The Art of Not Drowning: Preventing Assignment Overwhelm in Graduate School (Inspired by Sun Tzu's The Art of War)

Saina Bijanzadeh
20 hours ago
10 min read

Another Degree is honored to introduce a new blog series by scientist and writer Saina Bijanzadeh. In this series, Saina draws inspiration from classical texts and reimagines their lessons for the realities of graduate school - offering grounded, strategic guidance for students navigating heavy workloads, uncertainty, and the emotional demands of advanced study.

Her first piece, “The Art of Not Drowning: Preventing Assignment Overwhelm in Graduate School (Inspired by Sun Tzu’s The Art of War),” uses Sun Tzu’s principles for sustained battle to illuminate how students can pace themselves, plan wisely, and protect their well‑being in the midst of academic pressure. The result is a thoughtful, practical guide for anyone pursuing, or preparing to pursue, a graduate or professional degree. And while graduate school isn’t exactly literal warfare, it does help to have reinforcements - mentors and a community who can help you navigate new terrain, cultivate clarity, and build the kind of discernment that makes academic life feel less like a battlefield and more like a path you can chart with confidence.

Saina is a uniquely fitting voice for this series. She holds a Master’s in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of Tehran and works at the intersections of chemistry, bioengineering, language, and creative expression. Her scientific training is rigorous, but her writing reveals a rare ability to step back and examine the sociological, political, and human dimensions of academic life.

She continues her scholarly work in Iran while navigating economic instability, political violence, and abrupt disruptions - including internet shutdowns and restrictions that sever access to knowledge, community, and opportunity. These realities sharpen her understanding of what it means to pursue academic work with intention, urgency, resilience, and a fiercely held sense of purpose.

We are grateful to share her voice here at Another Degree, and we encourage you to follow her journey, share her work with your networks, and stay tuned for her next article in this series. You can connect with Saina on LinkedIn, YouTube, and TikTok where she continues to document her path toward a PhD and her reflections on science, art, writing, and academic life.

Cover image of Sun Tzu's The Art of War — *Cover image of Sun Tzu’s* ***The Art of War***

Grad students tend to see a failure to keep up as a mark on their intelligence. Sure, intelligence matters, but planning and strategizing are way more important. Wrongly, students have been taught to work harder, sleep less, and accept constant urgency as a sign of strong commitment. As a result, students get overworked, and exhaustion hugs them tight. Strategy often gets overshadowed by other factors. In this guide, I’m approaching postgraduate life differently, as a series of deliberate calculations. Inspired by the logic of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, I treat time, energy, and attention as resources to be deployed carefully. Each section offers one principle for reducing friction, preventing overwhelm, and building sustainable momentum. Read it not as motivation, but as a manual: plan first, act second, and let clarity replace panic.

“The general who wins makes many calculations before the battle is fought.”

Sun Tzu

Planning Before the Semester Begins

Planning for the semester’s beginning is one of the most effective strategies. Whereas the undergraduate student often learns to react to deadlines as they arise, postgraduate study demands anticipation, not urgency. Before classes even start, review syllabi, map every deadline, and break assignments into smaller milestones using calendars or trackers (bonus points for using online tools like Trello, Notion, or Evernote). The point isn’t to have every variable fixed, but to develop a clear framework that distributes effort over time rather than compressing it into stressful bursts. When the workload is clearly defined in advance, tasks don’t collide, priorities become obvious, and rest can be protected. Of course, it will not all happen exactly as expected, but preparation takes the place of panic, providing a sense of direction so that each task can be handled deliberately rather than done all at once.

“There is no instance of a nation benefiting from prolonged warfare.”

Sun Tzu

The Cost of Constant Overwork

Overwork done constantly gets confused with devotion in academia, where fatigue is equated with dedication, and resting is a sign of weakness. This way of thinking isn’t only misleading, it works against you. Extended working days without the benefit of recovery weaken the physical condition and cognitive capabilities of the person, reducing focus, creativity, and decision-making capacity, and these are the attributes we most often rely on to complete a graduate degree. The brain is the researcher's principal tool, and like any tool, it degrades with constant pressure. No student gains from long-term burnout. Strategic rest is not indulgence; it is maintenance; it maintains clarity, stamina, and long-term productivity. In this way, preserving energy isn’t just laziness; it’s discipline, it’s making sure that effort is sustainable, rather than self-destructive.

