I love to read. At least, I did love to read. But somehow, the last couple of years I fell asleep watching the latest episode of How I Met Your Mother, rewatching Friends or playing the new episode of Diggnation.

Anyway, I did anything but read. And back in my childhood, I read for hours before going to sleep. Sure, I had to be in bed by 9 pm, but did this withhold me from reading until 2 AM? Of course not!

But somehow I didn’t do this anymore. And I pity this. So I began to wonder what it was and I start to taking books in bed and everything, but somehow I just didn’t read in bed. Until Steve Jobs’ Biography came out. I got this book on my iPhone and start reading. And I was thinking: ‘well, if I can read from a screen, maybe I should get an e-reader’.

After talking to some friends with an iPad I decided I didn’t want one for reading books. The problem on my phone was that I would still switch over to another app and I hated the bright screen. Especially in bed, this wasn’t perfect in any way. Apps in the background can be VERY distracting..

Having some gift cards from Amazon, I decided to get an Amazon Kindle and started reading on it.

Kindle for Students – My Experience

I started with Steve Jobs, as I didn’t finished it yet on my iPhone (have you seen the size of this book?!), and I was astonished. The screen of the Kindle is just not a normal screen, it isn’t anything like it.The e-ink of which they are really proud simply works. If I play a game on my phone for an hour (favorite game of this moment is Muffin Knight) my eyes hurt. After reading for half a day I don’t have any problems with the Kindle!

Getting books on the device is really easy as well, just a USB-cable (WiFi doesn’t seem to work, probably as I don’t live in the US or something) and it is done.

And I finally started reading again. Read Steve Jobs, I Will Teach You to be Rich and am currently reading Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. This is more than I read in an entire year last couple of years (with the holidays excluded).

Study Material

The thing is, I hate printing. There are tons of people who print all the summaries, print all the assignments and just print whenever they can. My reaction? The question ‘Do you just hate trees or something?’ We live in a time where printing isn’t necessary anymore, so please stop printing at every moment you can.

The Kindle is a big solution to this, I put all my summaries, assignments and pieces of text for meetings on it. I can read it as easily as a sheet of paper, so why wouldn’t I?

Currently I am using the summaries to read and create flashcards out of them, all of this with the Kindle and without a bright screen. This works out great for me, especially as the Kindle has a great battery life.

Features – So You Know What I am Talking About

So I mentioned already some features, but I want to make a quick sum up for you as well, so you know what I am talking about here. No unimportant sales-letter stuff, but just information students care about.

• Batter life. Long enough. Amazon.com says it is like 15 hours I think, but after using it for a while, the battery life is long enough. I didn’t have any problems yet with an empty battery, with using it a lot. I don’t even look after it, how much battery there is left.
• Weight. I carry my Kindle in my coat. It is really light-weight, something you won’t expect from a device like this. Way better than carrying a book around!
• Size. Again, it fits my coat pocket, it fits my paints pockets as well.
• Screen. The screen is made out of e-ink, so it won’t hurt your eyes – even after days of reading.
• Capacity. Enough. As well, the device can hold up 1400 books, of course, you won’t reach this number.
• Price. Cheap. Not even 80$ on Amazon right now. In my case it included some taxes and shipping as well, but I was still happy to put that money down.

Other People Their Experience with My Kindle

One other thing I love about the Kindle is the reaction of other people. I live in the Netherlands and the Kindle just didn’t make it’s appearance here yet. There isn’t any e-reader very popular over here, except from an iPad (which I think isn’t an e-reader). So the reaction is just hilarious.

Others just don’t get it. The average conversation I had about the Kindle:

‘Hey Stefan, what is this little thing?’ ‘A Kindle, an ereader from Amazon.com, the international version of Bol.com (there are even people who don’t know Amazon..)‘ ‘A ok, some sort of iPad?’ *Start to random touch the screen* ‘No, it is just for books, so no other apps to distract me. And it isn’t a touchscreen, look at the buttons over here. The screen is not lightened, so it won’t hurt your eyes.’ ‘Ah ok, looks cool.’

