As the year comes to a close, it is really easy to let your guard down and allow yourself to get so behind on homework and commitments that they wrap around you like a tangled mess of rope and wire.

Trust me, that’s where I am right now.

A few of my story assignments for this issue (as had happened for past issues) were not completed until the last minute.

My boss, Missy Loar, is one of the sweetest people on the planet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she wanted to give me a swift kick for not keeping deadlines.

This isn’t the only group that I tend to fall behind in and I am certain that I am not the only one that this happens to.

Procrastination is a cruel thing and it has plagued us for years.

What can really make our situation worse is the feeling of dread and frustration that grows inside us when it’s the night before a major paper is due and there are several other people that need your help or input.

You just don’t want to do anything but drop all of it and walk away, not to mention the probability that you want to cry, punch something or do both.

We’ve all heard or read of ways to increase our productivity and reduce our procrastination.

We all work in different ways that are beneficial to each of us alone.

However, the fact remains that we create more tension for ourselves than needed by accepting multiple commitments on top of school work and then waiting until the last moment to complete it all.

Let’s first address that sense of doom and rage you have at that term paper that won’t go away.

Don’t let it get away from you; do little bits of research and planning ahead to ease the writing process.

Take breaks when writing and keep your focus throughout.

When all else fails, put your homework at first priority when you have too many commitments to keep.

Speaking of those commitments, let’s look at ways to reduce your stress with them.

First of all, it’s widely recommended to only be in one or two campus groups; this is just something to think about for those of you involved in everything.

Also, don’t feel like you have to take on everything in a group.

There are other people around to pick up some slack, so call on them for help.

When all else fails, tell your group leaders and members that you have school work to take care of first.

Granted, they’ll only take that excuse so many times before they’ve had enough of it from you.

At that point, I recommend reevaluating what your priority should be between your classes and your groups.

Most importantly, don’t forget to breathe.

This sounds very simplistic, but always remember to take deep breaths in times of great stress.

It will settle you down, make you calmer and help you focus. Just take a deep breath and count to ten.

And please, try to get some sleep.

Don’t be like me and fall asleep during every class and meeting.