A Solution To Your Facebook Addiction

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Study Tips
• Date: Feb 26,2008

There are articles all over the internet discussing the addiction of facebook, myspace, blogs, and other internet information addictions. They all tell you to do the same thing, just stop using social networks. Well, come on, none of us are going to stop checking our facebook. I know I am not, and I know you are not.

Why do we check our facebook so much? Here are a few reasons why.

• We don’t want to miss the next social event.
• We are bored.
• We are procrastinating
• Seeing if that attractive girl (or guy) responded to our comment.

So, we are not going to stop checking our facebook because it is socially beneficial. Humans are social, we can’t change that.

How to Spend Less Time On Facebook

1. Calculate how much time you spend checking your Facebook.

I just checked my facebook. All I did was looked at the notices and my inbox (I did not reply to anything or visit anyone’s page) and I spent 1 minute 30 seconds on facebook. Now how many times do you check your facebook? 5 times a day? 10 times? 5 times would be 7 minutes 30 seconds. 10 times would be 15 minutes.

Alright, that doesn’t seem like to much time. But do you also check your email, blogs, news, myspace, dating website, school email? If you spent 15 minutes a day with all of those. You are wasting time. You could be wasting 1-2 hours a day!

Do I have you convinced that you are wasting time? Good.

It’s not that difficult to reduce the time you spend on these websites without reducing the benefits of the sites.

2. Create a Google Email account.

This is the easiest part of saving time. To go to Google’s account creation click here.

Did you create an account? Easy Right?

Why Am I Creating a Google Email Account?

You are creating Google Email account because Google allows you to forward your email to programs like Outlook, programs on cellphones, and other electronic devices. Google offers this service for free! Unlike email services such as Yahoo.

3. Send Facebook Notices to Your Email

Now go to your facebook. Go to your account and under settings make sure that your new Google Email is your contact email for facebook.

Now here is the difficult part. In your facebook account go to Notifications. Turn off EVERYTHING that is not important. There is no need for you to be notified by email when someone POKES you! Keep notifications for such things as messages and invitations to events. That is the information you actually need.

Turn off ALL applications. Most applications are a complete waste of your time, similar to poking. Just turn them off. If you want to have fun with applications, schedule time on the weekend to play.

4. Do this with all social networks and things you subscribe to.

If you do these steps, all you need to do is check your Google Email. You will save a lot of time, not needing to go to every website to check your messages.

It Gets Better

Do you have Microsoft Outlook? If you don’t, I highly recommend you getting it. Most Universities sell Microsoft Outlook for a very low price, or possibly for free.

What is Outlook?

Outlook is a program that organizes your emails, lists your contacts, and supplies a nice calender. Using Outlook allows you to put all of your emails, from different accounts, onto one page. Outlook can check your mail every 2 minutes if you like, and a small pop up will appear to tell you have new mail.

If you use Outlook it eliminates any need to check your accounts, because it will let you know if Bob has left a message on facebook.

RSS Feeds

If you are a blogger, or a news junky. You probably know what an RSS feed is. If you don’t know what an RSS feed is don’t worry about it. But if you do subscribe to RSS feeds then Outlook can organize your feeds just like your emails.

Note: I did not give very specific details on how to setup Outlook and forwarding Emails with Google. The reason I did not is that depending on your school email and other things the process may be different. To set up your School Email up with Outlook visit your IT at your university.

If you need help, I probably can help. The more specific your question the easier it is for me to help.

Intro to Procrastination: What is Procrastination?

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Study Tips
• Date: Feb 24,2008

You hear people say it all the time. “I am a procrastinator!” But what really is a procrastinator? Is it good or bad? Some procrastinators claim that procrastinating improves their performance. They say, “I work better when I am under pressure.” Is this true? If so, everyone should be a procrastinator.

I would like to examine procrastination, the misconceptions of procrastination, and being able to recognize if you suffer from procrastination.

What is Procrastination?

According to Dictionary.com Procrastination is “to defer action or delay.” The key terms I would like to focus on are “defer” and “delay.” These terms mean one thing “inevitable.” What ever it is you are delaying, whether it’s writing your English paper or getting out of bed, it is inevitable that it will happen, you will get out of your bed.

Procrastination itself is inevitable. If your Professor assigns a paper to you, the second you walk out of the classroom and choose to not work on that paper right away, you are procrastinating. Perhaps you decided to go eat lunch instead.

