5 Time-Saving Tips for Athletes When Writing Assignments
It’s something of a myth that your college or university years should entirely revolve around academic writing. As anyone who is at - or has already been through - college will jump at the chance to tell you, this is a time of your life when you’re really beginning to discover your identity. It’s a time to get involved with student societies, make new friends who’ll be with you for life, and explore the endless opportunities for fun now that you’re living a fully independent life.
However, if you’re a college athlete struggling with writing assignments, you’ll be happy to hear that all is not lost. We’ve put together our top 5 tips for saving time on written assignments, which have been tried and tested by university athletes across the world. By taking advantage of some of this wisdom, you’ll be able to find time to win those medals, have plenty of fun, and also ensure your academic work is hitting those top grades, too!
1. Keep Your Notes as Organised as Possible
This point isn’t just for athletes - all students could massively benefit from investing their time in some properly written notes.
At each of your lectures and study sessions, really take the time to write notes in a way which is going to seriously help you further down the line. So much time is lost searching through scraps of paper, or re-researching information you’ve already come across… and that’s time you could be spending on typing up your essays, or getting out on the field and beating your personal best.
Write your notes on ready-punched paper, which is easy to move between files, and isn’t likely to get lost in your growing piles of paperwork. Ensure that all major points taken from study sessions are written up on separate pages, and every point is given a nice, big, concise heading. This might sound like stating the obvious… but you’ll be amazed how much time you could save.
2. Get Expert Help with Academic Papers
More and more students around the world are reassessing their priorities when it comes to their college life, and university athletes in particular are having to do exactly this. Why spend days or even weeks stressing over your academic writing, when you could have expert help and essay writing services at just the click of a mouse?
Expert essay writing services are an effective, affordable and efficient way to completely remove the stress and anxiety of college papers. These kind of services put you in touch with seasoned professional academics, who know every trick in the book to ensure your professor is wowed by the depth and clarity of your research and essay writing. On top of this, you’ll have plenty of free time to aim for those gold medals!
3. Beat Procrastination with Technology
We’ve all been there: you’ve got a mere handful of hours to complete your academic assignments, but the world of social media, YouTube clips, and the endless distractions of the internet are calling you. Procrastination is the enemy of all college students, and when your legs are aching after some serious athletic training, your resolve to resist procrastination is seriously weakened. How can you stop yourself losing hours on Instagram, and finally knuckle down to complete your work?
The answer comes in the form of apps and websites designed to tackle this exact problem. On the app store and online, you’ll be able to find some seriously useful anti-procrastination tools, which will allow you to completely block access to those sites or smartphone apps which are going to get in your way. It’s a simple, proactive approach which can really help save you time!
4. Just Say No
Seriously, just say no. Sure, college is supposed to be a fun time, and some of our best university memories are created at the pub, in the park, at gigs and concerts and generally just hanging out with your friends. However, the pub can always wait… it isn’t going to go anywhere. If you have the confidence to say no to your mates, and insist that today is going to be the day you complete your essay, you’ll be able to celebrate with a drink or two without that nagging feeling of guilt in the back of your mind.
5. Save Time Looking Up and Writing References
One of the things which seems to slow down every college student is looking up, writing, and correctly formatting references and citations. It’s a vitally important part of any essay, thesis or dissertation, and failing to include citations in the correct format can even lead to red flags being raised about plagiarism… and believe us, that’s not an issue you want to deal with when you’ve got your athletics to focus on.
One great time-saving tip for citations is to write them out in advance when you’re making your notes. Simply jot down the correct citation, reference, page number etc in the margin of your notes every time you copy down a quote or refer to another text. Then, when you’re ready to type up your essay, you have them all laid out for you already in the same notes you’re working from. Simple!
There are also some great apps nowadays which allow you just scan a book’s barcode, and the full citation will be given to you automatically to copy and paste. Isn’t modern technology grand?
