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Focus while studying was something I used to struggle with a lot throughout my freshman year of college. Like many students, these problems stemmed from a wandering mind as I would often lose motivation while studying and quickly find distractions to quell my boredom, namely my phone, television, video games, and many others. My first thought was to isolate myself from these distractions, strictly doing my studying in study rooms instead of my room with my phone on Do no Disturb. This helped, but I would still find myself spacing out and procrastinating on my computer.

Finally, I turned to music to help keep myself from spacing out and keep my mind entertained while still getting valuable work done, however it still took a while to figure out what type of music worked best. I started just listening to my favorite types of music, as I tend to listen to very relaxing or, “chill” music, in my free time, so I figure that would put me in a good head-space to study. This helped to block out outside distractions, however the music itself became a distracting, as reading slides or books while listening to this type of music was nearly impossible for me, as the lyrics in the music and the words on the pages mixed together and I retained next to nothing I was studying. So, as mentioned in the lesson, I tried white noise effects, figuring the void of words would help retain the information. While it did work, it opened me back up to outside distractions, as I was not engaged in the sounds enough and, in fact, hated the noise.

Finally, while scrolling through the YouTube trending page, I stumbled upon a 24-hour live-stream Titled “Lo-Fi Beats to Study To“, playing strictly calming instrumentals that many find pleasing to listen to while focusing on studies or other work. This seemed like the perfect balance of nonsensical noise and music that would allow my brain to be engaged, yet not confused by words entangling when I am trying to focus. This turned out to be true, as I could find myself studying for hours at a time without even glancing at my phone or logging into Twitter. I certainly consider this to be a large help to my success and is something I have not gone a day without listening to, whether it is during studies, reading, or any other activity that requires focus. If you have been in a similar situation as the one I have described, please check this live-stream out, I promise you  won’t regret it.

Probably the most difficult stage of writing a paper for me is the beginning. It is always very intimidating get a broad prompt or research topic from a professor with very little guidance. As someone who is more math oriented, getting creative when coming up with a topic of my own can often prove very difficult. Often I will often find myself asking very basic, “regular” questions that usually have a factual answer. While these can be useful and informative in other situations, they aren’t so useful when trying to write an analytical paper about a broad topic. Writing about regular questions can only get you so far, as you will often find yourself reciting information with no analysis to back it up, as it is difficult to have a new take on a cold, hard fact.

This is why using “research questions” is so much more valuable when beginning a paper. Questions with more of an interpretive answer are much easier to write on, allowing for analysis, so the writer can express their takes on the research they did in preparation for the paper. This is also a lot more helpful for the reader. Analysis of a topic is much more engaging to read, as it allows the reader to consider a side to a subject that they might not have considered before. The reader will then take this analysis in and form their own opinion on the subject, whether they agree with the author’s analysis or not. While using research questions is not the only thing required to writing a well-researched and analytical essay, it is crucial to get the ball rolling.

As students, I think we can all relate to turning off our brain in lectures and mindlessly copying down the words on the board, waiting for that class to end.  For a while, I didn’t see much harm in this. While, of course, most of the time I am paying attention in class and trying to retain the information relayed to me, we all have those days where we just want to shut down our mind and just get through our classes. And what’s the harm in that? My answer to that question before completing this week’s module was certainly different than it is now.

I don’t I truly grasped the importance of good, attentive note taking until diving into the topic further during this module. I could just learn the information before the exams, as long as I had the information all in one place in the form of my notes. This is why I mostly use a computer when taking notes in class, as it allows me to get a large amount of information down that I could then use to study at a later date. What I realize now, however, is I was actually just creating more work for myself in the future, as I would dive into study sessions not having a clue on the topic I would soon be tested on. I now realize that handwritten, attentive notes are much more useful as a study tool,  not even because of what is written on the page, but what has been imprinted into my mind as a result of the note taking. Having at least base knowledge on a topic before studying it can make the information a lot easier to digest and the whole process a lot less stressful, which is why I will work on taking notes more similar to the ones taken in the IU video we watched this week. I think that this is something we could all learn as students: while we may not grasp the importance of attentive note taking while sitting in our 2-hour, 8 a.m. lecture, we will appreciate it a lot more when it finally comes to crunch time and the exam is only a few days away.

Something I have never really done before this module is writing out my tasks for a coming week. As someone who doesn’t plan out their day or week very often, I have always relied on my memory when completing assignments on time, studying before exams, and going to events such as classes or review sessions. I was not even aware that there were sites such as Remember the Milk that made creating and tracking to do lists so much easier.

When I first started my to do list, I honestly felt that this was a waste of time, as everything I was writing down was coming straight from my memory, so it felt like creating the same list twice in two different places. However, to make sure I covered all of my bases, I went to Carmen and double checked each class to make sure I didn’t have any quizzes or assignments due that I wasn’t aware of. To my surprise I actually had a quiz I did not know about because it was created to work around the current crisis going on.

This gave me a much more positive outlook on creating to do lists, as it had saved my grade in one of my classes. While, admittedly,  I don’t expect myself to be constantly checking the list throughout the week, the list has already helped me a lot as I took time to sit down and take stock of what I need to get accomplished by the end of the week. On top of this, I now have a reference for my assignments in all of my classes in one convenient location, so I don’t have to scour Carmen during the week to make sure I am getting everything done on time.

The topic of nettiquette is growing in importance as our society becomes more and more integrated into the internet. What exactly does this mean? Well, it is very similar to the real world term of etiquette, in which there are rules on how to handle yourself in certain social environments, such as when around friends vs. when conducting business. When discussing nettiquette, however, as Julia Spira mentions in “What is Nettiquette & Why is it important?”,  “We need rule of nettiquette to protect your digital reputation“. This differs from regular etiquette as there are many more situations in which different rules apply, as each method of communication and type of social media comes with a different set of nettiquette rules.

One situation would be communication through e-mail. I specifically picked e-mail as I have a lot of experience prior to this week’s module in using proper e-mail nettiquette, and I thought it might be interesting for other students to hear about the importance of proper e-mail nettiquette. Often times, the first impression recruiters have of applicants is through cold e-mails, in which applicants reach out to recruiters expressing interest over an internship or job at their companies. If an applicant uses improper e-mail nettiquette when writing these e-mails or else recruiters will transfer these e-mails straight into the trash. This is why I always use very proper and formal e-mail nettiquette when drafting said e-mails for business, this includes a subject line, addressing the person properly, providing context for the message, writing in complete and grammatically correct sentences, and closing in a proper manner. This provides a great first impression and greatly improves the chances of a response from whoever you are trying to contact, and ultimately, getting the job or internship you are aspiring towards.

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