If you want to defeat your habit of procrastination you first have to stop calling it procrastination, because it is inevitable and therefore you can never defeat it.

Misconceptions of Procrastination

As I said in the beginning, some say that procrastination makes them perform better. This is not true. It may seem true, I have even claimed this, but it is a false belief. With a little bit of critical thinking we can easily recognize that it does not.

The reason we believe procrastination makes us perform better is because we are under pressure. When we are under pressure we are forced to have a mindset that is focused.

When procrastinators attempt to be non procrastinators, by writing their paper a week in advance, they will do poorly on the paper because they were not focused when they wrote the paper. We can be focused without being pressured by time, but it is a skill that must be trained and attempted more than once.

If we are not going to procrastinate, when we actually do the assignment, we must force ourselves to focus. If not, our paper would have been better if we had procrastinated.

However, if we are focused and write our paper a week or two in advanced, we can write a paper that out performs our would be, procrastination paper.

Are You a Procrastinator?

You may think to yourself, I am always busy, I am always working on something, I am a productive person. Well, I hate to bust your bubble, but just because you are being productive does not mean you are not procrastinating. Procrastinating is due to inefficient use of time, Productivity is efficient use of your energy. There is a difference.

If you can learn to be Productive and Not Procrastinate, you are on your way to success!

In the upcoming weeks I will be posting on methods to correct your procrastination habits by learning to be motivated, creating schedules that will actually help you, and staying focused when you are performing the task.

Save Money and Improve Your Study Habits by Getting Rid of the Caffeine

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Study Tips
• Date: Feb 24,2008

Is caffeine good or bad for you?

Do a little research on caffeine you will discover that there are benefits to caffeine. According to a WebMD artcile “caffeine can improve memory, decrease fatigue, (and) improve your mental functioning.”

Sounds great for a college student. That’s all you need. Improve your memory so you can cram for tests, decrease fatigue so you stay up all night cramming for the test, and improve your mental function so you take the test.

You, like me, know that staying up all night cramming is not good for you. If you are going to study for a test, study in advance. Then you won’t have to stay up all night.

Caffeine: The key to staying up all night, no matter if you want to or not!

Do you have problems sleeping? The last thing you need is a restless night’s sleep before an exam day. But why can’t you sleep? Did you drink a soft drink, coffee, or tea today? If so, when did you drink it? If you want a good night’s rest I hope you had that drink before the afternoon.

Like most substances, Caffeine stays in your system for a long time, up to 12 hours. If you had a caffeinated drink at dinner time, about 7:00pm. That means the caffeine will be out of your system at 7:00am. I believe that is when you should be waking up.

But how does caffeine affect your sleeping? Well, all of those positive aspects of caffeine become negative. You should feel fatigued when you are sleeping, and you don’t want increased mental functions, because we all know that if anything can keep us awake it is our thoughts.

Saving Money by Not Drinking Caffeine?

Let’s compare the price of a non caffeinated drink, let’s say water, compared to a caffeinated drink.

• Water= Free (as long as you don’t spend money on bottled water. Buy a filter.)
• Coke = $0.40 a can (that’s if you buy a 12-pack at a very good price)
• Coffee = expensive
• Energy drinks= expensive

If you really want to drink caffeine, make some ice tea. All you need is water, tea bags, and sugar. All of that is not that expensive, considering the mass volume you can make. Also attempt to alternate from caffeine and water. Have one caffeinated drink then you should drink a glass of water before you have another caffeinated drink.

Also drinking water will save you more money in the long run. Chances of a tooth cavity by drinking water are very slim, and the amount of money required to fix the cavity is not so slim.

Don’t try it alone

Caffeine is a drug, and when you stop receiving the drug you will have withdrawals. The most notable withdrawal symptom is headaches, and what do you do to get rid of a headache? Drink some caffeine. It will be difficult to stop drink caffeinated drinks, so share this post with your friends and have a support group.

• I’ve stopped drinking caffeine daily and I have seen the benefits.
• Easier to wake up and get motivated, because I don’t feel like I need caffeine to start my day.
• I fall to sleep in a matter of minutes
• Because I sleep better, I have a much more predictable schedule. And a predictable schedule reduces my stress level.
• Most Importantly, I’m saving money

Jobs for College Students

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: College Advice
• Date: Feb 22,2008

The first day of class your professor makes the effort to say “You should not have a job! You should be spending three hours studying for every hour in class!”

