Category Archives: College Life
Five Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get Writing
Every writer, every creative, and every academic suffers from procrastination at some point in their careers. It’s by far the greatest enemy of any project, especially when it seems the more you try to focus on the task and stay motivated, the more you procrastinate. Everyone asks themselves at some point, “Should I just pay someone to do my online math class? Or finish my history project? Or write my english paper?” Before you go there, how do you break this cycle and stay committed to your project? The following are the top five ways you can stop putting off writing.
- Stop Punishing Yourself for Procrastinating
If you are unable to focus on a task and you keep feeling bad about it, you will be unable to get out of the vicious cycle that is procrastination. This is because the problem is often a psychological one rather than physical and it’s often caused by not feeling good enough to accomplish the task before you. So if you feel that you can’t do that task and you continue to beat yourself up about not being good enough to accomplish the task, you will likely never get around to doing it. Therefore, the first thing you should do is accept that you are procrastinating and realize that it has nothing to do with your ability to write.
- Divide the Writing Task Into Manageable Tasks
Once you realize that you are genuinely scared of not being able to complete a perfect manuscript or writing task, the battle is half won. The next step is to cautiously approach the project or writing task by taking it one step at a time. Resolve to write at least 100 words a day or something similar and in a few days you’ll find your groove again and begin to enjoy your work.
- Remove any Distractions
In most cases, procrastination can be brought about or escalated by distractions. Social media is often the greatest culprit although visiting friends and family members may also be to blame. Most experts recommend turning off the internet when writing, unless you need it. The key takeaway here is that you want to limit your options for procrastination as much as possible.
- Use Procrastination to Your Advantage
We see it as the greatest threat to creativity, but when you simply can’t stop procrastinating, you may want to take the time to fill in any gaps in your story. It may be the best time to check in with your imagination and visualize your characters in their world. Finding the mood for your story using your imagination is a great way to snap yourself out of your procrastination.
- Make Your Writing a Solace
There are some distractions that you may not be able to simply brush aside. For example, when you are going through a particularly stressful period in your life like a loss in the family or other similar traumatic event, the last thing you want to think about is writing. But if you can make writing therapeutic by finding refuge in your writing, you are likely to find meaning in your work and even produce your best work which will in turn help you deal with your situation. Stephen King wrote “On Writing” while recovering from an accident that nearly killed him.
Solo New York Elite Backpack Review
Whether you are looking for a backpack for your study needs or for your travels Solo New York has got you covered with their multi-purpose and intricately designed backpack. The team at Solo New York have spent a great deal of time on designing this lightweight and carefully detailed pack and customers who have purchased this item have been incredibly happy with the product. Let’s take a look at some of the key features of this pack and why it has become so popular in such a short space of time.
The Body
The main body of the backpack opens from the front of the pack rather than the top as many do and as a result it offers a large amount of space and simple access to your stuff. There is more than enough space here for all of your study materials and you could also comfortably fit a couple of days clothing in there too. This section is opened with two strong zippers which line the main body of the pack, allowing for easy access.
Shoe Storage
Taking your shoes with you no longer means a second bag or sneakers hanging from the bottom of your backpack by their laces. The Elite Backpack has a separate shoe storage compartment at the base of the pack which sits on top of the main body of the backpack. There is more than enough space in there for two pairs of trainers or even a pair of boots. This section could also be used to store wet clothes or laundry, without it affecting the rest of your luggage.
Laptop/Tablet Storage
A feature of the pack which we really love is the sleek and padded compartment for your laptop or tablet. The laptop compartment measures in at 17.3″ which is spacious enough for all laptops. The soft padding doesn’t add too much to the bulk of the pack yet it is solid enough to protect your gadgets.
Organizer
When you unzip the flap which covers the main body of the rucksack you will find that this doubles up as a handy organizer section which you can use to store all manner of smaller items. There is space here for stationary, for headphones, toiletries, wallets, passports and whatever else you see fit to stow away inside. Each section here has its own zip which makes it a great place to store anything valuable, and ensure that nothing falls out when you are moving around.
Additional Ease and Comfort
The backpack is ultra lightweight thanks to its nylon fabric material and to support you when carrying it both the straps and the back of the pack have thick padding for your comfort. Beyond this we love the sports zippers which are strong and very easy to open and close regardless of how full the pack is. The backpack also offers long side pockets which zip close, perfect for quick access and the pockets on the very top of the bag can fit your phone or your wallet so that you always have it to hand.
Conclusion
This is a great product which is comfortable to use, offers large capacity and has an abundance of small details which you will adore. At just $86.99 this bag makes for the perfect choice for your campus use, and it will be a back which will last for a very long time indeed.
