If you are like me keeping organized is a constant struggle. One of the most useful and actually the simplest tool in this battle is the “To Do List”. It is so easy that a lot of people dismiss it. However, I spend an entire class period in my Study Skills class discussing how to use it. I create an assignment for the use of it. All the students after being exposed to it (if they aren’t using it already) get started and never stop!
Why is such a little piece of paper so important? I don’t know for sure all the reasons; however I do know it really, really works. Just the act of writing something down makes the task easier to complete. If the idea is on the paper, somehow it frees up the brain to concentrate. What a thought!
I have found that I need to keep a small notebook with me at all times. When I think of something that needs to be done, I write it down so I won’t forget. At the end of the day, usually before I go to bed I look through what I have written and prioritize my list for action.
I’m happy with a pocket-size pad of paper and a pen with an occasional sticky note. For those of you who find a computer to be more friendly than I do, a recent Google search turned up more than 25 on-line programs to try for keeping a to do list. I tried a few of them. One that was easy to use and free was: Rememberthemilk.com. The complete list can be found at solutionwatch.com. It was an absolute treasure trove of possibilities.
To Do Lists are only the first steps. In my next post, I’m going to address the next part which is “The Planner”. Having a Daily To Do list and a planner for longer periods of time will make your life less stressful by helping you remember the important things and giving you the satisfaction of getting them done. ‘Till next time….
 Top Five Motivation Tips for Study Success
1. Don’t try to do everything yourself. Create a support group with like minded people. Think Weight watchers or Alcoholics Anonymous. There are many benefits to studying with a friend who is in the same class as you. You can compare notes. You can check homework problems. You can teach each other just by talking about the material together.
2. Write it down. Make a promise to yourself and hold yourself accountable. If you know you must do something make a list of all the steps needed to get the project done. Be specific. If you know exactly what you need to do, break down each task into steps. Look at the steps as small pieces that need to get done so you won’t be so overwhelmed.
3. Change the due date. If you are the type of person who waits until the last minute to get started on something because you need the stress and pressure to get motivated, change the due date to an earlier time.
4. Know yourself. If there is a task that you are always avoiding, there may be a deeper meaning. If a student is an accounting major because he thinks that is the only way to get a job and he hates math, it might be time to do a serious self-assessment.
5. Motivation is easy if you want to do something. If you know that what you need to do has a benefit to you down the road, you might be able to talk yourself into it. Saying to yourself, “When I complete this I will be able to have what I want”, can help.
This is an article I found in the Wednesday, January 19, 2011, Oregonian Newspaper
The by line is –McClatchy-Tribune
Today’s teen know well the alphabet soup of high-stakes tests-The SATS, the ACTs the APs and the flurry of finals at the end of every sememster
But they might not know about a proven new tactic to ease their nerves on test day and even boost their scores.
A team of University of Chicago psychological scientists found that high school and college students who jotted down their worries for 10 minutes before exam time avoided choking under the pressure. In fact, they performed markedly better.
Sian Beilock and Gerardo Ramirez measured the test anxiety of a class of high school freshmen six weeks before their final exams tests that would be foundational to the academic transcripts they would ultimately send to colleges. On exam day, they asked half the class to write down their concerns about the upcoming test while other students wrote about an unrelated topic.
To a teen, students who had the worst case of test nerves scored as well as their more relaxed classmates even when accounting for grades during the school year. The average score improved almost an entire grade, going from a B minus to a B plus, results show.
The professors repeated the experiment a year later with the same results.
Do you feel anxious about remembering information? Our brains work like the computers you use everyday. There is a short term memory and a long term memory part of your brain. The short term memory part can only remember at most five things at a time. It is analogous to a little box. It gets full very quickly. When it gets full, if you try to put a new piece of information in the box it will go in. The problem is that something else will fall out! The secret here is understanding how to move information from your short term memory to a special filing cabinet place or in other words your long term memory, if you want to.
