The spring semester is a few weeks well underway – how have you been coping? If you already feel overwhelmed by all the things you have to do, pick up a few of these habits to start being as productive as possible.
1. The Bullet Journal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfRf43JTqY4
You might have gone through one too many calendars. If none of them are working for you, make your own. Bullet journal is a system, rather than an actual agenda.
You can take any blank notebook, and fill it out as you go along. At the beginning of the month, list all the tasks you want to complete for that month. Start a new page with the tasks you want to finish for each day, prioritizing each one, and marking them with a small box so you can check them off when you complete them. Sound confusing? Watch the video and be amazed!
2. For the early bird… Stop pressing the snooze button
A recent article in CNN stated that hitting the snooze button when you wake up in the morning actually sets you up to be more tired and less productive throughout the day. Even if you think you’re benefitting from extra sleep, it is a fragmented sleep that you don’t have enough time to complete.
According to Robert S. Rosenberg, medical director at medical director of the Sleep Disorders Centers of Prescott Valley and Flagstaff, AZ, the snooze button can impair your sleeping cycle, hurting your decision-making skills and memory. Fight off the snooze button by putting your alarm clock or phone further away from your bed, forcing you to get up the moment you wake up.
3. For the night owl… Get your things ready the night before
If you’re always up late studying, you probably want to spend more of your morning sleeping instead of getting ready before class. Some people are more productive at night than they are in the morning, so make use of that energy by preparing what you’ll need the next morning.
Put together your outfit and pack your bag, even put out a plate and decide what you’re having for breakfast so you don’t have to scramble around when you’re feeling groggy.
4. StayFocused on Google Chrome
The drill for writing papers goes a little something like: write 10 words (if you’re lucky), go on Facebook for 10 minutes, take some BuzzFeed quizzes, binge watch a TV show, eat a pint of ice cream, write another 10 words, and then complain about your paper on Twitter (using more words than you have for your assignment). Sound somewhat familiar?
If you are the type to get easily distracted on the web, install StayFocused on Chrome. It locks you out of certain websites after you’ve spent a designated amount of time on them. You’ll stay locked out for the rest of the day, and that forces you to spend your time online wisely.
According to a recent article on TIME, the average person spends about 17 minutes on Facebook per day. Clearly, for college students and terrible procrastinators, those statistics are different. Sidenote: Want to know how much you’ve time on Facebook since you joined? Find out here: http://techland.time.com/2014/01/27/how-much-time-have-you-wasted-on-facebook/
5. To-Do lists
In an extremely technological world, this tactic may seem extremely archaic; but remains equally effective. Being able to compile all your tasks on to one organized list gives you more control over your day. Plus, being able to cross tasks off yields a great feeling of reward.
If live a more high-tech lifestyle, there are a handful of effective to-do list apps that go beyond the pre-installed “tasks” app on your iPhone. Any.do is one of my favorites, which has a neat, simple interface that lets you easily add tasks and organize them by when they’re due. Take a look at Forbes’ picks of the best to-do-list apps: http://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2013/12/04/the-9-best-to-do-list-apps-for-2014/
6. Reward yourself
Give yourself incentives for getting your work done. Want to watch the latest episode of Scandal? Do it after you finish that lab report. Want to shop through the latest ASOS sale? You can once another page of your essay is written.
Make the system any way you want. What you work on doesn’t have to be huge amounts of progress; break up a heavy reading into small chapters and reward yourself with some candy in between. Take note of the things you want to do, and balance them out with what you need to do.
7. Work in time blocks
This works especially well if you know you’re on a tight schedule. If you’re the kind of person who is very deadline-oriented and is wary of time, this tactic should work for you. Give yourself a time limit for how long you want to work on certain tasks or assignments. Set a timer on your phone. When you finish a project, take a quick break, and then move on to the next one. When you don’t have a lot of time to clear off a large task list, the best way to deal with it is to split up your time wisely.
8. Set an actual workspace, not your bed
It’s often been said that you should only use your bed for sleeping and sex. And that’s true! If you continually do your work on your bed, your body becomes too familiar with how it feels, which makes it difficult for you to fall asleep at night. Instead, set up a designated study space – whether it’s the desk in your room, your kitchen table, or your favorite space in Bobst (as contradictory as that sounds) – and try your best to go there at the same time every day so your study habits become routine.
9. Pull an all-nighter the right wayhttp://www.wikihow.com/Pull-an-All-Nighter
If at some point you do fall behind, or there’s no way to avoid staying up all night to complete assignments or study for tests, there’s still a right way to do it. WiKi How draws out the steps for you, which include taking an afternoon nap, replacing caffeinated foods with rich proteins. To stay awake, try turning on the TV, – without getting distracted! – playing loud music, opening the windows, and staying away from your bed to avoid getting tired.
If ever the doom of an all-nighter befalls you, follow these steps to make it as productive and painless as possible. Godspeed!
10. Take good notes
Sometimes, the best way to be productive, is to be in the moment; and during class, that means to pay attention and take notes. (A novel idea, isn’t it?)
- When your professor repeats something – or says something will be on the exam – highlight or underline it
- If you use your computer or iPad to take notes, put your device on airplane mode, or turn off the WiFi so you can focus on the lecture
- If time permits, summarize what the professor is saying instead of copying down every word – it makes you think more