Howdy, pals! Even though you may think that your time management skills in college are good enough, Nerdify reminds you that there are still some helpful tips and tricks. 

They will help you upgrade your knowledge and see how you can make your college life much easier and fun.  One of the reasons why your time management skills upgrade can be essential is because you may want to add more to your schedule and get involved in all the fun activities, yet there seems to be never enough time to do it all! Let us see how you can act as an engineer of your own time and resources in a little bit unusual way!

1. Learn to study in blocks!                                                                                           

The trick here is to approach the different study scenarios where you try different time passages or the time-blocks for your college assignments and the times of leisure. This way you can see how much time you may need to get focused in a proper way! While 30-40 minutes time blocks are ideal for studying before you take some rest, you may still need to make them either shorter or longer to see what fits you best. Remember that you have to take the breaks and switch from subject to subject to have a clear mind before you continue with the same or a completely new task. You can take a walk and have a cuppa before you continue with the studies.

The difference in such approach is your being aware of how much time you are going to spend as you study. You do not have to fear that there are hours and hours of studies ahead before you can finally have some rest! Give yourself some credit and remember that you deserve something for a change. Such an approach will not only keep you organized but will help you to divide your homework assignments by the level of importance and complexity as you form your time blocks. Start with the easy tasks first, so you may get an idea of how much time you may need. This way you can also plan the times of leisure for the day ahead when you are the one in control of your plans with all the classes getting in the way!  

2. Do not underestimate college help resources!

Most students spend the majority of their free time by trying to understand how to start with a homework assignment and how to approach an unknown writing format. Of course, there are countless questions that you try to look up online, yet it does not seem clear or your college professor has a different idea about certain rules. You can definitely save some precious time by turning to the writing help center at college and talking to your professor if you are unsure of a something. It does not make you any less smart if you take some time to speak of your concerns instead of acting cool and trying to find solutions on your own.

There are additional study groups and the special support classes almost at every college that will help you to get a guidance and assistance with the most challenging classes. If there are debates, conferences, social work, and laboratory experiments, make sure that you join the fellow students and stay as active as you can. This way you help to make your name known to others as your social network of friends starts to grow. Smart students will start to notice you and share their knowledge. Professor will see that you are a dedicated student who walks an extra mile to study. It will not only improve your chances for a scholarship and financial aid but will also help you to receive timely help!

3. Join College Study Groups!

Sometimes all your free time may be ruined by a single college class that you are struggling with! Even though you may do well in the rest of your classes, failing to understand a subject or follow professor’s speech in your English class or in Quantum Physics is a great challenge! Still, there is a trick that helps you to address the problem professionally – the college study groups. What these study groups offer is a unique advantage to focus on a single subject in a special way where you receive tutoring to cover the curriculum in a faster way. As you join the study group, you can research and ask questions without embarrassment as it is exactly why you are there. In order to help you through the class, you are offered a topic to work at, so you can collaborate with a fellow student on a group task. They call it an enhanced learning because you learn to share and work together starting from the class lecture notes to exploring additional subjects to help you understand the class in a deeper way. In a certain sense, it is like a free tutoring opportunity where you can finally liven up your study sessions and save some time that you spend trying to understand a complex assignment!

4. A Daily Schedule Approach!

While it may sound boring to you, it does help to challenge and upgrade your current time-management skills in college! A daily schedule approach will not only motivate you as a student but help you to manage your time in a more efficient way. Here is how it works:

• Make a list of your daily tasks that you have to complete!
• Write the next list with two columns of more important and less important tasks.
• Mark the tasks that are urgent and should be done with one color.
• Mark the tasks that can wait with the other color.
• Place a checkmark next to each task as you get it complete.
• Try to write down an approximate time that you have spent on each task.
• Make an additional list of all the fun things that you may want to do, so you can add it to your primary schedule!

As you try to work with a daily schedule of your college tasks, share it with your roommate and the fellow students, so you can see how it can be adjusted and what helpful techniques you may learn! Keep the daily schedule always by your side, so you can keep organized and focused!

5. Work at your soft skills!

Your personal development and growth of time management skills depend on the presence of soft skills. What it means, in reality, is your ability to be independent, adhere to strong ethics, and work at your communication skills. You have to stay patient and unbiased as you choose your sources and the books as you study. Setting the goals and trying to be flexible, you have to work at your character and coordinate what you have to learn with your true passions. The way how you approach your college life with all the studies and fun is a reflection of how well you can do in a future career. This work and experience have already started, so one has to be strong and seek for inspiration inside!

Some Nerdy tips and time management observations!

