The Sneaky Student

Over the winter break, I was thinking about how little work I did in the first term of my freshman year (not that it truly bothered me). I’m well aware that most of my friends at halls did as little work as I did the first term, but I had a little guilt set in over the holidays, and I want to start this next term off with a bang. Out of that, this list was born.

1. keep my new years resolutions.
2. make a list of things to do before going to bed/after waking up.
3. re-start an activity that you’ve stopped, but wish you hadn’t.
4. make some new friends in your lectures.
5. get a weekend/part-time job.
6. make yourself an exercise routine and schedule.
7. make separate weekly planners for school-work, sports, social, work and meals.
8. make a habit of review your school-work and goals once a week.
9. think about time management and spending your time optimally.
10. attend all of your classes.

1. keep my new years resolutions.  > This has probably already evaded a few of you, because you goals were either silly, or you had no well thought out way of achieving them.  Goals should be Specific, Measurable,Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Boxed.  Specific, because vagueness will mean identifying steps towards completion of this goal will be impossible, and failure would be inevitable. Measurable, for the same reasons.  Achievable,  so that you can actually complete the goal. Relevant, so that you’re not wasting your time.  Time-boxed, so that there is some urgency, and you can’t endlessly procrastinate.  For more information, check out the dumb little man blog.
2. make a list of things to do before going to bed/after waking up.  > Having morning and evening rituals is a good idea for many reasons.  For starters, there are bound to be things that you should do at these times of day, that you don’t currently do: so to turn them into habits by creating a ritual.  An example for me would be flossing before bedtime. You can also add things to these lists that you have to/like to do daily, but often find yourself not finding time for whatever reason e.g. reading a chapter of a novel or listening to a podcast.
3. re-start an activity that you’ve stopped, but wish you hadn’t.  > Obviously, don’t make this a bad habit, like biting your fingernails, and don’t turn this into an excuse to start smoking again either! This point is for an activity like reading fiction, something which I’ve tended not to do for the last two years or so. I’ve started reading The Time Traveller’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger) and I am enjoying it immensely. Whether it be a sport or a hobby, there’s bound to be something that you’d like t start up again, and this is the perfect opportunity to do so.
4. make some new friends in your lectures. > This is just about getting out of your comfort zone and meeting some new people. You probably know a dozen people in each of your lectures, and you recognize a fair few more around campus. Make the new semester a chance to befriend people you that you know of, but don’t hang out with. Expanding your social circle is never a bad thing, and maybe you’ll meet a couple of people you always thought looked really boring, but you turn out to share a billion interests with them
5. get a weekend/part-time job. > Now that you’re settled in, know your way around campus (and town), and you’ve settled in to some sort of routine of homework, or lack of it, you should consider getting a part-time job.  Even if money isn’t an issue (and let’s face it, most students wouldn’t mind an extra ~hundred $/week) it can be a great way of socializing and getting your mind off school-work. I’m certainly considering one this term, just for the weekends.
6. make yourself an exercise routine and schedule.  > Everyone needs to lose the dreaded holiday flab, and maintaining a gym habit is something a find particularly difficult. Usually, it will develop from a week where I’m sick, and then never get back into the habit properly. So, create or follow a routine that you’ve put together, or start a new one. Then schedule what days and what times you’re going to go to the gym/go on a run and, voila.  Now, the hard part is sticking with it; for inspiration, re-read the first tip.
7. make separate weekly planners for school-work, sports, social, work and meals.  > I find that for organization, nothing beats a pen and a notepad, so start there. Off the back of a successfully-stuck-to revision timetable that I made for this term’s exams, I decided to organize my time by use of a weekly hand-drawn organiser. I’ve never really stuck to a revision schedule so well before, so I figured stick with something that works. Also, BONUS TIP: a useful as it is to Time-box for long-term goals, I’d suggest not doing the same for small/medium sized  ”tasks’. My revision plan merely said what topics had to be covered that day, and I never even measured how long each task took.
8. make a habit of review your school-work and goals once a week.  > This is still something I haven’t fully implemented, but is vital to keeping track on goals, and to make sure you get a close to 100% recall as you can on the subject-matter of the previous week’s classes.  Using memory techniques is also a good way of learning specific groups of data, but I’m sure I’ll get into that in a different post.
9. think about time management and spending your time optimally. > This boils down to once main concept.  When you are working, focus ONLY on your work. Don’t let anything distract from the main task at hand. Get into flow.
10. attend all of your classes.  > This is not something I was able to do, or should I say, chose to do, last semester.  One of my lectures was so mind-numbingly dull, that by the second week, I just didn’t  turn up. Another lecturer just gave out a sheet and we went through it with them for the whole lecture; also ditched by week two. However, I came to realize, however dull these lectures are, if I’m taking the period as a free, I’m still doing less work than all the rest f the students, even though I know that the lecture is not really helping. So, this tip comes with the caveat: if your lectures are truly not worth going to, then make sure you are doing something useful in that time instead. (And it goes without saying, any lectures missing because of laziness must be attended)

I’m sure this list will keep me buzzing to return to Uni and getting uber-productive. So, have you got any interesting resolutions in mind when you get back to College this semester?