It is no secret that the summer season can mess with our productivity. There’s always something more fun and interesting to take our attention away from class, homework or even work. In fact, a Captive Network study showed that workplace productivity drops by 20 percent during the summer months. So it makes sense that it would be the same or similar story for those of us in college.
College isn’t so much about having the ability to get the work done based on knowing the right answers. It’s more about learning how to manage time. For most of us, college is a time where we’re learning how to balance classes, extra-curricular activities, working and a social life.
If you let it, ‘summer brain’ can set in and eat up the precious time you have this summer, stopping your productivity.
Thomas Edison shed some light on the subject by saying, “Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose.”
If you let laziness set in at all, it will take that time you give it and end up robbing you of your whole summer. Here are 11 ways to keep your productivity and your happiness on the upward trend this summer:
- Know your internal schedule. Find out what time of day you’re most productive. Everyone is different, so don’t give yourself a hard time for staying up late at night or waking up early to work on things.
- Stop cramming. Cramming things in right before they are due adds stress to your life, as well as to your brain and your body. Some students work best with pressure, while some need to get assignments done in advance. Know how best you work so you don’t have to cram.
- Set realistic goals. The best goals are not the ones that are the loftiest, but the ones that are attainable; they’re even better when they’re met. If you give yourself a goal of saving $50,000 this summer, but you work for minimum wage, that goal is not realistic. Keeping realistic goals helps you not only hit them, but it gives you confidence to hit the next one.
- Organize your day the night before. Always do this! If you go to bed with an idea of what you need to do the next day, you will automatically be more productive. This is as opposed to waking up whenever and spend time thinking about what you need to do. It will take much longer to get your brain into gear at this point that you may as well have scheduled that time to do something you enjoy.
- Plan your schedule a week in advance. Plan in general, at-a-glance. Things can change, but if you have a general idea of the framework you have, you’ll be better able to find time for all the little things in life that still need to get done.
- Break bad habits and eliminate time wasters. Most of us already know when a habit we have is bad. We just have to make the choice to not let it keep stopping us from making real progress.
- Limit social media. Has this ever happened to you? It’s 8:00 and you take a quick look at your Snapchat, Instagram or any other app. The next time you look up, it’s 8:45. Social media is one of the biggest time wasters of our generation, so it’s important to keep healthy social media habits. For example, since many of us are busy, it’s best to put a block on your apps that only allow you to open them within certain hours. If anyone really needs to reach you, they should already have your phone number and can call or text.
- Own your time. Many students work, so this isn’t 100 percent possible, but as much as possible, take ownership of your time. If someone calls, texts, Snapchats or Tweets you, you have the choice whether to let that stop what you’re doing or to keep going. It’s okay to get back to someone later if you’re busy. Don’t depend on someone else to tell you what to do with your time. This can be difficult if you have kids, but it is possible by blocking out certain times where no one is allowed to interfere. Ask your family and friends you trust to help you accomplish this.
- Organize your life. We all have several things going on at once. Your struggle is not unique. Even if you’re not really an ‘organized’ kind of person, you have to get over that or before you know it, you will have wasted time looking for what you need…and then organizing. The longer you wait to organize, the more time you waste.
- Take responsibility for what happens. Think about it…if you write that paper, take that test or give that presentation and it doesn’t turn out well, you have a choice. You can take responsibility for it and move on, vowing to do better next time. Or you can dwell on what happened and blame your work, your home life, your classmates or even the teacher. The first option actually helps you mature and improve faster. The second option only prolongs the time you spend on something and it gets you nowhere.
- Stay active. Remember the old “use it or lose it” philosophy. This applies to knowledge gained in college, as well as physical progress in your body. Staying active keeps your body much healthier than if you sat around on the couch. When you’re active, chemicals react in your brain, making your whole body more alert and ready to focus, which turns into productivity.
Remember, time is your most precious commodity and you will never get any of it back. Be productive toward your goals and make today count.
Meggan Lanahan
Reporter