- Do I look college?
I mean, I feel like I could pass for college right now.
(lively music)
Good morning good life.
Welcome back to Amy TV where we come together
to help you go after the life that you want.
If you've been around here in the past,
you know that I sometimes make videos
about calendar blocking and time batching
and making the most of your day.
I've actually gotten a fair bit of feedback
in the comments, in my emails,
and meeting people on the street,
from college students saying that they found
the information really useful and it
was able to help them in school.
Shout out to the older sisters or the mamas
of the college kids who pointed them in my direction.
I see you, I appreciate you and I know
what the real situation is, okay.
I got to thinking about this as I was like,
hmm, that's interesting that more younger people
are watching some of my stuff and I thought
what would it be like if I calendar blocked
a day in the life in college?
Not really interested in going back,
but we could pretend.
When it comes to taking classes,
pretty much the only thing I ever do is Skillshare
because I can do it in the comfort of my own home,
in my own office, in my own yoga pants.
Fortunately, they're also the sponsor of this episode,
so make sure you stay tuned to the end of the video
so you can hear more about how you can take advantage
of a great special and get more edumacated yourself.
On the mission of doing this video,
I went to my Twitter and asked if there
were any college students who would like
to share their class schedule with me
and to my great surprise, there were many of you
who were unafraid to share the exorbitant amount
of weekly commitments that you have and that
was quite relatable for me, so thank you.
Shout out to @ashleycarroll04 for the chosen schedule
for today's little experiment.
And experiment is a great word for it actually.
Ashley is a chemistry major at Case Western
and here's a couple of more details about her life
that contribute to her schedule.
She's a senior so she's got some extra stuff on her plate
for being in the chemistry major, including research.
So that's definitely gonna play a role in her calendar.
She's also in a sorority,
so we've gotta make a little bit of time for that, as well.
She isn't working, she's a full time student,
so she did have a internship over the summer,
like most students do, especially at this stage in college,
but that is not something that we are having
to allot time for in this calendar blocking example.
All right, so there are a couple of rules
to this game because you're college,
they give you advice so that you can be the best
that you can be in your studies.
And so, we need to incorporate that into our planning today.
One of those rules is study ASAP.
Any time you take a class, you should really
be thinking about studying for that same class
that you took as soon as you can
because the information is fresh in your mind.
Most colleges are gonna tell you to do this,
so we're gonna try to follow suit on that.
The next thing is a little basic math problem
when it comes to time management.
Your school is probably going to advise you
that based on the number of credit hours
you have in a semester, you should plan to be studying
for double that amount of time,
because we all follow the rules, right?
And finally, go to friggen class, okay.
The rule of studying only works if you go to class.
The best time to study is when the professor
is literally telling you what is going to be on the test.
Go to class.
My rules for this game are the following:
you must eat, you must sleep and you must
have a good morning to have a good life.
I'm going to be incorporating those
into my calendar blocking strategies as well.
Is it possible to follow all those rules
and be successful in school and also have a life?
(sighing deeply) We're about to find out.
Let's get into Ashley's college schedule
and how we're going to calendar block it for success.
All right, so we're gonna move fast here.
I've already added Ashley's schedule to Google Calendar.
I prefer to calendar block with Google Calendar
because, especially when you're dealing with a lot
of appointments, a lot of moving pieces,
you've got to make sure that it's easy to reschedule
and double check on your phone.
As you can see, we've already got Spanish II,
Biochem, Modern Physics, Cooking, History,
all of that on the board.
Now, I have already pre-designed all of the appointments
that are going to be in play here,
but I'm gonna slowly pop them on,
starting with extra-curriculars.
We obviously know that Ashley is in a sorority
and we're going to want that on the calendar.
This is usually something that happens on Sundays.
There's a long meeting of some kind and there's probably
some other things going on throughout the week
that we need to pay attention to,
but it's gonna be a case-by-case basis,
when parties are, other kinds of gatherings,
giving back to the community.
We're not gonna put that on the calendar
but we do have to remember that that will
be a variable and might have to be worked around sometimes,
but what we know for sure is that there
is a weekly commitment on Sundays.
Next most important thing is to put
my rules on the board.
That's sleeping, eating and good morning, good life.
I've gone ahead and pre-drafted all of that.
It's a lot to look at, but take a look.
There's a time of day for breakfast,
there's a time of day for lunch,
there's a time of day for dinner.
There's even a time of day for your little morning routine.
Whether you wake up and meditate or you just
wanna write in your journal, totally up to you,
but it's there.
It's possible every day and you're still
getting seven hours of sleep every night.
Now, obviously, I did not put your sleep hours
on Friday and Saturday night, 'cause honey, I get it.
You gotta plan it by ear.
But at least you're catching up on sleep every single night.
You can go to class refreshed.
