time management

Essential Trick and Treat Success

Contributing Author, Vanessa Lewis, is the Student Services Manager and is known for rescuing Charlie, the famous UAMS Cat. She offers the following tricks and treats for academic success.

Fear! Daunting! Unnerving! These are some terms that students associate with the month of October and not necessarily because of Halloween. I recall mid-semester anxiety trying to “creep” its way into my sub consciousness. As the semester slips by deadlines can sneak up on you. As scary as this sounds, it is important to remember that how you channel your energy can make a difference in your academic performance.

An Essential Trick for Success

You can benefit from are staying meticulously organized. The digital revolution has prohibited us from writing details down. The typical response is set a reminder on our phone for a deadline. But how many times do you hear an alert or notification and quickly glance at it and dismiss the alarm? I suggest getting a binder or a calendar, and write the details down. There is a cognitive connection when you actually take the time to write important dates. You will retain the information more concretely if the deadline is something you see daily as you flip through your binder. Furthermore, write these dates strategically in varying color schemes to make more pressing timelines stand out.

An Essential Treat for Success

Sleep is a treat to your body! Prioritize sleep and maintain at least six hours each night instead of pulling an all-night cramming session. Sleep is absolutely imperative and critical to sustaining a healthy lifestyle which leads to optimum performance on exams.

We all could don our superhero costumes and act like we do not need help but because you are not afraid to execute my suggestions into your routine now you will be able to come mingle with your peers at the Chenal Country Club, October 27, 8:00 pm-12:00 am and enjoy the fun-filled highly popular Halloween party. Socializing is an additional treat to relieve stress and every student deserves this sweet treat!

The Study Schedule: Your Plan to Defeat Procrastination

We have arrived at that point in the semester when students are looking stressed, and are scrambling to catch up with their workload. Many find themselves losing the battle with procrastination, and end up cramming right before an important exam. Their performance is off, and they can’t catch their breath.

Create a Study Schedule

Creating and sticking to a study schedule is easy to do and will help you win your battle against procrastination. Your schedule will help you stay on top of your work, rather than having to drop everything to study for an exam. It will help reduce your stress and improve your long-term retention of information.

Creating a study schedule is easier when you can actually see time. Use this Weekly Schedule to create your schedule, starting with what I call the non-negotiables. These are things you can’t control: your class/lab/clinic and work schedules. Your non-negotiables tend to stay fairly constant from week to week, making them easy to schedule around.

Second, add the things you can control. Start with your sleep. What time do you want to go to bed? Bed time is an individual decision, but what is most important is that you get enough sleep. Try to make sure you are getting between 6 – 8 hours per night. You can’t learn if you are exhausted, so scheduling your sleep is very important. Next, schedule family time. Again, this is different for every individual, but it is important that both you and your family know when it’s family time. They can better understand your need for study time if they know they have time with you. Another important thing to schedule is time for physical activity. It doesn’t really matter what you do – take a walk, go to a yoga class, play basketball with friends – just make sure you are doing something. Your memory and your stress level will thank you.

Finally, schedule blocks of time to study. The number of hours needed will vary by College and by program, but all will require concentrated study time. Try to schedule study blocks every day. You may want to take a day off – like Friday, when you are exhausted at the end of the week – but otherwise, plan to study every day. This will spread your studying out over time, and give you the opportunity to process new information within 24 hours of its presentation. You will be able to stay on top of the work and still have time for reviewing and connecting the new information with what you learned previously. Planned daily study time is the best weapon you have to fight procrastination.

Make the Most of your Study Schedule

You can get more out of your study schedule if you plan what you will study during those hours. First, work on the new material from the day. Take your notes and turn the new information into a series of practice questions you can use to review. Work through the practice questions then add them to your other materials for review. Second, make time daily to review the practice questions, charts, diagrams, and other materials you’ve created, so you are constantly reviewing and re-testing yourself. Be sure you use the study time you’ve blocked. Don’t skip a study session! That opens the door and ushers procrastination right into the room!

Creating and sticking to a study schedule is the first step in defeating procrastination and improving your academic performance. If you want some help creating your own study schedule or need tips on how to study more effectively, the Learning Specialists in the Student Success Center would be happy to work with you. Just complete and submit the Academic Coaching Request form, and we will contact you to set up a meeting.

Time Troubles

Many students have some kind of time troubles. They can be caused by overcommitment, perfectionism, or simple procrastination, and they can create a lot of stress and anxiety. If we don’t deal with them, they lead to missed assignments, low-quality papers, and poor test scores.

