Get ahead of the game and ensure school is less stressful by keeping tabs on your assessment schedules.

With so many assessments in different subjects to keep up with, it can all seem a little overwhelming at times. If you're struggling to keep track of what assessments are due, and when, then take a look at the Westland High school website. Every assessment schedule for every Senior subject is loaded there to ensure you can keep up and plan ahead. Look under 'Our learning', 'Senior subjects and course overview', then simply choose the subject you are after. Each subject has a list with every class loaded, just click on the link.

Below are some tips for crushing those deadlines and ensuring you keep ahead.

1.  Put a high priority on doing schoolwork.

Most people's problems with "not enough time" are really decision problems. Is your time problem really caused by your choices? Many people don't like to study, so they put a low priority on doing their homework. When they get free time, they choose to do non-school activities that feel important. This then leads to the inevitable last minute scramble, which doesn't result in their best work. Decide that you feel it is very important to do your school work. Then you will automatically begin to have more time for it. 

2.  Have a long term goal

Goals are important, they help to drive us to the finish line and ensure we stay focused. Your goal might be to get a job in your chosen career, further your studies outside of school in an area of passion, or it could be to get an endorsement in NCEA. Once you have a goal then you can use it to plan, by breaking it down into more achievable tasks. Then break those achievable tasks down into weekly/daily tasks to help you make progress in the right direction.

3.  Get organised

Sometimes keeping up is as simple as having a better system for monitoring where you are and what you have to do. Use your google calendar and enter all your subject assessment schedules into it, then set an email reminder a week before each assessment is due. This will automatically email you a week before each assessment to remind you the deadline is coming up. Check in with your calendar regularly to see exactly how much you have on and what is coming up. Print your calendar and keep it with your 'study space' at home so it's visible all the time. Try breaking down large projects or assignments into small chunks and enter those into your calendar as deadlines too. This will save the last minute panic before the due date.

4. List it

Most successful people, who are busy, keep lists. You could do this via your email (send yourself an email with your to do list), keep it in your phone, or go old school and use pen and paper. Either way keeping a list of daily tasks to complete, will help you to keep up to date with those deadlines and give you the satisfaction of ticking them off once you achieve them. Just make sure your daily tasks relate to your broken down goals and that they are achievable. You need to be able to realistically tick each task off each day, if your list is insurmountable then you'll lose interest and give up. 

5. Prioritise and learn to say no

Life can get really busy and sometimes it can be hard to keep up. Prioritise what is important, so you get the important jobs done first before playing another round on the PS4. It's important to make time to relax and socialise with your friends so ensure you schedule this in too, just don't let too much of the relaxing impact on your ability to get to your end goal. Learning to say no is an important life skill to develop and can at first be hard to exercise, especially with your friends. But if you are finding you have too many demands on your time, and it's impacting on your ability to get your homework done, then it might be time to start evaluating what you need to give up.

6. Get support

If you're feeling overwhelmed and need some support in any aspect of your life, talk to a teacher at school that you feel comfortable with. The senior years can be extremely rewarding and fun, but can also be a lot of hard work. Teachers have loads of strategies, tips and services that they can draw on to help you succeed. Everyone at school wants you to be the best you can be and achieve your end goals so hit them up about your concerns and what you can do to keep up. Many teachers offer extra tuition and support too.