You just laugh, because if you are like me, working is absolutely necessary if you want to live. Eating is important, and it is nice to go to the movies on occasion or go to a concert, just to keep your sanity.

But are there other options for college students? Can you get by without working during college semesters? I believe that working, at a restaurant, Wal-Mart, Target, at a grocery store, or other typical college and high school student jobs, is unnecessary. I will offer you other possibilities that will supply you with enough money to live during college without a “job”.

If you had a job, how many hours do you think you would work? 20 hours? At $8 dollars an hour, 20 hours a week would be $160 dollars a week. That would be $640 a month. Do you really need $640 a month? I know I don’t. This is how much I need

• $100 car insurance
• $20 cell phone
• $100 gas (if you don’t have a job to drive to you don’t need as much gas!)
• $40 fun (You should be able to have fun with $40 a month.)
• $200 food? (You may not even need food, if it is part of room and board.

That is a $460 total. To make that much a month, you only need to work 15 hours a week. See, I am already saving you some time!

Use Your 15 hours of Work as 15 Hours of Study Time

Think if you had 15 additional hours to study! Alright so take away 3 hours, because you would have a breaks at work so you should have breaks while studying. So you still have 12 hours extra a week to study! The average reader reads about 200 words per minute. At that rate, during your extra 13 hours you could read a 450-page book a week. That is a book a week. Wow!

And that is for the average reader. If you are reading 400 pages a week if you start as an average reader, I doubt you will remain one for long. You could reach a reading level of 600 words per minute. In that case, you could almost read 3×500 page books in a week.

With that much time to study, there is no reason that you should not have a 4.0 GPA.

But you’re asking, “Where is the Money?” Well, that is the difficult, there is no guarantee that you will get scholarship money, but if you can maintain a 4.0 GPA, I bet that you will get some scholarships.

And if you are going to university that costs $5,000 a semester, and you end up getting all of that. $5,000 a semester is a lot more than the $2,800 you would be making working 20 hours a work at $8 an hour, and don’t forget, if you work Uncle Sam takes some of that cash away. If you get a scholarship, you keep all of it!

Blogging (What is a blog? Read the Wikipedia article)

Before I continue I would like you to read this article regarding how much a Blogging can make. According to the survey, about 20% of bloggers make between $100 and $500 dollars a month. Some make even more (if you blog and make more than $500 congratulation!)

Blogging Supplements both your Income and Your Education

You spend 15 hours a week in school, spend 15 hour studying, and eventually your mind is consumed by everything you study. So what is the best thing to blog about? Your Major! I am a history and economics major; therefore, I will blog about history and economics. This will work out perfect for me. Let’s go through the steps with history.

1. I take a course on the American Revolution.
2. I learn a lot from the text I read and from the professor.
3. I blog about what I learn.
4. Because I am blogging and I want to offer something unique to compete with other internet sources, I am greatly inclined to go beyond my basic studies and do more research concerning the American Revolution.
5. My blog now has more information and I attract more views, and increase my profits!
6. Not only do I earn more money by increasing my Blog profit, there is a greater chance of me receiving more scholarships, because I have become well informed regarding the American Revolution and I impress my Professor. (In another words I kick all the other student’s butts.)
7. My Professor gets together with his colleagues and they decide to give me a $1,000 scholarship!

This is of course an ideal scenario; however, it is not that difficult to see why it could easily become reality.

Your blog will also supplement your summer job, because your blog will still be on the internet, still making money. When you get that full-time job during the summer, you will be making $1,000 a month plus $100-$500 from your blog. (Learn to make a blog)

Internships

Internships will be beneficial to you depending on your chosen degree. Many internships do not pay you. Darn! Well, it’s not so bad. Doing an internship will increase your chances of getting a well paying job right after you finish college. An internship could be the difference between a $40,000 a year job and a $60,000 job. Sounds good to me.

If you are going to do an internship, you will need to begin planning early in your college career. Start looking at possible places to intern and research what will make you a better applicant to be accepted into the internship.

If you have to get a job, Get a Job on Campus

If you can get a job on campus, get it. Most Campus jobs will pay you less than other companies will; however, campus jobs usually do not require much work. You probably have seen someone “working” on campus, usually the person is sitting at a computer browsing the internet or studying.