How College Love Birds Can Get Married and Keep Up With Schooling
Sometimes you have two incredibly important things going on at the same time and both demand lots of attention. When those two things are your college education and a wedding things can easily get out of control and you find yourself losing track of what to do first.
Both of these endeavors are important for your future and both are detailed and involve lots of focus and as importantly they require emotion and drive to get the best outcomes.
Keep Things as Simple as Possible
The one goal you should keep at the top of your list when you are looking to work within your school schedule is to keep things as simple as possible. With school and a wedding on the agenda, hopefully you can take the route that is the most simple.
Because you will have to contend with your schooling, and this is a full time endeavor, it is best to plan your wedding during your school’s vacations or other break. Taking this approach will ensure that you have the needed time to devote to both activities.
If this is not possible make sure that you use the best services for your wedding and ones that can provide multiple services to you so you only have to interact with a limited amount of parties for your wedding. For instance, use Basic Invite to provide all of your wedding function invitations. You can make one call and get every card you need. They have an unlimited amount of themes for you to choose from including ones with your pictures on the invites. You can also pick a love birds theme that includes wedding invites and love bird themed save the dates.
Basic Invite also gives you an easy to use website where you can coordinate all of your guests. You can provide dates and directions to each guest through the website and give them up to the minute details and changes. Having this online resource where you can also order all of your cards saves you time and headaches and keeps everyone coordinated.
You May Have to Postpone the Honeymoon
Depending on when you have your wedding, you may be in the middle of school or exams. This might mean that you have to postpone your honeymoon until you have a break. This might seem like a let-down and perhaps it is a little but you should know that whenever you and your significant other can get away, it will feel like it is a real honeymoon. So don’t worry too much about it and do what you can in terms of the time you have available to get free.
Do Something Special at Your Wedding
You want to make your wedding special but you do not have the tie to spend tracking down something exotic. How about ordering a set of custom wedding coasters for your wedding reception? You can order these through Basic Invite right from your dorm room and have them arrive by mail. These wedding coasters can have your same love theme on theme and they will be the delight of the reception. They also make great keepsakes for your guests. Imagine having love coasters wedding favors at your reception. Your guests will love it and so will you knowing that they look beautiful, and simple to order.
Basic Invite provides a complete range of wedding event invitations and they are all customizable and beautiful. They offer wedding couples the widest selection of benefits in the industry. Here are a few:
Free Wedding Websites – Their all-new wedding websites are completely customizable just like our wedding invitations! These wedding websites are mobile friendly and super easy to use. You can instantly upload all of your wedding details along with images and a map with directions which is super convenient for your guests.
Almost Unlimited Colors – Basic Invite allows customers almost unlimited color options with instant previews online. Once you select a design you can change the color of each element on the card to over 180 different color options. So, you can make sure the card is exactly how you want it – down to the littlest detail. This is what we feel sets us apart from almost any other online stationery company and is what we feel is our biggest draw.
Custom Samples – Basic Invite is one of the few websites that allows customers the ability to order a printed sample of their actual invitation so they can see exactly how it will print as well as the paper quality before they ever have to place their final order.
Over 40 Different Colors of Envelopes – Basic Invite is just as colorful with our envelopes as we are with our invitations. Customers can choose from over 40 different colors when it comes to their envelopes so that you can make their invitation stand out even before it is opened. All of our envelopes are peel and seal so the envelopes can be quickly and securely closed.
Over 900 Wedding Invitation Sets – Each wedding invitation is part of a set. You can find everything from save the dates to wedding invitations and enclosure cards, wedding menus, wedding programs and even matching thank you cards!
Free Address Collection Service – Use the free address collection service to request your addresses with just three simple steps. Share a link, collect addresses, and get free envelope printing.
Seal & Send Wedding Invitations – Our Seal & Send Wedding Invitations are an all-in-one wedding invitation with a tear-off RSVP postcard included! Currently, they offer them in over 30 designs including the-popular foil options and they are customizable. What’s extra special about our Seal & Sends is that guest’s addresses are printed on the front of each invitation which means no envelope necessary! Share a link, collect guest addresses, and upload them onto your design, instantly. Once you receive your order all you have to do is add postage, fold your invites, and secure them with a sticker! Simple, easy, and super trendy.
Wedding Coasters – Choose from over 90 professionally designed looks. Each design can be personalized instantly to match your wedding colors. You are free to make as many changes as you would like at no additional cost. Each coaster is printed using the latest print technology and on a premium 200lb matte cardstock. Thanks to this technology your coasters will have crisp, clean and beautiful coasters your guests will treasure.
