The beginning of the semester seems easy and not a lot of work, but if you don’t have the right motivation or a game plan for the semester, things will start getting stressful and overwhelming. Unfortunately, I learned this the hard way. Being a senior now, I have had experience with both being motivated and slacking. I have found a few things that work best for me and hopefully will help you keep yourself motivated and organized throughout the semester.
- Make a CALENDAR
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I started doing this Sophomore year of college, it has helped me submit my assignments on time and not having to worry about missing deadlines. Once you get your syllabi, the first thing you should do is make a calendar of all the deadlines of your assignments, homework, exams, and quizzes. You should look at this calendar everyday and figure out when you will have the time to sit and do these assignments. I really think this has helped me so much more rather than going back and looking at the syllabus or the calendar in the HUB.
a. This will help you get ahead of what needs to be done. When your professor starts to introduce a new topic or assignment you will have an idea of managing your time and splitting up the workload.
- Make A Weekly Planner
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I know this seems a little repetitive if you make a calendar, but this actually helps. I have a weekly planner that helps me narrow down the readings and little things I need to progressively do throughout the week. In your weekly planner also mentions the assignments you need to do and when they’re due. I usually do this on Sunday before the week starts. In doing this you won’t get frustrated throughout the week in figuring out what you need to do.
When making a Calendar or a Weekly planner you should try color coding your classes. Color coding will help you so then you don’t get confused with what needs to be done for a specific class. AND stick with the colors you started with so you don’t mix up the classes.
- Networking
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This may seem a little distracting to go out of your way and talk to people in your class, but this actually helps. Get to your classes a little bit early and talk to the people who are standing outside the lecture hall, exchange phone numbers. Making new friends in different classes helps because if you don’t understand something that your teacher is explaining you can ask your classmates. If you both have questions go to the professor together. Networking is very important, getting out there and talking to people is very important in being successful in college.
- Be Consistent
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Being consistent is very important, having a set study schedule is essential to survive. Being motivated is hard and being consistent is difficult but if you keep a good schedule going it’ll help you in the long run. Figure out your day the night before, know when you will have class and what you will do in between the breaks. The breaks are the best time to do little reading or lecture work, then when you are done with your classes you can do intense work. This should be constant, waking up and going to classes is important. Students usually get tried and burnt out in the middle of the semester but if you keep yourself constant in the beginning of the semester you will have more motivation to go to class.