If you can guarantee that as a campus employee, you will be spending most of your time doing nothing. Then it may be perfect for a blogger. You could be being paid to blog, as your blog makes you more money.

Even though blogging while working sounds perfect, I do not suggest you do so. If you are working on campus, you have a great opportunity to get involved and meet all of the University Faculty. In the future, those faculty members can write an excellent letter of recommendation, which will be more beneficial to you later in life than your blog. Also, if the faculty members see you spending all of your time on the computer, while you could and should be working, their letter of recommendation may end
up a letter of rejection.

Things You Should Not Do: Paid Surveys

If you do some internet browse of online jobs, you will probably come across things called paid surveys. Paid surveys are the worst thing you could do! Just take my word for it, I have attempted paid surveys, you will end up making $5 dollars an hour. They are just not worth it.

Designing a Scholarship Plan with Your Parents

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: College Advice
• Date: Feb 21,2008

You have been accepted to a college, and you are about to turn in your scholarship application. You may ask yourself, “Will I see the money?” If your parents are paying for your school, you will not see the benefit of receiving scholarships, because the money will go to your parents and not to you.

Prior to filling out scholarship forms, you may consider sitting down with your parents and discuss a plan that will allow you to get a part of the money.

Your parents may wonder what benefit they will receive if you get a percentage of the scholarship. Their benefit is that they may expect more scholarship money to come in.

Even though money is not the most moral motivation, it is a motivation, and one that works very effectively. If you, as a college student, do not receive any percentage of the scholarships you will lose motivation. If you know that by working hard in college you have a chance of making money then you will be more motivated to become involved and attempt to get more scholarships.

What % Should You Ask For?

If your parents are paying for your college they should get most of the money, because whether you recognize it or not, your parents have put forth a lot of effort to get you through elementary school, high school, and now college.

However, it would be realistic to ask for 10-20% of the scholarships.

Let’s say that you were a good student in high school, and you end up getting half of your college tuition paid for. To go to college for four years will cost you $40,000 dollars ($5,000 a semester). Half of it is paid for by scholarships, so your parents will pay $20,000.

You set up a plan with your parents where you will get 20% of the scholarships, which motivates you to be active and work hard and you end up getting the full $40,000 paid for by scholarships. With your 20% profit from the scholarships, you end up with $8,000 after four years of college. That’s Awesome!

But what about your parents. How did they fare? Do the math. Originally, your parents were going to pay $20,000, but after you got a full ride scholarship and take away your awarded 20% they are left only paying $8,000. They end up paying 60% less than what they would have previously paid if you had not been motivated to receive more scholarship money.

Both parties have something to gain in this situation.

The idea of the student receiving a percentage of the scholarships may not work with every family. 20% may be too much to ask, but it won’t hurt to at least discuss the possibility.

When you sit down with your parents, make sure that both you and your parents are open. Perhaps your parents have hidden their financial information from you, but now is not the time for them to do that. As a college student, you are becoming an adult, and if both you and your parents want to make it through college successfully you must communicate as equals.

What to do with a Degree in History?

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: College Advice
• Date: Feb 20,2008

You love history. On your homepage is the history of the day and you start by reading it then you end up spending another hour on the internet seeking more knowledge of the past. You just can’t seem to get enough of it.

At the same time, you are attempting to decide what you want to do with your life. Could you be a historian? That would be your dream career. To travel the world, unearth ancient civilization and find truth in the stories of old. Unfortunately, this image of an adventure historian that is portrayed in the movies may not be possible as a career.

Career Options for a Degree in History

• Diplomat

• FBI agents

• Department Heads

• Researchers

• Archivists

• Administrative and Legislative Assistants

• Lawyers

• Management

• Government Agencies

• Writer

• Professor

Career with a B.A. in History

If you get a B.A. degree in history and stop there, your chance of having a career as an historian will not be secure. The field of history is one in which to advance you must continue to with your education beyond a B.A. or B.S. (Click here to find out the difference between a B.A. and a B.S. degree.) However, a degree in History can be very beneficial in other professions, especially if the history degree is in addition to another degree.

For example, I am getting a degree in History and Business Economics. As of know I intend to continue to graduate school; however, if I chose to go directly to the work field, history can greatly benefit me.

History gives us wisdom. Perhaps the phrase is overused but history does repeat itself and by studying history, we are less likely to repeat its flaws and grow from its strengths. History is also very applicable to the ever continuously growing Globalization. If you plan to rise up in any field there is a very likely chance that you will be a need for you to cooperate with people from a different country. By studying history, you will better understand other cultures. And if you are open minded you can discover common ground among others.

