7 ways to catch up on work.

My little brother finished his SPM a few days ago, much to the start of his freedom and an absolute annoyance to me. I mean, dude, I'm done with SPM agess ago, chill. Pfft.

But watching him busting his ass off those few days before his last paper really gave me a warm trip down the memory lane. I was him precisely 7 years ago, and I can still remember what I did on those crucial times of my life. Yes, I was this perfectionist nerd who thinks getting all A1's in your certificate is all that makes my life worth it.

I'm glad I did.

But relating to that, I find it frustrating that I no longer have that kind of strong drive anymore. Take work, for example - I was required to learn all the new things given that I'm starting at a new place, but I slowly feel like I'm a student who takes forever just to learn how this one tiny machine works. I used to love learning new things; but now at 24, it just doesn't feel normal anymore. I get tired. I get frustrated. I get confused about priorities; ones that aren't even that hard to prioritise. 

But to let this get down is downright worst - so I figured that all you have to do is take a deep breath, and get your ass to work on things you could've done to start. Google helped me on that!

• Accept that you are not the same anymore. Yes, at 17 you might have the strongest will to success among your peers, but time and place changed that. You lost it over the years, but it doesn't mean you lost it completely - I realize I'm still the girl who wants to be on top of everything; just that the priorities have changed. I have a boss to impress, colleagues to be friendly with, subordinates to communicate to. Learning is in all of them.
• Slot an hour. Regardless of how busy you are, try to find that one (or two) hour just to concentrate on work you feel you need help with - and do just that without interference. Find that extra hour between meetings/lectures, before lunch break, after lunch break, or at night between two of your favorite shows and just get that one piece of work done. Even if it's not done in that one hour, at least it made a huge difference rather than doing nothing.
• Work on a list of things seriously. I was somehow never really keep up with lists I've done, but those that I do really helped. It sounds simple, but try to list down everything (yes, even something as petty as replying emails) as detail as possible, and try to look a month ahead so you won't miss out on things.
• Talk to your tutors. Especially if you have one that you truly trust, use him. Tutors are someone to help us with the workloads, and they're even paid to do so. I had a tutor back when I was in the first year at uni, and I met him like..twice a year. Seriously. The one thing I regret the most about my uni life. He could've helped me tonnes with the homework, given that I didn't really have Japanese at my fingertips, but I was too shy to ask him. (he was really, really, really good-looking - the type of Japanese guy you saw on TV.) Lesson learned. But if you find it hard to talk to him, ask your department to get another tutor that's suitable for you - there must be a lot of students wanting to help. 
• Get a study buddy. As I started working, I was assigned a buddy to help me with the study stuffs - and I'm glad I did! Getting a buddy whom you can get along with to do work can be really beneficial. If you're a student, you can organize study sessions regularly at school library, give each other tests and mock exams for preparation, or just hang out together to get that stress out of your system. You can also see if you're lagging behind on work among all of them, and this could be a kick start to a healthy competition. In high school, we did exactly that, and I still remember on the day we went to get our SPM result, a friend in my study group came up to me and thanked me for helping her with her Add Maths. She said Add Maths was the one subject she was weak in, and that she won't get a good grade in Add Maths if it weren't for me. It was the sweetest thing she's ever said to me, and I'm glad at least I left school knowing I've made a difference in someone's life.
• Tackle one thing at a time. When you have that lists, try to get one thing done thoroughly than going at a bit of everything at once. It rarely works, trust me, been there, done that -__- 
• Use all the technology you've got. If you have alarms on your gadgets, use them to alert you about important things you need to get done - yes, alarm. I used to type things and save them on my phone screen so that whenever I see the screen I'd be reminded of them. I was that lazy, I know. But it really helped - I took a nap between my study time and when I woke up, I knew where I left off!

I've seen other senior engineers work - and I can't imagine how I'd be when my time comes. So I realize that preparation is crucial; you don't want work to be a complete burden after 10 years!