GTD doesn’t handle time/deadline-based tasks very well.

I recommend REALLY chunking your assignments down. Way down. Depending on what your reading assignments look like, maybe to 10 pages of a textbook at a time, or one article at a time, etc. Make sure each chunk is something you can very easily do in one sitting.

Then divide your total number of chunks by the total number of weeks before you need to have the reading completed. Firmly set a deadline each week by which time that week’s chunks need to be completed.

The tinier my next actions are, the more eager I am to check things off, and the more I get done. It will take a couple solid hours to get it setup, but since you know all your responsibilities in advance, you can type it up fairly easily.

Do you have a blog, a Twitter account, a Facbeook profile, etc.? Those are great for holding yourself publicly accountable. I’m amazed by what I get done if I know 600 people on Twitter can click my URL at any moment and see half-written content on my website, for example.

As long as you continue to procrastinate, you will have a hard time getting things done, no matter what organization system you use.

I used to be in a similar situation at work where I had many projects that all had due dates, but I didn’t have anybody watching over my shoulder to make sure I was working on them. A solution that helped me get out of that rut was to create a calendar in iCal to stay accountable to. Every time I got a new project I would break it down into multiple sub-projects, guesstimate the time each one would take, then schedule a block of time on my calendar to do it.

At first I just thought of it as if I had a boss who was scheduling me to work certain hours, and I had to be there or I’d be in trouble. But once I got everything that I needed to do staring back at me on a calendar, I gained a better sense of control. Now I can instantly see how flaking out on work to hang out with my friends will impact my schedule two weeks from now. And as an added bonus I know exactly when it is ok to push a project out until tomorrow. That’s my favorite principle of GTD - always knowing that what I am doing right is what I should be doing right now, even if it is hanging out with friends or just vegging in front of the tube.

If you don’t have a calendar I’d recommend either iCal or gCal. They’re both great.