And then they walk away or something. I have had this conversation a couple of times, but there was one guy who got more interested:

‘So, you have your study material on here as well?’ ‘Yup..’ ‘All of these printed sheets?’ *Points to his own sheets* ‘Yup..’

One week later I saw the guy again, without his stack of papers and waiving his Kindle to me. Priceless.

Concluding thoughts

Maybe you just need to understand the potential. Maybe you just need ‘get’ it. Anyway, there is a ton of potential in this device. Not having to carry all those papers around, always having a book in your pocket (I carry mine in my coat actually!) and the light weight gives it a very good touch.

I am very happy I made this investment. With only a 79$, you will earn it back soon enough in not having to print everything anymore! Let me know what you think about the Amazon Kindle! And more important, if you have book recommendations, let me know as well!

• Kindle, Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display - includes Special Offers & Sponsored Screensavers
• List Price:
• Price: $79.00
• Read Reviews

After a little time of radio silence I’m back. And with a suprise! I have released my first podcast! And you can find the first episode of the podcast below. Not sure how these things work right now, so I have to figure everything out.

In the first episode of the StudySuccessful Podcast I will introduce myself, the podcast and I’ll tell you a couple of plans I have with this podcast. A good way to start to get to know my voice a little bit better and what I am about.

Things mentioned in this episode:

• http://StudySuccessful.com
• How To Blog As A Student
• Successful Students’ Motivational Course
• http://SmartPassiveIncome.com
• Powernapping
• Speedreading
• StudySuccessful Facebook Page

Please subscribe below to the podcast to get automatic updates:

• Click Here to Subscribe through iTunes
• Click Here to Subscribe via RSS-feed (non-iTunes)

Thank you a lot for your support. I would love it if you could leave a rating or review. Please leave me an honest one on iTunes here. It will help the show and it’s ranking in iTunes immensely! I appreciate it!

Next?	Stefan Recommends
View the StudySuccessful homepage.	9 ways to get motivated for college – The ebook by Stefan Knapen (free)
More on the author.	Learn More, Study Less – Relearn learning
Get in touch.

Who watched the Superbowl 2011? And who watched the commercials? If so, you’ve seen the Chrysler commercial for sure. If you haven’t, do it. This commercial, these 2 minutes, PURE GENIUS. A 2 minute tribute to the Motor City: Detroit, Michigan. Together with Eminem, church singers and a beautiful car this commercial have been making my day for the last week.

There is one sentence in particular, a quote which is older than the commercial of course: ‘The hottest fire makes the hardest steel’. This sentence has captured my attention immediately. The hardest worker makes the best product. The most heavy machinery makes the most robust products. And the deepest thinker has the most beautiful thoughts.

The hottest fires makes the hardest steel

Thinking deeper to get the most beautiful thought

Remember the last time you’ve been sitting with a blank sheet in front of you and a pencil? Remember the last time you planned in some ‘thinking time?’ Probably not. Let me share something with you. My most productive hours are the hours spent with a pencil and paper. With nothing more. Maybe a cup of tea.

I do this every week. Preferably on a Sunday, which is a slow day in general. After breakfast I grab a sheet and I grab a pen. I am going to sit in a quiet place and start thinking. First: Where will I be thinking about? Second: Thinking about the subject I want to think about. Just me and my thoughts for around half an hour. Most of the times I am thinking about what I am doing, where am I heading? Where should I be heading? Last week I thought about this blog, where is it headed? Where should it be headed? What changes can I make to make the goal more clear. How can I attract the right audience? How can I make my content more shareable? How can I create a more discussional atmosphere? All question I can ask myself, where I can think about and where I learn a lot from.

These thinking hours are really precious to me. It is not the moment I learn something new. It is not the moment where I feel intense satisfied or happy. But these times are the moment where I can give everything I learn during the week a place. A way to clear my head a little bit, to create some road from all the chaos.

Besides the rest I find in this thinking it is also a moment where I get great ideas. When I am just sitting somewhere to think I get beautiful thoughts. From awesome metaphors till great new business ideas. Life changing ideas, but also ideas on what I should eat.

