How to Get it Together

Perhaps you just dropped a pset-heavy nightmare of a class and added classical Chinese political theory or the intro level of the language you already took in high school, and you need to catch up. Or you should be spending less time hosting dorm room happy hours and more time attending office hours. With midterms nearing all too quickly on our calendars (October’s just a mere few days away?!) it may be time to *gasp* do a little work. However doomed you may be, have no fear, here are Flyby’s tips on how to get it together.

Mom yourself.
Keep track of your assignments, and then nag yourself until you do them. This means phone reminders, quadruple underlining deadlines in your planner, tabs color-coded by assignment urgency—the works. What mom would want you to do, or what you’ve been telling mom all this time.

Torment yourself (a little).
There’s not much use going to misery-ridden Lamont if you’re just going to sit in the café on your phone and exhaust your Boardplus dollars with another coffee and danish. You are there to be miserable, go on. You probably would rather disintegrate than read alone in the stacks for a few hours, but such a near-masochist approach can be conducive to getting ish done. To make the circumstances a little less grim, bring a friend and settle in your own nook (if you can snag such a hot commodity on a weeknight at Harvard). Then, confer some moral support: give each other your phones and make a pact to check Snapchat only once you’ve finished something. Whether that something is a chapter, a night’s reading, or a week’s worth of work we’ll leave up to you and your Type A/B tendencies.

Help yourself.
We’re not saying you always have to go about studying the austere way. If you’re having trouble: GET HELP. Form study groups, a pset squad (hint: your most competent peers might not be your closest friends), or get a roommate to quiz you. If you’re confused, go straight to the expert source’s office hours, or check out resources like the Writing and Math Question Centers. A plus to this strategy: extra one-on-one time with that cute TF.

Finally, treat yourself.
Adopting these productive habits could be the start of a beautiful new you—you who wakes up early for Balletone at Hemenway or forgoes curly fries for quinoa. Or, because you’ve been so good academically, cut corners elsewhere, say, regarding your diet or liver functioning. In other words, go you! A night at Border is in order. After all, queso and margs can drown any amount of internal suffering.