Not all hell quarters are created equal. In fact, some of them don’t even resemble what most consider to be hellish. Nope, I didn’t load CS325, CS344, and CS372 into a single quarter. In this case, I’m categorizing one of the most exciting, energizing, and fun quarters as a “Hell Quarter”. The hellish nature of this quarter has been a direct result of my inability to keep track of assignment deadlines.
The Silver Lining
This quarter has been an absolute blast. I’m working with new tools/frameworks, learning on the go, and digging into documentation to my hearts desire. Prior to this quarter, I had never worked with React/Next.js and barely dipped my toes into CSS beyond using Bootstrap as a permanent crutch. Every problem I encounter is a new one that is unlike all I’ve come across during my travels. Every day, I get to wake up and work on whatever my team discussed in our Project Plan or during our last standup meeting. Moreover, we made sure our goals were very well defined, so I’ve had the pleasure of holding a firm grasp on the “big picture” throughout. In the instances where the “big picture” feels even slightly vague, I can shoot out a message in Slack and anticipate dual teammate response prior to our communication deadline agreed upon at the beginning of the quarter.
As far as required workload, the course hardly pushes a pace that would manifest in burnout. The required minimum time expense hardly breaks the bank at 10-hours per week. Actually, it is worth noting that I’ve been spending significantly more than 10-hours per week working on the project, but it feels like I’m barely breaking a sweat. When you have a fun project to work on, you tend to get caught up in the weeds… and actually enjoy it. I don’t think I’ve had a single one of those moments where you just want to wrap things up and shut your laptop down for the night. Actually, I’ve experience the opposite – I’m waking up early to jump back into whatever sticky situation I had trouble walking away from the night before. All that said, I’d be lying if I didn’t categorize this as my worst quarter yet.
The Nightmare
It is plain and simple: I can’t seem to remember an assignment deadline to save my life. I suppose a portion of this issue can be blamed on what has made this quarter so great. Time flies when you’re having fun and you miss deadlines when you think its Tuesday and it is actually Thursday. I should mention, the group assignments have all been turned in without a hitch. However, that is to be expected when your team is in constant communication regarding group-level assignments. Unfortunately, the second you hang up on the Google Meet, submit the assignment, and wipe the sweat off your brow, it can be surprisingly easy to forget about your personal responsibilities. I mean, how the heck are you supposed to remember some massive individual assignment when you’re so dang excited to dive back into VSCode? One of my teammates has missed a couple individual assignments himself – we briefly discussed whether we were experiencing some type of delayed senioritis. I don’t think I can confidently come to this conclusion. I recently had a pretty stacked 3-class quarter and managed to turn in the majority of my assignments significantly early (all while working and taking vacations). The only root cause I seem to return to is the mixture of individual assignments, group assignments, and a fun project that needs worked on (as I outlined above).
The Fix
Like the issue at hand, the fix is simple: pay better attention. Every day for the remainder of the quarter, I vow to open up the ‘Grades’ page on Canvas prior to anything else. No longer will I jump directly into VSCode and Slack. The first step every day will be to look at what is due during the next 7 days. Second, I will look to turn in all possible individual assignments prior to their due date. These steps will require any additional missed assignments to be a result of serious negligent effort.