Thinking deeper doesn’t mean big words, big names, it means more time

When you talk about philosophy a lot of people already have their opinion ready. Philosophy is all about big names, big books and big words. But when I think about deeper thoughts, about philosophy, I think about broader thoughts. Not big words, but thinking broader than your normal thoughts. Thinking deeper isn’t thinking more complicated, but looking beyond the obvious.

Start your own thinking sessions right now!

Feel like you could use some inspiration yourself as well? Feel like you need to get your mind straight? Or just want to create new insights? Start your own thinking session right now!

1. Get a clean table, a white sheet, pencil and a cup of tea. I prefer sitting in the kitchen, drinking green tea and writing with a pen actually.
2. Make your subject clear first. Where are you going to think about? What project are you working on? In my case this would be something: ‘The direction of StudySuccessful.com’, put this on top of your sheet.
3. Start with a little evaluation, than start your brainstorm. First, look at your problem more clear, what is the problem? Why? Go back to the roots. For instance, I am not completely satisfied with the message StudySuccessful is telling, because I am not a straight A student myself and I want to encourage people to look further than just grades. Is that the message I am giving out right now? Not sure..
4. Write all your ideas down. If you think it could help, write it down. Think about it. Write it more clear. Don’t edit, just write and keep writing.
5. Review your ideas. What is a good idea? What was a good thought? Where are your next action?

As said, these moments are really precious to me. These thinking sessions really help me to get work done, to make my view on certain things clear and to map out the road in front of me. Thinking really hard (a really hot fire) will create the best thoughts (the hottest fire). Have fun thinking!

This is a guest post by Travis Webster-Booth, if you are interested in doing a guest post as well, visit the contact page!

My girlfriend Carolyn, for all her intelligence, isn’t a word geek. Unlike me, she doesn’t spend her free time memorizing new vocabulary words for fun. She’d rather be painting, playing the harp, or doing just about anything else that’s creative.

Then along came the GRE’s: a big, scary, standardized test which all American graduate students must brave to get into the school of their choice. Suddenly, Carolyn was beset with a problem: she needed to learn a TON of new vocabulary words, and fast.

She knew who to turn to… me! I proceeded to teach her an extremely powerful memorization technique I have used for years known as the link system of memory. Ninety minutes later, she had taught herself SIXTY-FOUR new vocabulary words with perfect recall.

64 words. 90 minutes. Perfect recall.

I was floored. But really, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I should have remembered how powerful the link system of memory can be. After all, I had used the same technique some years ago to memorize all 42 (now 43) US Presidents by number in less than an hour. I still remember them today.

Do you think your studies could benefit from the link system of memory? I’m guessing they could. After all, memorization plays a critical role in every field of study. With the right technique, it’s much, much easier than you think.

So without further ado, I present you the link system of memory…

• Step 1: Break whatever you want to memorize into “word” and “definition.” Pretty straightforward, right? You could also do “state” and “capital,” “President” and “number,” or any other paired idea.
• Step 2: Visualize your first word (vivid and ridiculous helps). Start by just visualizing the word. See clearly in your mind the first thing that pops into your head when you think of the word. If a visual doesn’t pop immediately into your mind, break the word (or concept) down into parts. For example, if your word is “chicanery,” you might picture a Zen Master (for “chi”) working in a cannery, bottling up glowing bits of chi on a factory conveyor belt. Pretty vivid and ridiculous, huh? You won’t forget that any time soon. That’s called making your imagination work for you.
• Step 3: Visualize your definition, and associate it with your word. The definition of “chicanery” is “trickery.” So you might picture the Zen Master picking up a can, only to have it explode with confetti! Then you might picture a slew of monks laughing at the Zen master. They tricked him! What chicanery! You’ve now associated your two items together. Now, when you think “chicanery,” you picture the Zen monk with the explosive can of confetti and the other monks laughing at him. That reminds you of “trickery.” Got it?
• Step 4: Run the loop once or twice in your mind. Close your eyes and mentally repeat your word. You should be able to clearly see the whole loop play in your mind, leading you to the definition. Mentally repeat the definition, as well.

That’s it!