Get a System

One of the most common “fixes” for time troubles is to use a planner, calendar, or journal. Students will pick one, use it for awhile, and then gradually many of them will stop. Why don’t they stick with it? It’s because calendars, planners, and journals are only part of the solution. Time management systems, whether digital (phone, tablet, or laptop), or analog (pen and paper), aren’t one-size-fits-all. Even the choice of digital or analog is based on what works best for the individual. So before you commit to a time management tool, it’s a good idea to figure out what your particular time troubles are.

I don’t have time!

Most of the students who come into my office tell me they don’t have time. There can be a lot of reasons students feel this way, but here are three of the most common, along with some suggestions for solving them.

Things falling through the cracks: Identify why this is happening. Have you included everything you need to accomplish in your calendar or planner? Put all your assignments, tests, papers, and projects on your calendar, and plan when you will start them so you are not working of everything at the same time. Prioritize what you have to accomplish, and watch for lighter time periods so that you can take advantage of slower times to get work done. It helps to keep a monthly overview calendar so you can plan further in advance. I keep yearly, monthly, and weekly calendars in my journal so I’m not thrown off guard when things get really crazy.

Too behind to catch up: Feeling like you can’t catch up can cause serious motivation problems, leading you to think, “why bother”, and give up. To catch up, try to figure out how you got there. Are you a procrastinator? If so, the key to solving these time troubles is to stay on top of your work so you don’t fall behind. This is great advice, but how do you get caught up so you can do that?

Start by breaking down all your tasks into smaller pieces, until you can find something you can do immediately. Keep working away at those smaller pieces until the tasks are done. I use pages in my journal to break down big jobs into smaller tasks, and then check them off as I complete them. It can be very motivating to watch yourself making progress.

If you’re not a procrastinator, you might be overcommitted. Try limiting your commitments so that you aren’t being pulled in too many directions. This may mean giving up some activities and interests for a period of time so that you can focus on getting back on track.

Overworked: There will always be times when your classwork overwhelms you. Multiple tight deadlines surrounded by long reading assignments will leave you feeling exhausted. You know you have time troubles, however, when that feeling of overwork becomes normal, and you aren’t taking the time for proper meals or needed sleep. To combat this, start by making sure you are actually working during your schoolwork time. Try keeping a homework log, and track what you accomplish during your work time. Are you actually working as much as you think you are? You might need to eliminate any distractions that can eat away at your time.

Next, look at your weekly schedule and set dedicated work time and put it on your calendar. Then make a realistic list of what you will accomplish during that time and how much time you will assign to each task. Organizing your work time in this way can help you stay focused, and helps you stay within your time limits. When it’s time to stop, do it. Working to the exhaustion point doesn’t lead to academic achievement.

Identifying your time troubles and applying specific solutions will make using your preferred time management system much more helpful. The more helpful it is the more likely you are to stick with it.

Working Around a Holiday Cluster

I love vacation time. I love having time off to rest, putter around, or just have fun. I always make sure I have wrapped up my projects so I can relax and not think about work. I like holidays too. They are a gift of free time, spread out throughout the school year, that I can spend however I like. My problem is that I have trouble staying focused and productive during a holiday cluster.

What is a Holiday Cluster?

A holiday cluster is a bunch of holidays grouped together over a short period of time. I always have to plan very carefully in order to be productive during holiday clusters. I feel like I’m always stopping and starting. Does anyone else have that problem?

It starts with Veterans Day in November. Then we get the Thanksgiving holiday. Then we’re back for a couple of weeks, and it’s off for Winter Break. We get back right after the New Year, but then we take another day for Martin Luther King, Jr., then work a couple more weeks and we’re off for President’s Day. Do you see what I mean? The holidays are all clustered together. It can be hard to find your rhythm with all the starts and stops. It can really mess with your motivation.

My Holiday Cluster Woes

When I was an undergrad, I had terrible time management skills. I tended to work in fits and starts, and I rarely planned past the next day. I was always surprised by due dates and exams. They were always scheduled well in advance, with plenty of notice, but I’d be caught off guard every time. Holidays surprised me too. I mean, I knew we got the holiday, but I never seemed to know exactly when it was. I never prepared for the time off. There seemed to be a lot of due dates around the holiday cluster too. I could have prepared for them, but I didn’t, so either my coursework or my holiday suffered. It was usually my coursework.