Being able to discover similarities with other people is very important in building mutual respect for one another; and therefore, building your professional network.

A Career in History with an Advanced Degree

If you do intend to go to graduate school you will have many options. Just because you get a degree in history as an undergraduate does not mean you have to get a degree in history as a graduate. You can continue your education by studying such things as: architecture, archeology, economics, sociology, etc. When you go to graduate school, you will choose a very specific specialty or geographic location that you are interested in study. You will need to ask yourself “Do I want to study Asian history?” “Or American?” “Do you want to study wars?” “Or economics?” “Politics?” “Or even the arts?”

Depending on what you decide your specialty will be will determine where you will attend graduate school, because every school will have a different program with a specific specialty. I suggest that you visit the American Historical Association’s career advice for graduate students.

My General Career Advice

No matter what you decide to do, finish with a B.A. degree in History or a B.S., what will determine your success is your ambition. Because there is not a high demand for historians it is a very competitive field, and if you want to have your spot in the field then you need to make that spot. Be creative, open your mind to all possibilities, and if you have an idea do not throw it away without at least sitting down and logically thinking about whether or not the idea could be a success.

Getting a Degree in History and Economics

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: College Advice
• Date: Feb 17,2008

If you are curious of how to obtain both a degree in history and economics, you can follow me along my journey of obtaining the degrees. I will be getting a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Economics and Public Policy and a Bachelor of Art Degree in History.

Because I am getting two degrees it will be required of me to go beyond the normal amount of credit hours. This will have been my first year in college; however, during high school I took Advanced Placement courses and I received college credit. I am ahead of the game. According to credit hours after my first semester of college I am a Sophomore. If all goes as planned I will be able to graduate with both degrees in a total of four years. Doing so will require taking about seven courses during summer semesters.

What is the difference between a B.S. and a B.A.?

If you are new to the college world you may be asking what is the difference between the Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree and the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree.

The differences of the two degrees will vary depending on the University you attend. Both degrees will require some sort of General Education requirements. These will consist of course in all fields and generally will be 100 level courses. In both the Bachelor of Science (B.S.) and the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) the General Education requirements are very similar. The differences at my university consist of the Bachelor of Arts requires an additional science course and also requires four semesters of a foreign language.

What’s the difference between a degree and a major?

The terms degree and major are used interchangeably; however they are different. If I were to say I am getting a degree in History, that is incorrect. The degree is the Associate of Arts (A.A.), Associate of Science (A.S.), B.A., B.S., Masters, or Ph.D. The major would be History. I am actually getting two degrees, which is different than a double major. (An example of a double major would be a B.A. in History and English.)

The biggest difference between a Degree of Science and that of Art is that a degree of Science has more focus on the major and there would be less elective courses.

So for me, my B.A. in History will actually require less history courses than my B.S. in Business Economics will have in business and economics.

How do you go about getting two degrees or a double major?

Getting a double major is really not difficult and it should not keep you in college for a longer duration of time.

The reason being is that every degree requires you two do three things: complete all General Education courses, complete the requirements for the Major, and take an amount of elective courses.

In the case of a double major, lets say History and English, you will complete the General Education courses, you will take History Major courses, and you will take English Major courses. Your English courses will count as electives for your History Major, and your History courses will count as electives for your English Major. Chances are you will not exceed the required amount of total credit hours that everyone must complete.

The Pros and Cons of a Double Major

Pros

• It sounds good. Saying you are getting a Double Major sounds intimidating, and it sounds as if you worked very hard to achieve that goal(and makes your parents proud).
• It gives you two fields that you have mastered. In the future this will give you two specialties when it comes to finding a job.

Cons

• You do not take electives; therefore, you can not take that philosophy class on John Locke, or the biology course on evolution, or the course on Buddhist Monks.
• If you decide to change your major late in the game, your junior year, then you will not have many of your new major requirements completed, because you did not take electives that could have counted toward your new major.

I’ll Keep You Updated

I will continue to update you on my degree progress. If you are getting a similar degree and wish to share with me I would greatly appreciate it. My education is very important to me and the greatest part about being educated is being able to share your knowledge with others. If you doubt that sharing your education can be fun, I bet I can get you to enjoy it.