If you’ve followed these steps, you’ve just added a new word to your vocabulary in a matter of minutes- if not seconds. Provided that you occasionally review your associations, you will add these words to your permanent vocabulary. That means they’re with you for life, not just for your upcoming exam. Oh, and don’t worry- over time, you’ll forget the wacky images and just remember the facts.

I have found that by using this technique, I not only learn faster, but better. My recall is faster. My retention is improved. And it’s much easier to concentrate while I’m studying. In fact, I would estimate that I’ve cut my studying time in half with this one technique.

I guarantee that applying this technique will vastly improve your current study habits. But how will you use it? Will you memorize parts of the body? State capitols? Chemical elements? Math equations? The sky is the limit with this stuff!

Learn on, comrade.

Travis Webster-Booth is a prose-wielding, personal development maniac with an uncommon spiritual curiosity. He writes about everything from sleep habits to meditation on his blog, Thinking Spirit.

This is a guest post by Ryan from PracticalPremed.com, if you would like to contribute a guest post as well, please visit the contact page.

Is outstanding exam-preparation enough to ensure great grades on tests? Sadly, this is not the case. For students who spend countless hours studying yet continue to receive sub-par test scores, the common response to receiving such scores is to spend even more time studying for the next test. This myth is deeply ingrained in students, especially those committed to grinding away during college years. The problem, however, often lies in the student’s test-taking skills rather than test-preparation. Studying , no matter how excellent, provides only the maximum possible score you can obtain on a test. The ability to take tests often determines the actual score received. A student who spends X hours studying for a midterm will thus have the possibility of obtaining a maximum of 95% on a test. However, if this student has poor test taking skills he or she will receive an actual score of only 80%. Have you ever found yourself looking over tests when you get them back and thinking how many things you would have differently? Sure, given unlimited time and a more relaxed setting, this student could have scored a 95%, but thats not how tests work. There is a limited time frame and test rooms are pressure cookers. So where did those 15% go then?

This disparity of points can often be attributed to three reasons:

1) Weak or Non-Existent Time Management. Failure to mentally budget time can result in a staggering imbalance of time spent on various questions. I’ve been guilty of stubbornly sticking with hard questions I couldn’t figure out and missing out on easy points in the process. Identify what is costing you chunks of time and ruthlessly cut out any time spent not answering questions from your prime test time (from the beginning to 75% of the time allocated).

• Look over the entire test before answering any questions. The natural tendency is going to be to fill out questions as they come, but it is much more important to get a feel of the test as a whole. It keeps time allocated to questions in perspective so as not to go overboard when stuck on a question.
• Identify easy questions and quickly answer them. When going through a test I answer any questions that I immediately know first. The goal is to maximize points and answering all the easy questions first is the best way to build up confidence knowing you have a good chunk of points in the bag. If an answer doesn’t come to mind upon reading the question, I immediately move on. As much as it may pain you to not move through questions in a linear manner, move on. Conquer what you are comfortable with and the other test questions will be shivering in fear of your mighty question answering ability.
• Create a mental time budget of however much time you have left. It’s easy to get carried away when stuck on a question, so be sure to set limits on allocation of time. If you ever feel stuck on a question and find yourself searching the ceilings for answers, STOP and move on. There are other points to be had, and those patterns in the ceiling have yet to arrange themselves into an answer (despite thousands of students intensely staring at them).

2) Freaking Out or Mentally Lapsing During Tests. Tests are often high-pressure situations and can bring out the worst in your nervous system. The combination of stress and sleep-deprivation that often comes around test time can lead to two extremes: freaking out by over-thinking or mental lapses of blank thoughts. The days leading up to a test are crucial to your mental state on test day and can be managed by the following steps:

• Come as physically fresh to a test as possible. Cut out your all-nighters and exercise in the days leading up to a test. You want the oxygen flowing to your brain, and the last I checked mindless zombies tend to make pretty bad students.
• Practice answering questions about the material both out loud and by writing them out. Figure out the test format (multiple choice, short answer, problem solving) and get comfortable working with the format. People fear what they don’t understand and you can eliminate a whole lot of anxiety by becoming comfortable with the question style.
• Eliminate any distractions when practicing answering questions . Again, this is to stimulate test conditions as closely as possible. Turn off your phone, shut off your computer, and put away the headphones. A lot of students advocate listening to music when studying, but I try to stay away from as many distractions as possible. On test day its just you, your pen/pencil, and the test waiting for you to dominate it. Become comfortable with the simulated questions and you’ll be (relatively) more composed come test day.

