routine
How and Why to keep that ‘Back to School enthusiasm’
Well, it’s about 2 weeks until I go back to school after the long summer break and so I thought I’d share my thoughts and ideas on this brand new, exciting and very often terrifying time.
I always looked forward to the start of a new school year as a younger kid. I’m not sure exactly what it is but there is something oh-so-irresistible about the blank canvas before you. It’s a chance to re-invent yourself to a certain extent and to make a positive impression on your teachers and peers. Inevitably, it all starts a week or so prior to the start of term when you go out and buy the best stationary, coat, shoes and lunchbox possible in an effort to make the best impression you can (dare I say it, on the opposite sex).
The new-found enthusiasm contiues when you get into class. You write as neatly as possible (with your new pencil, I might add), lay out tables with all the care and attention of a master craftsman, and colour in diagrams like a young van Goch.
Everything would go so well for about a fortnight and then you’d have a late night, feel a bit tired in the morning and standards would begin to drop; it was inevitable.
via flickr
A lot of things have changed since those days of primary school but for whatever reason I still haven’t been able to shake this terrible habit of mine.
To make sure I don’t fall back into the old ways I have devised the following routine to keep me in tip-top form for class.
- Get into bed by 9:30 on most school nights. A very difficult decision for me as I have always been an evening person (writing this post at 8:45p.m.), but I think it’s possible to reverse this and I’m sure I will reap the rewards in the long term. This is doubly difficuilt as it may mean compromising my social interactions a little, which is why I am aiming only for most and not all nights.
- Shower in the morning. This is another new thing to me as I have always showered in the evenings. Although it means getting up a bit earlier it will help to wake me up further (plus I think my hair looks better after a shower, which is a bonus).
- Keep well nourished. A mistake I’ve been making for pretty much the past 5 years is not eating during the day. I did have lunch. But through the whole morning I was working on a near-empty stomach which distracted me and caused me to lack energy in classes. Breakfast is equally important and though I never skipped it, I normally only had time for a small bowl of cereal. With my new found love of strawberry jam and toast though I hope to get the day off to a much better and nutritious start.
Why bother with all this? If you’re feeling tired you can just catch up after the lesson.
This point of view is a common and foolish one. There’s always someone in class who is falling asleep or just doesn’t want to concentrate; they don’t think they need to because they have a textbook at home. This is such a waste of everybody time and resources. Firstly the student themself, who is wasting their own time, secondly the teacher, whose knowledge and expertise is being squandered, and thirdly the time and attention of participating students which is being wasted by unnecessary interruptions and breaks in teaching.
This goes to show, if just one student is not on form the entire lesson can be less productive for everyone concerned.
Imagine you failed to concentrate in one lesson every day for an hour. That’s five hours a week and more than 100 hours a year. Wouldn’t you like that time back before an exam?
So, I’ll give that a try and report back soon. What do you think, will it work?
Is your routine harming you?
We all have a routine. Even the greatest ‘free spirit’ has a certain point during the day when he’ll regularly be doing something, and us students are no different.
A routine provides comfort and certainty in our day-to-day lives and enables us to focus ourselves on particular tasks at certain times of the day, but can sticking to your routine too closely hinder you in your studying.
via flickr
In short, yes it can. You see by committing yourself to a routine in such a strict way you lose the flexibility to start tasks early and finish them later and often you spend less time on these tasks, leaving their quality to suffer. But it doesn’t have to be like this…
In order to complete tasks to the absolute best of your ability you need to dedicate time to them and you’d be surprised how much time you actually have.
Let’s say for example that you tend to do your tasks in the evening. During that day you may have missed an hour of two’s worth of opportunity to get started, at lunch time for example. And don’t think you need a quiet room with a deskto get started, just twenty minutes on the bus home or relaxing in the library is enough to get you thinking ahead and mentally preparing your work. Just getting some ideas flowing around your head can really focus you when you get down to the business of actually doing the thing.
This is something I have recently realised that I actually do a lot, I think I always have done. I’ve always been pretty focused in school (ever since starting) and thank goodness because without this ability to concentrate I would have done a lot worse at school. I sense that school has always been lurking at the back of my mind (it does kind of take over your life as a kid) and even when I was playing football after school I could let my mind wander and ponder my work.
This may not suit you that as well as it suits me, I am sort of a workaholic and I can cope with an overlap in my work and home lives.
If you have been at all confused by the message of this post, here it is: Don’t be afraid to loosen your routine if it allows you to commit more fully to an assignment. Good luck!