Don’t Let Dorm Life Stop You from Having These Five Healthy Habits
Living in a dorm offers a lot of advantages. You get to live on your own, live near your classes so your commute is easier, and meet a lot of new people. It’s no wonder that millions of students each year opt to live on campus rather than commute to school. But while living on campus is great, it offers some challenges.
When living in a dorm, and going through the typical college experience, it can become easier to slip into some unhealthy habits. Before long you’re not sleeping well, your grades are suffering, and you may even be gaining weight. With that in mind, here are six healthy habits you should focus on when living in a dorm.
Maintaining a Proper Diet
One of the hardest challenges when living in a dorm is eating right. It’s easy to head over to the cafeteria and pile on food, or head out for a greasy snack around two in the morning. Before you know it, you have no energy throughout the day, and you’ve gained a few pounds. This is why it’s important to watch what you eat.
When you’re shopping for groceries, make sure you’re picking out some healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. When you go to the cafeteria, think about the portion sizes you are getting and which meals you are opting for. Finally, alcoholic beverages tend to be high in calories, so make sure you’re keeping this in mind if you go out to a party.
Exercise Regularly
Along with a healthy diet you also need to exercise regularly. Luckily, most colleges these days provide membership to a gym that is included with your room and board. Take full advantage of this if you can, or find other ways to get exercise in. Do a workout video in your dorm if you have the space or make up your own routine. Go for a jog or walk around campus if the weather is nice or opt to walk to class rather than taking a bus. There’s plenty you can do to stay in shape from the comfort of your dorm or around campus, so make exercising a priority.
Set Aside Time to Work
There’s a lot going on during your college years and this doesn’t just include your schoolwork. Between clubs, activities, and spending time with your friends, schoolwork can be forgotten. Even if you’re able to keep your grades up through all of this, it’s important that you learn how to say “no” sometimes and work instead. Find a time each day to complete your work and force yourself to stick to that schedule. If you don’t have any homework to do on a specific day, find other productive things to do. This will train your brain to be ready to work at this time, no matter what else is going on – a great habit you’ll want after you graduate.
Visiting Health Professionals
Even if you take care of yourself, you may still experience some problems. Maybe you’ll catch a cold, feel tired all of the time, or have a toothache. Whatever the reason, it’s important that you schedule regular visits to healthcare professionals to catch any problems early.
The problem is that for many students, their primary doctors and dentists are back home, not on campus. But many of these places require appointments in advance, and that’s something you can certainly do while you’re still in your dorm.
Each year you should take the time to visit your doctor for a checkup and a complete physical. They’ll test things like your blood pressure, reflexes, and heartrate, and ask you about any problems you may be experiencing. For dental appointments, according to Kreeb Family Dental, you can expect the following during your checkup: X-rays, oral cancer screenings, gum disease evaluation, examination of tooth decay, and an examination of current restorations. You can also expect a full cleaning, including the removal of tartar and plaque, plus teeth polishing.
None of these things sound fun, but they are important for properly taking care of yourself. In between visits, most campuses have healthcare staff on hand if you have any problems you want to discuss, so make sure you know where their offices are.
Don’t Forget to Relax
Finally, while college is fun, it’s also stressful. You’re in a new environment, meeting new people, and having to learn a lot of new material. One of the best habits you can establish is that of taking time for yourself. When you start to feel stressed, set aside time to relax and do things you enjoy. Go for a walk, read a book, or even just take a nap. Life is all about balance, so you want to develop a habit for relaxing just like you do for working.
If you can do all of the above, you should find that you are able to enjoy your dorm life a little more. You’ll feel better, have more energy, and won’t be stressed out all of the time. These habits aren’t hard to create, so just set your mind to it and get going.
The Main Reasons Why Alcohol & Drugs Will Affect Your Academic Performance… Badly
“I drink too much. Last time I gave a urine sample, it had an olive in it.”
– Rodney Dangerfield, U.S. comedian
Ask your parents if they drank too much alcohol during their time at college, and their replies will vary somewhere between the complete, swear-on-the-Holy-Bible and God’s honest truth kind of answer, and the blatant, downright lie. Ask them if they did drugs, however, and, chances are, pretty much all those responses would probably get thrown out in a court of law, with the judge threatening contempt.
“Hey, Mom, you ever get stoned? Were you a pothead in college, Dad?”
Not the conversation to be had at the evening dinner table at the end of a long day, unless your Mom and Dad are going through a period of enlightened California-style parenting. For many parents of kids in college, it wasn’t that they drank or did drugs during their time. It’s more a case of they got through college in spite of them. Perhaps, just like what you’re doing.