3) Over-compulsive Answering and Detailing. Have you ever spent an extra 5 minutes filling in extra details for answers even after you hit all the main points? These extra details may net you a point or two, but will cost you crucial time in the process. What good is adding more detail to get those extra two points when you lose time to answer the next twenty point question? Sadly, I’ve found that the a good number of grading styles (i.e. those of stressed out grad students) favor keywords which encourages students to spam the answer box. Resist this temptation and remember that simple is beautiful and efficient.

• It goes against the impulses of most students, but when answering questions strive for “just good enough.” Hit all the main points and include details if they directly support these main ideas. Think, what is the bare minimum to answer this question effectively in a manner in the same manner as the test-maker. I’m often surprised by how little detail the answer key goes into when compared to my answers. Focus on essentials, details can come later.
• When you answer questions as effectively and briefly as possible I guarantee you will find a lot more time to get through every question. Once you’ve hit the main points of all the questions, then you can go in and fill out extra details. I understand the need to add extra detail is too tempting to resist as I often am pretty guilty of it myself. Save this impulse for after working through the main idea of a test to prevent getting carried away.

Are you maximizing your test-scores with your test performance? Test are culminations of months of material and the pressure can be overwhelming at times, but the right preparation and delivery can significantly reduce the mental anxiety. If you feel you have great studying techniques but ultimately don’t get the scores you want, consider refining your test-taking skills as opposed to spending more time studying. Outstanding preparation demands outstanding delivery. Use some of these tips on your next test and let me know how you dominated. Also, if you can have test-taking strategies of your own I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

This guest post was written by Ryan Nguyen from PracticalPremed. He writes about unconventional strategies and systems to maximize academic results and despises traditional study habits.

Have you ever wanted your own website? Ever thought about owning the #1 spot when you Google yourself? Good. Because I’ve been working on a (free!) report on how to build your blog – as a student.

Students should think about their future and take the internet serious when they are exploring their career possibilities. When your future boss will Google you before an interview, what will he find? If you own your own blog (like I do with stefanknapen.com) he/she will find YOU in the first spot. This means you have control over how you look like online.

Besides this, having your own blog is a way to proliferate yourself. I’ve been blogging for almost two years now and it is one of the best things that has happened to me. Getting your thoughts out, on paper (or video) is a way you can explore yourself, as your thoughts. A blog is a place where you can get in contact with others, where others can share their thoughts on your thoughts! Great right. If you need more arguments, I’ve wrote a post once called ‘22 reasons to start a blog as a student‘, as it is one of the most popular posts, I highly recommend you to read it!

The best thing is, a blog isn’t a lot of work. In this guide I show you a way how you can start a blog within an evening, with almost no costs. The costs of a blog are around one cup coffee at Starbucks a month. Equals nothing. When you look at what you get in return, missing that cup of coffee a month is definitely worth it.

So if you want:

• Control of your Google results
• A go-to place for people who want to know something about you and
• Proof in a form of a portfolio where you can show your expertise

check out the free report on how to start a blog as a student right now over here (http://bit.ly/htbabaas/), I hope you enjoy it. Good luck in getting online!

I am looking for cases! So if you are going to start, shoot me an email (author[at]studysuccessful[dot]com)!

Next?	Stefan Recommends
View the StudySuccessful homepage.	9 ways to get motivated for college – The ebook by Stefan Knapen (free)
More on the author.	Learn More, Study Less – Relearn learning
Get in touch.

I haven’t done many reviews on this blog. That has a reason, I only want to do reviews on products I stand behind. And this one is.

I would like to introduce Benny Lewis, Benny is the author of Fluentin3months.com, a site about learning new languages. Benny currently speaks 8(!) languages. That is why he calls himself the ‘Irish Polyglot’.

