Improving Productivity
Set Up for Success
Get an accountability partner
Choose a friend or classmate to check in with regularly about your progress. For example, you might text each other your most important tasks of the day or chat weekly about your goals and accomplishments.
Form study groups
Think of 2–3 people in your class to contact, and message them. You may want to make the study group a regular event. Then, think about what you want from the study group and how you want it to go and not to go. For example, “I want us to chat for 5–10 minutes, then work individually before checking in on progress.” Share this with your group to get their input.
Fill in a quarterly calendar
Download and print the Quarter at-a-Glance sheet. Write in all homework, test, and project deadlines from all syllabi. Write in expected major personal events. Put it on your wall and look at it daily when planning.
Create a weekly template
Download the Weekly Schedule template, or use your own calendar. Put in recurring events (e.g., classes, office hours, and club meetings) and approximate times for meals, sleeping, working at your job, doing chores, exercising, studying, relaxing and socializing. The goal is to make it obvious what time you have remaining for coursework. Refer to it daily.
Concentrate to Improve Learning and Productivity
Put your phone in another room
Silence the phone and put it in another room. If your phone is still on your mind, you can set a timer on your computer to check the phone in an hour, or at lunch.
Make a day plan
On your weekly schedule, write in the course work you'll do in your free time. For example, from 11 a.m.–noon, “Do one problem in C31A pset.” Think of your day plan as a decision-making tool you can modify when more important things come along, work takes longer than expected, or you procrastinate—not as a list of commandments to be followed absolutely.
Use the Pomodoro Technique
Remove distractions from your work environment and decide what you will work on. Work without interruption for 25 minutes, take 5 minutes to do something relaxing and give your brain a break, then do another 25 minutes and repeat.
Finish Strong
Plan for tomorrow
At the end of the day, set a 10-minute timer. At a relaxed pace, update your weekly template as described in the “Make a Day Plan” strategy. When the timer goes off, if you haven't finished it, feel free to do so or just work with the plan you have.
Update your pride list
Keep a notebook or digital document titled “Pride List.” At the end of each day, after thinking about what you could have done better, focus on your many good choices by writing three things you're proud of!
Take care of yourself
Write a list of three things you can do each day to promote your well-being. Then write three things to do each week. Include them in your weekly template, scheduling them in as if they are an appointment you have to keep!
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Improving Productivity
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