We all are stimulated with millions and millions of bits of information everyday. I remember reading a study where a bricklayer under hypnosis was able to remember the characteristics of every brick he laid. However, most of us would be overloaded with too much information. System failure! So our brains do away with facts unless we decide we need to know them. You don’t need to memorize the dictionary. You only need to know how to look up a word you are looking for.
What does this mean to you? If you understand how to move the information you want into the storage area of your brain that is great; but you also need to know how to retrieve it. I like to think of my brain as a closet and a filing cabinet. In the closet are hooks to hang the information I want to remember. I need to hook the information to something I already know, i.e. the filing cabinet.
Try it. If you are at a party and you want to remember the names of people you are meeting for the first time, do this.
Repeat the name to yourself and also out loud. Think of a characteristic of the person or the name and link the two together.
For example: I was introduced to Jane. I said to her, ” Nice to meet you, Jane”. Next I saw Jane had on a blue dress. To myself I said, Jane wears blue rain and there is a stain on Jane’s blue rain. I don’t know how this works but I know it does. If you chunk up information together it is easier to remember. Easy!
Happy Holidays! Just because school is out doesn’t mean its time to turn your brain off. The skills you have developed to keep your grades up are the same skills which will make you successful everyday.
Are you the type of person who is naturally organized or the type of person who spends lots of time trying to find your keys? There are easy strategies available to everyone which can change things for the better with almost no effort.
Do you need help remembering things, remembering names at a party, recalling important information. The same skills you acquire to help you turn your brain into a virtual sponge to raise your grades are the same skills to make memory work as instant recall. There is no secret to it. It works for everyone. The only key is knowing how to do it.
So you feel rushed and pressured? Knowing how to cope and plan for tests and how to stay on track in school are the same skills you need to know to get to a party on time.
When you have practiced study skills enough to make them habits that happen without much thought, many of the problems that hold you back in school will extend to enrich your life.
I want to share with you simple things you can do. Let me know what works for you. I would like to hear from you. Happy Holidays.
Most of us can’t go through a day without talking. However, how we communicate and what we think about is more important than most of us realize. I’m sure many of you have heard of the power of the ideas behind the book “The Secret”. It isn’t really a secret at all. If you think about it, the basics behind the idea of psychotherapy is the notion that talking about what we think about has the power to help us. Understanding how to direct what you think about can empower you. The other side of the coin is if you are careless with your thoughts it can weigh you down. Have you ever noticed how being around a cheerful person can be contagious? Or the flip side, hanging out with people who are very negative can make you feel that way, too? Take a moment to think about the topics you have discussed so far today. How would you rate the quality of the conversations you have? Don’t only include the conversations you have with other people, be serious about including the conversations you have with yourself. What assumptions have you made about the topics you cover? Are you looking for ways to contradict or put down something and surrounding yourself with thoughts that bring you down? Or are you directing your thoughts to positive things that make you feel good?
One of the teachings of the book “The Secret” that works for a lot of people is to make a “vision board”. Cut out pictures of things you like or want, people who inspire your to be your best, and places that excite you. Put it in a prominent place and look at it everyday. See if after a week or two good things begin to happen for you. Let me know. I care.
I’d like you to try a little experiment. Take your hands and fold them, knitting your fingers together. Check it out. Which thumb did you place on top? Was it the thumb of your right or your left hand? Now unclasp your hands. Knit your fingers together again, however, this time do it so that the thumb that was on the top is now underneath. What does that feel like for you? Is it uncomfortable or strange or maybe even oddly dangerous? I just asked you to try something y9u probably wouldn’t do unless someone asked you to because you are used to clasping your hands together in a certain way.
Trying to change habits and experiment with something new can be a similar experience. Even if you know that what you are doing is good for you, in your heart you might have all types of feelings that make you anxious about the new activity that you want to try. In order to get past the fear of something new, you need to look it in the face. Examine it. Are these feelings holding you back from experiences that could be very beneficial to you. Most people don’t want to do anything new. They like the comfort of knowing what they are used to. However, if you want to succeed and progress in your life you have to be willing to accept some discomfort.