“To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill; to subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.”

Sun Tzu

Winning Without Doing Everything

There are a large number of graduate students who are under the belief that success comes from doing everything and working all day and night. But effort alone is not enough. Winning every battle is a waste of time and energy while doing work that makes minimal to no difference in development. Not all assignments, readings, or activities should take the same amount of effort, and treating them equally yields random focus and fatigue. Rather, tasks should be evaluated and ranked in order of impact. If you can tell which work is really advancing your research or performance and direct it where you should be placing some of your focus first, then less important activities naturally take up less space. This is not avoidance but selectivity, the intentional choice to spend the energy on what’s going to make the most return to you. In practice, having the mentality to work smart means doing fewer things with some intent that allows progress without fatigue.

“He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot will be victorious.”

Sun Tzu

Choosing When to Work and When to Rest

Several students experience difficulty knowing when it is a good time to work and when they should rest and fall into the extremes of work-rest, either working continuously without stopping or recovering, or simply avoiding a task while pretending to be resting. Neither approach is sustainable. Persistent work contributes to burnout, while long-term avoidance depletes momentum and heightens anxiety. Successful postgraduate work takes discernment: an ability to identify limits, safeguard energy, and take breaks before fatigue can ruin performance. Rest should be part of the plan, not an escape. It should be deliberate, not accidental, as preparation rather than escape. As with pacing in a marathon, an awareness of one’s personal strengths, weaknesses, and capacity allows effort to be measured and resumed with clarity and focus. Victory lies not in moving endlessly, but in choosing when to push forward and when to step back.

“The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.”

Sun Tzu

Creating Stability Before Chasing Productivity

Stability must come first before chasing productivity. Students often scramble to maximize output, piling an extra workload onto the workday, ambitious goal-setting, and demanding constant progress, without beginning to establish a routine that is even likely to be sustainable. But this approach is wrong. The first time an unexpected misstep occurs, the momentum crumbles. The priority is instead consistency. Constructing routines that don’t let up even on challenging days, routines that keep work moving at a consistent pace, and systems that continue to ensure that we are making progress. Stability is the basis on which productivity grows. It is only when the foundation is stable, well laid down, that progress is cumulative; when it is not, even the best intentions fail. In strategy, endurance comes before acceleration; learn to hold firm first, then speed up.

“Speed is the essence of war.”

Sun Tzu

Starting Early and Finishing Small

One of the best things you can do to sustain momentum is to start early and break tasks down into smaller, high-yield tasks. Large assignments often create resistance and delay simply because they feel overwhelming, whereas smaller tasks can be completed quickly and provide immediate progress. Tackling these smaller goals first reinforces confidence, eliminates cognitive clutter, and generates the energy required to hit more challenging tasks. Meanwhile, big projects are split across time, so there are smaller victories interspersed to prevent fatigue and ensure that the parts of the big project are evenly spread. It is this regularity that has a strong foundation for progress, a steady rhythm. In this way, speed isn’t running or hurrying, but it’s reducing friction, starting before pressure builds and advancing in manageable parts so that action doesn’t stop at any one stage.

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.”

Sun Tzu

Handling Overlapping Deadlines Calmly

Overlapping deadlines can have the appearance of chaos, induce panic, and lead to reactive work, which can go wrong. But, with a little help, they can become moments of insight and productivity. Pressure creates urgency that mandates prioritization: a person sees what their most important priorities are, and what is unnecessary falls away from the process, resulting in quicker decision-making. The key is composure. A calm mind thinks strategically, and a nervous mind just responds. Rather than think of clustered deadlines as a crisis, think about it as preparation to face real-world research and professional life in which competing demands are the new normal, not the exception. By slowing down mentally, by intentionally building up an organization, and by tackling one thing at a time, disorder becomes structure. In that sense, chaos is not something to be feared but something to navigate, and even leverage.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

