Tufts Blogs

It’s hard to believe that I will be flying back home in eight days to relax a bit before beginning my internship at the Capitol in the office of Congressman Henry Cuellar. My freshman year has flown right by me, and, at this point next year, I will be halfway done with my undergraduate education. With the time spent writing papers and reviewing for tests comes a small amount of wisdom when it comes to productivity and staying focused when it doesn’t feel like an option. Here are three must-haves in order to be productive as a college student in 2014.

1. Notebooks (the physical kind)
On my first day of Western Political Thought II, I arrived to class and pulled out my laptop, anticipating the third introduction-to-the-class lecture for that day. As I followed along with my professor as he went over the syllabus, I was shocked when I arrived at his Electronics & Laptops policy. “You may not use laptops, iPads, or smartphones in class,” it read. I was immediately taken back, as this had never occurred in any of my classes thus far, but I listened to what he had to say on the matter.

My professor argued that laptops have proven themselves to be a useful but distracting instrument in the classroom and opted for us to use the traditional pen-and-paper style of writing notes instead. For the students using the laptops, it was too easy to zone out of the lecture and spend the next hour on Facebook, potentially distracting the peers sitting around you with the graphics and flashy screen. Left with no choice, I purchased a spiral notebook for this class, and I was surprisingly content with the results that I found while taking notes by hand.

For one, I was much more tentative in class. Between iMessages and social media, my laptop admittedly always keeps me active, but not necessarily focused; writing my notes allowed me to stay alert in class and actively take notes rather than type out what was on the slides in a drone-like mentality. Similarly, writing my notes helped me grasp the concepts in class better because I was forced to shorten and summarize my professor’s arguments in order to keep up with the lecture. For the rest of my college career, I plan on taking notes on paper in at least one of my classes every semester in order to compare grade results in classes in which I take typed notes versus handwritten ones.

2. SelfControl 
Ironically named SelfControl because of a lack thereof, this open-source software has saved my life. Too many times have I found myself writing a research paper and quickly pressing Command + T and checking my Facebook or Twitter. While Chrome extensions existed to blacklist certain websites on your browser, the loopholes around them were too easy for me to avoid. It was not until I learned about SelfControl that I was able to force myself to get off of social media.

SelfControl works to increase your productivity by letting you create a list of sites that you are killing your productivity and giving you a timeframe for blocking them. Sites on my blacklist include buzzfeed, facebook, twitter, and tumblr. Beware though: once you turn on SelfControl for a period of time, there is no disabling the blacklist until the timer runs out. This social media nuke is not for those who can’t stand an hour without checking their newsfeed, but it is a must-have to stay productive in college.

3. Clubs & Extracurricular Activities
This one might seem like the odd one out in the list, but let me explain. While joining a club or an extracurricular activity is time consuming (especially in college), the benefits of it not only help you maintain your sanity but also improve your time management skills.

At the beginning of my freshman year, I was doing nothing but school for the first few weeks. While I enjoyed the free time, I found myself with so much empty space in my schedule that I constantly put off doing my homework and readings, assuring myself that I had plenty of time to do it later. Time would pass and pass, and I would keep putting the work off. Eventually, this procrastination came to haunt me in the end, as I found myself with more homework than I could handle.

As I got adjusted to Tufts, I joined Tufts Mock Trial (one of the most rewarding but time-consuming extracurricular activities on campus), student government, and my fraternity. Between these activities and my school life, I found myself updating my calendar on a daily basis, rationing out time in advance so that I could sit down and study. I found this new schedule to be much more productive and prefer it to my first few weeks on campus. However, make sure to not spread yourself too thin and join a hundred clubs at once; most things are good when done in moderation.