Now, he has written a Guide on learning languages, called the ‘Language Hacking Guide’. And as Benny says practising a language is best done by the transition, he encourages you to read the Guide in your target language. He needed translations, and one of them was Dutch. And as you probably know, I am Dutch as well. So I had contact with Benny and I can call myself an officiel ‘co-translator’ right now. This means I’ve not only read the Guide, I also translated it. Which means I have a pretty good understanding what is in it, and I would like to share my findings.

The limits of my language means the limits of my world.  – Ludwig Wittgenstein

The Language Hacking Guide Review

Benny isn’t going to teach you how to learn grammar. So, that is cleared. He also isn’t going to teach you how you can learn vocabulary in the most effective way. But he is going to learn you how to learn a language. I am thinking about adopting another language, maybe Spanish. I already speak Dutch and English, but as I think learning another language is a great journey and a great goal as well I was thinking about learning a third, like Spanish. So I was thinking: ‘Which software do I need?’, ‘Which books do I need in order to understand the grammar?’ and  ‘Where in my area can I find a course which teaches Spanish?’ After reading the Guide, I didn’t want to do that anymore. Books are one way to learn a language, another way is implementing the language from the start.

Implementing the language

What Benny is forcing you to do isn’t learning from the book, but from the streets. Get out on the streets, find people to talk to (he will show you ways how you can find native speakers in your own country) and start talking in your target language. Benny also talks about changing your life to the target language, instead of set times where you practise the language, start to implement the language in your life and you will learn the language way faster.

Introverts can learn another language also!

Start to talk to people from day 1 is one thing, but if you are a shy, introvert person, you probably aren’t jumping around to do so. Doesn’t matter, Benny has also ways to overcome shiness, overcome your fear to talk to people.

Verdict

I have to be honest, I don’t know a lot about learning languages. I’ve adopted a second language basicly because we have a lot of English lessons in the Netherlands and a lot of our TV shows are in English, so there is nothing unfamiliar in that language. What I do know about language learning is from my high school experience. And I’ve had French for almost six years and I still can’t have a decent conversation. So I think there is something wrong with the method our schools use. And that is exactly what Benny says, you need to learn a language by implementation from day 1. That will take devotion, but if you have that passion for a language, devotion is the key to succeed.

My verdict is a positive one. After reading the Language Hacking Guide, I was convinced that this way is the way to learn a language. As said, the Guide comes in 13 different languages, all included in the offer. So you can start reading the Guide in your native language (probably English) and after you’ve finished that version, you can start with the target language version.

I can only recommend you to pick up your copy of this Guide right now. If you’ve been thinking about learning another language, this guide will be the thing you need.

As the quote above shows: A language barrier can keep you down. So overcome this barrier, learn a new language and broaden your world. And don’t forget to read the Dutch version! Good luck.

Next?	Stefan Recommends
View the StudySuccessful homepage.	9 ways to get motivated for college – The ebook by Stefan Knapen (free)
More on the author.	Learn More, Study Less – Relearn learning
Get in touch.

This is a guest post by Stanley Lee. He teaches you how to apply the Sovereign Zen philosophy in your college life and beyond, including workflow, personal management, life-hacking, etc.

If you’re in a demanding college major such as engineering and pharmaceutical sciences (the same goes for double-majors), you probably ran into deadline hardship more often than you like. For example, you may have 6 midterms exams, 3 paper and lab report deadlines in addition to 3 assignment due dates within the period of 1 week. Inside of having a panic attack like other average students, this guest post will show you how to damage control with ease and performance to show for it.

Prioritize with 80/20 Principle

Firstly, figure out the grade each test is worth:

• If it’s worth less than 20%, then it’s a quiz. Spend no more than 1.5 hours in total studying for it (They don’t justify more preparation time). Schedule them in periods when you can quiz yourself quickly (for example, when waiting in line).
• If it’s worth more than 20%, then it’s an exam. Spread out the preparation over even more days (at least for a few days in advance), but study no more than 1 hour a day intensely. You don’t want to fall into the trap of pseudowork wasting your time and energy.

