| Having been in your situation, this is what I would recommend... Short Term: Get everything out of your head and into a document or text file. All the things you have to do, all the things you want to do, all your ideas, all the things you're worried about. Stick it into something you can come back too later once you've solved your immediate problems. Then and this is most important, create a reminder or alarm or calendar notification that will remind you to look at that file after the deadline on your assignments is up and you're not so stressed. You need to clear your mind to focus on your assignments BUT subconsciously your brain won't truly let you concentrate on them until it's sure that you won't forget/ignore them all, that's the point of the reminder. Medium Term: You've got to take that file you wrote with everything you need to do and get it into tools with a schedule that'll help you manage it. * Put birthdays and mothers/fathers day, important dates into a calendar like Google Calendar with reminders that give you enough time to address them. * Put simple weekly drudgery tasks like chores into a todo system like Microsoft ToDo * Put everything that needs thinking about into a note taking system like roamresearch.com, a task like "Do assignment X" is useless, you need to be able to write down ideas about how to tackle it not just that you have to do it. Finally, set aside time every day to organise and prioritise what's in your system. The first thing I do every day is check what I need to do in terms of chores and more importantly prioritise what I need to work on, on a given day. Side Note: Your system will evolve over time, you may throw away and build new ones, that's fine and necessary. Long Term: "Know Thyself" - Figure out how many hours a day of focused work you can do, don't be surprised if this number is lower than you expect, 4 hours per day of focused hard mental work is the maximum for a lot of people. The better you know yourself, the easier it becomes to prioritise and do work. You'll set yourself more realistic tasks and goals, it'll be less stressful. Figure out what time of day you work best, what schedule suits you best. The more you understand yourself, what you like, what you dislike the easier your entire life will become. Beyond that, understand your motivations, your strengths and weaknesses, look at failure if it comes as helpful instruction in learning those things. |