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Outlining My Winter Quarter Game Plan

My first Fall Quarter at UC Irvine was a rollercoaster of an experience. There was so much to take in, but everything went by quickly. It involved a lot of navigating, exploring, and time management that helped me get a feel of college life and how to live individually. Along the way, I have learned many new ways to get my daily tasks in order and how to navigate through UC Irvine resources so that I could finish my first quarter strong.

One of my biggest challenges last quarter was learning how to first manage my time from day to day. I found it difficult because I had quite a bit of lenient time to do the things I wanted, and I overindulged in that. When I first had the freedom to choose to do whatever I wanted, I idiotically used most of my time to do fun things, which pushed back study and homework time. A change that I will be making for this winter quarter to combat procrastination and poor time management is using a timer that I got from Amazon for around $17 (picture and link of Amazon product below). So far, this timer has been helping me get SO MUCH work done, allowing me to finish tasks in a timely manner, with lots of time to spare to do the things I want at the end of the day. My strategy for using this timer is to set about 3 hours each day on the clock, usually taking a break between each hour. I make sure that by the end of the day, I eat up all of the time that is left on my clock until it reaches zero. After finishing those 3 hours on my clock, I know I’ve done a plentiful amount of work for the day and reset the timer to 3 hours for the next day’s use. I believe this is one of the best ways to tackle laziness and procrastination—it helps you stay productive and on task throughout the day. It also feels GREAT once you hit 00:00 because, to me, it indicates that I managed my time effectively and got work done! Can’t wait to see how my Winter Quarter will progress with this new method at getting daily tasks done (loving it so far!).

Only 16 minutes left at the time of writing this! LET’S GOO!!!
Amazon link to product: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09W2B267P?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

Small Winter Break Highlights

For winter break, I just traveled back up to NorCal where I spent some time at my grandparents’ house in the Bay Area for Christmas. Had fun spending time with the family eating and opening gifts! The rest of the break was spent back at my home in Patterson. I’d also like to take the opportunity to introduce my family’s new cat, Ichigo! My family got him back in October of 2024 and I’ve been enjoying his company for the last few times I visited home. I really enjoyed playing with him and helping take care of him during my last few winter break weeks in Patterson before coming back to UC Irvine. Ichigo was the perfect touch in making my winter break very restful and perfect.

Here are a few photos of Ichigo that I took over winter break.

Thank you for reading my blog and please stick around to read even more of my Zot Blogs!

Best of luck to everyone this Winter Quarter!

All the best,

Lucas

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Back to Reality.

I know I can’t be the only one. Did the break fly by fast? Whenever I go home, I feel very relaxed. In my eyes, everything is moving a hundred miles an hour at school: I am always doing so much, but there is always more that can be done. The first few days of break did feel very calm, but as more of my friends started to come back home, it was almost like I was a senior in high school again just enjoying another break from school. As I spent the majority of my time during break catching up with friends and family, it was already the new year, meaning classes would start again in a few short days. 

With my mind off school for a few weeks, I knew it was time to refocus and develop a plan for the upcoming quarter. Reflecting on the fall, I realized that I had similar habits to what I had in high school. This consisted of being slightly distracted during class and doing catch-up work on my own time, which often led to staying up late and having low energy the following day. While pushing through with these methods worked most of the time, I knew it was not sustainable and was bailed out with long weekends and Thanksgiving break. I started to think about the courses that I have for this winter quarter and I now know that those old habits must go. 

Although it has only been two weeks, I can already tell that I have far more homework on concepts that are much more difficult to grasp than in the fall. So far, since my classes are later each day a few times I week, I try to get up early and review the material that will be covered in the lecture, especially for math. Now that my classes are more directed to a major I am interested in (Economics), I do feel a bit more pressure to do well in these classes. Not only to declare a major but also because the classes this quarter are so foundational for the entirety of the subject. 

Anyways, I hope everyone had a relaxing break and is excited to be back on campus. I wish everyone the best of luck for the rest of this quarter, and a happy new year!