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For me, I can only stay motivated while studying if I am free of distractions, specifically audio distractions. I have 3 roommates, so avoiding audio distractions is imperative for me to get anything done. But, whether you are distracted by noise or the lack of it (complete silence can be unnerving, I know!), I have some great study playlists and tips I use to be successful.

My absolute favorite playlist to do schoolwork to is this one.

It is a slow “Lofi” beat playlist that consists of instrumental tracks with no words. I have noticed that it is absolutely impossible for me to concentrate if I am listening to music with words in them. I tend to sing along too much! If that’s the same for you, check out that playlist and the others I link below. Other than the one provided above, they will all be on Youtube.

Along with instrumentals, “white noise” is beneficial for me to listen to when studying as well. There are some theories that “white noise” can improve memory if listened to when studying, but the main advantage just seems to be how it drowns out other sounds and provides consistent audio stimulation.

I suggest listening to one of these next time you study and see if you they help you stay more motivated than usual!

• List of other playlists on Youtube:
•  classical music 
• grey noise
• white noise
• Lofi beats

When we first get to college, we’re not really taught how to elevate writing essays from high school quality to collegiate quality. The most important thing to elevate your writing is elevating y our research!

Here I will be sharing some ways to elevate research to find relevant information faster:

Boolean operators are something I find to be the most simple and helpful. They help your search engine better understand the information you’re looking for.

Example search: gender wage gaps in business from 2022

Elevated search: gender wage gaps AND business AND 2022 — the use of AND makes sure all relevant search words are found in the results.

Elevated search: gender wage gaps “business” “2022” — the use of quotes around relevant search words discards all results without those in quotes.

Elevated search: kayaks NOT canoes — the NOT can be used to disclude a term similar to another, but that you don’t want to show up.

Elevated search: (recreational OR medical) AND drugs — the use of parenthesis includes the two terms in the parenthesis in your search along with the second term that is preceded by AND.

I have attached the website I use to brush up on my Boolean Operators. I suggest getting familiar with them as you will be able to use them in ALL aspects of your life after you graduate college.

Boolean Operators | Quick Guide, Examples & Tips

This week we’re gonna be talking about not just taking notes, but how to take good notes!

Obviously, all effective learning/studying happens with notes. So if you aren’t taking notes, start! But, if you are, we are going to discuss how to get more out of those notes.

1.) When you are writing your notes during class, are you actively listening? Active listening is actively comprehending what is coming out of the speaker’s mouth and engaging in the information in your own thoughts. Active listening can be: anticipating what the speaker will say next, based on what they have just said: asking questions about the information in your head: and thinking about where you have seen this information play out in real life.

While you’re actively listening, what do you write down?

• I usually take notes in a bullet-point fashion. Like so:
  • allows you to see the relationship between topics
  • visually, they are easy to study
  • allow for short responses
    • essential for taking notes in a lecture

• make the biggest bullet point the main idea
  • include the smaller, related ideas under it
    • specific details to the smaller ideas can be shown too (like this)
  • smaller points help you memorize the larger points and understand them more

Making bullet points in this fashion creates a great environment for you to come back and study from. The organization will make sure you don’t mix up ideas or leave any out when it comes to connecting information together.

I hope these tips will help you take efficient notes in class from now on!

Extra tip: If you can avoid typing notes, do it. Opt for a pen and a piece of paper.

Extra Extra tip: here’s a link to a few more different styles of note-taking if my style does not work for you.

4.4 Got Notes?

Hi Everyone!

Welcome back to my blog!

Today my post will hopefully help you (and me) beat procrastination. 

So, why do we procrastinate? I procrastinate because I don’t want to do the work until I absolutely have to, and even at the last minute, I still get decent grades. 

Take a moment to reflect on why you procrastinate. 

Now that we’re familiar with our own causes of procrastination, let’s go over 3 tips for helping beat it!

1. Dissect your bigger assignments into smaller pieces. If you have a large assignment that you anticipate to take 2+ hours, it would be more digestible if you work on it in 10-20 increments either over the day, or over a few days (if the due date permits). This makes the work you don’t want to do, less intimating or time-consuming. 

1. What’s your ultimate goal and the immediate desire keeping you from achieving that goal? Practice self-control by rejecting immediate desires that hinder your goal of getting work done, getting good grades, and graduating from school. Whether its going out, watching tv, or just laying in bed, you can do all those things stress-free when your work is done! 

1. Get the worst assignment out of the way first. After the most dreaded assignment is out of the way, the other stuff doesn’t seem so bad. Instead of worrying about that assignment for the entire week, worry about it for a day and get it done. 

I hope these tips help! Come back next week for my next blog. 

Hello peers!

This week I am going to talk about the information we learned about communicating with our professors.

Some basics to always remember to include are:

Your subject line, your greeting, your context, and your closing with your full name. 

It’s important to know what your professor’s preferred prefix is — ex. Dr., Professor, Mrs., Mr., etc. 

I think the most important thing in this section is to remember to be formal. In this day in age, online communication is becoming more and more informal. Sometimes we can email people informally but we have to turn that formal switch back on when talking to professors and TAs. Even though TAs are our peers, we need to remember to show them the same amount of respect as the professor. 

This netiquette is extremely important to get in the habit of because we will also use it in our careers. We will need to communicate formally and informally in the work setting with coworkers and bosses. The switch between the two attitudes is important to master. Bosses will need clear and concise information relayed to them in order to easily access your work and use it to contribute to the company’s improvement. 

Here is the Youtube video from class I found helpful.