What to do when everything is due

It is the week before Spring break here; which is the code for ALL OF THE PAPERS ARE DUE RIGHT NOW. There are a million and 4 things to wrap up before I hop on a plane to the sunshine state for a week. In any busy week it can be hard to find the the motivation to jump in a get done what needs to get done. In the busy week before breaks it is near impossible to stay on task, most notably a break where flip flops and tank tops are dancing in my near future.

However, "I was day dreaming about Disneyworld" is not an accepted excuse, so I have to strap in and hang on for another week. Here I will indulge you with my busy week game plan- which is every week for me.


Crack open the calendar. I open up my planner and write down every single thing that needs done this week. This includes tasks such as "E-mail Professor 'I assign too much homework'" or "Pack for trip". Anything that has to be taken care of, having it written down ensures it does not fall through the cracks. I make two lists (shown below) one for school assignments and one for miscellaneous tasks.

Break big tasks up. I have a research paper that has many components and a paper that involves watching two movies. Instead of simply putting "Movie paper" and "Content analysis" I broke the tasks down because I am more likely to look at my to-do list, see "Content analysis Introduction" and sit down and tackle it than if I were to write "Giant, scary, APA formatted research paper." I am also more likely to have a 2 hour time period to watch one movie, than I am to sit down, watch both movies and write the paper all at once. 

Make a plan. I take every single task that needs done and assign it to a day. This ensures that nothing little will fall to the wayside while I am working on the bigger tasks. Everything that needs done from answering e-mails to writing a paper will get a deadline. **Tip- cram as much as you can into the first few days of the week, you will thank yourself when on Thursday all you have is "Print paper" and "Pack for Florida" on your list! 

I go through this routine every week but I am more thorough in my execution of my plan on weeks like this one. How do you handle the crazy seasons of the semester?