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Coping with a mountain of homework can seem daunting, especially with deadlines looming and time running out. What can seem an abundance of time to complete a project, suddenly can become very short as the result of illness, family emergencies, work commitments and other activites that take more time than expected. Add on multiple assignments from multiple teachers and the result can be an over-stressed student. When overwhelmed with lots of homework, there are several strategies to lessen the burden and make it a manageable task.

DON'T PANIC

One common mistake that students make when overwhelmed by homework is to panic and even avoid the problem. There is a temptation to go out with friends, watch some television or postpone it by going on the computer. The key is to avoid panic and procrastination. It is better to face the tasks. Do not waste time complaining about having too much to do. Instead reduce the amount by accomplishing specific tasks. Try to avoid partially completing many tasks. Then nothing is accomplished and the stress continues. Instead try to accomplish something because it will lessen the stress.

MAKE A LIST

There are two ways to view making a task list. A traditional way is to list all the items that have to be completed. This is acceptable if the list is a manageable size. Unfortunately if the list is too long, it takes a long time to write the list which is valuable time that could be spent working. In that case it is a good idea instead to begin a "done" list. It can be very rewarding to write down the items completed in an hour and then the homework may not seem quite as large. Set a reward goal for accomplishing five items on the "done list".

PRIORITIZE

It is important to decide which items need to be completed first. If all items are relatively equal in importance or deadlines, then there are two schools of thought about prioritizing. One is to start by completing small non-time-consuming items first. This removes items from the stack and makes the task of total completion closer to reality. The other method is to do the most difficult or time-consuming task first. It can be incredibly freeing to be able to write the ugliest assignment down on the "done" list first.

TIME ESTIMATION

It is important after the tasks are prioritized to decide how much time each task will take. If the beleif is that it will take one hour to write a two-page paper, then designate a time to work on it from 5-6 p.m. for instance. Then there is

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