I’ll be honest. College, when I was younger, was a blur. My memory of it now is just a retail collection of moments like old polaroids – putting them together in some semblance of order is the problem.
Allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Andy, I’m a mid-thirties digital marketing entrepreneur, running a successful agency, who, for over 9 years now, has lived a completely clean and sober life. No alcohol, no drugs, no nada. Just abstinence.
However, for the vast majority of my adolescent years, I was an alcoholic and a drug addict, saved only my own Mom and Dad finally threw me on the backseat of the family car, drove me to the next state over, and deposited what was left of their son, hopeless addict, physical and mental wreck, and an ex-con to boot, on the steps of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center.
Get busy living, Andy, and all that. So I did, and I gave rehab everything.
6 months later, I emerged, clean, sober, physically and mentally the fittest I’d ever been or felt, and now with a decent education. I had majored in addiction, and in rehab, I learned as much as I could about this chronic, sometimes fatal disease that nearly took my life – it’s amazing what you can do with a clear head.
If you want to know how drugs and alcohol will negatively affect your academic performance, read on. If you’re reading this, and thinking, “You know what, Andy? You seem like a nice guy, and I’m glad you turned your life around, and all that. To be honest, though, I don’t really care,” then what follows will make you care.
Let’s look at the 2 most popular substances used, and often abused, on any U.S. campus, and why they will affect your academic performance… badly:
- Alcohol, and
- Marijuana
The intoxication from both will continue to have a detrimental effect on a student’s cognitive function – primarily, attention, concentration, and memory – for around 48 hours afterward. In other words, get drunk on the Friday night, because you’ve got exams on Monday to study for, and the weekend is your only revision time left, and you’ve just shot your academic self in the foot.
Serious abuse of both can lead to the spiral of addiction, and I’m sure you don’t want to have that conversation with Mom and Dad…
Alcohol
Memory: As described above, heavy drinking will affect cognitive function long after you wake up with the obligatory hangover, and will probably mean you start the day with a positive blood alcohol level as well as your pounding head. This alcohol still present in your system directly affects your ability to process and store new information – to fully understand it, and then to successfully retain it in its entirety.
For the biology students out there, “intoxication is produced by a temporary impairment of brain receptors key in creating long-term memories in the hippocampus“, says Duke University’s Jeff Georgi, an Alcohol and Addictions Program coordinator at the school. “If you study for four hours…then go drinking, it affects this anchoring process.”
Sleep: Alcohol messes with your sleep too. Normal sleep cycle interference results in irritability, fatigue, and an increase in anxiety, all of which will directly affect a student’s learning ability for up to 48 hours.
Stress: As the old joke goes, alcohol is only a solution if you’re a chemist. In reality, alcohol doesn’t stop stress, or “academic success-anxiety,” just the symptoms of it – temporarily. By actually not self-medicating with alcohol or drugs, you are giving yourself a far better chance to naturally resolve what is causing the stress.
Marijuana
Memory, Concentration, & Attention: As described above, marijuana use (well, pretty much all drug use) will affect cognitive function long after you wake up, directly affecting your ability to simply pay attention and, indeed, concentrate in the classroom, and then being able to store that information in your memory.
Sleep: When used in the evening and at night time, marijuana is pretty much the same as alcohol when it comes to your sleep cycle, resulting in increases in irritability, fatigue, and anxiety, again, directly affecting learning ability.
Motivation: Now, if you’re sat there reading this, and you’re a little surprised by the use of the word “motivation,” oh, please… Seriously, there is mounting evidence that marijuana use affects your motivation, likely due to a combination neuronal suppression (the hippocampus, again), the blocking of nutrients through cells, and fatigue following disturbed sleep.
Anxiety: Although not an academic reason, it’s worth mentioning that marijuana use increases heart rate, weakens the heart muscle, and increases blood pressure – all of which should concern someone already diagnosed with anxiety. However, as with self-medicating with alcohol, marijuana does nothing to resolve the issues creating your anxiety and stress.
No Lecture
There you have them – the main reasons why alcohol and drugs will affect your academic performance… badly. Forego the alcohol consumption (if you’re binge drinking, and college students have been known to do that on a regular basis, please cut it out of your life – it’s seriously dangerous), and forego getting stoned in the belief it will only do you good. You’ll feel better, and perform better academically without them.
Without these substances, you’ll feel so much better, you’ll be naturally happier, you’ll be more attentive, you’ll be able to concentrate fully, and you’ll enjoy a better memory. As a college student striving for academic success, it makes sense, doesn’t it?
How does alcohol or marijuana use affect your academic performance, or do you believe it doesn’t? Let us know by sharing a comment below.
