Now that the school year is wrapping up, students must begin shifting their focus to the summer assignments they all must unfortunately complete before school picks up again in August. Shortly, students will receive notices from their future teachers about the academic work they’ll be expected to complete over the summer. Among that work will be summer reading from the English classes, as well as some work from the Math classes.

However, like most things, there are tips and tricks we can all practice to help it hurt a little less when it comes time to sit down and do homework over the summer. Here are a couple simple and straightforward ones I’ve put together.

1. Make an Itinerary

Making an itinerary of the things you have to complete is one of the easiest way to make sure the summer work gets done. Have it written down somewhere where you look to often, so you don’t forget. It doesn’t even have to be too detailed with times and dates, just rough estimates of when you hope to have a certain amount of work done by. If you let it accumulate, you’ll probably be sorry about it later.

2. Set aside some time

Find a good, not busy time of the day to work. Make sure the block of time stays free from plans or other summer activities. Katrina Diaz-Balart, junior at ILS, says that it helps her to “pace herself” as she works. Dedicate a set time, maybe an hour or so in the afternoon, to completing a a bit of work. This way, it’ll seem like less at a time and it won’t be so overwhelming.

3. Eliminate distractions

Once you sit yourself down to begin work, DEDICATE YOURSELF. Hide away all distractions, like your phone, remote, earbuds, or anything like them that might tempt you away from work. These things might accidentally consume hours of your time and then next thing you know, you’ve written two lines and watched 4 episodes of something on Netflix.

4. Make it manageable

Divide up your work! Put it into manageable chunks. Looking at 4 big assignments might be overwhelming and stress you out, but if you break it up into smaller portions, it won’t be so daunting. I personally do this in many of my classes when I get scared I won’t be able to finish something.

5. Don’t procrastinate!

Procrastinating is the worst thing you can do for summer work. The summer seems long, but it unfortunately is not, and it’ll pass you by quick! Especially if you’re busy a lot of the time. Junior Mia Castellon prefers to “organize everything beforehand” to avoid procrastinating altogether. Make a plan and stick to it. This way, you’ll have your work done at a convenient time and you can enjoy your summer to the fullest.

These tips are just a few of the things we as students can do to complete our summer work as fast as possible. I’m sure many of you can agree when I say that all we want is a stress free summer. Incorporating some of these tips into your routine can help to get the work done nice and early, so that you can relax for as long as you can. Happy studying!

With this article, I’m ending the school year, so I wanted to say thanks to everyone who has been reading my articles and those of you who have been interviewed. But overall, I hope everyone has a great summer.