Even though the world is constantly moving at a pace faster than light, there are fundamental skills that will never go out of fashion when it comes to thriving as a person. Of course, university is one of the top places in your life where the words “thrive” and “successful” have a lot of weight.
Firstly prioritize. Focus on what you want to achieve. You need to manage time effectively for your prior interests and stuffs if you’re going to be successful. All other things being held constant, better time management skills can improve your grades, help you keep stress in check, and help you be competitive in the career you undertake following your university education. The purpose of this article is to guide you on how to manage your time to improve your academic and personal performance. It refers to research on academic self-regulation research and discusses time management strategies to help you adjust how you think about time, improve your awareness of how you use time, and make change for peak performance.
In this article, we outline how students can utilize their time in university to build the fundamental skills every college fresher needs to develop in order to be successful both on campus and long after you have graduated.
Time Management
Contrary to popular opinion, the best timer managers were not born with planners, calendars, and alarm clocks in their hands.
You may have been one of the lucky few who has never needed a planner before, but the university is all about multitasking, and you can easily get overwhelmed with due dates, team meetings, extra courses, and other demands on your time. That is when time management skill is a necessity.
We all agree that there are certain personality types who are more prone to be organized when it comes to time but time management is a skill anybody can learn.
Time management is not about filling every single hour of your day with an activity.
It is mindfully scheduling classes, activities, and appointments on your calendar so that you achieve your academic goals while remaining relaxed enough to also enjoy the social aspects of your university life.
Study Plans
When it comes to studying plans, it is best to know what works for YOU.
One style of study does not make a person a better scholer than the other. So play to your strengths.
If you are a highly visual person, can you create simple illustrations that allow break down complex ideas? If you are the note-taking kind, do you need to go back and read the assigned portions of the textbook, making your own notes/notecards? Once you determine the best way to study for you, use your scheduled study time to focus on those learning strengths.
A point here about studying for subjects you don’t like but have to take: it is always helpful to find a way to make it fun. If you are having trouble, definitely take advantage of your professor’s office hours to get their help on topics that are especially confusing for you and their advice on how you can do better in their class.
Research Skills
You can escape many things in university. Writing various purposed papers is not one of them – regardless of your major.
Writing an A+ paper means you need to have stellar research skills. Get involved with on-campus research: any scholarly or artistic activity that produces new knowledge. This shall add to your research experiences which can include working alongside your professor in a lab, writing a thesis, or completing a capstone project for your major
Once you have done your research, it is time to put it all together using your own words to discuss the findings you made and get to publish your paper.
Enroll for Extra Useful Courses
This we all can agree upon that not everything is taught in schools, colleges, or universities. But there certain areas of learning where least of all, you need to have some basic ideas to thrive and give you the upper hand for any project, work, or job you get on to. Such areas of focus include Web & App Development, Graphic Designing, UI/UX Designing, Motion Graphics, 3D Modelling, and last but not the least, Digital Marketing. Even the basic skills and knowledge in all these areas or similar ones help you stand out from the crowd. Not only will you be ahead of your assignments and projects of the university with skills in such areas, but you shall also excel in your work life.
Now as mentioned earlier, not all these areas of focus in today’s digital world are taught in universities. In that case, you can search for some online courses on any of these topics that might interest you or you can contact many agencies who offer such courses like Debuggers Studio who offers all such courses you might be looking for in this field in very affordable prices.
Social/Networking Skills
University life would not be balanced without a social life. Even the most introverted of us all need to interact with other people once in a while.
Like time management, while being social comes naturally to some people, the good news is that it is a very learnable skill. And honestly, the relationships you build throughout your university life can have an immense impact on years to come after your academic life.
Over centuries, it has been found that if you are able to converse with people about their family, occupation, recreational activities, and/or their motivations, those people are more likely to see you as a trusted friend.
Communication Skills
Last but not least, communication skills are a must for any scholar. Most people get by in their lives without talking to anyone ever, which are definitely very rare cases. However, when the time comes for attending your first job interview, giving a class presentation, or even casually talking in social situations, as we described in the point above, it does not hurt to learn a thing or two about communicating efficiently.
Closing Thoughts
University should be an all-around great experience. But the world operates on the skill set and potential you have, not how much marks you scored in college. Sure they can land you an interview with a good company, but that’s it. Everything that happens inside that room, is totally independent of how you score. So, everyone of us needs to utilize our time in university and not only work on bringing good grades. But also to learn and develop ourselves with the respective skills one’s interested in.
The skills mentioned in this article will allow you to master your academics, form lifelong mutually beneficial friendships and succeed.