I did much better as a graduate student. I was older (much) and I was better at managing my time. And now, I know that I have to keep this stuff on my calendar and get everything done before I enjoy the holiday weekend. I know the return week will be challenging, because, for some reason, 4-day weeks seem longer than 5-day weeks. I still find it a challenge.

How do you work around the holiday cluster? Have you found a way to keep your motivation and productivity up? After all, if we are given the gift of free time, we should be allowed to enjoy at least some of it. Don’t you think?

Reflect: How are you doing?

At this point, most students are about halfway to mid-term exams, making it a good time to look at how the semester is going. How is your academic performance? Have you set yourself up for success? What about your study skills and test scores? If you aren’t where you hoped to be, it’s probably a good idea to reflect on how well what you are doing is working for you.

Realistic Goals

Goals provide structure to your academic life. They help you focus on what’s important and ignore other distractions. Are you on track to meet your semester goals? If you are, then you probably don’t need to change anything. If not, then you will probably want to consider some changes.

Are your goals achievable? If not, you’ll need to revise them. If, on reflection, your goals are realistic, ask yourself if you you have planned adequately to achieve them. You may need to change some of your habits, like how you manage your time, or try sharpening your study skills. Often, our goals require us to change how we work to achieve them.

Maybe you haven’t consciously set goals for yourself. If that’s the case, I strongly encourage you to make the time to do so. Goal setting should be part of your academic preparation. Without specific and realistic goals, you will find yourself making random decisions you may regret. You can find more information about goals setting on our post, Setting Academic Goals.

Organization and Time Management

I know I’ve said this repeatedly, but the fact is that success at UAMS is dependent on organization and time management. It’s hard to keep up with multiple courses, projects, exams, and family, friends and, often, a job. Are you actively managing your time? Do you know where you are in every assignment? You may need to change the way you manage your time. Learn more by reading Time Management and Organize and Manage Your Time on this blog. You can also find resources to help you under the Time Management tab on our Learning Support page.

Study Skills

Successful students have good study skills. Even if you’ve never had to study much before, you will need strong study habits to meet the rigorous academic requirements at UAMS. Reflect on what you have been doing. Do you feel you are well prepared for your exams? Maybe it’s time to improve how you study and build your skills. You can read more in our posts Sharpen Your Study Skills and Step Up Your Study Skills. You can find more resources under the Study Skills tab on the Learning Support page.

Test-Taking

Test-taking skills begin before the test. In fact, the time to begin preparing for a test is the first day of class. Good test-takers use strategies before, during, and after a test. Reflect on your test performance. If it’s not what you hoped, consider the following.

Before the Test: One of the leading causes of low test scores and anxiety is poor preparation. Students often wait until the last minute to study, and then cram all night trying to catch up. They arrive at the test exhausted and overwhelmed. If they try to replace rest with caffeine they might begin to feel sick, which will make it even harder to perform well. Take a look at how you prepare, including your studying, note-taking, and time management. Making necessary changes will help you improve your academic performance.

During the Test: Even the best prepared students can make errors during the test. They may lose track of time, spend too long on one question, or second guess themselves and change answers that were correct. You may need to look at how you are taking your test, and correct some of your habits.

After the Test: What you do after the test is very important to your success. Good test-takers examine their test results to find the source of their errors. Were you missing the information? Maybe you left questions blank. Analyzing your errors can help you take steps to avoid making them on your next test.

There are more helpful resources under the Testing tab on the Learning Support page.

Make the time to reflect. How is your academic performance? Now is the time to change the things that aren’t working for you. Use our resources to help you improve your time management, study skills, and test taking skills. If you want more personalized help, complete and submit the Academic Coaching Request to make an appointment with a Learning Specialist to find the strategies that will work best for you.

Start Strong

School has now officially started and you are probably already busy with your classes. It is much easier to finish strong in your classes if you take the time to start strong, so take the time now to set yourself up for success.

Set Goals

If goal setting isn’t part of your academic preparation, it should be. Goals provide structure in your academic life. Setting and prioritizing goals helps you to focus on what is most important and ignore other distractions. Without specific and realistic goals, you’ll find yourself making random decisions you may regret. Start strong by setting realistic goals. You can find more information about setting your academic goals here.

Manage your Time

Success at UAMS is dependent on time management. You have multiple courses, projects, exams, study groups, and deadlines, and keeping up with them can seem like a part-time job. To help you manage it all, get a calendar and combine it with a To Do list. I prefer to use an online calendar and to-do app that will sync across all my devices, but if you prefer a hard-copy calendar and to-do list, that’s fine too.

