3 Tips on How to Survive an Extremely Busy School Year

This is especially geared toward anyone who's making a school-adjustment, like if you're a high schooler for the first time. I can give you a personal testimony by pointing out my freshman year--goodness, what a nightmare. Okay, in some ways it was fun, but in other ways...let's just say the tips I'm giving y'all are from bitter experience.

#1. Organize yourself as soon as possible. When you're making an education leap, all of a sudden this stack of textbooks is thrown in your face and you find yourself splashing around in the deep end of the pool. With your crowded schedule swimming around in your head, you need to get it in a form that you can remember it painlessly. A list might work best for you--maybe a to-do list of all your commitments for the day (or week). Or perhaps a full-fledged schedule is best.

This is what I like to do for schedules. First, I take a piece of paper and draw a line horizontal-wise. Next, I add notches on that line for however many hours I need schedule-ized in that day. Usually I have a 15 hour schedule from 6:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Then, over the notches that signify the hours, I write the commitment for that time. It's probably not the most common schedule outline, but I like it because it's easy to read and not very confusing. And if I say something is not confusing, you can believe it. =)

Anyway, finding a way to organize your events is crucial--crucial with a capital C--to getting through a crazy school year.

#2. Prioritize all your activities to get the most out of your day. Honestly, there are just some days where you have so much to do you just need to sit back and think about what's most important. A general rule of prioritization is to figure out which one needs to be completed first. Say that you're really stressed about an upcoming math test, but you also have a Spanish test that's due two days before. You may feel the strong urge to plunge into your math test because it's really wearing on your nerves, but the wisest thing to do is focus on the closest thing at hand. If you try to do everything out of order, you're just going to end up going absolutely bonkers before three weeks have gone by. Trust me.

#3. Don't push yourself past your limit. Yes, we've all heard about how young Benjamin Franklin spent hours up at night studying and hardly ate anything...but not all of us are Benjamin Franklin. If you wear yourself down trying to check things off your schedule without taking care of yourself, you are going to crash and burn and dissolve into flames. It's a huge temptation to stay up until midnight studying really hard. But what's better for you--a late night of study or an alert and active mind after a good night's sleep? This was a huge mistake that I made in my freshman year. I am not a science person, and my gigantic biology textbook with the towering stack of flashcards to memorize daunted me severely. I spent many a late night grinding down my brain trying to push through each lesson. In the morning (as my family can testify) I was a real grump. My worst days were the ones following late study nights. Do not make that same mistake.

I hope this helps you all, particularly those who might be overwhelmed at this new school year.

See ya round!

Izori

EDIT: You know when you make a post draft and then you finish it and publish it, it automatically is posted back on the date that you made the draft? [does that sentence make sense?] Well, that's what I did. Sorry for any confusion!

5 Blogging Tips

I'm sorry if some of these sound really serious, like the 5th one. I'm not really that scary! =) I think, however, that all bloggers should know these ones. All you bloggers who just started out, listen up! I learned a lot of these from my own experiences! It would be nice if not everyone learned it the hard way, don't you agree?

1. For all around legibility: use proper grammar and spelling. I know that often its so hard, but it's worth it. I'm not saying to exhaustively research every single punctuation mark in your post, but try and correctly use commas and spelling (to at least a point where others can understand what you're saying). It's easier to understand this:

"So, today was pretty rainy. We just stayed inside and talked like only girls can. Yeah, our plans for the beach went down the drains (along with massive amounts of rain), but we still had a blast!"

verses this:

"so today was pretty reiny we just staid inside an dtalked like only girls can. yeah our plans for the beech went down the drains along with the massive amounts of rain but we still had a blast!"

This includes maybe just paying more attention to what appears on your screen--if you accidentally type 'it' instead of 'is' the sentence doesn't make sense but spell check doesn't correct it.

2. Never post in anger. Or comment, for that matter. If someone blogs something that makes you want to scream at them, take a deep breath, get off the computer, and wait for half an hour (at least) before you reply. I know that natural reaction is to fire off something that's just dripping with anger, but doing that is a prime way to earn yourself a bad reputation and say things that any other time would have you horrified.

3. Always have another perspective. Remember, things like sarcasm and weird senses of humor are hard to pick up on in writing. You might mean something in jest, but someone could take serious offense. Before you post something, think "Would I take this differently if I was the reader?" What seems funny to you could be an insult to another person.

4. Listen to your readers! Ask them questions, and take into account their answers.

5. This one is a safety tip: be very careful giving out personal information! First, check with your parents if you're unsure where you should draw the line on how much you say about yourself. They might be okay with you saying your first name, and others would rather not have you putting your age on the internet. Either way, it's a good idea not to put contact information for all to see, like your address, phone number, etc. Also, don't post anything you want to be kept private. Nothing's secret on the internet!