No one who goes to school can escape homework, and almost all students consider it the bane of their existence. Homework eats up most of our time once we are back from school — it keeps us from going out to play a game of cricket with our neighbourhood friends, makes us miss our favourite TV show and stay up late most week nights.

Is this the case with you?

If it is, then it is a serious cause for concern. Either you are getting too much homework or you are not planning and doing you homework in an efficient and effective manner. If it is the first case, as most of you must feel it to be so, there really isn’t much you can do. The class you are in probably requires you to do considerable amount of work at home.

But if you are frank with yourself, you will find that you are most likely not handling it right and are either wasting too much time procrastinating or leaving homework to be tackled at the end of the day when you are too tired to understand what you have to do and can’t do it well.

Effective management of your time and tasks can make homework seem easy and fun. Let’s see how you can do it.

Plan

Pay attention when you are writing down the homework in the class, listen carefully to the teacher’s explanation. Make sure you understand what you are being asked to do. If you don’t or are not sure about how to do it, always ask the teacher.

If you have a free period in school, try doing your homework there, especially if you have a lot of homework or have a test coming along too. This way you will have more free time at home to do what you want and get time to study for the test. And in case you get stuck with something in the homework and need some help, being in school will make it easy for you to ask the concerned teacher or your classmates.

Pace

Okay the homework was too much or your friends were having too much fun gossiping so you couldn’t finish you homework during the school timings.

This is still not a big deal if you can set yourself some deadline by which time you should finish your work. See what else you have to and want to do that day at home. Did you plan out a match in the evening? Or is your favourite TV show on at 8pm and you don’t want to miss it? Or maybe both things are in your agenda that day....

The best thing is that once you are back home and have washed up, changed and had lunch, take out your books and finish your work. You will realise that once you are over with your studies, you will enjoy yourself more, otherwise you will keep thinking and feeling guilty about not having done your homework.

It is common to have a heavy load of homework or studying to do at home as you go into higher grade levels. And you need to budget your time and have some kind of homework/studying schedule, especially if you are involved in sports and other activities that you need to give time to also.

Peace

While doing homework as you watch TV is definitely fun, it is not the right way to do it. First of all, you will not understand or be able to learn what you are doing because your attention is glued to the idiot box. Secondly, it will take you longer to complete your work and you will probably make some mistakes which will mean that you will have to do it again. The same applies to studying in the living or dinning area where others are moving around, talking and doing things that will distract you. It is difficult to have a room to yourself all the time, especially as many of us live in apartments where space is a major issue.

You can decide with your parents to have at least one part of the house/apartment as a study room/corner, which can be part of your bedroom too, where you are by yourself or with other siblings who are also studying but without any activity or noise to distract you.

A study table is also important as it will have your stationary, books and all your study material so that you will not have to waste time searching for things or collecting them from different corners of the house. And each time you sit on your table your brain will get the signal that it is now time to focus and study, and you will settle down to work far quickly.

The tough job first

Once you are settled on your study table, first try to do the most difficult and most lengthy assignment first. In the beginning, you have the most energy and are mentally alert to deal with tough jobs and so you will be able to handle it well and finish it fast. Later on, when you are more tired, you can do the easier parts of the homework.

Often you will find it that there will be a few things that you will find very difficult to do. You will be stuck on it for a long time and still can’t do the problem, don’t spend the rest of the night trying to do it while other assignments are left undone. Leave it, take a break and refresh yourself. Maybe if you come back and sit down to do it you will be able to do it. And if you still can’t, you can ask an adult, an older sibling or call up a classmate.

If none of these things work, just leave it and complete the rest of the homework. Your teacher will realise that you tried and will appreciate your efforts. You should not take too long to do a certain part of the homework otherwise your whole study schedule will get messed up and you will either not get enough time to do it or will be sitting late into the night trying to complete it.

Pack up

When you have finished your work, pack your bag at once. Don’t rush off to play or watch TV, leaving your stationary and books lying around. In the morning you will not have much time to pack your bag properly and search for things.

Won’t it be bad if you have done your homework and can’t find it the next morning even if you clearly remember leaving it there on the table?

You will get a scolding even after doing your work! So pack up and be prepared.

Get help

If you find that you can’t understand the complicated calculus problems of math or the chemical reactions in chemistry even though you pay a lot of attention in class, you probably need some help at home too. Discuss it with your teacher and parents and see how and what kind of help you can get. Sometimes it just helps to have someone new explain something in a different way.

These are some simple things you can do, and which most of you are probably doing, to make homework seem easy and less laborious. Planning and then following the plan carefully is the key to success in anything, and so is the case here. Good luck.