As soon as you can, download the schedules for all your courses and put all your assignments, projects, tests, and deadlines for all your courses on your calendar. This will show you when you are going to be the busiest. Break down your big projects into manageable chunks and work on them a little at a time so you aren’t overwhelmed when the deadline is upon you. Keep tasks on a To Do list and check them off when complete. Having a good system for your calendar and tasks will keep you organized and make your academic life much easier. It is a good way to start strong for success.

You can find more information, tips and tools for effectively managing and organizing your time here.

Identify Help

At some point during your time at UAMS, you may need help. Become familiar with all the services that the Student Success Center has to offer. You might find yourself falling behind in your courses or struggling to pass a class. Don’t wait to seek help. Go get the support you need right away. Check out the Student Success Center on the 3rd floor of the library or browse through our website to discover all the ways we are here to help you achieve academic excellence.

Conquer Compressed Courses

Taking a course during the summer is a good way to catch up on prerequisite classes or to move closer to completing your program. There are a number of advantages to summer courses. For example, they often have fewer students, meaning you have more opportunity to connect with your instructor and peers.

Compressed Courses

Summer courses are compressed. They don’t last as long as a full semester, so they may meet more often during the week or have longer class sessions. They tend to be more intense, in order to cover all the material they present in a full semester. This means that students have a heavier class workload over a shorter period of time. Maximizing your success in compressed courses requires a particular set of strategies. Here are four tips to help you successfully complete your compressed course work this summer.

Focus on the goal. Why are you taking a summer course? Is it is prerequisite that you need to complete for your degree? Are you trying to raise your GPA? Are you trying to finish your program early? Focusing on your goal will help you stay motivated and improve your success.
Manage your time carefully. Compressed courses offer unique time management challenges. Because the course length is shorter, you need to dedicate more time daily for class work and personal study. Create a realistic study schedule and stick to it. Consider minimizing other time commitments during the course. Compressed courses are shorter, so your intense study schedule won’t last forever.
Try to stay ahead of the deadlines. Compressed courses don’t allow time for procrastination. Try to complete assignments and projects early, so you don’t get caught when life gets crazy. Remember, the course will be over soon, so stay on task.
Connect with your peers in the course. Your classmates are in this with you! Form a study group and review the material together. You will learn from one another and get support in your study sessions. Online students can meet in groups too, using free tools like Stoodle or Google Hangouts.

There are a lot of advantages to taking compressed courses during the summer. Focusing your goals, managing your time, staying ahead of deadlines, and connecting with your peers will help you maximize your success in your compressed courses this summer.

Organize Your Day with Dayboard

There are many time management and to-do apps designed to help you keep track of long-term goals, manage complex projects, and schedule and prioritize day to day tasks. Dayboard is a simple tool for posting your top five priorities for the day where you can see them often.

Dayboard for Google Chrome

Dayboard is a free Chrome extension that changes your new tab page into a to-do list. You can list up to five tasks which you intend to complete that day. Unfinished tasks do carry over to another day, but because you are only allowed to list five at a time, it’s best to use it for tasks that that you want to complete within a day.

This extension couldn’t be easier to use. Once you download and install it on your browser (there are extensions for Chrome and Firefox) your to-do list will appear every time you open a new tab. It will ask you to list the five items you want to accomplish that day. When you have finished a task, you can cross it off and add another. That’s all there is to it.

Dayboard is simple and easy to use. It doesn’t try to do too much, which I think is the secret of its success. I like that it appears every time you open a new tab in your web browser. Usually I get distracted by all the opportunities to procrastinate online, so having a reminder of what I need to accomplish every time I open my browser motivates me to stay on task. Since I work on a variety of ongoing projects, I can be very specific about what I want to accomplish on a given project per day, which helps me eliminate last-minute cramming sessions. The one problem I had is that I had gotten accustomed to seeing the Google screen when I opened my browser, and was a little frustrated when I had to go looking for it. I solved the problem by adding Google to my bookmarks bar.

Overall, Dayboard is a great tool for anyone looking for a simple to-do list that is easily accessed. If you are looking for a no-fuss task management system, you should give Dayboard a try.

Time Management

How Good Are Your Time Management Skills?

Success at UAMS is dependent on time management. You have multiple courses, projects, exams, study groups, and deadlines, and keeping up with them can seem overwhelming. In addition, many students also have to manage family, friends, and a full-time job. Learning to manage all the demands on your time is not just a skill for academic success, but one that will serve you in your future personal and professional life

There are many time management strategies and tools available to you, but most of them center on three components; scheduling, prioritizing, and completing.

