I wanted to share a different kind of post. A look into my life as an online college student. I’ve been in school since 2022, but I don’t talk about it too much on here. So, I’m hoping to change that! I’m studying English/creative writing and I will be complete with my bachelors in January 2026! I do plan to get my masters to be one step closer to becoming a professor myself!
In this post, I’m going to share my school work schedule for the week plus some tips on how to manage stress and avoid procrastination.
Some things to keep in mind. I don’t know about other schools but since I’m an online student, online semesters are 8 weeks with a 1 week break after every other term. There are due dates, but no set class times. I only take 2 classes per term, but that is considered a full-time student if you’re an online student. Again, it may be different in other schools and even though I don’t attend college in person, I’m still not going to say which one it is until I am complete just to keep some privacy.
This week is exciting because it’s a new semester so I’m excited for new classes! I did take 3 classes last semester which was definitely a lot more work and being an online student already takes a bit more discipline so I’m so relieved to have a slightly less work load.
My 2 classes this term are Playwriting workshop and Social Media Marketing. Very nervous for my workshop class. I love to write but I’ve never written a play before so that will be interesting. My other class is an elective which I’m excited for. Most of my electives choices go from marketing to photography to psych. So, it’s a fun little change from my major.
Before the start of a new semester, it’s important to do 2 things; order textbooks and review the syllabus. These are my books for the semester! I love having digital copies as an option!
Besides reviewing the syllabus, our professors will send out an announcement for the week that comes to our dashboard that is important to review as well. Basically goes over what we need to complete for the week and some helpful tips.
Next we have my planner set-up. This includes every assignment for the week, reading/video resources, chapters from our textbook.
This list of tasks is how I can schedule my week which is probably my biggest tip to avoid procrastination. Having a set of tasks each day also helps to not feel overwhelmed by trying to get so much done in 1 day. Which is my biggest struggle. I want things done right away and if you’re a parent and/or work a full/part time job, then you know, that’s just not possible. So completing a task for the day and in my case, a school related task is an accomplishment and overtime it will all be complete for the week.
Here’s the schedule for this week!
Monday: Resources- short play guidelines, screenwriting versus playwriting
The Power of personal branding, social media marketing ch 1
Tuesday: Marketing discussion post, review final project
Wednesday: Playwriting discussion post/course play list, review final project, brainstorm play ideas
Thursday: Resources- module 1: getting started: blogging, social media marketing ch 7
Friday: 1-2 Student Blog: Branding- A Day in the Life
Saturday- One scene play
Sunday- Discussion responses
Every week is a little different but basically we have 1-3 task every day. Assignments get their own day and/or could extend to the next few days left (or begin a few days before)
Another tip is that a lot of these assignments can have like multiple steps or parts to it. For example, if you need to do some research and find sources before starting a rough draft. I would do research one day and then write those ideas the next day. An example from this term would be for my workshop class. There’s 4 requirements, 1-2 page scene, at least 2 characters, a conflict, and proper formatting. So I would brainstorm ideas first, get the dialogue in place, then review the format and adjust accordingly and then I can do like the housekeeping things like add the title, character names, (because I’m indecisive) double check the format and then compare my work to the grading rubric. Which is another big tip. ALWAYS check and compare your work to the rubric. Professors want to see that you’ve touched on each section. And that makes it easy to know what you’re missing.
Next is note taking. Sometimes I will take notes from our textbooks and just write/highlight anything important. I would recommend to have a 5 subject notebook for multiple classes so each section is one class. I would also use colored pens to make those notes more fun! You could use one pen for each class or one for each chapter. Whatever will most sense! Here are some of my favorite pens linked!
Sometimes our professors provide us with templates to take notes or even the assignment itself which I would use instead. Usually this means they are looking for specific requirements when it comes down to grading, ie. the rubric, so I would recommend using the template.
Here’s an example of one from this week!
I personally love these templates! They make note taking so easy and I can refer back to them later for final papers/projects. I usually will end up not taking regular notes if these templates are available instead.
Next we have discussion posts. There is a prompt/question relating to some of the resources in that module. Our classmates can see our posts and then we need to respond to our classmates. Since this is week 1, we also get to introduce ourselves to the class which is usually not my favorite. This is when I don’t remember who I am or what to say. Haha. These are due are on Thursdays but I always try to get them started earlier in the week.
Next is our assignments for the week. This week I have 2 assignments. I for each class. For my playwriting class, we have our first play, just one scene. The format of writing my own play is what’s making me most nervous, but I do have some good story ideas so that’s exciting and I can put more effort into making sure the format is correct if my ideas are to my liking. I will share an excerpt of my final play in a few weeks in a different post. I’d love to continue sharing more of my writing/school life!
A few writing tips would be to reread your work out loud. I know that probably sounds awkward but a fun fact about me is that when I was a kid, I used to read books out loud and now that I’m older, I think that was to help me retain the information better. But that also helps with writing and finding any errors or sentences that might not make sense. Always take a break. Writing can be revised so many times so if you’re struggling to finish up a paper or whether you should revise further, I would take a break and reread it at a later time to feel refresh and those ideas will come back so you can finish and/or decide what needs to be revised. Going back to revision, like I said, writing can be revised often, but in this case, there is a deadline. So learning when to stop can be a skill. How I think about it is if you consider these blog posts. They take so much time because I’m constantly revising to make it better. But if I keep revising it will never be posted. So once it reads well for the first time without any consideration for another revision is when I tell myself that I did my best and it’s ready. If I read it again after that first good read then I will find something to change even if it doesn’t need to be fixed. Go with your gut and the rest will follow!
For my marketing class, we are writing a blog style post. Which I actually need to share live for this week on my blog. It’s pretty bold of me to use this site for school purposes as well. In a previous class, I thought about creating a new site just for school but I feel like I have put a lot of effort to this little corner of mine on the Internet. So, might as well use it. I also had no idea that this was going to be the case until after deciding to do this post. So a double post will be made shortly after this one!
When it comes to saving my work, I would recommend to save them in their own folders such as per class, but if I’m being honest, I save all my work for the current term in my desktop which can get cluttered, but it’s not too bad for me. At the end of the term, I will clean out my desktop and keep only final papers that I can add to my resume. Which I do recommend doing! Save any of your best/favorite final papers/projects for your resume/portfolio.
The last task are discussion post responses. Like I mentioned earlier, we need to respond to our classmates posts to get full credit. At least 2 responses. Of course you don’t need to wait till Sunday to do these responses, but assignments are typically first priority for me to get done. Although I have a schedule set up for the week, it doesn’t always get followed through and that could be because I’m sick or Lincoln is or a mental health day or in this case, it’s summer time so unexpected plans may come up which I will not pass up a beach day if that were to change up my daily plans. Anything can happen so we adjust but sometimes that means it’s Sunday night and I’m working till midnight to get these responses done or an assignment is not done yet. A schedule a week and these tips have helped to avoid procrastination but I’m human just like you so the occasional slip up is okay.
And sometimes we do need that reminder because school is freakin HARD and we’re just trying our best.
I hope this was helpful to you 🙂 and I will see you in my next post!
-L
Sincerely Salty Hair 