Freetime

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but there is way more homework here than I am used to. Back at home, the concept of homework in college barely exists. Here, I have to write about 8-10 papers in one semester, and about 6-10 assignments per week. That was a huge shock. I thought I'd have a lot of free time here to catch up on other things I'd been meaning to do. 

From the very first week of class, we were given assignments and homework. For the first two weeks, I was drowning in assignments, unsure of how to plan and schedule, making sure I would have time for myself while also making sure to do all my homework. 

Eventually, I realized that things would be more manageable if I took a few minutes to write down everything I had to do for the week, noting down which assignments could be done in a short time and which ones would take longer. I learned how to do my short assignments in the breaks between classes and in the morning before classes. Instead of doom scrolling or staring into space, I used these small pockets of time and got my small assignments done quickly. 

Then, when I had bigger blocks of time, I could use them to do my big assignments at a stretch instead of doing multiple smaller ones. 

When I did this, I realized that I actually had some more time for myself. My second strategy is based on an amazing policy followed here. All of the assignments for the semester are uploaded online. Thanks to this, I could spend some time on the weekends doing my homework rather than waiting for Monday to do it all. Because of this, I was able to finish a lot of my homework before Monday. This felt exhilarating, and it's letting me be present in the moment without worrying about the mountain of homework waiting for me.