Let’s try another experiment with your hands again. Look at your hands. They are amazing! With your fingers open and your palms up you can receive an incredible amount of information. Your hands are very sensitive to the weight of an object, the warmth, the texture, or in general the “feel”. But if your close your hand into a fist you will lose out on all the information your hands have to give you. How are you going to approach the world? With your hands open ready to receive or with your hands tight so that picking up anything is difficult. Something to think about….
Now that October is here, many students who started in September may feel the pressure of school. There is a pile of reading to do, homework assignments are piling up, the stress is mounting, and self-doubt begins to appear. ”What am I doing in school?” ”Why am I doing this?” Many students begin to feel overwhelmed and under pressure. Now might be a good time to think about talking with a school counselor to create a plan for the future. Going to school involves understanding how to delay immediate gratification for the rewards in the future.
I was watching a TV show on psychology the other day. The study had a small child sit at a table. On the table was a bowl of candy. The instructor told the child, “If you want to eat one candy, you can eat it now. But, I have to go somewhere for a minute. If you can wait until I come back I will give you five candies”. Then the instructor left the room. The candy was in front of the child, now alone. Some of the children ate candy and some did not. It turned out that the children who were able to wait were the same children who had better grades in school. What does that say to you? I think that there is an element of self discipline that is parallel to rewards later in life. How much control do you express? Something to think about.
Hello Everyone!
I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything for you in a while but I’m coming back. So much has happened in the past few months. But what is important is that I’ve been working on a book for you! I would appreciate your comments. I’ve boiled down all the experiences of the years into useful tools to make it easy for you to achieve the success you deserve. More coming soon!!!!!
Asking for help doesn’t come easy to many people. I’ve found that the people who need it the most are the ones who have the most difficulty asking for it.
Study Skills and the importance of Trust
Have you ever thought about all the people you depend on just to exist in this complex modern world? The thought came to me because I had a student say to me, “I don’t need anyone. I can do everything myself.” So, we sat down and started a discussion.
Me: You got dressed this morning. Did you make your own clothes?
Student: Um, no.
Me: What did you have for breakfast?
Student: Cereal with milk.
Me: Do you have a cow?
Student: (now laughing) um, no.
We really do need other people. But not only because we are all good at different things. We need other people because we need them to be our mirror. When the mirror you see matches the mirror you perceive there are many benefits in your life.
Do you have a habit that you would like to change? In my study skills classes many times the question of “what do I have to do to change this habit?” comes up. I remember well one simple example I can use to share this point. I had a student who was always late for class. Being late not only disrupted the class when the student would enter the room, but the student himself was flustered. Because of the rushing to get to class on time, often the student would forget to bring his pencil and need to bother someone nearby to borrow one. Other times assignments were left at home.
To solve this problem, I sat down with the student to discuss the actions that took place prior to coming to class. It turned out that the student had the best of intentions. However, every morning when it was time to leave his apartment for school he could never find his keys. This always led to a frantic search to find them which left him anxious and upset. He found it hard to shake off these feelings, too. I pointed out to him that he had a set pattern of behavior. He had formed a bad habit.
The next question was, “What steps would he need to make in order to rid himself of this unproductive behavior?” I explained that a change is either permanent or it is a waste of time. It isn’t possible to unlearn a bad habit. What is possible is to replace an old pattern of behavior with a new one. For this to occur you must deliberately plan and choose the new behavior. The new behavior must be practiced until it becomes the new habit. Typically this takes about 21 days.
We discussed a plan for a new behavior. The original pattern was when he arrived home was to plop anything he was carrying down in any vacant space. I suggested that he place an empty chair next to the door. This chair was to be used only for putting schoolwork. He was to place a small hook in the doorframe at the exit as well. When he came home he was to place the keys on the hook every time.
He was amazed how much time he saved just by knowing where his keys were. Having all his papers in a special place at the door helped him to remember to bring everything he needed when he left the house. It made a big difference!
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