HOW TO GET BY? In case you cannot think of ways to organize your life. (great for students)

Studying. JUST DO IT! The more you do it the easier it gets.

Do you or did you ever have summer vacations? Remember? Those 3 or so months of warm beach time? Maybe when you were younger your guardians allowed you to relax your brain for a quarter of a year. I know, I know, some of your folks would not let you just veg out. Some of you had to continue working and studying and hustling. But some of you, some of us, were allowed a certain amount of break time. And remember how hard that first day of class was? IT WAS SO HARD!

What was the hard part? It was difficult focusing on those lectures. Hard to concentrate enough to take good notes. Hard to even stay awake while sitting still. And it was difficult to absorb and learn the new material or even the forgotten material. It was hard to want to be there. But if you pushed and worked at it, within a month or so you got back into the good habits. You were able to study and absorb materials. You did not sleep through lectures and expose your drowsy self to dry erasers being chucked at your head (by irritated professors). You took excellent notes that your classmates called you about copying. YOU DID IT!

For myself, I learned to look at studying in that very way. Yes, it is simple to get distracted. BUT know that the more you study and the better you get, the easier it is to study and the more you will want to study.  

THERE ARE 2 MAIN WAYS OF GETTING YOUR WORK DONE THAT HAVE BOTH WORKED FOR ME:

1) some people need to be on a strict schedule

2) some people need some room to breathe.

No matter how you study always be disciplined. And always reward yourself. Always keep yourself accountable. And generally have someone on the outside to be accountable to. I myself thrive on accountability. It pushes and motivates me. Tell a friend that you are going to learn all your flashcards by the end of the week. Make it like a competition with yourself. If you do it, you win, and if you don't do it, you fail. Winners get a treat, while losers get zilch. Provide yourself with something you like at the end of the week. Maybe you will get your favorite meal, or if you are broke, go to the library and check out a couple of movies for free for your treat. If you fail, well, you will be playing catch up which is a punishment in itself AND you will not treat yourself. Tell yourself you will do better next time and do it. ALWAYS DO BETTER!

Remember: never get behind!!! It makes your plans harder. For example, if you have a paper due in 7 days and the paper has to be 5 pages, that is less than a page a day!!! And if you are flowing, you may even knock it out a week early. You will be way less stressed, and if you have a nice professor they will be super willing to look it over for you to ensure you the best possible grade once you make the necessary corrections.

The first method is easier to address.

Taking many breaks can be tricky. Sometimes you feel like you want to learn while other times you just want to SLACK! Breaking on the weekend can be nice because you may have other available friends that are free. Breaking mid week is tricky. Having a lax schedule is tricky but it is not so impossible. If breaks motivate you then take breaks. We should all take breaks. But just remember that once you stand up to stretch or take a walk or go on FaceBook, YOU MUST RETURN AND GET YOU WORK DONE.

If breaks are too distracting then try to take them in a controlled environment such as in a library. If you study in a closed study booth, then you can take your breaks in the main library where is less of a distraction available.

During my early college days I would study in the college library cubicles. And I would keep my laptop in the trunk of the car just in case I would need it. I carried texts, but for fun break times I carried a Bible and some Biblical Hebrew textbooks. (If you have not yet realized that I am a total geek, well NOW YOU KNOW)! I would study my assignments for classes. But when I wanted to slack off the only available materials I had were Hebrew books!!!!!!! So in the process of inaccurately preparing for some class sessions at least I learned some Hebrew!