Revision, revision... revision.

Okay, so as the (un)official Queen of Procrastination, I always find this last minute  (it's not really last minute yet, is it?) exam preparation time super important. I have therefore spent some, scheduled, time putting together - drum roll please:

The Queen of Procrastination's  Guide to Getting Things Done

• Numero uno, if all your coursework and notes are on your laptop or you need to do lots of online research, I would recommend installing stayfocusd. The name says it all, it's an app for Google Chrome which enables you to block sites entirely or just limit the amount of time you can spend on them per day. You can set the restrictions so that they're only applicable on certain days or at certain times. I actually swappeed from Safari to Chrome just to be able to use this, but I'm sure there are other browser add-ons that do a similar job. It's great if, like me, you think "I'm just going to flick my laptop on to research macroeconomics a bit more" and then spend three hours scrolling through hundreds of cat gifs Buzzfeed... 
• Again on the subject of internet goings on (I'm such a geek, sorry!) I have set up an auto-reply from all of my email accounts stating very politely that I won't be getting back to people as promptly as usual because I'm in the process of getting ready for my exams and therefore am not online as much as usual. It means that I don't have to worry about doing what comes next:
• Try as best as you can to stay away from - and turn off - all items which have screens or have the capacity to play music. Calculators however are allowed to be used... yay! Therefore I am referring to phones, laptops, TVs, you name it: if it's interesting: turn it off. And I really mean turn it off, no standby allowed, this will (in theory) make you think twice before turning things back on again.
• Now that all distractions have been dealt with nicely, set aside a couple of hours to sort out your schedule. I do mine weekly because there's no point planning any further ahead than that when things change, new appointments come along and some revision sessions may over-run and so on. I take a couple of hours out each Sunday afternoon and plan out my week. The key is to put everything that's set in stone in first (ie. school hours, meetings...) then play around with the time you have left over to get the most done. Here's the key though: don't imagine that you're genuinely going to sit down for 4 hours straight and learn your maths by heart in that time. It won't happen. You have to play your brain at it's own games and plan for plenty of breaks during which you're allowed to - wait for it - use items with screens and/or play music! But sadly then you have to turn them off again. 

This week's schedule. Yes, the cat does look about as scared as I do.

• And finally, all hard work should be rewarded. Tell yourself that if you complete your schedule as planned you'll treat yourself. It can be by going out with friends on Saturday or staying in and watching that DVD you haven't got round to watching yet. Make sure you take this time out because if not you'll burn out faster than anything, which is entirely pointless. So work hard when the schedule says work hard and relax when the schedule says relax! 

This guide actually makes it sound really easy but it's not, I know it's not. I spent twenty minutes this afternoon looking out of my window and not realizing that I wasn't doing anything until I nearly fell asleep. Economy revision is that boring. It'll all be worth it though! I went to admissions day at Sussex last week and it's really spurred me on to get this last struggle out of the way so that I can finally start studying law! 

I'll post properly about the admissions day at some point soon. Probably at the weekend as I have some free time then... In the mean while, let me know your tips for staying on schedule and your anti-procrastination remedies! 

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