Putting the Pieces of the Puzzle Together

Hey Everyone!


My name is Mike Nelson, and I am one of the coaches here at the Academic Achievement Center. I'm a senior majoring in mathematics and statistics, and have been a coach for two semesters.


Today marks the beginning of the 4th week to the semester, and I hope people have started settling into their spring schedules. This could be a great thing if you are a student who is well organized and is able to juggle all that life has to offer them. For the majority of us though, we are still trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together...


For me personally, it really took me two years to truly figure out how to balance school, work, and extra curricular activities. During those two years, I would always feel like I was getting off to a great start each semester. I had fun hanging out with my friends, going to classes, doing most of my homework, but did not always find enough time to prepare for exams. Towards the end of every semester, I always had a lot of anxiety about finals, because I knew I had not prepared enough throughout the semester. That's why I always promised myself I would not get stuck in this mess next semester, but it continued to happen.


Finally I had enough of this destructive pattern, and knew I needed a change. The tough part is answering the question, "how do we really change from our high school ways?". It's somewhat common for a UConn student to have earned high grades in high school without having to work his or her tail off.


The best advice I can give students is to make a schedule and try your best to stick with it. By now, most students have stopped adding and dropping classes, and have gotten into somewhat of a routine. You can print out any type of weekly schedule online, or drop by the CUE building to see any of the coaches at the AAC to help go over one with you. Here is a link to an example of a blank schedule you can fill out: http://web.uconn.edu/uconnconnects/resources/time_schedule.htm
In your weekly schedule, you should first put in all your non-negotiables. That is your classes/labs/discussions, work hours, eating meals, and sleeping/personal hygiene time.


Hopefully after this, you will notice some large gaps of time where you can possibly fit in studying/reading/homework time. When looking at your schedule you will probably notice one of two things:


A) You have very spaced out classes/commitments, where you have multiple gaps of one or more hours some days.

B) You have many of your commitments back to back and have large gaps before or after your classes/commitments some days.


If you find yourself in situation 1, then you need to take advantage of those one, two, or three hour gaps. Even if you only do reading for 30 minutes between your History and English class, that is 30 minutes that you have saved yourself from doing later in the day when you may be less motivated to do work. Doing 30 minutes here, or an hour there, will really add up. This will ultimately get your work started earlier in the day, and break the mountain of work up into smaller more manageable bunny hills.


If you find yourself in situation 2, then you can do a few things. You can decide to break up a large time chunk (similar to situation 1), or power through it and reward yourself later on in the day. When your day of classes and working hard is over, there is no better feeling than guilt free fun (watching TV, playing video games, reading a book, going to the gym, hanging out with friends, etc), without having to worry about that homework you did not quite finish.


Some last tips about planning out a schedule:


1) If you are going to write in your schedule that you're going to do work at a certain time, make sure it is realistic. For example, if you are not a morning person, you should not plan to do work at 8 or 9am in the morning. In addition, if you know you get sleepy after a meal, perhaps you can schedule your studying to take place an hour or later after a meal. Lastly, if you know that after your last class of the day you are burnt out from a long day, scheduling homework time afterwards seems unrealistic. So in conclusion, be honest with yourself, and schedule time that you think you will definitely be able to commit to.


2) Find a comfortable environment that works best for you. If you know you can not do work in your room with the TV, computer, or roommate(s) around, then you will need to find an alternative location. For example, you could find a nice study spot during the day between your classes in the Student Union, Library, CUE, or any academic building you have a class in. Also all residence halls have a common study area, or study rooms located right in the building.


3) Start this schedule immediately! It is not too late to change right now, but the longer you wait to adjust your lifestyle, the harder it will become. If you are serious about changing things in your life, the best time to start is today, and it is never too late. I am confident in saying that if you start your schedule today and stick with it, it will become so much easier to continue it throughout the rest of the semester.


I hope for some of you this post helps clear some things up, and again feel free to stop by the AAC located in the CUE, Sunday through Thursday from 4-8pm. Lastly, here is a link to the UConn Connects page for many helpful resources and tips for students. http://web.uconn.edu/uconnconnects/links_students.htm Have a great spring semester!