If you would have told me two years ago I would be working 25 hours a week, taking 13 hours of classes, playing tennis on Monday nights, playing intramural sports on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, bowling in league on Thursdays, and attending every Aggie sporting event, I would have said you are CRAZY! I’m not going to lie it’s tough at times to fit everything in and to give a 110% effort, but I have found that I work best when I am busiest. My highest GPAs have happened during the semesters that I packed all this in. I believe it made me realize how to efficiently and effectively allocate my time. I’m more productive when I know I have an hour to study as opposed to all day.
Additionally, I have gotten in a few routines to help avoid the stress of attempting to fit everything in when it just doesn’t seem possible:
1. The 5 AM Club- If you have read any business book or heard about the routines of successful business individuals you will find that the majority are a big advocate of waking up early and getting things done, “before the rest of the world is up”. I may not get up at 5 every morning, but I am up early enough to be productive before I head off to school or work since most other activities occur during the evening hours and that time is lost.
2. Hand write Class Notes- I used to type all my notes while the professor talked like most other students do. However, I found and it’s proven that if you hand write your notes you retain information better. I am a firm believer in this because now when I go to study for tests I don’t rack my brain trying to remember when we went over “all this stuff”. The information is retained much more naturally.
3. Review My Notes Every Night- I also got in habit of reading class notes when I get home from school. This has helped tremendously because when I go to study for tests I am just reviewing information. Based on my schedule of having classes twice a week and tests about every three weeks I would have reviewed notes from the first class 6 times, the second class 5 times, the third class 4 times, etc, etc. It makes studying a breeze!
4. Study Between Classes- I have 4 classes back to back on Mondays and Wednesdays, which means I have 20 minutes between each class. Given that all my classes are in the Wehner building…..some classes are even in the same classroom I don’t have far to go. Therefore, I have tried to make an effort to utilize that time to knock out homework, projects, or studying. If you think about it that’s 1 hour and 20 minutes each day, 2 hours and 40 minutes a week, and 10 hours and 40 minutes a month of either wasted or productive time…..all depending on how proactive I am 😉
The Unconventional Millennial 