You do not have to be up all hours, okay.
You've gotta set some boundaries for yourself.
Now here's where something really interesting
is going to take place.
What we know is that there
are 17 credit hours at play here.
I believe we only have 14 scheduled here
because the senior project alone is three credit hours.
But we're still going to find 34 total study hours.
You'll notice there's a lot of white space right now
and that is about to go away.
Here is what I planned out.
Studying in the morning, after the morning routine;
it's gonna vary on a per day basis so there's plenty
of time to commute to class and also have your breakfast
'cause you gotta fuel up, if that's the right thing for you.
But there's absolutely studying every single morning
and that's because that is when your brain
is at a great point in being able to process information.
It's gonna take some practicing and getting used to
but this is a good time to pack in a couple of those hours.
We also know that there is a rule that you
should study as soon as possible after class.
You'll notice there's a lot
of afternoon studying hours as well.
If mornings are not best for you,
look at the white space that still exists.
If you don't wanna do anything on the weekend
and you don't like that there is time on Saturday
and Sunday that you have to study,
then look at the other white spaces that exist.
There is still time to party Friday and Saturday night.
There is still time for brunch on Saturday,
because how needs breakfast and lunch on Saturday?
Go to brunch with your friends.
And you know you slept in, so that morning routine
probably isn't gonna be there, is it, no.
Don't make the excuse that you have to stay up
super, super late to study, because you don't,
if you make the time.
You also don't have to miss out on
a lot of other cool stuff.
We've still got time for the sorority,
we still have time for Netflix and chill
after dinner if you really want.
Bed time at 10:00 may not be your bag,
but this is a really good schedule for someone
who's not waking up at the crack of dawn,
but also not having to cram and stay up late.
There are going to be times where you're studying
for a test and more hours are going to matter.
But if you balance your life to get that almost
to double of what your credit hours are
on a weekly basis, you are going to be much more prepared
for everything that school throws at you.
Whoo, well that was a lot of fun, ugh!
Super glad to not be in college.
A couple of tips I want you to take away additionally here.
Don't kill yourself over this.
If you try your best to get
as many study hours as you can.
That's gonna help you a great deal.
You know this if you're in school, already.
You gotta study.
You may not necessarily need to get to that double time,
but you should be striving for it as much as possible.
That being said, if you're in the middle
of a two-hour block of studying and you need
to walk away and take a break, walk away and take a break.
I still recommend the Pomodoro Technique,
so maybe you're doing 25 minute stints of studying
and taking a five-minute break.
Maybe you do something like that so you don't cram
your brain with so much that you just end up
totally overwhelmed by what's on your plate.
We don't want you there either.
Very important to know, procrastination exponentiates,
so if you procrastinate on something
and you procrastinate on something else,
now you've got a whole bunch
of stuff you gotta cram to get done.
We don't wanna do that.
You need to reverse engineer your success
as much as possible.
If you know when the final is, how do you study enough
for the final leading up to that point?
Maybe you plan over the entire semester,
maybe there's certain periods of time
where you're planning on having entire study days
and they're not at the last minute but they're
a little bit further in advance,
so you don't feel so down to the wire
when the big things happen.
Same things with things like a senior project
or other types of projects.
If you procrastinate on too many things,
you're gonna end up in a situation where
it's just not going to be a success across the board.
And nobody needs mediocre across the board.
You're not gonna be great at everything,
but you need to set yourself up to be mostly good
at a lot of things because that's how you pass college.
Unfortunately, you gotta take
a test to make this all happen.
Lots of tests.
Don't use your roommates or
the environments around you as an excuse, okay.
You pay big money for access to academic centers
and online support and resources,
so use them and get out of the environments you know
are not going to be conducive for you studying
or really getting mentally ready for something.
Just go to where they've already prepped for you to do this
and take a few moments for yourself.
It will pay off.
Question of the day:
what is your current biggest obstacle
with prioritizing on a day-to-day basis so that you
can block out your schedule throughout the week?
Leave that in a comment below so we
can all help each other.
Whether you're a college student or you're already
in adulthood an looking for some new ways
to get educated and brush up on your skills,
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That's all for today.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I appreciate it as always, and make sure you subscribe
for good vibes, kiss the ones you love,
(blowing kiss) and go after the life that you want.
Cheers!
(lively music)
Oh my gosh, I almost filmed this video
with the air conditioning on because it is so friggen hot,
but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. (laughing)
I hate that blowing sound in the microphone, hate it!
I hate it, ugh.
Girl's particular.
Yes, I'm wearing a jacket.
Stop judging me.
I'd like to give a big shout out to my team
of experts, my 20 somethings in the office
who are recently out of college and could verify most
of this information for me.
They couldn't verify if they followed this advice
but that's because they probably didn't know
how I was yet, so, you know, we can't fault them for that.