this Friday) are often treated as paperwork. In reality, they’re strategic checkpoints. Once that date passes, your schedule is locked. If a course isn’t working, feels misaligned, or is already demanding more than you realistically have to give, this is the window where you still have options.

Waiting another week “to see how it goes” rarely provides new information — it just removes flexibility.

But this week isn’t only about course decisions. It’s also the ideal moment to start planning for what comes after Reading Break.

Every year, many students tell themselves they’ll use Reading Break to get caught up or get ahead. And every year, it rarely plays out that way. Reading Break gets filled with travel, work, family commitments, or simply the need to recover. Classes resume — and suddenly students are walking straight into what I often call “March Madness”.

March is where the bulk of midterms, quizzes, labs, major assignments, and group work tend to land. It’s not overwhelming because students aren’t capable. It’s overwhelming because everything clusters together, and planning starts too late.

The solution isn’t grinding through Reading Break. The solution is planning before it.

This week, take time to map out all remaining deadlines for the semester — especially those falling in March. Seeing everything in one place immediately changes how students approach their time. Patterns become obvious. Pressure points appear early.

From there, the strategy is simple: create a cushion.

That cushion might mean starting an assignment draft early, reviewing midterm material in advance, or completing smaller tasks before Reading Break arrives. Even modest progress made now reduces stress later.

March doesn’t become manageable through motivation or last-minute effort. It becomes manageable through early, intentional planning — and that starts with respecting deadlines like add/drop and looking ahead before things pile up.

Future you will be glad you didn’t ignore this week.

I’m booking for the Winter term. Check in with me to plan and strategize for your academic success 2025-2026  [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.