If I’d ever get an award, it’d be for the ‘Best Lazy Nightowl’. I excel in this. This is my shit. So here’s a masterpost about how I’m able to do everything I need to do whilst being sleep deprived lol
Don’t pull an all nighter regularly. I’ve had eye problems ever since my last one and it’s sucks because I need more help to pay attention.
If there’s enough natural light, use it. Your eyes and rest are really a priority as an nightowl.
Caffeine is like your favorite problematic movie/book/tv character. It’s oh so tempting and good when you have a little taste of it, but the long time effects are evil and might try to kill you by betray you by joining Hydra..
Sleep as often as you can. If you can, do all your homework at once, so you’d have more time to sleep and relax. Most nightowls don’t have the privilege of having an overload of Serotonin, certainly at night.
Have fun. Don’t make it studying a chore. If you really really REALLY don’t want to study, then don’t. Don’t force it on yourself. It doesn’t matter what others think about it.
In the four years of college I’ve survived (three years for a bachelor + one for a master), I’ve learned it’s mostly of a waste of time and money not to give a shit about academics. Of course you need to take care of yourself mentally, emotionally, and physically, but it’s greatly advised you don’t go to a university just to escape the burnouts you went to high school with.
Dude, if you want to move away – just go for it. You don’t need to pay NAU (or really any university or academic institution) $10,000 in tuition just to get a change of scenery. Hell, it’s cheaper if you move somewhere new and just get a job to pay the rent.
However, if you’re really invested in the whole of what college is (and yes, of course, that includes a social life if you want it to), then here are a few tips on how to survive the academic component of college life.
☮ Give a shit right now. A lot of freshman rationalize that they have four years to earn a decent GPA. Don’t.
☮ College is a leg-up academically. It is not insurmountable and when you do well, it’s a great esteem booster.
☮ Do not settle for less than you can accomplish. Going into freshman year, I told my mom I would be happy with Cs. She was appalled. Looking back, I am a little, too. I let fear control my expectations of myself and that’s unhealthy.
☮ As obvious as this may seem, connect every goal or action with a motivation.
In criminal justice, there is a term ‘stake in conformity.’ Basically, it’s been found that people with more to lose (a job, family, reputation) are less likely to commit a crime (well, probably less likely to do something to get themselves caught). The same should apply to your academic habits. Try to remember what you have to lose or gain by maintaining or expanding your academic habits.
☮ Disability Resources can provide some great accommodations to students who qualify. In the same token, institutions need to provide reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, so if some need isn’t being reasonably met, be vocal.
☮ Find a way to make the material memorable. This can include mnemonic devices – coded abbreviations, doodles, outlines. I particularly like doodles (visuals) because I get bored staring at a black block of text.
☮ Break down your study sessions into small sub-categories and work on that sub-category until you master it. Trying to understand too many things at once will only overwhelm you.
☮ Typically, waiting until the last minute is not a particularly good life choice. This will happen eventually and can be unavoidable, but keeping yourself in check is a lot less weight to carry.
☮ Instrumentals/non-lyrical music helps me concentrate and doesn’t provide the same distraction that regular music does.
Helpful hint: Don’t laugh, but this ‘In the End’ Linkin Park instrumental has been one of my go-tos for years. You can find great instrumental playlists on Spotify, including Vitamin String Quartet.
☮ Studying in your room is guaranteed to enable whatever distracts you most.
Helpful hint: The library didn’t work for me, but I enjoyed the Hot Spot, the South Learning Center, and residence hall computer labs.
☮ Planning your time goes a long way. You’ll never follow your schedule/calendar 100%, but having an idea of what you plan to do that day definitely helps time management.
☮ Whether or not study groups work depends on how much actual studying is done. When I would study in groups, it was always more socializing than it was studying. Studying in pairs helped me a lot more.
☮ If your class has a TA, utilize them as a resource. Some will hold study groups, provide advice, etc.
☮ Office hours can be a god-send. They may give you anxiety – I cried the two times I used them – but outcomes can be good. I once got an extension on a political science paper I was having difficulty writing because I didn’t understand the actual politics.
Helpful hint: Don’t take Political Science 370 if the only other political science class you’ve taken is 120. Basically, don’t take a class you might not be qualified for.
☮ Free tutors are available on campus for a variety of classes.
☮ The writing lab allows graduate TAs or upperclassmen to review your essays for grammar, flow, and structure.
☮ Quizlet or StudyBlue may have flashcards for your class already online. If so, you can use them to play games to quiz yourself.
☮ All-nighters are generally bad news bears. I don’t care if you think you study better under pressure – lack of sleep is just not a good element to gamble when it comes to academics.
☮ Keep your notes and handouts in one place. Like I’ve said numerous times, I’m old-fashioned, so a binder with notebooks for each class in a block set was all I needed.
