Deadlines Will Destroy You

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Study Tips
• Date: Apr 12,2008

It is almost the end of the spring semester and all those deadlines are about to make you dead. It’s time for all of those papers to be due on the same day. Let’s focus on just papers and projects.

Like a good student you have divided your projects and papers into smaller more manageable sections, right? Many of us do not really do this. This should be our ideal method of dealing with papers and projects, but I want to focus on another method that will prevent you from writing the paper the night before.

Let’s create a scenario. You have a history paper due, a speech due, and a computer project due all on the same day, April 28. If you attempt to finish these all for the same day, you will burn out. What you need to do, is change the dates. Write down in your planner that your history paper is due April 21, your speech is due April 23, and your computer project is due April 25.

Note: I don’t suggest setting the false due date after the real due date. Although it is very tempting.

Even though the due dates are now closer, the projects now seem doable. I suggest if you know that the projects and papers will be due on the same day, or near to the same day, you should set these realistically false dates as soon as possible.

If you are a procrastinator these false dates will allow you to stay up all night before due date #1, and all night before due date #2, and all night before due date #3. Great! You will be exhausted after that week, but it is better than doing all three projects on the night before.

It can be better! Combine the false dates with a smaller arbitrary due dates and you will have a flawless method of dealing with multiple large papers and projects.

Changing the due dates will allow you to stager the smaller portions of the project. That way you don’t have to work on all three projects every Monday, but one part of a project every other day.

Now you have finished your projects the three days in advanced. You can spend your whole weekend doing whatever you feel like doing. The day before you really have to turn the projects in make sure you go over everything. It will take two hours at the most. Practice your speech one last time, read through your paper a few times, and check your project for minor flaws.

This method will simplify your end of the semester and reduce your stress level.

Helpful Organizational Tools

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Study Tips
• Date: Apr 11,2008

Working on a group project can be a challenging task. You will rarely find time to get together and work; therefore, you begin to send emails back and forth, creating a mess. Luckily there are two resources on the internet that you can use to remain organized.

Free Forums

Freeforums.org is a website that will allow you to host a forum site for free. Forums are an excellent way to keep everything on one page. Instead of hundreds of emails from working on the project, you can have one forum thread that has all of your discussions. Freeforums.org allows you to easily post pictures, youtube videos, etc. The forums are free, so you will have to ignore the advertisement.

PBWiki

I will let this YouTube video explain why a Wiki is a great resource.

If working on a small presentation for a class, or if you are a student organization, these two resources can be of great help when it comes to organizing your thoughts.

My Plan for Final Exams

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Study Tips
• Date: Apr 1,2008

It is the end of the semester and FINALS are on their way. Today I sat down and blocked out my schedule in preparation for final exams and final papers. After I planned out my schedule I realized that if I follow my schedule I can experience finals stress free!

Plan Your Last Weeks

If you want to experience finals with minimal levels of stress, all you need to do is make a schedule. And do it now! Waiting to create a final exam studying schedule will only cause more stress. It’s not difficult. Just sit down for 20 minutes, get all of your syllabi out begin creating a schedule. To optimize your schedule you may need to create several drafts of a calender.

Join Me

You can do it too. Go through finals stress free. Accept my proposal. Post a comment below saying that you pledge to go through finals stress free. Then after finals we can discuss how we studied for the finals and what we can do to improve our final studying.

Dealing with the Snow Drifts

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Study Tips
• Date: Mar 8,2008

Did the winter months pile a bunch of snow on your Spring semester schedule? Shoveling away the mess can be a time consuming process, but don’t over work yourself. You wouldn’t want to hurt your back.

Sometimes the semester following Winter Break does not start as productively as the Fall Semester did. After the break all we can think about is the next break, and sometimes because of that we end up letting things pile up, saying to ourselves, “We will deal with it after spring break. As I was shoveling my driveway today, I realized that, if we have a pile of anything, we need to do a few things to make sure we survive.

Where to put the snow?

If you have ever shoveled snow before you understand that this is a very important question? What happens if you don’t? Well, you begin shoveling the snow, but quickly realize that the place you piled the snow needs to be cleared too. If you don’t have a plan, you will end up shoveling the same snow again and again.

If you have projects or studying that you have put off, make sure that you have a plan. Plan the days you will work on the project, what the final product should look like, and how you will do the tasks necessary.

Lift with your Legs!

Shoveling snow requires a repetitive motion that if performed incorrectly, will damage your back. Working on a project has its own motion that you should do correctly and get lazy. Laziness and lack of focus will destroy your progress.

When due dates sneak up on you, you may be tempted to pull some all nighters or skip class to make up on time. What ever you do don’t do this. You may have to sacrifice social time, but there is plenty of time to accomplish the necessary tasks.

Get a Good Shovel

Before you begin your projects make sure you have all of the necessary supplies you will need to finish it. Make sure you have poster board, resources, and other supplies. Making sure you have the supplies before you start will save you time, because you will not need to make as many trips to the library or the store.

The Snow Will Melt

The snow will quickly begin to melt. That is good right? Well, after the snow ends the landscaping preparation for spring begins. What is spring? Finals. Don’t let them sneak up on you. With spring comes warm weather, which equals your lack of attention. Stay focused!

Listen to Your Professor & Repeat 2 Times

• Author: Michael |University Scholar
• Filed under: Study Tips
• Date: Mar 6,2008

Did you know that we listen at 90-200 words per minute? At the most, a 60 minute lecture will have a total of 12,000 words! That is a lot of information that we process every lecture.

But did you know that we actually think at 500-600 words per minute? During the lecture we actually think a minimum of 30,000 words. What are we doing with the 18,000 words that are not used for listening?

Lazy Listeners

You know who you are. You hear the Professor speak and you do nothing about it. Instead you think about your girlfriend, last nights ballgame, what you are going to eat today, what’s on TV tonight, or anything else that is irrelevant to the lecture.

Or maybe you are not listening at all…

Using the other 18,000 Words to be an Active Listener

Given an extra 18,000 words to think, you could repeat everything the professor said in your head, maybe even twice! Please don’t do this, instead repeat only key points in your head and possibly add a note.

For Example: Let’s say your professor is teaching a lesson on early American history. He spent 20 long minutes discussing Alexander’s Hamilton’s Economic policies. Take note to the key aspects of his policies, but also add a note to yourself, “this would make a good essay question.”

We determined that you will not use all 18,000 words to repeat everything, just key points. What could you use the rest of your brain resources for?

• Think of questions that you can ask the professor.
• This will help you memorize the information.
• Also, your professor will be impressed with your attentive listening.
• Relate the key points to other key points your professor has pointed out.
• Evaluate your emotions. Do you agree with the given philosophy? Does it anger you? What would you do differently? Do you understand the information?
• Relate the key points to your own life.
• Think of ways you can further explore the given information by writing down questions that you will lookup yourself, instead of asking the professor.

It’s Not Easy

Being an active listener is not easy. After an hour lecture you will feel exhausted. Eat healthy before lectures, sit up straight to increase oxygen intake, and build self motivation to keep focused.

Take advantage of the time given to you. You are sitting in the class. Therefore, you should put forth all your energy. In the end you will save time and effort, because you will walk out of class with a greater understanding of the material.

Does it make sense to pour a building foundation, destroy it, then pour it again? The lectures are your foundation, and if the information is not stored correctly you will need to start all over.

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