It happens to everyone – you get sick, you lose motivation, or something just falls through the cracks.  When you do get behind, it can be very overwhelming to try to do your late assignments on top of your normally scheduled work. It’s okay! The EF team is here to help you get through.  Here are some tactics we have found to be particularly useful for dealing with being behind.

Use Your Support System

Even when you may feel overwhelmed at Oberlin, you are never alone.  If you are behind in a class and you feel that catching up seems hopeless, reach out to the people who can help you find an alternate route forward.  

We highly recommend the Center for Student Success as your go-to place to get support for time management and academic stress! The staff at the CSS can:

Meet with you one on one to discuss your situation and identify solutions that you may or may not know are available to you.  

Speak with professors and administrators on your behalf.  This one is great if you are anxious and/or require support in expressing your needs.  

Validate your needs. It’s hard to remember that you as a student have any existence behind grades and classes.  Sometimes, it’s hard to remember that you are allowed to grow and learn at your own pace and that it’s not always useful to be on a professor’s expected schedule.  CSS staff can help you remember that your own schedule and your own path and your own needs are valid and worth fighting for.

Provide accountability. CSS staff members can help check in with you about your status on certain projects to make sure that you’re staying on track.  This level of accountability can be super helpful, especially when catching up in a class!

In addition to faculty and the Center of Student Success, making an appointment at the Counseling Center or going in to their walk-in hours can really help when you’re feeling overwhelmed.  If you have all three behind you, you’re going to be a lot more prepared to deal with the stress of late work and busy schedules.  

Communicate with Your Professor

If you’re behind in a class, your professor needs to know so they can help you.  It may seem scary, but professors exist to help you learn and succeed! When you feel behind and need support, we recommend you reach out to your professor with:

An acknowledgement that the course is important to you and that you want to do well in it.  Sometimes professors can assume that you’re behind because you don’t care.  Make sure they know that you are interested in their class and what they have to say!

Your current status on all pending assignments.  If you have half of or most of an assignment done, it’s often best to hand that in on the deadline and make a new deadline for when the project will be complete that feels more reasonable for you.  A lot of professors won’t even take off points for lateness if you reach out to them before the deadline hits.

A request for lateness leniency. This could mean an extension on a project or simply a recognition that the assignment will be late due to extraneous factors.  These factors could include family problems, severe stress, sickness/injury, mental health issues, a lost assignment sheet, overlapping assignments from other classes, or any number of things.

Professors cannot make any sort of arrangement for your needs if they do not know what your needs are.  Even if you just send a quick email or drop by office hours in your pajamas (hell yes I’ve done it), you’re well on your way to working with your professor instead of against them.  This will bring down your stress and increase the likelihood that you get the support you need

Make an Emergency Schedule TM

Sure, we all try to have weekly schedules that we want to follow.  The Emergency Schedule is not that.  Usually, when work gets overwhelming, it will require a little more than the usual work plan to get you through.  Try to make an alternate work plan for the next 4-6 days that allows you to focus short-term on getting back on track.

Begin by blocking off these times on your schedule:

Your class-times and important meetings

A reasonable sleep schedule that will allow you to stay healthy and alert

Times to eat – you have to fuel your brain!

Then, make a list of assignments:

Make sure to include your specific readings (Instead of “History Reading,” write “MacDonald p. 33-58” or “Revelations 1-22”)

Break larger assignments like exams and essays into smaller, actionable tasks that can get done in 30min-1hr chunks

Once you have specific tasks that you need to do in the next 4-6 days, place them in specific time slots on your plan:  

Remember to be realistic – if you can’t reasonably do every single task, think seriously about which tasks can be moved to later weeks or abandoned.  

Now, finalize your Emergency Schedule by building in accountability.  Let your friend, advisor, parent, or roommate know exactly what you need to be doing this week and ask them to check in with you so that you know that you need to keep on track.  Hopefully, after you get through this next 4-6 days, you’ll be all caught up and ready to dive back into a more relaxed schedule!

Remember that an EF tutor is more than happy to help you with any of these big get-back-on-track tasks.  Sign up here to schedule a session!