Even if you have been taking my advice and making some progress with your study skills this school year, I’m sure many of you are still quite tempted to tune out when you see the title of this post. I am not the first person to recommend that you complete some of your schoolwork on the weekend, and I won’t be the last. Hopefully, though, you will be able to see my suggestions as encouragement, not pressure, and you will find that applying them will help make doing schoolwork on the weekend more acceptable.
My first recommendation regarding completing schoolwork on the weekend is that you plan to do it not only when you are behind on your work, but when you are caught up as well. Some of you don’t have a choice in this, since your schools allow teachers to assign new work on Fridays that is due on Mondays, while others of you do have a choice, since your teachers do not assign such work, but this advice is intended for all of you, regardless of your school’s policies. If you have assigned work on the weekends, you should still spend time working on longer term assignments and/or studying ahead, and if you do not have specifically assigned weekend work, you should plan to work and study ahead as well. Regardless of your situation, this does not mean you should spend your whole weekend on your studies – you need a break, and even the strictest teachers and parents will not dispute that – but setting aside time to complete schoolwork while still enjoying the majority of the weekend will pay off, both by reducing stress during the week and by giving you the chance to stay on top of your studies and not fall behind.
My second recommendation regarding completing schoolwork on the weekend is that you schedule the best time to do it. Recognize that unlike during the week, when a certain amount of work must be done each night so you are prepared for the following day, the weekend gives you the chance to be more flexible with your schedule and choose study times that work best for you. Maybe you really need a break on Friday, so you decide not to do any of your work then. Maybe you really want your weekend days off, so you work on Friday afternoon and/or evening just as you would on any other weeknight. Maybe you spread out your work over the three days, or maybe you save it all for Sunday. If you save it all for Sunday, be realistic about how much time you need so you start working early enough and don’t find yourself scrambling to finish everything Sunday night, or even Monday morning. A lot of teachers and parents will insist that you don’t put off starting your work until Sunday, especially Sunday night, but if you feel it is the best time for you and you are willing to make a plan and stick to it, my advice is go ahead and do it – just know that you may need to adjust your plan and start working sooner the next weekend if it doesn’t work out as well as you were hoping it would.
My third recommendation regarding completing schoolwork on the weekend is that, other than needing to complete any new assignments that are due right away, you plan to do specific things that will make your weekday study sessions less stressful. Reading ahead in an assigned novel on the weekend sure beats needing to catch up during the week because you’ve fallen behind. Making study guides or flashcards on the weekend is good preparation for studying for a test during the week. Getting a head start or putting extra time in on a project on the weekend means being able to take a weekday night off from it when you have too much other work to do. Whatever you decide to do, making that decision and following through on it is better than simply saying you will get more work done on the weekend, because the less specific you are about what you plan to do, the less likely you are to get anything significant accomplished. Even if you are given a lot of new work on the weekend, try to add at least one of the above suggestions or other ideas you may have to the list. Get in the habit of planning to work on the weekend without letting your work take over your weekend. It might not seem like the most appealing idea right now, but the more you do it, the more it will pay off during the week.
Even though making the commitment to do at least some schoolwork every weekend may be the last thing you want to do, taking the time to plan ahead so you don’t fall behind, scheduling the best time to work on the weekend so you still have plenty of time to enjoy it, and planning the specific things you will do on the weekend to make your weeknights less stressful are all ways you can make working on the weekend pay off. No matter where you are on your study skills journey, improving both your attitude and your planning regarding weekend work is beneficial. Using the extra time you have on the weekend to reduce your stress during the week is yet another way not only to improve your study skills, but also to increase your chances for success.