Arkitortured

1. Learn when to cut your losses. You’re going to run out of time, you’re not going to finish the model if you spend 50 hours on the drawings.

2. Prioritize. Plan but be smart about it. Skip the “8 am - wake up, 9 am - draft” Nah, we run on big deadlines and the smaller deadlines before the big deadlines. Figure out what you NEED to do versus what you WANT to do. What’s more important a flawless model or a diagram that will explain your concept?

This is the same as setting boundaries for your personal life, learn to say no to plans. Don’t get FOMO and put yourself in situations that aren’t beneficial to you, it’s never worth it. Don’t want to do something? No. Need an excuse? Sorry, I’ve got studio.

3. Break your week up into chunks, list out EVERYTHING you need to do(draft, outline, render, model, diagram, revise) Everything. Monday to Tuesday : Draft + outline (and on and on)

4. Learn how to troubleshoot. You’re going to send in submissions for revisions at 2 am and think you’re done. Now you can move on to the next item on that long to do list. Wrong, you’re going to wake up to an email from your professor with a million revisions. This will throw off your planned timeline, figure what can be skipped and what can’t. Go cry, make some tea and keep working.

5. Learn how to talk to yourself. Literally out loud, talk to yourself like you’re working in a group. “What do we need to get done today?” “How long do you think that’ll take?” It boosts productivity when you’re not just wallowing in deadline anxieties.

6. Take breaks. Walk around your block, go cry in the shower, make some tea and snack on something, call a friend for 5 mins, do a face mask, and for God’s sake take a shower. Taking routine breaks have been proven to reduce anxiety and boost productivity and quality of work.