Let's face it: as college students, we all like to procrastinate.Ironically, I procrastinated writing this blog. Oops.
But, seriously, college is way too fun for homework! There's too much going on, too many clubs and organizations to be a part of. Homework definitely gets pushed to the back burner more often than not. And now, it's a week before finals. Extra credit is due, term papers need to be turned in and exams need to be studied for... And we also have final club meetings, end of the year parties, late night Whataburger runs, laundry to do and friends to hang out with! This is why finals week is so stressful and scary, but there's a way to make it better.
In my last post, I talked about scheduling time over breaks and I'm going to offer a similar suggestion now. If you can attempt to schedule out time for each assignment throughout the week, managing time becomes a lot easier. Of course, there is still plenty to do, and tons of things come up (Whataburger is a necessity after 11pm) and so it's almost impossible to schedule out time for every little thing that you possibly want to do.
Instead, I recommend just planning out your assignments based on priority. If you can look at your syllabus and determine what is due when, you can designate time for each subject. For example: it's Monday and you have a paper due on Friday. On Tuesday and Wednesday you can schedule time to write the paper, but plan to have it finished by Thursday. This gives you enough time to write, without devoting your whole day to it, and you can also take breaks to study for other things as well.
This isn't a perfect system by any means, and getting used to it takes some practice, but it's something I've found helpful to keep all my hair in place during the last few weeks of school.
What about you? Any finals advice of your own? Does this advice just suck? Let me know!
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Bring on the Break! ...or not.
It's that time of year again! Turkey is cooking, Christmas lights are lining the building and plans are being made for every relative you've ever met to come visit. Ahh, the holidays! It also means that school is almost over! That's the best part, honestly.
The fall semester always seems like we're just jumping from one break to the next, even more so as these final weeks tick away. Unfortunately, in between Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks we have finals. *cue scary music* As such, every professor likes to pile insane amounts of homework onto us that need to be accomplished in this little amount of time. So, how do we get to enjoy our break and prep for finals? It seems a hard task, since a stressful activity such as homework doesn't really help relax on our time away from school.
There's a simple solution for this: time management. Now, personally, this isn't my strong suit. There's always something more fun to do, especially with a younger brother who owns every XBOX game that came out in the last two months and already gloats about how much fun they are and how good he is at them...punk.
My weakness for movie theaters and time with high school friends also rears its ugly head whenever I go home. So, yeah, homework rarely gets done whenever I'm break, which results in my having to come back to campus early to pull an all-nighter on Sunday. Who wants to do that? None of us.
But we do. The Student Center is packed out almost every Sunday, full to bursting after an official break. How do we break this cycle and actually get to sleep before class on Monday? Again, time management.
A good way that I've found to accomplish the things that I need to do, as well as the things I want to do is to make a schedule. Plan out your trip and schedule times for different activities. For example, homework can be done in the morning, friends seen in the afternoon and family in the evening. If you can do this, and stick to it, giving yourself time to accomplish homework, your breaks become a lot more productive, instead of just lounging around and gorging yourself on mom's cooking. I mean, that will happen too, but you'll be productive so it's less depressing.
What do you think? Is this is a helpful idea or do you just hate the idea of working on a break? Do you have any tips or strategies to stay productive? Comment and let me know!
The fall semester always seems like we're just jumping from one break to the next, even more so as these final weeks tick away. Unfortunately, in between Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks we have finals. *cue scary music* As such, every professor likes to pile insane amounts of homework onto us that need to be accomplished in this little amount of time. So, how do we get to enjoy our break and prep for finals? It seems a hard task, since a stressful activity such as homework doesn't really help relax on our time away from school.
There's a simple solution for this: time management. Now, personally, this isn't my strong suit. There's always something more fun to do, especially with a younger brother who owns every XBOX game that came out in the last two months and already gloats about how much fun they are and how good he is at them...punk.
My weakness for movie theaters and time with high school friends also rears its ugly head whenever I go home. So, yeah, homework rarely gets done whenever I'm break, which results in my having to come back to campus early to pull an all-nighter on Sunday. Who wants to do that? None of us.
But we do. The Student Center is packed out almost every Sunday, full to bursting after an official break. How do we break this cycle and actually get to sleep before class on Monday? Again, time management.
A good way that I've found to accomplish the things that I need to do, as well as the things I want to do is to make a schedule. Plan out your trip and schedule times for different activities. For example, homework can be done in the morning, friends seen in the afternoon and family in the evening. If you can do this, and stick to it, giving yourself time to accomplish homework, your breaks become a lot more productive, instead of just lounging around and gorging yourself on mom's cooking. I mean, that will happen too, but you'll be productive so it's less depressing.
What do you think? Is this is a helpful idea or do you just hate the idea of working on a break? Do you have any tips or strategies to stay productive? Comment and let me know!
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Getting Started
Hey there!
So, you're probably looking at this and going "okay, what is this all about?" Let me tell you!
I was looking at blogs recently, specifically blogs for college students, and I noticed that there was a serious lack of weblogs that were focused on students that aren't freshmen. Everything's all about "prepare for college", "get ready for college", "what to pack for college", etc. Well, I've been in college about a year and a half now. Where's my website? No one answered that question, so I decided to write one.
Numerous studies have shown that college students hold a significant influence when it comes to internet usage, proven by the amount of time my friends spend on Facebook alone. Social media is a large portion of this, as college students, and people in general seek to connect with others over the internet. The sites we visit usually have a level of communication with other people, even if only in comments that we look at, but it makes us feel connected. We connect, learn, live on the internet.
And, as college students, sometimes our option of "learning" from the internet seems like a bit of a rip-off, we rarely find anything actually helpful or new for us to learn. And some days, we're okay with that. We pay school enough for them to teach us something. A lot of the time we just want to look at cats.
And I get that. I understand. But, I want this blog to be different. Here, I'm hoping to create a place where things can be learned, useful, helpful things that college students can all use and benefit from. We're more than freshmen, and I want to start showing that on the internet.
So that's this blog! Check it out when you need some help, or just want to talk to fellow students. And talk to me! Do you like this idea? Would you use it? What kind of tips would you like or benefit from? And if you want me to post a funny or helpful story, email it to me at spencerstephens1@gmail.com!
Next time, I'm gonna talk about how to use your break productively; get stuff done and have fun!
So, you're probably looking at this and going "okay, what is this all about?" Let me tell you!
I was looking at blogs recently, specifically blogs for college students, and I noticed that there was a serious lack of weblogs that were focused on students that aren't freshmen. Everything's all about "prepare for college", "get ready for college", "what to pack for college", etc. Well, I've been in college about a year and a half now. Where's my website? No one answered that question, so I decided to write one.
Numerous studies have shown that college students hold a significant influence when it comes to internet usage, proven by the amount of time my friends spend on Facebook alone. Social media is a large portion of this, as college students, and people in general seek to connect with others over the internet. The sites we visit usually have a level of communication with other people, even if only in comments that we look at, but it makes us feel connected. We connect, learn, live on the internet.
And, as college students, sometimes our option of "learning" from the internet seems like a bit of a rip-off, we rarely find anything actually helpful or new for us to learn. And some days, we're okay with that. We pay school enough for them to teach us something. A lot of the time we just want to look at cats.
 |
| You're welcome |
So that's this blog! Check it out when you need some help, or just want to talk to fellow students. And talk to me! Do you like this idea? Would you use it? What kind of tips would you like or benefit from? And if you want me to post a funny or helpful story, email it to me at spencerstephens1@gmail.com!
Next time, I'm gonna talk about how to use your break productively; get stuff done and have fun!
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