It’s 2:12 AM. You’re sitting in front of your laptop in a deserted corner of the library where you know there’s a power outlet. You’re 4 pages away from completing that 15-page paper due tomorrow morning for your 200 level sociology class. You wrote the first paragraph a week ago, then wrote the rest in the last six hours. You’re kicking yourself for not getting more done sooner, but of course there were more fun things to do. Such is life as a college student, so you pry your eyes away from your Facebook feed, pound the rest of your third cup of coffee, and force your gaze back upon the ever-so-bright screen of your word processor while the deadline ticks ever closer.
If you can relate to this story in anyway, then you are among the majority of college students that suffer from procrastination. There’s that common cliché in college that you can choose two of three things in college, good grades, enough sleep, or a full social life. I’ve lived through it, and now that I’ve transitioned into the workforce I’ve been forced to hone my ability to produce in order to survive the professional jungle. Through observations of my academic career and more recent notes on the corporate atmosphere, I am here to tell you that you can throw aside the statute that you can only have two-thirds of the pie that is collegiate success, and enjoy the whole thing yourself. All it will take is a bit of self-reflection and willingness to develop discipline.
Have a notebook or medium to record things:
Research has shown that writing things down helps you remember them. Integrating this into your own life will not only help you remember tasks that you need to complete, but also give you a checklist that you can mark off throughout the day. I have found that I have much more productive days from writing down the tasks I need to complete. A good time to write them down is in the evening before you go to sleep, so you can wake up knowing exactly what you need to accomplish. Albeit if you are more of a morning person and have the time, take a few minutes before starting your day. It doesn’t matter when you write the tasks down, as long as you do it.
Another important thing to remember is to only write two or three of your most important tasks that you can accomplish throughout the day (small errands can be listed afterward). I tend to write the most important or urgent task as the first or star it so I know that I need to get it done. These tasks can range from homework assignments, to attending office hours or making a car payment. Whatever you know you need to get done to make progress in your life.
Setting Goals:
Another important thing to remember is to be conscious of what you need to get done and set goals for yourself. This can be on a daily basis, as well as setting goals for the longer term accomplishments that you wish to achieve. This differs from writing down your tasks for the day, finishing your homework, studying for that test, or writing that paper. These aren’t long term goals, because they have to get done no matter what. A proper goal would be “I’m going to get an A in my psychology class”, or “I will get above a 90 on my final Calculus exam”. It doesn’t always have to be reaching for high marks; in fact, you should know your own ability in the class and set the goals lofty enough where you’re happy with the results but not so high that it’s unrealistic and you’re bound to leave yourself disappointed.
It is also important to emphasize the desired outcome of your goals. You want it to be specific, and have a certain quantitative factor. Simply stating “I want to do better on my Calculus test” is too relative. In order to make a measured amount of progress it would be better to state the goal as “I want to score at least an 85 on my Calculus test, in order to improve my overall grade to a B. When the goal is stated with a specific level of achievement in mind, you can begin to focus on specifically what you need to do to accomplish the task. Here are some more examples of specific goals:
Example 1
Overall goal: “I will run the New York City marathon in under four hours.”
Plan of Action: “I will run every day, running a half-marathon distance once a week and a full marathon distance once a month for six months before the race. I will improve my marathon time by 5 minutes each attempt.
Daily Task: “Today I will run a half marathon in under two hours.”
Example 2
Overall goal: “I will earn an A in my Psychology class”
Plan of Action: “I will study for two hours every day, starting two weeks before the exam.
Daily Task: “I will review my flashcards for Units 3-6 for two hours today.”
Take note of how there is an overall goal, a specific plan of action to accomplish it, and a daily task to keep up with the plan of action. Also pay attention to the use of the word will in each statement, rather than “want to” or “plan to”. You should approach each task with the optimism that you can achieve it. It’s also important to remember that you are only human, so if you fail to accomplish the task of the day or procrastinate, you should have the ability to shake off any guilt or self-doubt and make sure that you get back on track the next day.
