#a qualitea sunday ramble

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A Qualitea Sunday Study Ramble - #1 Pt.2

Ramble #1 Pt.1: Introductions and Thoughts

April 8th, 2018

Welcome again to the first Qualitea Study Ramble! On today’s ramble, I’ll be talking to you about some essay writing tips and time management strategies!

Let’s start with some preliminary Essay Writing tips: 

Tip #1: Start Every Essay With an Outline

Doing this will keep your essay from going off on tangents. It will also keep you focused as you write. Essays are always easier to write if you have a roadmap to follow along as you write them. 

My favorite way to outline essays is to actually make us of a white board to do so. An example of this is as follows: 

You can also just make one on a document. Personally, I like to add little checkboxes by my essays so I can keep track of things and make sure I’ve incorporated everything I need to. 

Tip #2: Have a Clear Thesis

I won’t go into how to write a thesis in this post as the actual process of writing a thesis will vary upon what type of paper you’re writing. The important part, however, is to make sure you have a clear thesis. Your thesis is the foundation of your paper. Every part/paragraph you write should be weaved back to your thesis somehow. That way, your paper stays clear, concise, and focused. 

Tip #3: Break Your Paper Down into Labeled Parts (if possible)

This tip has saved my writing on so many occasions. If I break my papers down by “Introduction”, “Point One:_____”, “Point Two:______” and incorporate subheadings, I find that I stay on track with what I have to write. It also allows you to check your paper faster and with more ease once the final product is complete. 

Tip #4: Start Writing Ahead of Time

And don’t be afraid to ask for help as you write. This is especially true with regards to asking your professor for guidance. The earlier you start your paper, the more time you have to edit it. As a result, your paper will likely be a better paper. 

Tip #5: Read Through Your Essays Out Loud

That’s right. Out loud. The best way to catch errors in a paper is by reading your paper out loud to yourself. 

Alrighty then! Moving onto Time Management strategies now: 

Strategy #1: Start Planning ASAP

Don’t wait till you’re drowning in work in the final weeks of the quarter/semester to get started on planning and scheduling things out! Start as early as week one -- or even before the quarter/semester begins! That way, you’ve already got a game plan going into the year instead of scrambling to come up with one last minute. 

Strategy #2: Utilize Google Calendar + Color Coding

What I love about Google Calendar is the versatility of being able to edit events. If I have a meeting, I can share the meeting with the members involved via email. I can add notes to my events. I can color code calendars. I can add the event’s location. I’ll be making a whole post on how I utilize Google Calendar to be productive in the next few weeks -- so stay tuned for that! 

Strategy #3: Have Multiple Calendars/To Do Lists

And by that, I mean have one in your room for big events, have a google calendar for all events, have a task list on a white board in your room for general tasks, have a morning task list by your bedside table to ensure early-bird productivity, and have individual calendars/task lists for your classes. Try to keep track of everything so that nothing catches you by surprise. Here’s one I made from a while ago:

Strategy #4: Know Your Limits

It’s totally okay if your limits aren’t the same as someone else’s. After all, slow and steady often wins the race. 

Strategy #5: Carve Out Time for Scheduling Things Out

If you carve out at least an hour of your week that you devote to nothing but scheduling, it’ll make a huge difference in your life! That critical hour will predict how the rest of your week goes in terms of staying task-oriented and on track. Also, don’t be afraid to carve out time specifically for homework and “me time”. 

Now I know this sounds like every bit of your life needs to be scheduled, but really, it doesn’t. If you schedule out the most important parts, you are more likely to have time to do spontaneous things (and guilt-free too) when those moments of free time pop up. For example, if I carve out my classes and homework time for the day and if I have two hours where nothing needs to be scheduled in, I can say yes to a random invitation to get Korean BBQ for dinner by one of my friends or to a spontaneous coffee date. Things just end up working out that way! Plus, you’re less likely to be drowning in work if you have everything scheduled out ahead of time. 

That’s all I have time for today folks! Back to studying! Hope y’all are having a lovely Sunday!

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A Qualitea Sunday Study Ramble - #1 Pt.1

Ramble #1 Pt.1: Introductions and Thoughts 

April 8th, 2018

Welcome to the first Qualitea Study Ramble! On today’s ramble, I’ll be talking to you about some essay writing tips and time management strategies!

Before we begin, I’d like to introduce myself as a student: 

My name is Huda and I’m a college student at a university in the US. I’m currently pursuing a major in Political Science with minors in Creative Writing and Theater. This quarter, I hope to add an independently designed Global Development Studies major to the mix as well. Every quarter, I take about 30 units of classes. This is typically twice the normal load of classes for a US university student. I’m in four of my university’s honors societies, pursue about 12 extracurriculars every quarter, and still manage to make time for my friends and family while getting 8 hours of sleep a night. And, overall, I’d say I’m a pretty happy person at this point in my life. 

So how do I do it? 

Five Words: Time Management + Passion + Prioritization + Productivity.  

Life was certainly not always this way for me. Especially not in high school. I attended four different high schools because my family moved a lot and my GPA was all over the place. Furthermore, I also struggled with a lot of emotional hardships and losses in high school. In college, I buckled down, worked hard, and established a series of routines for myself. I surrounded myself with kind, genuine people and was blessed to find amazing mentors at my university. More than anything, lately I’ve always made an effort to prioritize the infamous notion of “self care”. 

Initially, it might seem crazy, but I promise I’m not superhuman in any way whatsoever. Here’s what I do: I keep track of everything I have to do, I am passionate about everything I do, I prioritize what’s important in life, and I’m constantly trying to stay productive and on top of things. Though I cannot outline how I do all of this in one singular post, starting today I will try to stay committed to keeping up this study blog so that I can help other people get to a point in their lives where they are productive, doing what they’re passionate about, and content with their lives. 

Another important lesson: Life also comes with it’s ups and downs. One of the most important lessons I’ve had to learn along the way is that life is never going to be perfect. For so long in my life, I aspired to achieve some level of what I called “stable perfection”. To attain some type of life where loss was never felt, where success was constant, and I was always happy. 

In working to give up that imaginary notion of a perfect life, I’ve come to accept life’s ups and downs for what they are. This has allowed me to put less pressure on myself to be something that’s impossible. So even though I’m constantly busy and I do so much, I’m happy because I don’t expect everything to always turn out perfectly. I’ve become okay with that. Even though I take 8 classes, juggle 12 extracurriculars, and try to get enough sleep every night, I’ve come to be okay with the failures that come along the way. Sometimes a class will go south and I’ll start struggling. Other times, an extracurricular will get lost in the mix and I won’t be able to devote as much time to it as I thought I could. Some nights I’ll get as little as 2 hours of sleep (though I try to keep this from happening too often). 

And you know what? That’s okay. The first step to becoming productive and being content with life is to accept that failure is inevitable. It is your response to failure that matters more than the failure itself. As Will Smith once said after he overcame his fear of the ocean by scuba diving (something I hope to do at some point as well): the goal isn’t to manage the situation, it’s to manage your mind. 

So, join me on this journey. Together, we can become the best versions of ourselves.