It’s finally summer. After 10 long months of school, school, and more school, you’re finally free. Free of using 6 hours of your day in just one institution just to come home to continue doing work for that institution, of tiring school nights full of Red Bull and studying, of using a supposedly free weekend just to continue worrying about school. You can finally do whatever you want, and don’t have to worry about the coming school day. No studying, no tests, and no homework, right? Well, just a few weeks later, you get an email notification, and the first thing you see is the dreaded words, Summer Homework. So much for a free summer.
So, you get the story. It’s probably the predicament you’re finding yourself in now. You let yourself be free for so long, and now, you’re getting shackled back down to your educational reality before the 10 months has even begun. How can you enoy your summer break now, when you have all that work to worry about? Well, that’s why this article is here. To tell you exactly how you can get that summer homework done and still experience the freedom of summer break. So, let’s get into it.
#1 – Don’t Procrastinate It
The first thing you need to do is NOT do the first thing you’re gonna do, which is procrastinate. And that’s okay, because it’s completely understandable. We all do it. Nobody wants to think about homework during the summer. The problem is, if you don’t think about it at all, you’ll be left with heaps of work to do in the final week of your break. That’s really not fun.
So, bottom line, start thinking about your summer homework. Start looking at the module for what you have to do, or printing out any material that needs to be. Start doing your homework, or at least planning when you can do it. It doesn’t have to be much at first. You can take a few notes, read a few pages, or do a few problems a day. But at least do something. Don’t save your summer homework for you to stress over it a week before school starts.
#2 – Practice Scheduling and Time Management
The next, and extremely important, thing you need to do is start managing your time. This is essential for any part of your life, but especially when you are trying to have enough time for everything you want to do. The best part? The summer is practically a blank canvas. You have all the freedom to create your own timeline, with any activity you so desire.
Take advantage of this summer time. Properly schedule and block out your time so that you can make the most out of every day you have. Well, how do you do that? That might be the question you’re asking, and it is entirely valid. Fear not, because all your answers are right here on Diary of the Mind.
Time Management Tips on Diary of the Mind
In my article on time blocking, I have outlined practically everything you need to know about time blocking, giving you all the tips you need to make time blocking work for you. I even have a free PDF for you to download and use as your time blocking planner, as well as instructions on how to use it!
I also have articles outlining the best time management apps and time management tools for you to use on your phones. I had scoured the app store to find some of the best apps and tools to add in my article, so you can most definitely trust my judgement. There also are instructions on the usage of every single app, telling you their advantages and disadvantages as well as my personal ratings for each of them. But of course, there is only so much I can fit in one article. For this reason, I have set aside lengthy and entirely detailed guides to two apps I enjoy using the most: ScreenZen and Structured.
There are so many productivity tips and tricks here on Diary of the Mind, so don’t be afraid to check any of them out. Yes, you are reading this article specifically to know about getting your summer homework over with, but a lot of these articles can help you along that goal, even if they aren’t exactly what you think you’re looking for.
#3 – Balance Your Activities
You have to remember to always keep a balance with your activities. That’s true to anything in life. With school, you have to keep a balance between the work you have to do and your recreation time. When doing a sport or any regular physical activity, you have to keep a proper balance between the times to practice and the times to rest. So, when you’re trying to do your summer homework during what is, obviously, summer, you have to keep a balance between “free-time” activities and homework.
You have to establish the balance first, and remember, it’s not always going to be even. During the beginning of break, you can allow all your other activities take up the majority of your time, leaving maybe 2-3 hours a week for your summer homework. It’s not too important then, so you can focus on anything else you have planned for yourself. However, as you get to the middle, you’d want to spend at least 1 hour a day on your summer homework. As you get to the end of break, most of your time is probably going to be focused on getting that work done, so a good 2-3 hours on summer homework should be sufficient, unless you’ve already finished it.
Other Activities
Of course, there are many more summer activities than just “free-time” activities, especially when you’re moving into junior and senior year. When you’re going into junior year, you have to worry about preparing for the SAT and PSAT, which many of you are probably going to take during the summer as well. For upcoming seniors, you have college applications to worry about, which are honestly going to take up the most of your time. Not to mention that the summer is prime time for getting jobs and doing volunteer work, which you can bank a lot of hours on.
Summer homework isn’t the biggest priority, and that’s completely fine. In fact, that’s a pretty good thing. It means you have more to do with your summer than laying in your bed, watching TikTok, and playing Roblox. Just make sure you don’t push summer homework so far in the back of your mind that you’re worrying about completing it at the very last minute.
#4 – Think Ahead
While we’re still talking about managing time based on your future, let’s get more into the idea of thinking ahead. When you’re planning out a more productive summer, you have to think about what’s next. Summer time is when most people go on vacations or visit family. You probably have some of those trips planned down the line. You have to adjust your schedule according to it.
When is your trip? If it’s towards the beginning of the summer, then you don’t have to worry about your summer homework. Just enjoy your vacation! However, if your trip comes in the middle or towards the end of the summer, you might want to bring your summer homework along, even if you only work on it half an hour a day.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. Everything you need to know to get your summer homework done and still have time to enjoy your summer just the way you want to. However, there is one last message I have for you.
Don’t stress. This might be given for some of you, but for others, it may not. It’s just summer homework, no matter how much of it you have. EVen if you do accidently save most of it for the last few days of summer, you can still finish it. Don’t focus your entire summer on summer homework. It’s simply just a requirement for the school year, in which you should be focusing a lot on schoolwork. But for now, enjoy your summer, and be free, for as long as you can.
