Welcome, Queens & Kings to this second iteration of this YOU-ni Series. There will be 3 blogs in addition to accompanying YouTube Videos. The series will provide tools and advice for how to handle virtual or hybrid college. It is coming from the perspective of someone who has gone through a fully virtual first-year university.
School is not the only thing you might have to deal with, in this blog we’ll focus on how to manage it all.
Time Management:
This is an intentional and continuous habit to develop, there are a lot of distractions & noises in our society that are making us lose focus. You have to take charge of your time or else something will control it.
There’s a feature on most phones called digital wellbeing, which allows individuals to place daily time limits on apps. Before you go straight to doing that, I want you to first observe the hours you would have spent on social media apps. When I did this I was alarmed! The good thing is that you can set a time limit.
Furthermore, also on your phone settings, you can turn off notifications from apps that do not require urgency (messaging & phone calls). At times the ding from the phone is what knocks us off the focus train so to prevent that you can simply turn it off and only go on those Apps when you have decided to or scheduled it.
Deter Procrastination:
Do this by breaking down big projects or assignments into small actionable tasks. Romanticize studying- allow your study period to be something you look forward to either by setting up the space nicely or adding music. Then reward yourself after studying for long periods and add relaxation time.
To avoid mind wandering, have a nearby brain dump list when studying, to jot down any distracting thought or idea.
Have Productive Night Routine:
It might work well to list the 3 priority tasks for the next day before you go to sleep. This is so as to wake up with a direction-knowing exactly what to get started on. Ensure to clean your work area also, decide on the meals to eat and outfit to wear.
Finances:
Colleges usually offer work & study jobs- so ask around for this.
Scholarships tend to be offered by schools from entrance scholarships to faculty or sport specific scholarships. Go searching and apply for these in order to supplement school payments.
You can sell your course notes(not the ones provided by professors)online through reputable sites like StuDoc.
To reduce the cost you could purchase online textbooks, or used textbooks which you can find on Facebook Marketplace, and later sell your textbooks there. It is best to attend a class or two first before making a textbook purchase because you might not end up using the book during the semester even though it may be placed in the syllabus.
To get started on personal finance it is best to see the resources your school might offer but also make use of resources on Clever Girl Finance.
Here is the accompanying video:
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Thanks for stopping by.
Never Stop Curating your best life
Y.E.N
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