And remember, the road to success is a marathon, not a sprint! Jokes aside, take baby steps and keep your focus on the goals that you want to accomplish.
Schedule some dedicated time for work:
Despite whether you’re pursuing an Engineering , English, Chemistry, or a basket-weaving degree, you should be dedicating some time to getting school work done, whether it’s completing assignments, reviewing materials, or studying for an exam. You are in college to take classes and get a degree, and you should be putting time aside to learn. Even if you think you are one of those people that doesn’t really need to study, do it anyway, because you probably missed something along the way. If anything, find some people in the class that are struggling and help them study. Everyone wins in this situations, because you cement the material in your own mind from teaching it to others, and they are able to learn something as well. You should be finding an appropriate amount of time per day to devote to academics, whether it’s one hour or six. Even if one day isn’t as productive as the others, at least you are creating discipline within yourself to put the work into your classes so you can earn better grades.
I know that I finally wised up and used this method while I was in graduate school, and it helped me to achieve much higher grades than I would have if I didn’t establish the habit of getting at least a little bit of work done each day.
Take time for yourself:
While it’s important to make time for your academics, you also need to invest time in yourself so that your daily life is as fulfilling as possible. College students get so wrapped up in what is going to happen to them: what grade they will get, what they are doing next weekend, where their future will end up. This just leads to more anxiety, which bogs down the ability to focus on what you need to accomplish in the present. In order to concentrate on the now, college students should be investing some portion of time in themselves on a daily basis. This can be anything as simple as catching up with a friend, playing videogames for an hour, getting that second cup of coffee, or anything else that will bring a moment of joy. Taking appreciation for these small pleasures is what helps us to enjoy our lives overall, and when we are focusing more on the present rather than worrying about the future, it leaves a lot more mental capacity for us to accomplish our goals.
Get Enough Sleep:
I cannot stress enough how important it is to get enough sleep. Those late night cramming sessions right before the test are actually not doing you any good. One of the treasured spokes of the college trifecta is also important for every stage of life. But by implementing simple routine, scheduling, and organization into your everyday life, you get enough sleep, do well in school, and have fun on the weekends (and the occasional Thirsty Thursday). The truth is, getting enough sleep will aid in helping you get better grades in school. In college there were times where I was cramming a lot the night before, but would force myself to stop after a certain point so that I could at least get some sleep. The reason for this was because I knew if I wanted to retain the information my brain needed rest and process what I had learned. Getting enough sleep is difficult in college, as most people will procrastinate, and end up staying up late to get their work done. However this can be avoided by simply scheduling enough time everyday where you force yourself to sit down and get school work done. It doesn’t have to be at the same time every day, but you should at least wake up in the morning having an idea of when you are going to study.
So how much sleep should you get? The known standard is eight hours of sleep for every 24-hour period. However, if your schedule doesn’t permit this you should be getting at least 6, so that you can get a full REM cycle in. This is the period where your body is in deep sleep, and it is this form of sleep where your body recovers, and your brain retains knowledge.
“But Tom, my friends go out three nights a week and I want to go with them or I will miss out on the fun.” Alright, that’s fair, but also recognize that you have class at 8 AM tomorrow and a paper due on Friday, AND a test to start studying for. If you go out tonight, you’ll be exhausted for your class tomorrow, and won’t have any motivation to get everything else done that you need to. Why not make the wiser decision to stay in tonight, get your work done, turn in early, wake up for class refreshed and feeling prepared? Then you will have more time to celebrate a productive week on the weekend. Taking a small amount of effort to organize your time efficiently so that you get enough sleep will have tremendous benefits on every other aspect of your life.