• Always have a time buffer because the days at college somehow go faster than you expect!
• Take advantage of the days and times when you feel creative and inspired. When you feel like working and know that you can do more, make sure that you do your best!
• Focus on one task at a time because even though you may be able to multitask, your brain easily becomes exhausted!
• Limit and challenge yourself with the deadlines because it keeps you more productive. If you have less time to get the task done, you work extra hard.
• Even though you may have flexible college deadlines, make sure not to procrastinate!
• Brainstorm the ideas and alternative solutions as you get stuck with your homework!
• Try to schedule the important tasks and meetings early in the day because the most challenging time is when you try to get ready for the actual task!
• Get rid of the most disturbing tasks first, so you can feel better about the rest of the items on your list!
• Always take notes and do not think that you can remember everything out there! Write it down and use it as a personal reference to turn to! It really helps to save some time!
• Do not forget to have fun and spend some time for yourself!

A kind reminder from Nerdify: your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow. Take care and practice time management!

And here we go again with most cheesy college topics! Today our favorite rubric Nerdify Reviews will bring some light on co-living issues.

Living with a roommate at college or university can be a lot of fun and an experience that you will miss the most when you graduate, yet things will not always go smoothly and you may encounter several roommate problems. In order to help you survive through the college, we have collected the most common troubles and the ways how to solve them! 

1. Your roommate is way too messy (or way too clean)!

Without a doubt, we all have our personal considerations regarding being clean and messy, which makes it highly likely that your roommate’s opinion may differ from yours. The best way, however, is to make little compromises and discuss the most challenging moments as they come up. When someone acts sloppy and does not seem to care for keeping the place clean, try to see if you can approach the problem on your own and share some tips about keeping the room clean in a light-hearted and fun manner. If this does not work for you and the roommate continues being messy, try to discuss the problem openly and share the responsibilities, so you both share certain tasks that simply have to be done.

Sometimes you may appear to be a little bit messy or your roommate is crazy about keeping the room clean. Well, while it is a good thing to keep everything tidy, it should not go overboard. If you are trapped in such situation, do your best to take some time to throw the dirty laundry into a bin, keep your side of the room tidy, and make little pleasant surprises for your tidy roommate to show that you really care!

2. Your roommate uses your belongings without permission!

Now this problem can be really stressful as it is a privacy intrusion and a trouble that has to be dealt with! Remember that even if the intentions of your college roommate are not always bad and mean, it is still an issue that has to be discussed to make sure that you understand privacy and a list of personal belongings the same way! Living with a roommate is like living with a sibling, so things often get borrowed without a second thought. Still, you have to discuss the boundaries and do your best to build a good relationship. You do not have to lock things up and worry about expensive clothes or your laptop. The key to success is discussing your position and making sure that there are no words left unspoken. Just talk it out and say what is alright to do from time to time and what things will not be tolerated. In case nothing helps and your roommate ignores your requests, ask the college counselor for help.

3. A “Third roommate” college problem!

While bringing in a boyfriend to the college room can be a lot of fun, there are still some rules and restrictions that you have to remember! As you share a relatively small space with your roommate, you can have a guest and it is alright, but it should not be a fun place to hang out all the time. If you have to deal with a roommate who thinks that it is okay to let his or her friends be there all the time, it can easily become a problem!

As always, communication is the key to addressing the problem right and avoiding the conflict. No, you do not really have to tell your friend to kick a friend out immediately, but it is perfectly fine to remind that your room is a shared space where you have to study and have some private space and quiet. If nothing works, try to come to an agreement and make a schedule to agree on the times when both of you are fine with having friends over or when one of you would go home or stay over at friends for the weekend. If you have to get ready for an exam and you just cannot concentrate, make sure to let your roommate know. Try to become the best friends and care for each other as you have fun, but remember that you are the hosts in a little college world, so the guest is a guest and not a new roommate after all!

4. Your roommate has different sleeping habits!

And yes, this is one of the crucial things in co-living, that’s why Nerdify reviews it as well. We all know the feeling when you are up early in the morning and your roommate likes to have some sleep and prefers to stay up late at night to study, listen to music, and basically feel good! As a caring roommate, you do not want to disturb and take the best care of a situation, yet you do not know how to find the right balance between your needs.

Speaking from our experience, the solution is going to the public library or to a student’s cafe if you want to study in peace. If you want to hear some music or talk to a friend, you can easily go to the public area where it is alright to make some noise. Likewise, if you want to get some precious sleep and your roommate has other plans, make sure to speak clearly and explain that there are special study rooms and the common areas a college student can visit to relax and have fun. As you seek a compromise, share your study schedules and see what solutions you may find to let both of you have a good sleep and fun at the end of the day!

5. Your roommate is acting mean!

Even if you have all the schedules and sleep patterns in agreement and take care of each other’s belongings, there are still odd troubles that may come up! Sometimes your problem with a roommate may become an issue for no obvious reason. In most cases, it is enough to talk about the problem and let things cool off without a conflict. Yet, if your relationship with a mean roommate starts to affect you physically and mentally, the best thing to do is turn to a mediator by talking to the college counseling officer. If there is a problem and you cannot get by on your own, seek for professional help! It is perfectly normal to have an unbiased third party individual to help both of you to see where the problem lies without a damage to your life and an academic success!

