How to Stop Missing Canvas Assignments

Canvas puts each class in its own space, which is great for teachers and easy for students to lose track of. If you've ever found a missing assignment a day late, these steps help make sure nothing slips through again.

1. Turn on the right Canvas notifications

In Canvas, open Account → Notifications. The settings worth turning on are due dates, new assignments, and grading. Set them to notify you right away or as a daily summary, whichever you'll actually read. Too many notifications is almost as bad as none, so you can leave discussion and announcement alerts on weekly.

2. Check the To Do list and Calendar, not just course pages

Canvas's dashboard To Do list and the Calendar show upcoming work from all of your courses together. Make checking one of them a daily habit instead of clicking through each class.

3. Get Canvas due dates on your phone's calendar

Canvas can share your course calendar as a feed. In the Canvas Calendar, look for the Calendar Feed link and copy it, then subscribe to it in Google Calendar or Apple Calendar. Your due dates then show up next to everything else in your life. The catch: calendar feeds only include dates, not your grades or which assignments you've already turned in.

4. Put everything in one planner

The most reliable fix is one list that has every assignment from every class, sorted by due date, that you can check off. You can keep it by hand, but it's easy to fall behind on copying things in, which is exactly when assignments get missed.

5. Build a two-minute daily routine

1. Look at what's due in the next three days.
2. Pick the one thing you'll finish today.
3. Break anything big (a paper, a project) into smaller tasks with their own dates.
4. Check off what's done so the list stays honest.

If a teacher posts work outside Canvas (a website, a paper handout, Google Classroom), add it to the same planner right away. A system only works if everything is in it.