Recently in my biology class, we filled out a class survey where we evaluated the workload of the course in comparison to other courses; we also included our comments. One section involved describing what percentage of our time spent doing homework went toward each individual course. In filling out the survey, I realized that my time spent on each course per night was very uneven; three courses alone took up about 80% of my time.

This is normal, of course; it’s only natural that certain courses require more homework or more studying than others, because of their difficulty. But it did get me thinking about something very important: priorities. Effective prioritizing has been a huge tool for me this year, even if I hadn’t realized it until now.

Assignments crop up all at once, but often times they aren’t all due at once; due dates are usually spread out, with some long-term and others due the very next class. So, naturally, we work on the more urgent assignments first, and put off the longer ones until a more convenient date. This is prioritizing at its most basic, and everyone does this, unconsciously or not.

It’s important, though, to look at things with a longer view. If there’s an important assignment due the next day, then we should work on that, certainly. But we need to keep those longer-term assignments in our minds earlier than the few days before they’re due. If, the following day, we have a little less work, then it’s a good time to tackle longer projects. We might lose out on leisure time now, but it will save us much pain in the future.

This strategy applies to much more than schoolwork, too. Consider college applications — it’s been said by some of my teachers that for the first half of senior year, seniors have an additional course: applications. Some are due early, some later; it’s all about prioritizing — firstly, which ones are due sooner, to avoid the dreaded last-minute crunch, and then which ones are most important to you, so you have time to refine those. And onward in life, priorities are, well, a priority, whether it comes to job applications, term papers, or anything else.

Good time management has been what’s gotten me through the past two weeks. I was in the pit orchestra for our school’s musical production, which meant rehearsals until 9 every night —which in turn meant not much time to work on homework or anything else. It happened that there were projects in a few of my classes, plus normal day-to-day assignments. Instead of just doing my daily load and going to bed — as I would have liked to do — I stayed up a little later each night to whittle away at the longer-term projects. Now, the week after the musical, I’m in the process of catching up on anything I might have fallen behind on, but it’s much less stressful than it would have been if I’d pushed everything off each night.

So, it seems to be a pain at the time, but in the end, thinking ahead in this way can save us a lot of stress.