6. Your roommate is never there!

While there may be several reasons for your roommate’s absence, the fact may become a problem for you. Either you may feel lonely or find yourself in a situation when you need some support, your roommate’s presence in the room is an important point. It may be that your roommate is missing home and tries to be away from the college, yet in the other cases, your roommate may be dealing with a peer pressure or a way too controlling boyfriend that affects her college life. Finally, your roommate may be in trouble, so it is very good to talk to a college counselor if you think that there is a problem that should be reported.

In any case, try to be as careful as you can and make sure that your decision is ethical. Remember that your roommate may just feel embarrassed to talk and not know how to share the same space with a college mate. Be the one to make the first step and trust your heart!

7. Your roommate is always in the room!

Now, this is the opposite of a previous problem, so let us think what can be done! If your college roommate seems to be always there, try to get your friend involved and tell about all the existing college clubs and fun activities. Encourage him or her to do something special and tell of your own responsibilities. If you are a musician or an athlete, share your passion and invite your roommate along!

Of course, it may be that a college room is a special place where your roommate feels safe! Nevertheless, try to make your roommate feel good about college life. Tell about all the nice cafes and the libraries to study at, the parks, and the shops with lots of student deals, so your friend may become interested and leave you in the room on your own (or come along)!

No matter what your roommate problem is, remember that the best way is to talk it out and avoid keeping it all inside! All members of the awesome Nerdify reviews team agree that it always right just to talk to your roommate, be there, stay empathic, respectful, and caring because it will always let you remember college life as a precious experience and time!

Have a good one!

It has always been a popular question since the times when social networks became a usual thing and people have started with various forums and commenting practices. As the majority of people were forced to learn online because of the pandemic issues, we are facing various online conflicts once again. Our Nerdify reviews team came up with a list of practical recommendations that will help you keep online conflicts under control or avoid them entirely. Unfortunately, sometimes it is not possible to ignore them or remain unbiased since other people will try to and do their best to get us involved. Take time to read our helpful guide and learn how to cope and become a better negotiator!

1. Learn to take screen snapshots. Since it is not possible to avoid conflicts online as we just cannot control other people or make them think logically (some just cannot cope with the practice!), learn how to make screen captures. After all, the best defense is providing clear evidence of online misconduct and keeping all the things documented. If something has been done wrong, a screenshot is usually enough to prove your innocence or show the sides of the conflict. It is also a way to avoid legal trouble in case things go overboard. It can be talking to your friends or even dealing with a nasty college professor online.

2. Approach mediation. This practice is the primary tool in conflict resolution all over the world. Starting from business negotiations to military conflicts, it stands for the invitation of a third, unbiased party who can analyze the situation, keep things private, and help you come up with the list of requirements or demands for the opposite side. This practice can be used anywhere and you can ask a person who you both trust to help you settle down the conflict and find the terms that will fit both sides of the conflict (more or less). Even our Nerdify reviews team has used this practice in a practical environment and has found it quite helpful!

3. Every action online can be logged and tracked. Start each online session by turning to this important concept and remind about it for those who start the conflict or act immaturely. According to our Nerdify reviews team, this reminder often helps to cool people down as they definitely have things they fear and do not want others to remember. This simple trick has helped us more than once, so make sure that you remind your offenders about online responsibility and the legal consequences of their actions. It relates to any threats, cyberbullying, or any other type of online harassment that you may encounter. Do not leave it as it is!

4. Avoid sharing personal information. Do not ever share anything personal with someone during an online conversation even when talking to your friends. If it is not overly critical for your conversation, keep any sensitive information to yourself because it can be easily used against you by anyone who may gain access to your conversation. Of course, it does not mean getting paranoid and deleting every message on each device, yet keeping things accurate and watching what you say and share is a good reminder to avoid any online disputes and conflicts in the future. It works wonders just like ignoring arrogant, nasty, and hypocritical people.

5. Learn how to say “No”. Since we have already reminded you of the nasty types you can encounter online, our Nerdify reviews team urges you to learn how to say “no!” and how to shut things off before it goes way too far. Sometimes it is totally useful to fight against the windmills by trying to prove your point. Learn to let things go and switch off by not focusing on negative emotions that are so easily encountered online. Some people are there for the sake of stirring things up, so do not feed the trolls. Let them fade in their foolishness!

6. Stay true to your beliefs and values. No matter what online conflict you may face as a college student or as a parent of a child who is learning online, remember to stand for your beliefs and values. Do not ever give up or choose compromises if it does not feel right. Our team has encountered numerous educational conflicts online in 2020, which have been varied in their nature, yet as soon as people would start standing for what they believe in, the conflicts would end peacefully. All it takes is making a point and sounding confident to defeat your opponents with evidence and the facts.

7. Approach advocacy groups online. If you feel that things have gone serious and you require legal help and protection, turn to the local anti-bullying committee and seek advocacy groups online immediately!