Ask Agony Ethel

AUNT ETHEL
Volume 1, Issue 7 (Originally Published on 16 April 2012)
 
Dear Agony Aunts,
 
I had planned on catching up on my readings during the break but haven’t actually managed to do any schoolwork due to social commitments. I keep remembering my lecturers tell me that I really need to have notes ready by the end of the break and now I’m worried that I’m too far behind. What do I do?
 
-Social Butterfly
 
Dear Social Butterfly,
 
When one starts postgraduate study, one usually suffers from the delusion that THIS time, it will be different. Thoughts such as ‘I’ll be organised’; ‘I’m going to do my readings ahead of time’; ‘I’m going to revise my notes every week’ run rampant in the lead up to the semester... and lasts about as long as your lecturer takes to introduce themselves in the first class of the semester.
 
Having said this, why are you asking what you should do? Are you looking for looking for some magical solution? Auntie Ethel hopes you have packed in 2 months worth of fun into the break. Because you just need to suck it up, do the work, and you will likely be singing along with the Youtube clip of Marshall: “Studying law, on a Friday night... being a lawyer had better be awesome!”
 
Auntie Ethel
 
Ps. Try setting small goals to complete, it’s easier to attack a task in multiple small steps than a cumbersome large step.