Being a Truly Efficient Person Overall

[IndianVercetti]

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I was thinking a lot about what quality I respect most in people, and I've reached the conclusion that it's the people who are control of what's going on in their lives.. and by that I mean, having a generally set time to sleep, getting up early, being focused when choosing to study, yet having fun when not studying, etc.

As for me, I'm an alright student, but I'm so haphazard in my planning. I rarely use a planner, my sleep pattern is way out of whack to say the least, and often times, I find myself not being focused when studying, and then thinking about academics when I'm just chilling.

It seems that people who really are in control end up actually having MORE free time than others.

I'm sure there are some really efficient people here on SDN. Just curious what you guys do to keep a certain degree of structure in your lives without losing your minds. I'm studying for the MCAT this summer, so this is definitely the time I want to get this down.

Thanks

 

[ChubbyChaser]

Honestly....i fyou can get into a routine sleep and workout schedule, everything else seems to fall into place...or atleast for me.

 

[cbrons]

I was thinking a lot about what quality I respect most in people, and I've reached the conclusion that it's the people who are control of what's going on in their lives.. and by that I mean, having a generally set time to sleep, getting up early, being focused when choosing to study, yet having fun when not studying, etc.

As for me, I'm an alright student, but I'm so haphazard in my planning. I rarely use a planner, my sleep pattern is way out of whack to say the least, and often times, I find myself not being focused when studying, and then thinking about academics when I'm just chilling.

It seems that people who really are in control end up actually having MORE free time than others.

I'm sure there are some really efficient people here on SDN. Just curious what you guys do to keep a certain degree of structure in your lives without losing your minds. I'm studying for the MCAT this summer, so this is definitely the time I want to get this down.

Thanks

The key to being efficient, ensuring a regular sleep time, a regular work out time, a regular study time, etc etc etc is to ritualize... do the exact same thing at the exact same time. For most of us, brushing our teeth is a ritual, so it doesn't take much will power to bring ourselves to do it every morning and every night. All of those other things must be ritualized too. They will then become habits that are very hard to break and soon it will be harder to not go to sleep at a certain time or harder to not work out than actually do it.

 

[majahops]

Excellent advice. Excellent!

The key to being efficient, ensuring a regular sleep time, a regular work out time, a regular study time, etc etc etc is to ritualize... do the exact same thing at the exact same time. For most of us, brushing our teeth is a ritual, so it doesn't take much will power to bring ourselves to do it every morning and every night. All of those other things must be ritualized too. They will then become habits that are very hard to break and soon it will be harder to not go to sleep at a certain time or harder to not work out than actually do it.

 

[FuturaDocta]

You sound like me when I was distressed during my ochem sessions. I think that you may be suffering from exhaustion or over studying, which is an easy fix. I think you just need to take the time to get use to the stress and then you will find, through maturity, that you will soon see your planning become easier. However, if you don't see anything become easier, just take a break.

But, the above advice sounds great to me. Also, you should try studying with friends as they are great for helping with stress related things. Good luck with the MCAT by the way.

 

[marele86]

Steve Pavlina's blog is a mostly great resource for productivity -
10 Tips for College Students
33 Rules for Productivity
How To Become An Early Riser
... and others. (I say 'mostly' great because he's really into some wacky 'manifestation' stuff and is of course also making money from the site. But it doesn't change the fact that he has a fair amount of genuinely useful and interesting articles.)

The best productivity sites I know of are www.lifehacker.com and www.43folders.com. (Sometimes their 'tips' are ridiculous, though - like 'ordering 'just coffee' instead of a complicated latte saves you time!' Well, yeah.)

The most recent productivity tip I've taken to heart was quitting caffeine. It's really helped: No mid-afternoon crashes, no need to spend all that money on coffee, one less thing to do in the morning, greater productivity and alertness the moment I'm out of bed, and personally, I fall asleep faster. YMMV.

 

[mrmandrake]

You ask about being efficient. I think being efficient requires quality work and working without distractions. It takes practice. Start off turning everything off, including your phone, and study for a good 15 minutes, then take a 15 minute break. Work your way up. I find 45/15 minutes works good for me, others are more hardcore. Discipline is like a muscle, you gotta work it out.

I find that doing everything like you are running late helps too. You can say that it's pretty crazy to do that, but it all depends on what you want from life. Cut back on internet/chatting/texting/information overload. Spend your free time doing what is most important to you. Narrow down your list of priorities. It helps if you really love those things. Embrace that list.