Procrastination is a hard habit to break especially when you’re in college. But in order to give you a clue on how you can beat this, try the following advice –
- Recognize the pattern of procrastination. Since it is a habit, you must be able to recognize when it is happening. No one can do this for you and there is no easy way to do this than becoming conscious of your own habits. Who knows what you will discover in the process?
- Reward yourself for every project or assignment accomplished. There must be some form of redundancy in your life especially in college. Break this redundant pattern by rewarding yourself to do something different as your prize for completing a task.
- Try peer pressure. No, this is not the same as what you’re imagining right now. It simply means you need someone to always check up on how you’re doing. Allow them to punish you and be serious with it otherwise this will not work.
- Identify the sorts of punishment or consequences you will receive if you don’t do the task apart from grades or teacher’s reprimand. It should be grave enough to make you feel pressured. This will stimulate your mind in some way.
In college, your employer is your time – if you want to get a bonus, you need to work hard for it.
“There is always time for everything.” You might have come across this self-explanatory adage. But, do you really understand what it means? When you are faced with a pile of homework and projects, you will always be overwhelmed and feel like you’re running out of time. Here are some things to help you get things straight –
- Set your priorities. You’ve probably heard or read this before but seriously – there is no way around this. If you want to master time management, you need to break it into manageable chunks and it starts by setting priorities. List everything that must come first and put the rest down the bottom of the list if you can afford to do them later.
- Approximate the time according to the level of difficulty. If the particular project or homework needs more time then give it more focus. Do not jump from one project to another just because of time constraint. It will not get you anywhere near finishing that project.
- Learn how to say no. Yes, it’s better said than done but it does have its own benefits and advantages. It is only by saying no that you can free some of your time to take care of things that you should attend to.
Finally, always do today what you can instead of reserving it for later. Remember that in life, there is no later.
Most accomplished and productive people usually have one thing in common which is obsession with completion. When they are faced with projects, it is almost their compulsion to finish the task. If they are faced with a project, they would usually break it into manageable chunks especially when they are organized and systematic.
Some of them usually go for all-nighters especially when the project is too big to finish in a few sittings. But no matter how big or small the project is they usually get it done on time and in a consistent manner. If you want to be like them, it takes self discipline and hard work but you’ll get there.
However, if you focus on completion, you can finish tasks and projects in due time.
•Create your project list
If you have around 10 projects to complete, number them from 1 to 10 with 1 being the most important and 10 the least important. For example, you can put the project with the nearest deadline as the first priority. You should also label each project basing on their completion criteria. The first five on the list should be the go-list while the second half as the hold-list.
•Check your list daily
Make sure that you are making progress by completing small outlined tasks for the day. Your primary goal should be completing the project even if it means giving it a big push.
•Finish and start
Once you have finished one task, you can now start on a new project. Do not repopulate the list without doing the rest of the projects on the list. You can reload once all 10 have been finished.
You might be wondering whether this works and it does. Doing this kind of system teaches you to develop a trait that will help you become an accomplished student.
Doing more and working less is simply hard to implement. How then will you make things work out for you without wasting too much of your time? Below are some tips you can use to start working less and be more productive.
- Always keep track of how much you are actually getting done in a single day. It is common to feel guilty if you have things you need to do and yet you chose to have a lot of fun. Your current and future output when compared should show some increase. If you keep track of the things you actually did, it is easier for you to be more productive and spare time for some leisure.
- Avoid doing the same thing in one setting. Put some new experiences in between or discover some new methods of doing things so that you wouldn’t fuel the lazy person in you. You can join organizations, start new hobbies or find new challenges that would fuel your imagination and your mind.
- Know your motivation and keep it. If there are one or two things that can motivate or inspire you to do more, go for it. Not knowing what motivates you in doing something is an easy way to let the boredom creep in. Find a higher purpose why you should attend classes or finish assignments or projects.
- Sit down and focus on one task in one hour and you’ll realize you have done more than you can when you try to do all things at once in an eight our day.
Focus is the key to taking down notes effectively. Only take down notes that are new to you. What’s the point of writing down the things you already know? Furthermore, take down key points that are relevant and can be used later on. That being said, there are two major things you need to understand when taking down notes namely –
Taking down notes effectively means you have actually done the reading yourself. The information you need to take note includes –
- Dates for your notes to be in chronology and understand the entire event
- Names for you to associate the events or ideas better
- Theories which essentially are the main key points
- Definition of things that is new to you
- Points of arguments and debates such as pros and cons, criticisms of an idea and both sides of the coin.
- Illustrations and exercises
There are still things you need to take down. If your professor hardly writes on board then everything he writes in there should be written down unless the information is deemed self-evident or known. Also, listen to what your professor is saying. Anything relevant to the subject or topic that is not found in any printed document, text or books should be written down.
Your classmates may give information that is relevant as well. Try to capture their comments or questions. This will help you understand the entire topic later on.
Lastly, write down all your questions as they occur to you. This will help you remember to ask the professor and get you the answers you need.
It seems everybody just love to cram. You see students early in the morning running around in their homes trying to get everything in their bag as if it looks like trash ready to be thrown at the bin. How do you avoid going through all that mess and save time going to school?
•Wake up 30 minutes to 1 hour early. Alright, this might be a hard task to do especially when you’ve been into a long vacation but your body will get the hang of it as time passes. If you wake up early it means accomplishing tasks early.
•Prepare your clothes at night. If you are attending a school that doesn’t wear uniforms, you should plan what you should wear in the morning. This way, you save time going to school instead of ravaging through your closet or end up wearing you are not comfortable with.
•Prepare meals or snacks. If you pack your snacks and prepare them at home, you don’t need to waste time waiting in line to get your food in a restaurant. You can just eat at some isolated place at school with your friends or alone – you decide.
•Schedule your research day and avoid going to the library unnecessarily. Fit the research day into your weekly schedule and don’t leave the library unless you managed to get all info you need.
These are just some of the things that will let you save time when you attend college. Is there anything more you want to add on this list?
Time management is one of the things that are not taught inside the four corners of a classroom. It is a skill you need to develop so that you become more productive and do many things all at once.
•Always read your emails and don’t leave anything sitting in your inbox. Sort out the emails into categories or folders. If the message needs more time before replying, leave it on the to-do folder and so forth. The point is you need to clear your inbox from clutter.
•Multitasking isn’t always good especially for college students who didn’t grow up in the technology invaded world. Multitasking is deadly if you don’t know how to juggle watching TV, replying to instant messages and doing homework all at once. Try to limit this practice.
•Prioritize the most important thing in your list. The first thing you need to do in the morning before you do anything is to list down the things you need to do whether you do this on your phone, notebook or paper is completely up to you.
•Read your emails daily but do it on schedule. It wouldn’t do you any good if you read emails as soon as it arrives. Even though someone contacted you, this doesn’t mean you have to respond immediately. If you want to be more productive at what you do, focus on the task that you specified on schedule and stick with it.
•Instead of making random notes just about anywhere, take advantage of bookmarking services. This will help you get rid of the clutter.
The best thing about time management is you get to achieve many things in a day without compromising on anything.
