Tips on Keeping Up With Coursework

Staying on top of coursework can feel overwhelming, especially when juggling assignments, exams, and personal commitments. However, with the right strategies and tools, you can make the process much more manageable and even enjoyable. This guide is packed with practical tips to help you deal with deadlines, prioritize tasks, and maintain balance, empowering you to achieve academic success without sacrificing your well-being.

Practical tips

Adopt the Two-Minute Rule: If something takes less than two minutes, do it right away. This helps avoid small tasks piling up and creating unnecessary stress.

Set Short-Term Goals with Rewards: Reward yourself after completing study milestones, whether it’s a small treat, a break, or time with friends, which will motivate you to larger goals. But please remember do not get addicted to those rewards and then forget all your assignments and exams!

Declutter Regularly: Periodically clean your physical and digital workspace. Removing distractions like unused files and papers, which reduces stress and improves focus.

Avoid Multitasking During Study Time: Deadlines are always coming along together but you don’t have to do all of those together. Try to focus on a single subject or task at a time to improve efficiency. Switching between tasks can lead to reduced focus and fragmented understanding.

Join Study Groups: Explaining topics to others and discussing assignments (but please remember to avoid any academic misconduct like collusion) can make it easier to understand difficult concepts and retain information. You can join UCL East Student Union for study social to boost your work efficiency, and after that, you can use wonderful facilities for the study events. For example, UCL East Library provides plenty of study spaces for groups, so enjoy it!

Tools, apps, or methods that help you manage time effectively:

Forest: This app grows a virtual tree while you stay focused, and it dies if you leave the app, making it a fun way to avoid distractions on your phone. It’s also connected to a real-life tree-planting initiative, so try to contribute to sustainability as well as your study through Forest!

Pomodoro: Combines the Pomodoro Technique with task management, allowing you to tackle tasks in focused 25-minute intervals with 5-minute breaks, boosting productivity over extended periods.

Notion: A powerful all-in-one workspace where you can keep notes, organize projects, manage tasks, and collaborate on group work. Its versatility makes it ideal for creating databases, to-do lists, and knowledge bases.

The Eisenhower Matrix: This is extremely useful when you have multiple deadlines to finish, it prioritizes tasks by urgency and importance (important/urgent, important/not urgent, urgent/not important, not urgent/not important).

Ways to balance course load with other activities:

Sometimes extracurricular activities can improve our performance in our course, however, a balance is needed otherwise they might become a distraction rather than a benefit. Here are some ways for you!

Set Priorities and Define Non-Negotiables: 

Clarify your priorities each semester. Know which courses require the most attention and decide which activities are essential for you, whether for career goals, health, or personal happiness.

Identify non-negotiables like minimum weekly study hours, exercise, or time with family and friends, which creates a foundation to build your schedule around without sacrificing what matters most.

Be Intentional with Extracurriculars:

Choose extracurricular activities strategically, selecting those that fit with your academic or career interests, or those that offer stress relief or creative expression. Avoid overcommitting; a few well-chosen activities often provide more value than spreading yourself too thin.

Reflect regularly on your commitments, and be willing to scale back if you’re struggling to keep up. It’s better to engage deeply in a few activities than to have minimal involvement in many.

Stay Present in Each Activity:

When studying, focus fully on studying. When in extracurriculars, be engaged in the activity. Practising presence improves productivity and enjoyment of each task, making time feel well-spent and fulfilling.

Avoid multitasking between coursework and other activities. A dedicated focus on each will yield better results and reduce the need for redoing tasks.

And finally, here are a few quick takeaways for you:

1) Prioritize Small Wins: Focus on completing smaller, manageable tasks to build momentum and reduce overwhelm.

2) Limit Distractions: Clear your workspace and avoid multitasking to improve concentration and efficiency.

3) Use Study Tools: Apps like Notion, Forest, or Pomodone can help organize tasks and manage time effectively.

4) Seek Support: Don’t hesitate to join study groups or reach out to professors and classmates for help on challenging topics.

5) Be Kind to Yourself: Progress takes time—celebrate small victories and give yourself grace on tough days.

6) Know what you really want: Don’t be distracted from extracurricular events, just choose something that benefits you. Quality over quantity!

When coursework feels like too much to handle, remember that each small step you take adds up—focus on one task at a time, trust in your ability to push through, and know that every bit of progress today brings you closer to your goals tomorrow. If you are still struggling with the coursework, you can always contact UCL Support and Wellbeing Services. Remember, you are not alone!