Study at Home / Time

Being ahead is the only real insurance

Work banked before a crisis is worth more than the same work after.

A person exactly on schedule has no capacity to absorb anything. A person a week ahead can lose a week and remain on schedule, and the difference in outcome between those two positions over a year-long course is large.

The way to get ahead is at the start, when the load is lightest and motivation highest, and it means doing more than required in the first weeks specifically so that later weeks can be lighter. That is counterintuitive because the early period feels comfortable.

It also applies within a unit. Starting an assessment on the day it is set, even to the extent of reading it and drafting an outline, removes the largest obstacle, which is beginning, and it means the task is already in progress when the interruption arrives.

Deadlines are the wrong signal to work to. Somebody working to deadlines is by definition never ahead, and every unexpected event becomes an extension request rather than an ordinary fortnight.

It is worth adding that the displacement should be discussed with whoever else it affects rather than decided alone. Lower standards of housekeeping, fewer social commitments and less availability are things other people in a household experience, and a decision made unilaterally becomes a grievance rather than a shared arrangement.