College Success Tip – Study At The Library

Some people claim that they get more out of studying when the television is on in front of them – they may feel like they are retaining the information, but it is very difficult to have a quality study session with distractions.  Throw in phone calls, text messages, emails, people and all kinds of other distractions, and it becomes pretty much impossible to be productive.  You will end up spending hours of your time getting nothing done, which is a complete waste of time.  If you just go to the library, put your cell phone on silent and find a quiet room you’ll get more done in one hour than you would sitting in your dorm room for five hours trying to study.

Studying at the library is an efficient and effective way to get significantly more accomplished in much less time.  You will survive for an hour without a text message, phone call or email, even if it is hard to believe.

The Bottom Line:  When you need to study, find a quiet spot in the library, put the phone on silent and get it finished.  Don’t waste hours on end thinking you are being productive while you are really not getting anything done.  One hour of focused studying is quicker and more effective than hours of putting forth a minimal effort with constant distractions.

College Success Tip – Turn In Work You Are Proud To Put Your Name On

Make sure that any assignment, project or exam you turn in is something you are always proud to put your name on it.  This doesn’t mean that you need to pull an all-nighter studying for a quiz that is 1% of your grade, but make sure you are always doing quality work you are proud of.

Just make sure to do the little things like following the instructions, checking for mistakes, turning in a clean copy and putting forth a strong effort.  Also make sure not to plagiarize and steal other peoples ideas.

The Bottom Line:  Never turn in work you are embarrassed to put your name on and know you didn’t give an appropriate amount of effort into completing.  That one poor assignment may stick in your professor’s head for the rest of the semester and could affect your grades on other assignments.

Young Professional Success Tip – Have Balance

Balancing your life and career sounds easy, but will more than likely be difficult for you if you have set big goals for yourself.  You will be focused on building your career, learning as much as possible, having a social life, spending time with family and all of the other things that are important to you.  A few of the many things that will be pulling you in different directions:

• Career
• Family
• Social Life
• Faith
• Community Involvement
• Volunteer Work
• Plus sleeping and eating!

Chances are good that you have a strong desire to be successful at everything you are involved with, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this.  So how do you balance all of these items and spend the appropriate time on each?  Here are a few suggestions you can easily do right now:

• Prioritize what is most important to YOU
• Develop a manageable routine that allows you to do it all without being stretched too thin
• Build in time each week to relax your body and mind
• Give yourself time during the year to rest and recharge the batteries – weekend road trips with minimal sleep don’t count!
• Don’t be scared to turn your work email off on the PDA during nights and weekends

Everyone is going to want a piece of you and of your most valuable asset:  your time.  Co-workers, charitable organizations, kids, friends, family, a significant other, people you are mentoring and many others will all want to be around you.  You must give each of those parties the time they need and deserve, but not anything above or below that.  You simply cannot give the same amount of time, or access, to each person.  Know what amount of time you need to spend with certain people and doing certain things, then build a balanced calendar that allows you to appropriately balance it all.  This won’t be easy and is a constant work in progress – the important thing is that you do your best and focus on having balance.

College Success Tip – Have Excellent Time Management Skills

If you manage your time efficiently, you will be able to accomplish 10 times as much as an “average” student would without having to work 10 times as hard.  By following a few easy time management tips, you will be able to produce bigger and better results.

The first thing you need is a calendar that has everything you do scheduled on it.  On the first day of class when you are handed a syllabus, immediately put all important dates on your calendar.  All of your exams, projects and other due dates should be placed in the appropriate dates.  Also put the dates/times for all of the other activities you are involved with, such as weekly meetings, intramural sports games, the un’versity’s football schedule and anything else that you know you will be doing.

As you’re building your schedule, make sure that you are in control of it. Don’t let it control you.  In other words, get all of your obligations out of the way as early as possible so that you can spend the evening going out or relaxing.  Don’t schedule a group meeting for 10pm if you can all meet at noon – the longer you drag out your obligations, the longer your day will feel and the longer it will take to accomplish the same results.  Managing your time effectively means scheduling things back-to-back as much as possible so that you don’t have a bunch of wasted time in the middle of your day.

At the end of each day, take 5 minutes to plan out the following day.  You can use a notepad, a note card or blank place in your calendar to list the following:  times you need to be places (class, meetings, gym, etc) and the tasks you need to accomplish for the day (prioritized by importance).  The more specifically you schedule your day, the more you can accomplish.  If you plan on taking a nap then put it on the agenda; the more you can plan the better.  Imagine how good it will feel every morning to wake up and know exactly what you need to accomplish for the day to be successful – meanwhile, your friends will be stressed out, annoyed, overwhelmed and confused because they don’t have a clue what they need to get done first every morning when they wake up!

The Bottom Line: Anyone can wake up and work hard all day, but the truly successful students are the ones who have a plan and can produce results each day.  The better you manage your time, the more you can accomplish in a certain amount of time. When you combine a hard work ethic with a well planned day, you will be unstoppable and feel in control!