Planning Your Time Wisely

I’m not the type to plan ahead.

Allow me to qualify that statement: I’m the type who plans ahead to procrastinate. This usually involves a designated cramming time, a period of 24 to 48 hours in which I desperately try to read, write or synthesize as much material as possible.

I’ve learned, fortunately, that this method doesn’t work, that it indeed will never work, and that planned stalling is just another form of masochism.

For English majors this anxiety-induced panic is especially risky. Most every piece of writing I produce in a rush is shabby and full of errors, and my cursory, panic-driven readings of texts are often incomplete at best.

So before the midterm rush hit this year I decided to do a little planning. Immediately after break I had two major assignments: a paper due and an exam. To avoid the inevitable, “What did I actually do with myself this whole time?” reaction, I made a plan. I began my week not by actually studying, but by preparing to study. My preparation was key. Having a general overview of the bulk of my work, I scheduled my reading and writing time into small incremental units: a close reading of Hegel today, five chapters of D.H. Lawrence tomorrow. I was able to push through what seemed a daunting workload in smaller, more manageable portions. Before I actually began studying I reviewed all my syllabi, noting the general shape and order of the course readings, which gave me a greater sense of the class as a whole. It seems a simple step, but just noting the structure of the course, the layout, if you will, made me ask crucial questions about the texts and their presentation. Why did we read this author at this point and another author right after? How do their two pieces work together? How might their arguments undo one another? By simply focusing on the class as a whole I was able to grasp general key concepts and then hone in on areas I deemed important enough to merit closer attention. I would have normally struggled with a particularly challenging reading – say, Nietzsche – for hours on end without fully understanding how his work fit into the larger context of my class.

I spent some time – albeit minimal time – over break preparing and researching. I found the hardest part was just getting started.

It seems strange, but I enjoyed my scheduling. I found my study hours to be focused and productive, and my hours of relaxation seemed more immediate and more fun. The in-between hours felt more like a break from work, and not just a wasted afternoon.

Really, I think, my successful scheduling has more to do with my personal style than anything else. I wanted to structure my days so that I would actually do my coursework. This plan can work without the actual ‘plan,’ it just involves looking past the specifics into the general whole. It’s like being in the mind of the professor. As ordinary a task as study preparation might seem, it truly makes the difference between understanding something as an entity onto itself, and understanding it within a framework, within its own historical/cultural/ideological moment

Melissa Solarz, English Concentrator