Being a high-powered machine and conquering your workload is never easy. It’s a finely mastered craft that takes years of experience and a Starbucks Gold Card. I’ve never been one to be able to just sit down and hammer work out. I need ambiance, I need inspiration, I need to get into the mood. Here are are a few of my tricks to getting through the work:
Set the Scene: Whether it’s heading to your favorite spot in the library, a local coffee shop, or your desk space at home, make sure that your area is conducive to working. Make sure the space has enough light, all of the supplies you need, and free of distractions. This means if you’re at home, turn off the television!
Student studying from m00by on Flickr
Have a small treat with you, and if you need it, make it a caffeinated one. Everyone knows I love my Starbucks. But I really do try to have some kind of enjoyable beverage while I work or study. It helps brighten up the situation so I don’t feel like my work is torturous.
Get the music flowing. The music you play shouldn’t be distracting. But you don’t want to be put to sleep either. I normally try to play something with a good beat to keep me motivated. I’ve always found that great she-power rock gets me pumped to conquer my work.
Watch what you wear. If you are in for a long study or work session, make sure that what you’re wearing is comfortable enough for you t focus but not so comfortable that you can slowly curl into fetal position and use your keyboard as a pillow.
Hard work can Hurt from normalityrelief's Flickr
Take a few minutes between every hour to get up and stretch!!! Your body needs to move and blood needs to flow through your body. Taking 10 minutes between the hours will help clear your mind and rejuvenate you.
Namaste from Canon in 2D on Flickr
Schedule cell phone time. While you’re on your ten minute stretch break you can also use this time to answer any social text messages or phone calls. Create clearly defined times to get on your cell phone. Otherwise you may use up all of your study time talking on the phone. At 3 am you’ll wonder where all your study time went as you cram through your notes.
Girl on Cell Phone from Billy D on Flickr
Start each session outlining what you need to get accomplished. Break out time slots and assign what you will accomplish in that time frame. Be realistic with yourself and prioritize what needs to be addressed first.
Pick your study partner wisely. It’s great to have a study partner but make sure that your companion is compatible to what you are trying to accomplish. The girlfriend who is going through a break-up and only wants to talk about her boyfriend troubles is not your best bet when trying to get work done. You can talk to her on Friday when your mid-terms are over. She’ll still have the SAME things to say.
Outline your workload. Use a calendar to set goals of when you need to have projects, assignments, and papers done. This way you can forecast what’s ahead. You may find that you have 3 papers due in one week. This way you’ll know which papers to get a head-start on during the weeks ahead.
Prepare for the next day. At the end of every study or work session prep all of the things that you will tackle during your next session. This will relieve you of any anxiety you may have over what is up in the air and what is not. You’ll be able to go into your next session with a clear head and a game plan of what to work on next.
Google is Godzilla. It is roaming through our lives like a big giant lizard conquering all that comes in its path. But imagine the big giant lizard making everything easier and more efficient. It’s time to surrender. The days of attaching a document to an email are going to fade fast. I’ve been using Google Docs for a few years now and am constantly surprised by the confusion I receive from friends when I send them any of the following:
A calendar invitation from my Gmail Calendar
A form to fill out that automatically populates to a Google Spreadsheet
An email with a “private key” link for us to both view and edit a document in Google Docs
We are living in 2010 right?!?! Well the revolution is growing and its time you get on the band wagon. I know, I know…learning new things is difficult and it hurts your brain. It’s so much easier to watch re-runs of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. But trust that one day you will be in an office that no longer uses email attachments. The entire team of a project will work online sharing, viewing, and editing off of one document, spreadsheet, presentation, etc. You’ll want to be a part of this. And picture how much easier this will make that grueling group presentation for your Comm 151 class.
So where do you begin in this journey? Start by watching this:
Now join the rest of civilization, get a Google account, and start down the road to making life more efficient.
We narrow the list to about 120 schools based on measures of academic quality — including SAT or ACT scores, admission and retention rates, student-faculty ratios, and four- and six-year graduation rates, which most schools reported for the class entering in 2002.
We then rank each school based on cost and financial aid. In our scoring system, academic quality carries more weight than costs (almost two-thirds of the total).
On January 1st the FAFSA or Free Application for Federal Student Aid becomes available. Yes, I filled this out when I was in college and yes, I even helped my brother with his too. Before you get yourself knee-deep into signing off on a bunch of information you know nothing about I suggest you go through Lee Bierber’s “Countdown to college: Terms you need to know to apply for financial aid.”The list is a set of vocabulary terms to help make the application process a bit more digestible. This post was sponsored by the letter “A”…”A” as in Aid Package and “A” as in Asset Protection. You can find the full article here.
I came across a great article from 39thandbroadway.com titled “Do I NEED to go to Fashion School?” Just reading the title made me laugh as I thought of the countless friends I grew up with who doubted the importance of a college education. Many of them had the grades, the money and the support to go to college. But since they were creative types they felt that the institution of higher education was not for them. I’m not saying you won’t be successful if you don’t go to college (See Bill Gates, Maya Angelou and The Olsen Twins) but I do believe if you have the access to do so, college will be an irreplaceable addition to your life. Here’s a few highlights from the article with specific higher education advice for those entering the fashion industry.
One of the most common questions we get from young people is, “Do I need to go to college to have a career in fashion? Well, the short answer is, yes.
It’s our unanimous opinion that college is absolutely necessary. Now certainly there are a rare few who succeeded without it, but even for them a degree wouldn’t have hurt. There are many famous designers like Ralph Lauren, Yves Saint Laurent, and Donna Karan who never finished school, but one thing to remember is, for them years ago a college diploma was not the prerequisite that it is today. Not to mention they all began by working for other companies and designers, whom today all require a Bachelors degree even for an assistant level position. Regardless of your career path, a college degree is, at the very least, something to fall back on. Should you change your mind in a few years and want to switch careers paths or attend grad school, a degree gives you options. In the US today a college degree is what a high school diploma was 30 years ago. According to the US census bureau, over the course of their life a college grad earns one million dollars more then their high school diploma counterpart! So all fashion industry intricacies aside, we will always recommend higher learning. Additionally, since many of our readers and the majority of fashion industry professionals are women we feel even stronger in pushing education. Women have enough battles for equality in the workplace; a lesser education should not be another.
Marc Jacobs, Parsons Alumni
First, when an ad is put out we receive hundred of applicants, as fashion design is a very coveted and competitive field. We are busy and certainly don’t have the time to interview or examine everyone’s portfolio. So step one for an entry level position, if your resume does not contain a college education and classes or major in fashion it goes out with the garbage. Second, we don’t really care about GPA’s or school awards, we’d rather see strong skills (pattern making, foreign languages, CAD, etc) and an innovative portfolio. Third, we’d like to see a portfolio that goes beyond just a few sketches, show us you have more abilities than any random joe with a fashion sense who can draw. Lastly, while the fashion industry may be known for its diva behavior, recent grad needs to check the attitude at the door, and be gracious. It is always shocking to us how many newbies forget that last point because even the best degree won’t overcome a bad attitude.
