Being Productive

There are a number of things that can help a person to be productive. Organization, efficiency, and dealing with your time well are the things we taught as we grow up. There are many different ways of accomplishing these strategies and making them work for you.

Outside of these techniques I recommend a number of other things that can help to keep you focused, these have more to do with keeping yourself sane then keeping yourself productive. After all if you can’t be happy, productivity is sort of out of the question.

1. So first, the basics. Organization is key. Some stay organized through date books and calendars, some via internet and technology, Prof. Brandon opened a whole world of organization by 3 x 5 cards. There are plenty of ideas out there, the important thing is to not just do whatever someone tells you, or whatever is the most popular way of doing it, but instead, do what works best for you. Try out anything you find interesting, or sounds like it will match with your personality, then do what’s best, even combine methods to make your own organization style work. This concept is true for efficiency and dealing with your time as well. For example, we have all learned that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, hard to argue with, however as college students we often put sleep higher on our priority lists. To help this we can work around the method. Find a breakfast to go, bottled juice, prepare a bagel the night before, or breakfast burritos for the week, and freeze them, then you can just grab it on your way out. You get your sleep and your energy. There are plenty of things like this to incorporate into being more productive.
2. Keep an open mind. There are so many things that can increase productivity, many not even directly related to productivity. Sometimes we need to relax, and take advantage of all those fun things that are available out there for us. There are venues, restaurants, music, and loads of events on campus. We should take advantage of these things, we should enjoy them, we should learn from them. If we spend all our time focusing on how to stay productive, how to get ahead, how to get that GPA, to get into that school, then we will miss so much along the way. We will also be liable to go crazy, insane from pure mundane boredom. I don’t suggest you loose sight of what’s important, or your goals for this educational experience, but sometimes it’s necessary to skip a night of studying for a night with friends, music, pizza, and beer.

Hope this helped a bit! Good luck to all!