We’ve all heard the increase in use of the buzzwords “hacking”, “synergy”, “efficiency”, and many more, but some of them have enough validity that they deserve their own explanation. In a sense, you can apply the best principles of each of these crazily-abstract terms to your own life, and actually get some great rewards from them in the process. What follows is simply an anecdotal guide and collection of some tips I’ve found helpful for doing well in class, but also making life on campus easy and “more efficient”, if I do say so myself, by changing a few small things about your day-to-day.
- Mode of transportation: Get a bike. Skateboards are great, you can go fairly fast, but unless you’re a sponsored or ex-sponsored professional longboarder like
Michael, chances are you can’t rip around campus and slide on your board as fast as an average person could ride their bike. The benefits of biking are numerous: reduced time to and from class to home and other spots on campus, the appearance of looking like you’re life is in order as you cruise by others, and last but certainly not least, it’s somewhat fun! What other environment will you ever be in where it’s perfectly ok to ride a bike around every day as an adult?
- Go to office hours and get to know the Professor and the TA’s. Taking a class is more than learning the material. The single biggest help to me has been getting to know the person teaching the material so that you can understand how they think and teach, and then apply their perspective to your own learning style. The extra effort really pays off!
Schedule your classes earlier in the day for more productivity. No, I’m not saying take every 8AM that’s offered on campus, but having class at 9 or 10AM is actually a great way to wake yourself up – and get you going for the day so you’re productive and not just watching TV until that 3PM class you scheduled on Thursday. It really helps. Get up, get out there, and go do it.
- Find killer studying music. Not just something that you like that week or month, but music that you can always put on during work sessions and not have to worry about changing. That just creates extra distractions, after all.
- Sync all of your calendars, school and work, and set reminders for important events. You’ll never forget anything again.
- Finally: make a bored to-do list. The second you’re “bored” look at this list and go do one of the things that you’ve been meaning to do on it. That way, you’ll 1. never be bored, and 2. will get something done!
I hope that you’ve enjoyed these few tips, and hopefully they’ll help you with your day-to-day.
Fight On!
-Naish
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