Homework
Homework is an unavoidable part of our education. From our early teens, and all the way through college, homework is one of the main ways your teachers evaluate your progress in order to help you overcome obstacles in your study.
However, it’s not all sugar and spice. Finishing homework on time continues to be a challenge for many students.
Right now, homework is a dull necessity, consuming all of your free time, time that you would much rather spend on fun activities with family and friends. We’re here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be.
To help you overcome this problem, here are our 5 tips for finishing your homework much faster and with less difficulty.
1. Make a Plan
Doing all of your homework the night before the deadline is a bad idea. After a certain amount of time, your concentration falls, and your productivity suffers. This is when homework becomes unnecessarily time-consuming.
At the start of each week, make a timetable of how much time you will spend on homework for each night. One example of this would be the 10-minute rule, recommended by the National Education Association.
The 10-minute rule states that one should do 10 minutes of homework per subject per night. This would mean that, for example, a fourth-grader would do 40 minutes of homework per grade per night. The exact numbers aren’t important.
What is important, however, is that you create a plan that you can stick with long-term.
Experiment, and see what method works best for you. As with anything, consistency is key. A little bit of homework every night is incomparably better than cramming everything into an 8-hour study session.
2. Determine Your Study Spot
The main antagonist to productive studying is distraction.
We’ve all been there. You’re studying. Everything is going great. Suddenly, your concentration is broken, your mind wanders off, and you’re back to procrastinating. Not a good feeling.
In the age of social media and constant digital stimuli, sitting down and focusing on schoolwork can be quite difficult. All it takes is a buzz of your phone or a noise from the outside to seize your momentum.
Having a quiet, pre-determined spot for doing your homework eliminates distractions and helps you stay focused. This way, your study sessions will become more consistent and effective.
This doesn’t mean you have to change rooms. It can be as simple as having a desk or chair intended only for schoolwork. By doing this, your brain begins to associate that spot with studying, and it will become much easier to get the flow going.
3. Ask for Help
No different from books, your teachers and classmates are great resources to help you in your studies.
If you’re struggling with a particular subject, start by asking a teacher or guidance counselor. Many teachers hold additional classes before or after school to help students catch up.
Additionally, if you have a classmate that is good at a particular subject, you can ask them for help. Group study sessions can be a useful way of getting homework done much faster. If you don’t know an answer to a question, perhaps your classmate does, and vice versa.
Never be afraid to ask for help. More often than not, people are happy to share their knowledge in a subject they excel at. Every problem has a solution, and you’re never alone.
4. Use an Online Tutor
An online survey done by the National Center for Family Literacy found that, out of 300 parents surveyed, almost 22% report being too busy with their children’s homework. Additionally, close to 32% of children refuse to ask their parents for help.
We live in a busy world. People work, kids go to school, and it can be difficult to keep track of everything that’s going on around you. Thankfully, online tutoring has become an affordable solution to solving many school-related difficulties. Homework, of course, is one of them.
Platforms like 24HourAnswers have helped many students by providing them with the opportunity to connect with a tutor who can help them understand their homework problems and develop better study habits.
Platforms like these can help you achieve optimal results while still having more than enough free time for your favorite activities.
5. Take Breaks and Reward Yourself
According to a study by the Better Sleep Council, 74% of teenagers report homework as their main cause of stress. The same study shows that US teenagers spend over 2 hours per night on homework, adding up to over 15 hours every week.
Does it really have to be like that, though? No, absolutely not! All it takes is a good studying strategy.
As we’ve already mentioned, finishing your homework when fatigued takes you much longer than when you are fresh. For this reason, it is always good to break up longer study sessions with frequent breaks.
Start with a short break after every 20 minutes of homework. Think of it as a pit stop to refuel. As you become better, you will be able to focus for longer without needing a break.
On top of that, don’t forget to reward yourself for a job well done. Learn to associate doing schoolwork with positive things. With the right mindset, finishing your homework can be a piece of cake – both literally and metaphorically.
The Bottom Line
After a long school day, the last thing anyone wants is to come home to more work and more study. Luckily, the situation doesn’t have to be so grim.
As we’ve shown today, knowing a few key tips and tricks can help you cut through your homework assignments like a knife through butter.
The best thing about it? Not only will your grades go up, but you will never have to choose between schoolwork and personal hobbies and activities.
