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The most useful thing I learned comes directly from a video provided in module 7 called: How to Avoid Distractions and Stay Focused While Studying – 5 Practical Tips! This video discusses using apps as a way to help stay focused. I would say that is the most useful thing I have learned because I have learned to give them a chance. There are so many wonderful apps out there that I have been cold to just because I’m lazy and think that I don’t need an app to help me. This module taught me to open up to outside help and get motivated to learn how to help myself stay motivated. This led to me downloading an app called: My Fitness Pal. This app has helped me stay motivated to eat right and workout.

“Your environment as a motivator”, as soon as I read that I knew instantly I was going to use that for this section of my blog. Yes, my environment is my motivator and I have my mother to thank for that. Something that I have already been putting into practice (and have been for years) is keeping my study environment as clean as I can. My environment is my room and a clean room is a clean mind. I have advocated to my friends for years that it’s so important to make your bed and have your room clean everyday so you can leave feeling clean. Having a clean room to work in is a great feeling and I’ll keep doing it for years.

Something that I could put into practice would be to curb my smart phone addiction. To do this, I’ll be using the most useful thing I learned: apps. I’ll be using Forest and Pocket Points to succeed in this goal. I look at my phone more than I look at pretty girls, unless I’m looking at pretty girls on my phone in which case what I just said is false. I need to mitigate this and with the help of apps on my phone I can stop looking at my phone.

My advice to my student audience: Clean your room regardless if it’s your study environment or not. Make your bed every morning and of course, always stay organized. Take it easy everyone and thanks for reading.

This module is focused around improving your academic writing/ research skills. The most important thing I learned was to treat my writing like an art as opposed to a chore. Module 6 includes this video: Tips for Writing a College Research Paper. Nancy Whooo talks about having a mindset and I believe that’s really important. Forcing yourself into believing you’re creating art (even if it’s a book review or something who cares) can still help you get inspired to finish or at least start your paper and make it good.

A specific thing I have been putting into practice already is pre-searching. My pre-search game is untouched, I have to make sure I know the concept of the topic before I research it because how stupid would it be for me to not understand the concept of my topic then go out and research a topic; very stupid. I am lazy therefor I am efficient. The quickest way to researching is to be prepared, hence the importance of an untouched pre-search game.

An idea that I’ll be putting into practice in the future is: understanding the difference between research and search. I’ve never thought about there being a difference between the two and now it makes perfect sense that there would be. Of course searching is just measly looking stuff up, but I thought that was also researching. Little did I realize that researching is more for questions that don’t have such a clear answer (Will Covid-19 kill us all?) as opposed to those that do. (What is Covid-19?)

My advice to my student audience is this: Take pride in your work. Yes, duh really? Oh I should be taking pride in my work? I thought maybe I’d take a picture of my left cheek and turn that in. Telling you to take pride in your work sounds cliche but it’s cliche for a reason, because you should. Not just caring, I mean really caring. I mean REsearching, not just searching. I mean making outlines for your papers, pre-searching, write it read it write it again send it to your mom and write it again. I mean yearning to care about something and then channeling that energy into your work and then into the little things in your life. Don’t just care, consciously care.

The most useful thing I learned in module 5 was the Cornell note taking method. I consider myself to be a good note taker solely because I can write fast and also read the ancient scribbles I leave behind. However, I have never been good at organizing my notes. While I have the speed to jot down notes before the teacher can say them, I always have trouble coming back to them. With the Cornell method, that I learned through this video called: Taking Notes in Class, I am able to jot down whatever I feel, then organize and summarize them; it’s very helpful!

A specific thing I have already put into motion is the sentence and bullet point method. This one seems to be the basic that most students use, as it is usually the first way people pick up. It’s nice to just bullet each point and write a little sentence about it so you know what you’re talking about.

I could put the Cornell method into practice in the future. I could absolutely do it. Nothing in this world could possibly stop me from putting this method into practice and improving my note taking skills, thus making me an unstoppable student and a threat to any exam stupid enough to cross me; which is why I will. How am I going to do this you ask? Here’s how I’ll do it and pay attention: instead of taking notes how I usually do, I’ll take notes using the Cornell method.

Based on what I have read in this module, here is my advice to my student audience. Yes your method works for you, yes you know what you’re doing because you’ve been doing it and you’ve managed to do well or at least get by with it. The advice I’m giving you is: you don’t need to fix it if it isn’t broken, but don’t be afraid of change and to adopt a new method. You never know what will work better for you.

The most important thing I learned in module 4 is how to study and improve my memory. I am attention deficit and I always find myself forgetting thoughts, objects and sometimes my train of thought! I have learned to associate certain things with specific things in order to help me remember certain things. For example, I know that a mortgagee is the lender because the mortgagEE recEIVEs the contract; little stuff like that helps.

That brings me to what I have already been putting into action: The SQ3R reading method. I have used this method for years and will always continue to do so. Talking to yourself while you study is an amazing (and slightly weird for others to see) way to memorize/figure out something. When there’s no one around you to talk to, talk to yourself. The words you think and the concepts you think may sound completely different when said out loud.

Something I would like to put into practice in the future would be to not multitask and to focus on a few things at a time (group them into chunks) as stated in CrashCourse. The brain can only handle a few items of information at a time, so it’s important not to cram your head with information in hopes to retain it all; you won’t. I’ll do this by getting organized and not waiting until the last minute to do everything.

My advice to my fellow students and those with attention deficit would be: take a breath and take it easy, focus on one or two things at a time. When you do focus on those things, be sure to talk about it out loud if your brain just won’t shut up. It likes to think you crazy so sometimes you need to take the conversation outside to really focus.

Thee most useful thing I learned was at the very beginning of the lesson during the short video when he talked about how students who are given three weeks to complete an assignment don’t work on it until the end because they’re afraid of actually trying and failing. That hit me straight through the heart. It’s an awful feeling when you work on something and actually care about it, only for it to be trashed because it wasn’t good enough. I learned that the fear of failure is what holds me back.

A powerful technique I have already put into practice is the three magical questions. I ask myself where I am, what do I want to do and how I will feel about doing it after at the gym all the time. The hardest part is simply getting to the gym. Once I’m there I ask myself “where am I? I’m at the gym”. “What do I want to do? Put in this work son”. “How will I feel once I’m done? Like a beast”. Once I’m done with my inner monologue, working out becomes fun and I am able to get it done.

This module provided us with an article by Forbes called: 14 Ways You Can Overcome Procrastination. One of the ways was to not multitask. I multitask everything I do because I’m lazy and want to do everything at once and in one sitting. By doing this I end up with this massive workload that I try to handle and all I end up doing is stressing myself out so much to the point where I don’t even want to do it anymore. I see this huge workload that I have single handily created myself and give up because it looks like it’s too much. One project at a time that’s what I need to do.

The advice I would give my student audience is this: Organize; That’s it. Organize, organize, organize. If you take a few hours on a Sunday or whenever and plan out your week you’ll be so much happier. Organization is the key to getting things done. Find out what works for you, anything I don’t care what you do just do something that’ll keep you organized. If you plan out your weeks every week I swear you’ll conquer the world.

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