Get enough Exercise:
With a full schedule of classes, and hours of time dedicated to studying and completing assignments it can be hard to fit in time to go to the gym or get that run in. But by forcing yourself to take some time for yourself you’ll actually end up preparing your body and mind to accomplish all of those thing that you have on your plate. That test you have to study for may be important, but so is your health. Your brain is a part of your body, and if one part isn’t fully functioning it’s going to hamper every other part of the system. If you don’t take care of yourself and exercise and eat healthy (we’ll get to the other part) your brain’s ability to memorize, think, and cultivate a positive attitude will be severely hindered. I’m sure everyone reading this has heard how exercise releases chemicals that make you happier. This is true, but if you push yourself too hard right off the bat, you can end up defeating yourself and not continuing. The important thing to keep in mind about staying in shape is to pick an activity that you enjoy doing. Can’t afford that fancy CrossFit membership? Luckily a lot of it is body weight exercises, which you can do on your own. If you enjoy running, take a half hour of time you would normally spend watching Netflix to run around campus. Hell, even walking for fifteen minutes a day will benefit your health tremendously. Go for a hike, find a treadmill, run up some stairs, go to a Zumba class, play a club sport, do something! The important thing is that you find a physical activity that you enjoy doing or at least don’t mind doing consistently and try to do it at least three times a week. School can sometimes get in the way, which is fine, but make sure to find time to get some physical activity in.
If you really can’t squeeze in a few hours to get some form of body movement in, at least start small and do some pushups and sit-ups in your dorm room, even if you only start with 10 per day. The important thing is that you take the small amount of time to do it consistently so you get in the habit. You can add more repetitions in and other basic movements once you establish a routine.
Eat (somewhat) healthy:
You’re in college, it’s a given you are going to drink gratuitously and eat garbage. But it’s important that you’re at least aware of what you put in your body. If you establish some sort of system where you eat “healthy” for some percentage of meals your body and grades will be better off. Extra credit if you can eat healthy almost all the time.
Examples of things you should eat:
Vegetables: broccoli spinach, peppers
Proteins: chicken, lean beef, beans, fish
(if you’re on that ultra-vegan paleo diet that one person with dreadlocks turned you onto, then I can’t help
Examples of things to avoid (or limit): pizza, chicken tenders, pasta, ramen, carbs in general, soda, all fast food.
You may think that I am referring to when you are actually getting your work done… well I am, but there’s more to it than that. Not only is it good to eliminate outside distractions while you’re working (i.e. mobile devices and social media) but you should also be aware of how much you are using these luxuries in your down time as well. In the modern age, our brains are wired to be stimulated for every waking moment due to constant distractions around us. TV, email, Facebook, Netflix, Buzzfeed articles, you name it. All of these serve to provide you a dose of dopamine, which you become addicted to. Becoming mindful of how often you default to these distractions, and then mitigating that time and allocating it towards more productive activities will allow you to increase your ability to focus, set goals, and achieve them.
Ask for help
This is one that many people, myself included, struggle with on a daily basis. Everyone likes to think that they are smart and capable enough to accomplish anything on their own, but often times when they go at it solo it just leads to frustration and failure. You aren’t the only person on this planet that has to do the task you are set out to do, so find resources that will help you succeed. No successful person got to where they are today (Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Barack Obama) without a strong support system behind them. So ask for help, and be sure to give help to others, as there can only be positive benefits.
So who can you ask for help? Your instructors, your classmates, your roommate, your parents (for moral support). Go to office hours, ask questions during class, talk to the instructor after class. Often times this lead to some sort of familiarity between you and the instructor, and even if you still struggle, they are more likely to be lenient or help you out more in the future. You can’t be afraid of people thinking ill of you for wanting to do well, because the reality is they are probably impressed by your determination and afraid to ask for help themselves.
Ask for help, it’s how successful people accomplish things.
In Summary:
After reading through, hopefully you were able to pick up on the theme that this article is less about multiple life hacks to have the ultimate college experience and more focusing on improving one thing, self-discipline. Knowing how to manage your time will help you stay on top of the important stuff, stay energized and happy from getting enough sleep and exercise, while still finding time to have fun. Creating an optimized schedule ahead of time prevents you from wasting brain power on what you should do next so you don’t fall behind. Be proactive, and you can break the mythical college trifecta!
Excelitarian 