Start practicing these habits now for success as a student and in the workplace By Will LinkThe start of a semester is a great opportunity for you to begin working on the habits that will help you both as a student and in your career. While at Marist you have the flexibility and resources available to you that make developing these beneficial behaviors much easier. By strengthening your soft skills and practicing these psychological techniques, you will be able to leave Marist confident as you move on to the next chapter of your life. Make The Most of Your Time One of the most important skills that you can acquire right now is time management. In college your classes are laid out for the semester and because you receive your syllabi you know what assignments you will have for the semester and when they are due. In the workforce though, things might be a bit different. You will likely have your set deadlines for projects, but a last-minute need or event can come up that you will be responsible for. So when managing your time, always make sure to leave some flexibility in your schedule for any emergencies or delays that might come up. It is not worth it to trust yourself to memorize every single event, assignment or project that you have to work on. Your memory is not perfect and you will be bound to forget or overlook some things. A physical planner where you hand write your events is always a great option to organize yourself. If you prefer using a digital planner, I like Google Calendar. For more time management tips and advice check out our previous post titled It's Time to Prioritize Time Management. Keep a To-Do List for Your Daily Tasks & Goals In addition to writing down your long-term goals and events, you should also keep a To- Do List of things that you want to accomplish throughout each day. You can make the list right when you wake up in the morning or for the next day right before you go to bed at night. The process of writing down what you need to get done will help organize and clear your mind. When writing your To-Do List for any activities, you should also write out how long you believe that it will take to accomplish the task and the specific actions that it will take to do so. By writing down your plans and keeping them visible to you at all times, you will be significantly more motivated to accomplish those goals. You will be able to go to bed at night feeling more accomplished with what you did that day and wake up in the morning with a clearer plan of how you want to continue working on your goals for the day ahead. Change Your Point of View of Your Goals Research by neuroscientists has found that visualizing your goals, significantly improves your chances of achieving them. Look at achieving your goals as a process instead of just the goal itself, visualizing the specific actions that you will have to take in order to accomplish your tasks. This will allow you to create a more manageable and realistic plan that will make your end goal appear more attainable than abstract. Writing your goals down is also helpful. When you write something down, two things occur in your brain: external storage and encoding. External storage stores knowledge on the piece of paper that is a visual cue for you to remember your goal every time that you see it. Encoding, however, increases the chances that the goal will get stored in your long-term memory. This process is part of the generation effect, which shows that we remember things better if we have generated the material for ourselves rather than simply reading it. Learn How to Keep Yourself Organized
By keeping all of your appointments, projects, and documents organized you will be able to have a clearer head, and can worry less about having to remember something or find something. Color coordinated folders and notebooks for all of your classes or projects are a great way to keep all of your papers. Instead of searching through half a dozen folders for a specific assignment or syllabus, you can rest easy knowing that your Statistics homework is in the red folder and the notes are in the red notebook, and your Philosophy essay is in your blue folder and notes are in the blue notebook. To maintain your organization, try to set a little bit of time each day or each week to clean up any clutter that you might have accumulated. By having this time, you can remove any of the excess waste that you might have accumulated throughout the week and put back any loose papers back in their proper location. By keeping your personal and work spaces free of clutter and waste, you will be more focused when you work and be able to use your time more efficiently to work toward your goals. Each semester provides you with a fresh start to begin practicing habits that will help your professional development going forward. You have a variety of resources available to you at Marist to help you begin those habits and create a plan of action for achieving your goals. The Center for Career Services can assist you with your professional development goals. The Center for Advising and Academic Services can help you stay on track with selecting classes to ensure you will graduate on time. International Student Services can help international students adjust to a new environment and make sure they are meeting all of the requirements for studying in the United States. Developing these practices and habits now and using on-campus resources when you need them can help relieve any stress that can arise during your time as a Marist student and while transitioning into the workforce.
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