Next, figure out the grade each assignment (by that, I mean problem sets, project reports, term papers, etc.) is worth:

• If it’s worth at least 15% by itself, depending on whether you’re allowed to submit it late while absorbing a penalty:
• If it’s worth less than 15% (especially for problem sets), don’t spend more than 1 hour either attempting it or filling in the gaps. A problem set is rarely assigned to be submitted less than 1 week from an exam date.

Note: In both cases, if the assignment is significantly related to an exam’s coverage, spend more effort on it. Doing so will save you time from additional studying by knocking off as many birds with one attempt as possible. You need to let small failures happen to make room for significant successes.

• If no late assignments are allowed, at least attempt filling in the gaps as much as possible to earn partial credits.
• If late assignments are allowed with penalty, turn it in at a later date. Suck up the penalty in exchange for more breathing room dealing with other priorities.

Negotiate!

If you still have 2 or more major milestones that are scheduled too closely between each other, don’t be shy to negotiate with your instructors. This type of conflict usually occurs for other students of the same program (timetables are similar for standard programs, starting from the sophomore year).

In order for your efforts to be successful, it needs to be well-coordinated before you approach the instructors. If you hope other students mentioning the deadline hardship, you’re only going to postpone the deadline hardship (Remember, your goal is eliminating it, not postponing it). You need to communicate with instructors of ALL the courses involved. Propose date changes that would work in your best interests (and in turn true for your colleagues in the same program). That way, you can have a peace of mind without the hardship.

Remove Distractions

Surrendering to distractions exposes you to pseudowork. You will waste your time, energy, and attention away (You can’t afford them happening)!

If possible, avoid using the computer altogether (or at least keep your computer nearby, with all your windows closed until you need to find information or write an email scheduling a help session). If you do need to use your computer, minimize your usage of email (i.e. check and respond to only critical messages, and alert the sender to call you if it’s an emergency). Block out instant messaging and social media alerts. Use productivity tools like Rescue Time to limit yourself to online research if necessary.

In order to savor the important successes (i.e. maximizing the grades you get despite the hardship), you need to let minor failures occur. If you have pending bill payments or movie rental returns, they can wait if your hardship situation gets really intense. These minor failures can be remedied by paying the late fees (which are negligible considering the grand scheme of things).

Batching Your Questions

This is why procrastination is discouraged here. Starting the preparation a night or two before won’t allow you to batch your questions to be answered. Even 1 week before is stretching it (considering other exams are also competing for your preparation time).

If you’re stuck, don’t spend too much time staying there. Make a note of it. Once you’re only left with unclear concepts, ask them in batch either with a colleague, TA, or instructor. If your financial situation permits, consider hiring a tutor to help clear up those concepts and strategize your exam game plan (Side note: if you’re really stuck on where to find one, consider the consulting services of Liam Martin’s team).

Conclusion

Damage control can only work so far even if you do employ everything I said properly. You will get burnt out in no time if you procrastinated and resorted to this strategy every time. It would be far more effective if you follow these steps at the beginning of the term when your peers are busy partying:

• Note down at least major test dates and assignment (in the general case of project report/paper/lab report) deadlines on your calendar; set up regular email reminders while you’re at it
• If you noticed deadline hardship, negotiate with your professors now rather than making their jobs difficult closer to those dates
• Consider consulting with a tutor (e.g. Virtual Teaching Assistant) on forming a study strategy to maximize the effectiveness and minimize the stress

Three Simple Requests

If you read this guest post and get something out of it, I’d like to ask that you do 3 simple things for me:

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A reader asked me in an email: “How much time should I plan as free time? Should I plan that time in big chuncks of time or better distributed?”

My answer was pretty simple. Don’t plan your free time, plan your working hours.

