This semester has been my easiest semester so far. Because of a hiccup in my schedule I only had 15 credit hours, and two of them were classes I could sleep through and still pull off an A. So it hasn't been too bad. Of course, next semester will be a kick in the pants, but I'm going to keep my happy-go-lucky attitude until I move back in to the fraternity house August 15th (how awful is it that my birthday is also the day I have to go back to school and remind myself that the future will be bringing me nothing but pain for the next few months? Pretty darn.).
But, of course, that didn't stop finals from being a pain in the neck. My first final was on Monday morning, and by the end of it I felt like my mind had already checked out for the summer. And this was an open-book, open-note, open-Internet final. How was I going to get through a regular exam? I didn't know, but I must've done something right for the rest of them, because I felt really good the week after when I got to see my final grades.
Finals Week.
It has also been the semester I have been the most productive. No one has ever told me how to study, and I have had to figure that out all by myself. While I still haven't quite gotten the knack for it yet, I have solved one problem: remembering to do my homework. I have the hardest time remembering what projects are do when, and there always seems to be one class where I can never remember to do the homework. In high school it was usually a science class, and at IIT it happens to be one random class every semester. The Office of Campus Life hands out free planners every year so I technically have the means to remember everything, but after a week or two of that my planner mysteriously finds its was behind my desk, never to return.
I have since then now found a way to keep track of all my homework, and it seems to be working pulchritudinously. A while back a link from a website brought me to Schooltraq, which is still in beta. It's essentially an online assignment book that lets you add and edit assignments by class and they are organized by due date. Nothing too exciting, except when I made it my browser homepage suddenly I started remembering to do my homework. It also has this neat "focus mode" that will display one assignment on the screen and a blank page. I will hit "full screen" and unless I have an insatiable urge to see what LOL's are to be found on Somuchpun.com there really isn't anything to distract me. I introduced my little sister to it a couple months ago and she says it's helping her too.
Something as simple as a browser-based assignment book can be a huge difference.
This site also had a strange effect on me. Since I saw my assignments more often, I would be more likely to do the assignments before they were due. I found myself doing my homework a week before they were due just so I could enjoy the satisfaction of clicking the check mark and moving an assignment to the "done" pile. And then. AND THEN. I was able to relax after that. Relax like I have never relaxed before. I would have nothing hanging over my head. Nothing to bug me all weekend. Nothing to dread working on at the last minute Sunday night. I could just sit back and watch old episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 until my eyes bled. It is an incredibly wonderful feeling.
I really don't want to say this. But. I think I have a lesson to take from this semester. So if you don't like hearing the moral of the story, please stop now. Now that I have had a taste of what true time management feels like, I don't want to stop. So, advice time! Figure out what time management strategies work for you, and figure it out now! Because when you start college, it's going to be this fantastic and new and hella-hard environment, and if you are not prepared for it, woe to you. If you come to IIT (or wherever you might be headed, I won't judge!), all the better if you come already set to go with whatever helps you stay on top of your work, whether that be Schooltraq, or Post-It notes, or calendars, or a person strapped to your back shouting your assignments at you all hours of the day. If you have to find out what you need to do later, it won't be the end of the world, but when you do finally figure it out you will regret not finding it sooner. If you want some help with finding ideas for productivity, check out lifehacker. They have plenty.
Song of the Day
Gotye - Somebody That I Used to Know
No comments:
Post a Comment