Scheduling

Learning to schedule your time is one of the most important steps to learning to manage you time effectively. Get a calendar. It doesn’t matter if it is a traditional hard-copy notebook, or an online calendar you have on your phone or mobile device. Just make sure you have some place to keep track of your coursework. As soon as you can, download the schedules for all your courses and put all your assignments, projects, tests, and deadlines for all your courses on the calendar. Your calendar will give you a clear picture of when you are going to be the busiest.

Prioritizing

Learning to prioritize will help you make certain you are doing the most important things first. Break down your big projects into manageable chunks and work on them a little at a time so you aren’t overwhelmed when the deadline is upon you. Make a to-do list each week, and prioritize your tasks according to importance.

It might help to organize your tasks into three categories: Must Do, Should Do, and To Do. Work through these in order of priority, and be disciplined about taking care of the most important things first. Just remember, that Should Do and To Do items can become Must Do if they are not taken care of when you have the opportunity. Take satisfaction in checking items off your to-do list. It shows you how much you have accomplished, and motivates you to stay focused and finish strong.

Completing

Scheduling and prioritizing are great for planning, organizing and understanding your workload, but the actions you take to complete your tasks and accomplish your goals are what will make your time management plan a success. Follow the schedule you have created and work through the items on your to-do list. Remind yourself of your goals when your motivation sags, and don’t be discouraged when unexpected interruptions occur. Make sure to reward yourself when you complete a large task or achieve a goal. Your success will be a reflection of your discipline and determination in carrying out your plan.

Find Support

The are many different ways to manage and organize your time and workload. Click here to find information, tips, and tools on the Learning Support page.

Your success in managing your time and tasks directly impacts your success at UAMS. Keeping up with your courses, projects, exams, study groups, and deadlines can be overwhelming without a plan for managing it all. Using a time management plan that includes maintaining a schedule, prioritizing a to-do-list, and completing your work will not only help maximize your academic success, but will help you succeed professionally.

6 Tips for Student Success

The start of a new academic year is filled with a sense of new beginnings, possibilities, and optimism. It’s a fresh start. It’s about what you can achieve as you strive toward academic excellence. It’s a chance to take control of your intellectual development and drive your professional success.

Now is the time to set yourself up for academic success. Here are six tips to help you start out on the right path.

1. Set Your Academic Goals

Set goals that are time-specific and measurable, so you will know when you have accomplished what you set out to do. Make sure you re-evaluate your goals on a regular basis. If things aren’t working, ask yourself what you need to change. Do you have to change your behavior? Would your goal be more achievable if you broke it down into smaller chunks? Is your goal realistic? Determining the answer to these questions will get you closer to achieving your goals.

2.Check the Technology Requirements

Several of the colleges and programs at UAMS require students to have a laptop. Therefore it is wise to understand what the technical requirements are before you start. Make sure your computer will work with Blackboard and any other online tools your instructor uses. You don’t want to waste time solving compatibility problems after your courses have started. Check the 2015 Laptop Buying Guide for more information.

3. Master the Online Tools

Access your courses in Blackboard as soon as they are available. Instructors set up their Blackboard sites differently, so it is a good idea to navigate around the site to learn how things are organized and where information is stored. Many instructors use online tools in their courses, so take the time to learn what they are and become familiar with how they work. That way, you aren’t trying to learn new tools when deadlines become pressing.

4. Employ Time Management Tools

5. Sharpen Your Study Skills

Good study skills are a requirement for student success at UAMS. Even if you’ve never had to study much before, you will need strong study habits to meet the rigorous academic requirements at UAMS. Don’t wait until you are falling behind to develop you study skills. Take control and start now!

Preview what you have to do and prioritize your workload. Don’t try to cram for tests. Instead, spread your studying out over time. Organize the information and test yourself. Find someone from class to review with before a test. Try to select someone who doesn’t understand the material as well as you. Answering their questions will strengthen your own understanding.

6. Know Where to Find Help

At some point during your time at UAMS, you may need help. Become familiar with all the services that UAMS and the Student Success Center have to offer. You might find yourself falling behind in your courses or struggling to pass a class. Don’t wait to seek help. Go get the support you need right away.

Over the next six weeks we will be exploring these tips in more detail. Check back for more information and tools you can use to achieve more in your academic pursuits. And please, stop by the Student Success Center on the 3rd floor of the UAMS Library to discover more ways we are here to help you achieve academic excellence.