Don’t Stress: hit it early

It’s about that time of year. Midterms are over, we have a pretty good idea of how we are doing in our classes, big tests and projects are on the horizon, but right now it’s the calm before the storm.

Some advice: start on those projects and on those readings now.

The reason you want to start on those things now instead of waiting, is that all of your classes are all going to ramp up toward the end of the semester. If you procrastinate and then are having to catch up in addition to reviewing for finals, you workload is going to double, triple, quadruple, maybe even quintuple depending on how many classes you are taking. This can have a snowball effect, because you will be

• losing sleep (see this article from ScienceDaily on the topic) trying to wake up early and stay up late in order to get all the studying in you need to do
• running out of time to do really quality work, because you have so much to do
• losing more sleep because you are having to spend more time catching up
• having a hard time focusing on your studies and projects because of lack of sleep or stress because of bad time management
• etc.

And this can all be avoided if you

• start research now. You don’t need to even start your paper, just spend 15 minutes here and there thinking about your paper topics and writing some ideas down/finding resources that you can use for your required number of sources.
• start reviewing now. Take half an hour and write down some notes (or draw pictures/diagrams or come up with songs or whatever works best for you based on your learning style) on one chapter a day.
• start on your projects now. If you have team projects coming up, take 15 minutes and brainstorm ideas so that you have something to contribute when it comes time to meet. If you are working by yourself, then finish it as quick as you can! If you can get to work on it now, when you have some extra time and can finish early, or get early feedback from your professor, your grades will be that much better because you will have one less thing to do that will divide your focus and energy.

And the great thing is, it won’t even take you that long. Allocate 15 minutes, 10 minutes even for every class you’re taking and spend that time getting a head start and I guarantee that you will be ahead of most of your classmates, which can often mean getting A in that class, especially classes that grade on a curve.

Cut yourself some slack and hit your studies early.

What’s your style?

Don’t be confused: this is not actually a fashion post. The styles I want to talk about are learning styles, and the reason why is that our education system can actually box you in and keep you from getting good grades if you let it. You can let it do this to you if you simply don’t know yourself.

4 ideas for having a better day

Ok, so we’re college students. Life can get pretty routine: get up, go to class, study, go to class again, come home, eat, nap, watch TV, eat, play video games, study, go to bed. Something like that. Maybe you eat more, maybe you talk with your friends in between classes, maybe you work some days (or everyday), maybe you hit the town some nights, or go to the bar regularly. Whatever your routine is, we all have one.

For a lot of us, life can be boring, or it can be stressful, and most of us feel tired constantly.

This can be because of extremely full schedules, bad time management, poor eating, too much caffeine or trouble sleeping.

Personally, I’m tired of being tired.

Take a break…seriously

I bet you wouldn’t hear your parents tell you to spend more time with your friends and get some sleep as a remedy for poor test marks. But it turns out, that if you are studying too much, your grades may suffer. Why is this you ask?

Less (now) is more

Procrastination. We all do it. Or we’ll do it later (haha…come on, how could I not make that joke??).

A lot of us function (and can sometimes function pretty well) in the state of crisis brought on by cramming, and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

But doing a couple things can help you study more effectively and generally keep your stress levels down which will help you focus better throughout the semester.

Spread, not dread

Do your work throughout the week, a little at a time, instead of cramming.

Cramming hardcore right before a test or a due date is neither a pleasant nor effective way to learn.

Instead of reading for 4 hours straight the night before (or at 2am), read for 30-40 minutes here and there a week or so before you have to have the reading done. Take notes or do whatever helps you retain the information you’re taking in while you read. That way, before the test you can just read your notes or look at your flashcards and feel good about what you’ve read.

Make a weekly and daily to-list

This helps me see visually what I have to do, and also gives me peace of mind when I see that I’m done with what I have to do today.

When I know I’m done, I can have fun instead of being stressed about what I need to do.

For those that tend to party harder than you study, this helps keep you organized so you don’t fall behind.

Having a good perspective on your workload can be the difference between a stressful day and a pleasant day. Know what you need to do and know what you don’t need to do. Why worry about things you don’t need to worry about?