Post by Kumar Vaibhav, GIC Peer Mentor 2021
As international students, we come from different backgrounds and cultures. For some of us, it may bring a cultural shock that can very soon become too overwhelming. This is a perfect recipe to get disorganized that results in a graduate life full of struggles. Here are a few tips to avoid such circumstances:
Organize your Emails
This might look trivial but something as simple as organizing your email can make you much more productive and efficient. You will be receiving emails from many places – different schools in the university, your graduate program, from instructors and professors, and many more depending on your email subscriptions. You may think you can always search for the emails you need. Well – yes and no. We need to remember that there will be a lot going on in your graduate life and it is very easy to forget important tasks and deadlines. Believe me, this can cost you a lot. For example, one of my close friends forgot that he had scheduled an interview when he was desperately looking for an internship. We had an assignment submission lined up for the week and he was so engrossed with his assignment that he completely missed his interview. Luckily, he soon got another opportunity and everything ended on a good note for him.
One of the most elegant ways to organize your email is to create labels. For example, let’s say you are actively looking for a part-time opportunity or an internship. You can create a custom label like “Jobs” and pin labels to relevant job-related emails. Here is more info on how to do that: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/118708?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
That way you can quickly select a label and glance over all emails related to that label.
Browser Bookmarks
It does not matter if you are a Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome user and in some particular unique situation – an IE user, they all have bookmarks. For those who are not aware of the bookmark – it is the star-shaped icon on top of your internet browser that helps you “bookmark” a particular webpage.
However, you may have already come to a realization that there is limited visible space on top of your browser to keep your favorite pages. This is where creating a bookmark folder comes in handy. As a matter of fact, you can create a nested folder structure. A good idea would be to keep your coursework-related web pages organized into subfolders of different courses you take. These subfolders can further consist of the pages relevant to particular coursework. The same idea can be applied to other areas such as job searches or study materials.
Get a Planner and Keep It Updated
There are many formats for assignment books, calendars, and day planners out there. You should have a look to help you decide the one which will work best for you. Take a field trip to the office supply store and browse through some examples. Keep in mind that most students find it helpful to have at least a weekly view on the page spread so that you can see an extended visual of your responsibilities.
If you can’t find a planner format that works well for you, you can go ahead and create your own template or search for one online. Templates exist for just about any format, so they aren’t difficult to find through a basic online query. Once you find the one that you like, print out enough pages to cover the school year and put them in a narrow binder.
As soon as you have your planner, go through the entire school year and write in days of the week and dates, if this isn’t already completed. Then, go through and add important dates. These might include deadlines, competitions or special events, or family commitments. Usually, these are non-negotiable priorities, so having them in your planner first will help you to shape the remainder of your schedule around them.
Also, go ahead and copy these important dates onto your family’s calendar. It’s important that everyone in the family is aware of such significant deadlines and events. This way, there will be no surprise double-bookings or confusion later on.
Finally, be sure to keep up with your planner. Make sure you have all of your commitments in it, regularly updated. While it can be hard to commit to writing everything in a planner rather than rely on memory, especially if that’s what you’re used to, keeping track of your schedule in one place is absolutely necessary to stay organized. You should use it to track assignments, sporting events, club meetings, study groups, and important social events. Being able to see all of your important commitments will make prioritizing easier and more straightforward.
Reward Yourself
As you chip away at longer assignments or tasks, be sure to set small rewards for yourself at certain points in your progress. For example, if you are working on writing your thesis, reward yourself after you finish three pages, you can watch one episode of your favorite show or take a break to make a cup of tea.
It’s important that as you do this, you set finite rewards. If you tell yourself you can play video games, make a time limit in advance. Do the same if you’re going to take a break to call a friend or have a snack. Without firm time limits set in your mind in advance, it’s tempting to get carried away with “just five more minutes” again and again. Avoid falling victim to this time-suck by setting firm limits in advance and sticking with them.
Plan your week ahead
It is a great idea to plan your week in advance preferably every weekend. Take out some time during your weekend to sit back and look ahead in the future to see what is coming along your way. If there are assignments that need to be submitted the next week, check your progress and plan on how you will complete it ahead of time. It is perhaps also a good idea to do your grocery and shopping on the weekend when you are relatively free. But in any case, looking ahead just 7 days in the future will make you mentally prepared for the coming week.
Cultivate note-making habit
Remember that you have joined the graduate program to learn and the faculty at UC Irvine will make sure they do their best to impart knowledge. And believe me, they are excellent at it – so good that you will soon start struggling to grasp all that is communicated to you. The notes that are not made during lecture hours are the knowledge that you failed to gain. There are no two ways about it – note-making is a must for graduate students.