Sun Tzu

Knowing Your Strengths and Limitations

AI generated image in the style of Paul Klee of an abstract fortified ship in heavy ocean waves. — Generated by prompt using Google Gemini (2025)

A good strategy starts with self-knowledge. Before optimizing schedules or producing more material, students must know not only their strengths but also their areas where focus is highest, where weaknesses lie, and which modes of studying deliver the most results. Without the ability to see this, they expend energy to fight battles they never needed to fight. Identifying personal limits and advantages ensures that work is realistically planned and one’s strengths can be consciously utilized rather than inadvertently selected. Tasks are then positioned like chess pieces, to places where they do best. When students know themselves well, as well as they know their demands, decisions become targeted, challenges seem approachable, not daunting.

“Attack him where he is unprepared; appear where you are not expected.”

Sun Tzu

Working Smarter, Not Longer

Longer hours were often associated with working better, so, again, effectiveness is about precision, not duration. A goal-oriented student discovers how and when to make the largest impact from the effort, not burning energy equally on each task. Goals need to be studied meticulously, dissected to expose weak areas, shortcuts, and high-value activities that allow action to move ahead more quickly. By anticipating obstacles and acting before pressure builds, work becomes proactive instead of reactive. So, the victory doesn’t stem from continuous struggle, but instead from well-timed, intentional strikes. Like any campaign, victory belongs to the one who works the smartest, not the one who simply endures the longest.

“The line between disorder and order lies in logistics.”

Sun Tzu

Systems, Not Willpower

With postgraduate study, success hinges less on personal willpower and more on logistics. Motivation ebbs and flows, energy goes down, and the most focused of students can’t depend on a strong-willed, hard-driven approach day in, day out. Systems, though, are reliable. Having clear workflows, well-ordered files, routines that are both simple and reliable, and a sound system of planning tools all work to reduce the number of decisions that need to be made in your work, and prevent any slight tasks from turning into problems. Without systems in place, work relies on constant self-control; with them, effort becomes automatic and sustainable, progress is made even on low-energy days, since there is a clear path to the next step. Order doesn’t come from pushing harder. It comes from building an environment where working efficiently is the default.

“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”

Sun Tzu

Building Momentum Through Small Wins

Progress seldom materializes from big breakthroughs; it springs from small, repeated victories. Finishing small jobs regularly boosts confidence, eases resistance, and creates forward motion that becomes more manageable when faced with bigger tasks. With each finished step, it gets rid of mental clutter and reinforces a sense of control; work becomes a rhythm instead of a short push of effort. These little wins add up and compound into meaningful progress. Momentum that’s established allows work to continue more naturally and with less friction.

“He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.”

Sun Tzu

Protecting Your Time from External Noise

Time and attention are limited resources, but everything else graduate students do is a continual stream of meetings, messages, and duties that break apart time and attention. Without clear lines, even the best plans would be vulnerable to noise and external forces. Deep work needs time and space unmediated, and guarding that need is a strategic imperative, not a luxury. By holding limits, limiting the low-value commitments students can make, and structuring the day intentionally, students maintain the concentration needed to make progress. Control over time is control over outcomes, after all.

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win.”

Sun Tzu

Designing a Semester, You Cannot Lose

Successful students don’t rely on last-minute effort or luck; they’re building their semester so that success is part of the template from the start. Deadlines are mapped, tasks are distributed realistically, and buffers are created for unexpected setbacks. This preparation reduces uncertainty and prevents crises before they arise. Your work is not a reaction to pressure; it unfolds according to a deliberate plan. Victory, it follows, is not something one chases at the end, but something secured in advance through careful design and disciplined execution.

Graduate school life should not be all about struggling. Instead, it demands deliberate design. Overwhelm is rarely the result of incapacity, but of misallocated attention and unexamined commitments. Planning early, conserving energy, choosing battles carefully, and building reliable systems transform work from crisis into routine. Like any complex endeavor, progress becomes sustainable when approached with calculation rather than reaction. In the end, success will find a student who works smarter, not harder. The student who plans first rarely needs to fight at all.