Playing Catchup?

It's inevitable that at some point in your studies you'll get behind and need to play catch up. If it's ever happened, you know how stressful it can be. It starts when one day you decide that you don't need to go to your class or run out of time to work on the assigned readings. You think to yourself 'Oh it's okay, I'll just catch up tomorrow', but it never happens! It's an endless cycle. If you miss one lecture it becomes more difficult to understand what is happening at the next. So how do you catch up without totally depriving yourself of sleep?

Step One:
Try and make a list of all the readings you need to do, questions you need to answer and lectures you need to listen to. Making a list will undoubtedly scare you into getting started.


Step Two:
JUST GET STARTED! The sooner you start, the easier it is and the less you'll have to do. The last thing you want is to be trying to catch up on 6 weeks of work before exams!


Step Three:
Grab a book, some pens and notepaper and head to a library. Take only what you need for one subject or you'll get so distracted that you will flit from one subject to another and won't get anything achieved.

Step Four:
Make yourself a promise. "If I finish reading and taking notes on those three Crim Law chapters I'll go to the movies!" It doesn't have to be something big or showy, something little works well.

Step Five:
If you have to catch up on listening to lecture recordings it is okay to listen to them faster then full speed, in fact, preferable. Some people work on listening at 2x speed but I personally stick to 1.3to1.4x. I find any faster and it is extremely difficult to take notes. Play around and see what works for you! You can speed up and slow down speeds in Quicktime, Windows Media Player, iTunes and VLC and I'm sure it works in other applications.

Step Six:
If you're desperate it is okay if you don't do all of the readings. While it's preferable that you do, the most important thing at this point is to get back on track.

I'm sad to say I'm playing catch-up at the moment. I know, however, that if I apply myself I can be back on track in no time! They say that a full-time law student should spend 40 hours per week, including class time. If you have a schedule you can find the time to catch up! The worst thing to do is to not start!