SUMMER SESSION: GETTING IT DONE!

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This week we celebrate Canada Day and July 4th–Happy Celebrations to us all! And for those taking courses this summer session, it’s into the deep end right away! You’ve got your registration done, the texts and materials, any accommodations arranged, have reviewed the syllabus (haven’t you?) and may even have had your first class.

If this is your first six-week session, there are some real challenges to watch out for. There are 13 weeks of material to get through in six weeks, and summer procrastination is a virus that can be particularly deadly to your academic health within such a short time frame.

The planning and scheduling tools that get you through the longer terms will help you meet those challenges and beat the procrastination virus, so set your daily time for scheduling and planning, and have your planning tools primed and up to date. To counter procrastination, plan in your R&R, your breaks, your health maintenance, your reinforcers and reminders to endorse yourself for effort. Get the deadlines from your syllabus onto your calendar, and schedule backwards for how you are going to complete the tasks necessary to meet the deadlines.

Important: Set a realistic goal for each course and decide your reward for finishing the course, as well as for meeting your goal. Have a picture or reminder of that goal and those rewards visible from your work area.

What are the challenges particular to the sprint sessions of spring and summer? The biggest one is a matter of proportion: Missing a day is like missing a week of fall or winter term. Then there are a couple of challenges that can catch you by surprise: If a resource is in short supply, there is limited time to arrange access. And there just isn’t the same time to complete projects, to savour and consider all interesting aspects, or to put it on the back burner for a bit. Yet proofreading and polishing take the same amount of time as always. Let’s not forget the challenges that group work brings, with the added complication of tight timelines and tight deadlines.

How to meet these challenges? In addition to the time management and scheduling recommended above, my students find it useful to

  • Kick the brain into the next gear. If you’re used to having more time to complete tasks and assignments, these habits need to be readjusted.
  • Deal with group work now.
  • Meet early with your TA or instructor.
  • Get a study buddy with goals similar to yours.
  • Start prepping for exams and quizzes after each class.
  • Use all tools–writing and exam workshops, old exam banks, peer tutoring groups, academic strategists (that could be me), and your study buddy, for example.

So catch your breath, and go for it! Let me know what works, or connect for extra pointers and coaching on learning tools and strategies [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.