Secret #3: Use Reverse Engineering

As we already talked about in the SMART goals section, mini-deadlines are the underused tool that will make you a champion. Mini-deadlines are your secret weapon to finishing projects on time. But how do you properly set mini-deadlines?

Use Reverse Engineering.

Reverse engineering simply means that you:

• Start with the end in mind.

• Work backwards from the finished result to where you are today, figuring out what needs to be done to get to that end goal.

• Set mini-deadlines between now and then to get all of the tasks done before the final deadline.
  

So if your paper is due on the 25th, you want to set up a deadline to finish your first draft and a deadline for someone to review it.

At first, you might not know what to do. A good technique is to observe yourself as you go through the process of writing a paper, making notes of the steps you are taking as you are doing them. You will have to make yourself aware of each step you are taking and write them down. This list will serve as your “Paper Writing System” or manual for all of the papers you will write in the future.

So your Paper Writing System might look like:

1. Type the name of my possible subject into Google to see what other people have written about it.
2. Brainstorm ideas for topics I could write about based on the samples I read.
3. Come up with a list of at least three potential ideas I would like to talk about in my paper.
4. Turn possible paper topics into questions.
5. Answer those questions to develop my thesis statement. Etc. etc. etc.

*** Just a side note: creating systems is what all successful people do for most aspects of their lives. Even when people don’t work, systems do. When you jot down the steps you take to write a paper, you will never have to worry again about not knowing what your next steps are because you’ll already have them written down. This little bit of planning will save you tons of time in the future. And if you don’t know how to create a system to write a good paper, you should ask someone who gets good grades, your TA, or a tutor how they do it.

Arel Moodie is widely known as America's Top Young Speaker. He has spoken to over 65,000 students in 39 states and 2 countries on the topics of student success, student leadership and student entrepreneurship. He is a leading authority on helping students of this generation succeed in school and in life. He is also the best selling author of the book Your Starting Point For Student Success. To find out more about Arel's book, go to www.startingpointbook.com. To find out more about Arel's speaking please go to www.arelmoodie.com.