How to Stop Falling Behind on Your Homework

IT'S TIME TO STOP. Where are your parents?

My book "10 Steps to Earning Awesome Grades" is completely free, so check it out if you're interested in improving your grades!

Listen to our latest podcast episode:

----------

Videos you might want to watch next:

----------

If you want to get even more strategies and tips on becoming a more productive, successful student, subscribe to my channel right here:

~ created by Thomas Frank

STUFF PEOPLE ALWAYS ASK ME ABOUT

[Soaches]

My english teacher used to say that not doing your homework is like peeing your pants when it's cold outside. It's nice at first but soon gets pretty uncomfortable.

[someonenamedsummer]

I feel like a horrible student because I haven’t finished a lot of homework yet and I’m so stressed about it. I have ***NO*** motivation and I am usually really good at school. Ever since online school started, my grades have been dropping, stress levels very high, and no motivation, like I said. I’m struggling a lot so this video helped me get a little motivation to not get behind on all my homework. I really want to prove to my teacher and parents that I am better then they think I am.

[KellyLee]

PRO TIP: KEEP YOUR MENTAL HEALTH UP TOP

[megl.]

0:00 introduction
1:41 task management
have a calendar and a to-do list
(Todoist, Asana (esp. for teams), Notion, etc.)
have a perfect representation of everything you need to do
- transfer your syllabus into your organizational system, and continue adding assignments and important reminders as soon as you learn of them. if you don’t have time to update your to-do list, jot tasks down on a “daily note” (a piece of paper or an entry on a note-taking app). update your planner as soon as possible.
have a “Review Day” to streamline your planner
and remove finished or irrelevant tasks
investing time in the upkeep of your task management system will save time in the long run

4:35 chunks and milestones: break work down into pieces with achievable deadlines
Parkinson’s law: work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion
decrease resistance to start = decrease procrastination
first milestone due date should be the same day you got the project: just a little task so you can utilize the information you learned recently

6:40 work every day: frequency is your friend
do a bit of schoolwork every day - you’ll probably suffer less if Monday doesn’t always feel like pulling yourself out of the warm, cozy bed that is the weekend
. consistency can help you avoid student slumps.
consistent progress adds up: systems can be superior to goals for long projects!
have study habits: consistent locations and times if possible (plan when you’ll be studying at the beginning of the week, especially if your hectic schedule prevents you from having the same routine each day)

8:56 video summary

9:20 Blinkist sponsorship

I’m behind, too. You can do this.

[Tr]

Pause at 2:13 and just take a moment to read the document.

[oak]

18 units.
5 classes.
2 semesters left.
One messed up student, who is willing to get through all of it.
I will be counting on these tips to work towards those A's. Keep it up, Thomas!

[Createdbysophisticed]

I don't usually fall behind on assignments, but I always end up in a last minute rush to finish things. I just hate that! I always give myself so many other things to do and the more important things get postponed. I guess it's not bad if I still get it done though.

[ulewsum]

Thomas's videos are getting so much better with each upload + congrats on getting on Crash Course

[Thomasfrank]

Answers to questions!

The app I featured a couple of times in this video is called Todoist. Right now it's the to-do list app I recommend for most people. I was a huge fan of Wunderlist for a really long time, but they recently announced that they're going to shut down at some point and be replaced by Microsoft To-Do, which is nice, but currently doesn't have some features I really love (like sub-tasks, which are great for breaking up assignments into chunks).

The to-do app I use is Asana. It's awesome and robust, but where it really shines is in enabling teams to work together. So if you're not working on a team, I'd say Todoist fits the bill a little better - adding tasks to it is much quicker since it uses natural language processing.

The game at the beginning is called Overcooked, and it's one of the most fun co-op games I've ever played. It's not nearly as fun in single-player mode though, so have friends around if you're going to pick it up.

