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It can be hard to stay motivated when your days feel like weeks and your weeks feel like months. I’m sure several of you know exactly what I am talking about, especially with the pandemic happening. While working from home especially, the days can drag on and on and it can be hard to stay motivated. Something I have found helpful to stay engaged and working effectively is to take breaks for yourself. Yes, everyone is required to take a lunch break at some point throughout the day, but I am talking about more than that. Take periodic breaks throughout the day to give yourself a break. Go get a coffee, make a snack, take a walk. All of these things will put your mind at ease and make you more productive when you return to your work. You need to understand that it is OKAY to take a break and not work every minute of the day. I’m not talking about a 2 hour break, just a short 10-15 minute break or even 20 if you need it. We tend to sit and drown in our own work and how much we have to complete, but then we reach a point where we are working but aren’t really getting anything out of it. Taking breaks will make you more productive and work more efficiently. It’s important to understand that it is okay to take a break and need some time away before you can complete something.

We are in the times where we have an unlimited amount of resources. You can Google whatever you would like and will likely find an answer to your question. As a student, it is important to utilize these resources. For me, writing has always been a slight challenge for me. I struggle to write and get my point across. I often will tend to go off on a tangent and not even remember what I am writing about.  I chose this article because I feel like it best relates to what I struggle with when writing. It discusses narrowing the topic that you are researching. Like I stated before, we have so many resources we can use as students but sometimes what we are searching for is too broad. When you narrow the topic it makes your research easier because you have a better idea of what you are looking for and it is more specific. You can still pull topics in from the bigger picture, but overall you will have a narrower topic. Another key to making sure you are on track is to continuously read what you are assigned and what you have written. Throughout the paper check yourself and make sure that you are staying on topic. These resources have helped me throughout the years when I start to struggle with things I am writing.

Narrowing a Topic

The transition from college to high school can be hard for many individuals. You gain a whole sense of freedom and independence that you didn’t have in high school. However, with that independence comes a large amount of responsibility. As a new college student you have to learn to manage your time and figure out what works out best for you. In a lot of college classes attendance is not mandatory and for schools as large as Ohio State, your Professor will have no idea if you show up or not. Students think that they are going to show up because that is the right thing to do. Just “showing up” isn’t enough. When you show up to class you need to make the most of it and actively engage and take notes. Your teacher isn’t showing up to talk about something that doesn’t matter to that class and your future career. He/She is there to relay important information across for your future career. Paying attention and taking notes that will support your learning will benefit you as a student. Some lectures can be 2 hours long and will cover a lot of content so showing up and being engaged is extremely important. When I was a freshman in college it was easy for me to just show up to class and run through the motions but I wasn’t actively investing in my education and learning. I promise you, as a senior, it pays to pay attention and just showing up isn’t enough.

Being an active reader is something that has always been hard for me. I have tried physical books and online textbooks and it is hard to comprehend what I am reading and staying engaged. This has been an issue for me because even though after college I won’t necessarily be “tested” on topics I read, I will still need to be an active reader and comprehend what I am reading. Something from the module that stuck out to me was making notes in the margins of the text. This is something I have never done or thought of and is something that I will definitely start doing. When I edit my papers I always make comments in the margin for me to refer back to and make the changes if I need to.

Something that was also mentioned in the module which I do when I am studying is to use acronyms to remember things. I have found this to be one of my most effective ways to study and remember terms. The article Try these 9 Types of Mnemonics to Improve Your Memory states, “An often-used acrostic in math class is: Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally. This acrostic mnemonic represents the order of operations in algebra and stands for parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction”. This acronym helped me in math class and I always make things like this while I am studying for an exam. It is a great method to remember words and the order they go in. (https://www.verywellhealth.com/memory-tip-1-keyword-mnemonics-98466) .  

This is intended for a student audience.

It can be hard to plan out your weeks and all the personal/school stuff you have to complete during the week. I know-I have been there, but trust me, it is way more enjoyable to break things down and plan ahead so you have more free time. Freshman year of college I felt like I had no free time to do anything I wanted to do. I always had class, school work, or some type of club/sorority meeting going on. Then I realized I wasn’t planning my weeks ahead and this was leading to me procrastinating. Over my 3 years in college I have found some tips that work for me. I began to look at my schedule for the week on Sunday and  see what assignments I have due that week. By looking at these assignments ahead it allows me to have a better understanding of how much time it will take me to complete that assignment. This allows me to break down the big assignments and group together the little assignments to knock them all out at once. By planning ahead, I am able to put these assignments in my calendar and allot a specific amount of time to these assignments. By doing this, it leads to little procrastination because I know what to expect and I know exactly when I am going to complete this. I now try to get all of these assignments done Monday-Friday so that I can gain my Sundays back and have those as a refresher for the week to come.

When first going to college it can be a stressful transition into a very Professional world. Something that is key during this time of becoming more of a professional is sounding like one in an email(or appearing to be one). I don’t know about you guys, but in high school I did not use my email at school very often. Then you are thrown into college where majority of the communication is through email for your classes, advisors, peers, and career professionals. This is embarrassing, but I was so bad with my email that I didn’t even have a signature for the first semester of college. I remember being so overwhelmed when I received emails from my classmates or professors with fancy signatures and I had no idea how to make one. I let my pride get the best of me and was too embarrassed to ask how/why they had email signatures. Everyone comes to college with different backgrounds and something important to understand is that it is okay to not understand everything at first! Your professors or career professionals emailing you are not expecting you to have everything sorted out at age 18. Ask for help! I wish I would have asked for more help and used more of the resources I was offered freshman year. Take advantage of every resource offered to you and never be too scared to ask because there are always people that have the same questions as you. 

Reflection: Directed at a Student Audience

Something mentioned in the module 2 video that seems obvious but is something I definitely do not always remember to do is to proofread your emails before sending and reread their response. I know that I tend to type and respond to emails very quickly and definitely do not proofread overtime. It makes sense to re-read their response as well so you aren’t reiterating something that they already said. I feel like many people look at it as if it’s just an email, it doesn’t matter if it looks good or not, but it actually does. As Dr. Fus mentioned, it can be very aggravating for students to ask questions in an email response that the Professor had already addressed in the previous email. Something else that is very important to remember is to properly address the Professor and use a professional format. Professors receive several emails daily so you really want to ensure that the subject line gives them a good idea of what you want to know and it lets them know how timely the issue is. You want to make the email detailed and to the point but keep it as short as you can so you don’t lose their attention reading a super long email. Another important thing to note is that this doesn’t stop after you graduate college. Into your professional career you will need to know how to professionally and efficiently email your peers. Learning the ins and outs of email skills now, will only help you in your future as a professional.