Chances are you’ve got a lot more than turkey on your plate this year if you’re a final year student. Dissertation proposals and Final projects are due in january, so to help you out we’ve put together some christmas propOsal writing tips.
Make a plan! – Split it up
Making a study plan can be an obvious first step but i
t’ll be extremely useful over a busy period like Christmas. First, just throw out Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and Day, there’s obviously going to be too much going on and you deserve to enjoy those days so don’t even attempt to study then. Next, schedule your work into your ‘off days’, break the proposal into sections and work on each section as you go. As you do that, figure out which sections are more important than others and focus more time on them. If you’re doing a dissertation, this might be your lit review and methodology, or for a final project it could be your budget and your project plan. By working on sections a bit at a time you’ll be able to study and enjoy Christmas all at once.
Find a quiet space or study while you travel
It’s a good idea to let your family know that you plan to be studying while you’re home. Hopefully by letting them know in advance, they’ll a give you the space to focus and also won’t accuse you of being anti-social! Even if you’re away with family this Christmas, ask if there’s a room you can sit in for a couple hours where you can do some work. If you’re travelling far you can even try to fit some study time into your journey, use that 2 hour train ride to get some work done. That way when you arrive you can relax for a while without feeling stressed.
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself!
With everything going on it’s easy to stress out completely, the
res a lot of pressure to have fun and also get work done and that can end up ruining everything. So to make sure you stay sane over the Christmas period, you’ve got to take things easy. When you’re doing Christmas stuff throw yourself into it and have fun! Then when you’re working take it easy and do it when you can. If you put too much pressure on yourself you’ll end up feeling frustrated while you work because you’ve not had any fun and you’ll feel guilty while you’re having fun because you’re not working. Just try to chill out.
Schedule more in towards the end
Once Christmas and New Year are out of the way it’s time to do more serious work. The work you’ve done over Christmas should act as a foundation that you can build from! Schedule the majority of your hard work for the start of January, things like putting all your sections together and making a proper draft. This should hopefully be an easy task, as you’ll have more time to focus on it all and you’ll be feeling good after Christmas!
