Hello everyone:

This may be crunch time for your assignments. It is for a couple of my summer classes.

You know how it is: it’s summertime. You don’t feel like doing your homework. It’s a nice day. Your spouse or kids want to go to the pool. You agree to go, for a little while. Next thing you know, that “little while” turns into all afternoon (or evening) and when you get home you are too bushed by your day in the sun to do anything.

Yep, I understand. I know what it means to turn down the chance to do something fun when you have homework to do. But when that lovely day in the sun is a distant memory (or a bad sunburn) you will have a real wake up call. Your homework didn’t do itself while you were taking time off.

Here’s what I suggest for next time and then I’ll offer suggestions for what to do now that the perfect storm is upon you.

Set an oven timer. Tell whoever wants to distract you from your work that you have to work for 45 more minutes and then you’ll go with them to the beach or to the pool or wherever your wanderlust takes you.

Plan your work ahead of time so that, when you want to do something fun, you will have scheduled some goof-off time into your day. (I had a student once who told me she had to make dinner for her hubby’s birthday. I asked her if she hadn’t known it was coming up; it’s kinda like those folks who wait until Christmas eve to go Christmas shopping or people who wait until April 14th to do their taxes.The gal didn’t appreciate my sense of humor. She never finished the course, apparently having other meals to cook.)

Okay, that’s planning ahead, but what do you do for that pile of assignments that are waiting for you right now? Clear your calendar immediately, and plan to have some long nights over the next few days.

You can email the professor and ask for an extension but it might be refused. If you are a student using financial aid, the professor might actually have to compute your grades early, to get the final grades in so that you can continue your education. That puts us in a double bind: you will turn your work in late and then we have to readjust our schedules so that we can still get your grades in on time for you to get more financial aid. This will not endear you to your professor, believe you me.

My suggestion? Do your work, plan ahead, and don’t expect the professor to bail you out. We usually have between 100 to 150 students at a time and your failure to plan is not an emergency in our minds.

Best,

Dr. Sheri