Goodbye to Our Beloved Headmaster

When it’s your first year at Hogwarts, it can be an exciting time. There’s so much to do and so much to learn. You can play Quidditch, participate in trivia, and play fun games. But the best part of all for most students is classes. There’s so much you want to learn and you can’t wait to sign up for all of your favorites. You take 8 classes your first year, ready to start. But then, week 4 sets in and you’re struggling to get everything in on time. I’m here to help you with your time management skills and hopefully prevent you from racking up missing assignments.

The first part of this is deciding on the classes you should take at all. The first thing you’ll need to realize, especially as a first year, is that you can’t do it all. In your first year, you’re still trying to get used to the site and all the options that it offers. So most of the time, taking 9 or 10 classes in your first year isn’t a good option. Now, that isn’t the case for everybody, but for most people 6 or 7 at the most is plenty. 

Another thing to consider is your availability in real life. Take into account all of your real life commitments such as school, work, sports, band, etc. Real life always comes first and if you think you’ll only have time to turn in 3 classes a week, only take three classes a week. If you don’t have anything else to do in your free time, then go ahead and take a full schedule of 6 or more classes. 

After you’ve decided what classes you’ll take, come up with a plan. There are two ways that you could possibly do this. The first option is to pick a single day when you can complete the homework for all of your classes. This is ideal for those that get really busy most of the week and are only taking the minimum number of classes. This way, you can get everything done and not have to worry about it when you’re a lot busier. The other option for those that have more time in the week and are taking more classes is to do 2-3 classes per day. This way, you aren’t stressed and everything will still be in on time. Personally, I chose to do 2 classes each on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and have everything in by Friday. 

The last portion of managing your time is to plan ahead. This also goes back to knowing your schedule in real life but also knowing what other commitments you’ll need to plan for on the site. If you know that you’ll be leaving on a Tuesday during week 5, and you have time in week 4 to complete all of your homework for the following week, do so. Most professors don’t mind working ahead as long as you don’t submit it until the current week. If you plan ahead and know your schedule, you can have everything in and on time. 

One other quick tip I want to mention is to communicate. This is helpful for not only homework but for jobs as well. Communicate with your professor if you know you’ll be out for an extended period of time so that way you won’t receive a penalty for submitting the work late. Communicate with team members at work if you know you won’t have access to the internet for a few days. 

Obviously, these tips aren’t going to work for everybody. Not every student takes classes that have weekly assignments. Not everybody is organized to this point and some people just work better by procrastinating without a plan. My hope, however, is that at the least, students can take away something that will help them in the future, whether it be with homework or anything else.