Helpful hint: If you’re more technologically-apt, I might suggest Google Drive. You can create folders on Google Drive and organize all your notes for various classes into various folders. Best of all, it’s accessible from any computer or mobile device and can be helpful for studying on the go.
☮ Once you begin classes, you’ll get a sense of whether required readings are all that required. If they are, don’t be 19-year-old me who had to read 150 pages on the history of Pakistan and India in a single morning to write her midterm paper.
☮ For the zillionth time I will recommend StayFocusd (Chrome) and LeechBlock (Firefox) to lock yourself out of distracting websites.
☮ I’m constantly telling my residents at work not to burn the candle at both ends. Christ, make sure to give yourself a break between all your work. Eventually, you’re going to need to sleep or eat or whatever it may be.
☮ Just because you’ve read something doesn’t mean you understand it. Until you do, don’t move forward.
Helpful hint: Don’t get stuck on something that doesn’t make sense. This will become a time-waster. Send an email to the professor or ask a classmate/groupmate/etc.
If you don’t know anyone, chances are there is a group for the major on Facebook. You could post a message on the Criminal Justice group (for example) to solicit other sessions of the same class.
☮ Caffeine should be a last resort. I know, I know. For some, it’s a crutch. For me, though, because I don’t drink caffeine regularly, the times I did (including to finish my 38-page term paper on the history of social welfare) it was much more potent.
☮ This is a little unorthodox, but to really show I understood concepts, I would write short stories about those concepts and integrate them into the plot. This worked for me because I used to write for fun.
☮ Writing a paper when you’re drunk is not advised. You know, if you’re going for coherency (this is more of a grad school story, because I didn’t turn 21 until after undergrad).
☮ Do all of your assignments. Even the easy ones. A few points missing at the end of a semester can separate a letter grade.
☮ It doesn’t hurt to ask if there will be extra credit opportunities.
☮ When reasonably possible, don’t take classes you know you’re going to dislike/blow off. You realize by this point that you (or your parents or your grants or your scholarships) are paying roughly $1000 a class? Make the most of that money.
☮ Create your own study guides by taking previous notes and converting them into a typed guide of essential only information. By having to type/retype content, you’ll be forced to mentally go over the material once again. This should only be for essential information. Do not retype ALL your notes. You should be making information more concise.
☮ Morning classes are not recommended for late-sleepers. If you know this about yourself, please do yourself a solid and just don’t.
☮ Hilighting is only meaningful if you have a rhyme and reason to what you highlight.
☮ With BBLearn Quizzes, some professors will let you see what you got wrong after you complete the whole quiz. Print this out or save it somewhere important for review for finals.
Hey guys!! I’m making this post for all of the other students/college students who are like me. I have a really hard time keeping track of my homework assignments for each class/when they’re due, and sometimes that causes me to get assignments done late because I start jumbling up when shit for which class is due. I know paper agendas are a thing, but sometimes I have projects that aren’t due for weeks, so having when it was assigned 3 pages back isn’t going to help me remember it/keep track of when I should do it.
Basically, you can input your classes/class times, and your homework, and set when your homework is due, and it will sort out when you need to get your homework done, and even tell you if you’re late on any of your assignments. It’s even color coded!
You can even set it to when it should remind you to work on your specific homework assignment, set certain assignments to different priorities, and even highlights ones that are due soon (see the one up there that’s in orange, since it’s 2:30am here, that’s technically due today OTL).
I didn’t even have to make an account, I just hooked it up to my facebook account because I’m a lazy motherfucker!!!!
But yeah you guys should give it a shot if you’re like me and have a really hard time keeping track of homework/when you should work on it/scheduling in general, and paper agendas aren’t flipping the bill.
Just going to leave that there for anyone who needs it
this is true. whenever i study, write, or other university things, i always listened to game music, film musics and classical. (and maybe a playlist of adventure time and starwars). it makes me super focused!
More advice from a gamer and psych major. Make two playlists! One with the softer, more flowing music, like what you hear while traveling in a game. Name it “Field music.” This kind of music is supposed to just keep the flow as you travel in the game and it keeps pressure even.
Now take all the high-intensity battle music and make a playlist called “Boss Fight.” This music is supposed to make you feel just a bit desperate, but also empowered and badass. This is good for VERY CLOSE DEADLINES and “HOLY SHIT THREE PARAGRAPHS TO GO I GOT THIS.” It helps you get reenergized and gets you pumped to push through the last bit.
This is how I study and write papers.
For those of us who like lyrics, pick something NOT in the language you are writing in. When you’re writing in English and listening to English music it lowers your ability to write as well as you could because your brain is also interpreting the music.
reckless & terribly gay 