Do not procrastinate. Between Senior Independent Study, daily homework, and college applications, the only procrastinating you should be doing is choosing to write a college essay rather than doing AP Statistics homework, though both will get done because 3am is a perfect time to be productive. It is essential to complete all of your work done when you are applying to an obscene amount of schools.

I am applying to 16 colleges. Everyone always freaks out when I admit this to them, but it is not as bad as they might think. Having already applied to 13 and only having one writing supplement left to write, applying to a bunch of colleges is not nearly as terrible as one may think it is. If done correctly, your college applications will be done in a jiffy.

Step 1: Narrow down your search

It probably seems like I did not follow this advice, but if you have no idea where you want to end up, your potential college list is going to be one of the most overwhelming grocery lists you have ever seen. With such a long list, do not try to visit all of your schools and try to see just a few. Going to look at the colleges you actually be accepted to will save you mass amounts of time and money.

Step 2: Procrastinate productively

When you do procrastinate, procrastinate by doing other things you need to complete.

It feels great to procrastinate, but rather than hopping on BuzzFeed or Netflix, decide to do college essays over homework. It will help you focus after you finish your procrastination hour or so, and you will feel great because you will have earned self-brownie points.

Step 3: Make your essays fun

If there are options for your essays, pick the one that you can either talk the most about or make the most exciting for both you and the reader. For example, I quoted the song “Space Jam” in one of my essays.

Some may tell you to do all of your essays at once and have them be conventional, but I disagree due to my success in completing all but three applications with only one writing supplement left.