Plan working hours in stead of free time

In stead of planning free time,you should schedule your working hours and put them to a limit. This has three main reasons: Parkinson’s law, rewarding yourself and productivity spots

Parkinson’s law

I’ve covered Parkinson’s law before on this blog. The idea of Parkinson’s law is: ‘Works expands with the amount of time you give it.’ Which means if you give 3 hours to a presentation, you will finish it in a good way, but if you give 4 hours to a presentation, you will finish it and you will look for ‘that perfect picture’ for an extra hour. When you give extra time for a project which doesn’t require it, the time will be used and the time won’t be used in a produtive way.

If you have more attention in planning your free time than planning in your working hours, you will give a lot of time to work which may not even need it. You will get the job done and you will do a lot of work which isn’t required for the actual job. Useful? Not that much. If you assign just a couple of hours on the paper, you will work with a deadline and you will have to finish it. This means less tweaking until perfection, but more time to enjoy life.

Rewarding yourself

Free time can be an actual reward to all the hard work. If you’ve scheduled in 3 hours of free time, you will take those for granted. But if you’ve scheduled in 3 hours of working hours, you will work really hard to get the actual job done and the free time will be a reward to your hard work!

Yes, you will know that you have free time in half an hour, but you want to get the job done or your free time will be necessary to finish your work. This means you are working harder which results in a more satisfied feeling accompanied with free time!

Productivity spots

I fall asleep in the late afternoon. Right before dinner I am worth absolutely nothing. And I know that. I rock at 11am and 8pm. Serious, that is the time where I get the most work done. Because I know that, I try to schedule my work in those hours. I won’t schedule working on an assignment at 5pm. But I will write a blog post around 8pm.

You need to figure out where your productivity spots are. When are you the most productive? When are you completely the opposite of productive? Schedule your working activities in your productive hours. Enjoy your non-productive periods even more when you don’t have anything to do. I hate it when I need to get something done when I feel like sleeping, but I love to lay around for an hour or so, just doing nothing. I know what I will do won’t be very good, so I don’t feel bad at all!

Conclusion

I can’t advice you to schedule your free time. I can advice you to schedule working hours. This is because limiting your working hours makes you more productive (with Parkinson’s law), make your free time more rewarding and you can do nothing in your non-productive hours! Have fun scheduling and have even more fun executing! What do you think about this?

Guest post by Genevieve who works in affiliation the online colleges at Westwood College. Also want to send in a guest post? Visit the contact page!

While I attended college, I often found that I would have a difficult time staying focused in class. Even if I it was my favorite topic or I had done all of the requisite homework and studying, halfway through, my eyes would droop and my mind would wander. If we were using a book in class, I might find that I had started reading ahead and had not heard a word my teacher had said for the last few hours.

Many of the things that are available in the classroom (especially if you bring your own computer) will keep you from getting bored, but will not help at all with learning. Checking Facebook obsessively and other time intensive options unrelated to the class are really just clever ways of not showing up for class.

And whether you are taking classes at a physical university or an online school, being able to focus while listening and participating for long periods of time may be difficult. Below are some common and some out of the box ways to keep your focus on the task at hand.

• Take Lots of Notes – Obvious, right? But there are many ways to take notes and trying out a few different types might help to find the right one for you. Bringing in a computer to class and creating a detailed outline of the material will keep you going at top speed. Using graph paper or colored pens to categorize and organize the materials could be very useful when looking for information later on.
• Draw In Class – Sounds counterproductive, doesn’t it. But excessive note taking does not always work, particularly when class participation is important. Drawing does not take attention away from your ability to listen and can often help to keep you in the moment rather than off into the clouds.
• Origami – For those who are not very artistically inclined, folding origami can be a great help, especially during long movie days or when the professor is prone to long monologues. The results are small and can easily be put aside. The action itself is not as distracting to those around you. The same principle can be applied to knitting or other crafts, although they usually require more tools and are significantly more obtrusive.

Perhaps the most important element of this equation is to communicate with your teacher, preferably before you bring in brightly colored paper. If you attend college online, this consideration may not be important, but it can be disconcerting for a teacher to see a student industriously folding paper. Once you explain the reason you may be drawing, folding or typing manically, most teachers are sympathetic and will call no more attention to your activity than individuals staring blankly at the walls.

Genevieve works for Westwood College, which offers many options for individuals looking to further their education including a business administration degree!