We've been behind on getting full companion articles written on College Info Geek for each video, but I just hired and awesome writer and she's helping me work through the backlog. So sometime soon you'll be able to essentially read each video if you like, and those companion articles will also link to anything I mention :)

[subtheman]

How to stop falling behind on HW:
1. Stay in your room all day like you r grounded and just do the assignments all day. You can even finish future assignments this way that aren't due yet if your teacher allows you to do them ahead of time.

[rosettemail]

"How to get out of a student slump" next please 🙏

[koralsugiyama]

My favorite homework app is myHomework. At the beginning of the semester I go over my syllabus and input due dates, and like Thomas does with ToDoist (which I use for non-homework), I input new information as soon as I get it.

[JosePablo]

I've been trying the 'break down deadlines into chunks' bit for quite a while but i think there's a fundamental flaw to it: you don't know which chunk of the work will take 60% of your time to complete, whilst you may be treating all chunks the same as if each of them represented 33% of the time to complete the project.

For this I believe it is better to apply something akin to what cal newport said about writting papers: write them in 3 days. Translating it to big projects, the idea would be to try and finish it within 3 days during which you'll try to have as much time to spare for this one task at hand, the idea is to do this with anticipation (not 3 days before the deadline) so that if you finish it you are FREED, and if you don't finish it, after this much work, you'll have advanced significantly AND you'll be able to make a much better estimate at how how much time you need to dedicate on it to finish it.

: )

[khushbookohli]

There's one question that still remains.
Let's say I do fall behind in my work. How do I deal with the backlog?

[mennoverburg]

Hi, I just started combining Todoist an Google Calendar and I have a couple of questions:
1 In Todoist (or Asana) you set the deadlines for homework assignments and make your own for bigger projects. Those are the due dates. But how do you figure out when you're actually going to do them? Do you change the task date in your task manager or do you manage that with yet another program?
2 HOw do you deal with assignments that are, say, two months away? Do you also plan when you're going to do those, or do you do that when it's actually time to begin working on the project?

[fionaengelson]

This video literally changed my life. After watching it, I broke up the homework I had to do into simple steps every day, and I've been SO PRODUCTIVE. Just last week I procrastinated my homework to the point where I had to finish it during school, but now I'm doing homework that doesn't even need to be done early. The work I set for myself also doesn't have a hard deadline with consequences, which is what I thought was the only thing that could motivate me. Thank you so so much!

[ToxicNeon]

I really liked this video. This has been a huge issue for me. I have a lot of difficulty getting myself to study consistently and to break things down. That you mentioned to get rid of some choices - that specifically what I had been working on over the past week. I basically have to schedule in study time in order to actually do it and be accountable for it. My schedule is simple and consistent enough to have a good several hours before classes everyday to study; and I say before cause there is no way I'll do it after classes. I have afternoon classes, and I ride the bus, so by the time I get home, I'm exhausted, hot, and dead-minded. I find I study better in the mornings anyways - no matter how much I hate waking up in the mornings. So I'm working that into my schedule. I've tried to break things down before, but I always put off even small tasks, cause it would make me anxious. I felt like I had too many tasks on my list. So I'm still not certain how I'll handle that, but I do like how you mentioned getting started the day the assignment is given. I feel like that'll will be an enormous help in me dealing with big assignments. I used to just ignore the assignment for a few days lol.

[Nick-wvkg]

Step 1: Watch Thomas Frank while you're procrastinating

Step 2: Get motivated by his videos

Step 3: Get motivated to do your homework

Step 4: Like this comment for reading your mind because you thought that I was going to say something along the lines of "Then get tired of doing homework and watch vine compilations for hours." But no, I actually get motivated and I actually do do my homework.

:)

[TheShamansQuestion]

Where do you draw your limit for trying to do too much over the course of a semester? (hobbies, work, hobbies that may become future work, uni, chores, emails, etc)
How do you decide what to cut? What if you love/feel you need all of it?

[VampsOnCrack]

I was having trouble with my signing up for my masters, and so was avoiding all of Thomas' videos, but now it's all sorted, and lectures start in two weeks, so it's time to BINGE