Preparing for College
Preparing for college is no easy task. You can be told to start saving your money time and time again and then turn around and spend $900 on shoes. Or to start practicing time management and to develop effective and consistent study habits but most times you won’t listen until you go to college and realize that you should have done all those things when you had the time to and when you were urged to.
Time Management
Time management is the process of managing your time. It’s planning out your day or even your week and doing everything that needs to be done.
However, time management is a mix of both planning and doing because if you plan out your day and fail to stick to it then you aren’t managing anything. You’re hindering yourself.
The first step to managing your time is to find your method of planning: digital or analog. Some people work better by uploading everything to their digital calendar that could be on their phone, laptop, or even in the cloud synced across multiple devices. While others prefer a physical planner. Choose whatever option is best suited to your preferences.
Then you visualize your daily schedule by putting it into your calendar/agenda. Place everything in the correct time slots on the correct day and be sure to even plan out the time in between each event, whether it be how long it’ll take to get from point A to point B, or to be sure that whatever you do do during that time doesn’t interfere with the main event afterwards. Don’t forget to include time for yourself. Adjust your schedule if needed to accommodate unforeseen circumstances.
Finally, you stick to your schedule.
Taking Advantage of Opportunities
Your college will have a lot of opportunities and accommodations that your previous schools may not have had, and you’ll have to make relationships that you may not have had to make before as well.
Your professors will also post a syllabus that will outline the entire semester. So take advantage of that by staying ahead and making sure that you get all your assignments turned in on time.
Take advantage of the office hours of your professors. This can not be stressed enough, because building a relationship with your professor will allow them to get to know you and you can follow up with them in a one on one session on concepts or ideas that you didn’t understand during the class.
Depending on your major they can even recommend you for scholarships.
Besides talking to your professors, join a learning community and get in the loop about campus resources, such as counseling sessions for stress management, study habits, tutoring sessions and so much more.
Last but not least apply for scholarships. Micro scholarships, $10,000 scholarships, do them all because the money adds up, and college is not cheap.
Taking Care of Yourself
You should always take care of yourself but in college you definitely need to take care of yourself. Because it can be extremely stressful and will greatly influence your emotional and mental health. Take time to treat yourself and have fun. Stay on top of your assignments and talk to people. Learn how to have fun and do well academically. Don't ever allow yourself to be so engulfed in your studies that you forget that you need to be taken care of as well.