Any advice on either getting started with a daunting task or 'cutting corners' to save time and energy would be great please
Some background:
I'm struggling a bit with getting through my uni work at the moment. I'm doing an apprenticeship, so work full time during the week, and do about 15-20 hours of uni work in my free time.
This is not sustainable and I still can't seem to get everything done.
Question 1:
How can I reduce the amount of work I'm doing?
I seem to spend significantly longer on assignments than my peers. I don't think I'm a perfectionist, but I do try to work to a high standard. I don't understand how they can get things done so quickly.
At work I'm always told how quickly I work, so my general speed/productivity rate isn't the issue.
I already have a spreadsheet to distribute work on assignments evenly across the weeks between receiving the brief and the submission deadline. I keep falling behind the planned schedule, though.
I can't leave things to the last minute because it makes me anxious and I can't get the thing I'm avoiding out of my mind. Organising my time like this is also important as I wouldn't stay up late working to meet a deadline, unlike my peers, because I won't go outside my routine like that.
I can't see any corners that I can cut. I don't really like using AI, but I might have to look into the options which are acceptable to use in academic contexts?
I'm studying engineering, so I need to fully understand what I'm writing about, and not just trust what AI spits out. A lot of the work is drawings and calculations, which AI can't really help with.
Question 2:
How can I continue to approach the tasks with courage and enthusiasm?
The work feels daunting, because there is so much to do, and I keep falling behind where I planned to be. I sometimes just want to avoid doing anything because it feels like too much.
Some more thoughts:
I do struggle to focus while at university. But I try really hard to understand things, while my peers mess around, so I don't think I'm at a huge disadvantage in terms of having to catch up on content outside of uni hours.
I'm trying just to push through and get it done - I only have to make it to May before the end of the academic year. Still, I don't know how long I can keep this up - even if it is only two 12-week sprints each year. I still have 4 years to get through.
Any thoughts on this are appreciated! I need to figure out why everything is taking me so long, and hopefully find a more sustainable approach.
