Efficiency
Efficiency and effectivity. Know what work to do and do it right. This is me telling you not to be an overachiever. The cliché “work smarter, not harder” is actually really good advice, and here’s how to follow it.
• Multifunctionality. You have a list of goals you chose and a list of goals that are essentially imposed on you by school/parents/work/etc. Try to make those goals overlap, so that when you’re achieving one goal you’re also achieving another. If you’re really interested in neuroscience and are looking into that as a field and you have a choice between two assignments for a class, one about marine wildlife the other about AI, do AI. If you have to do a research project and have a choice of topics, pick one that you’ve been wanting to learn about anyways. Find as many uses as you can for everything you do or create—it doubles the value of every minute you spent on something if you can find two uses for it instead of just one.
• Multitask. If you’re watching a dull and uneducational video in class, do something else at the same time if you can. If your math teacher teaches too slowly for you and you can pick up on the lessons faster than your peers, just maintain attention to the salient information while getting started on your homework or something. At least in some schools, classes can be flexible, so make sure to take advantage of any time you have by using it productively. Remember that it’s best to work on a certain subject while you’re in the class that teaches that subject, because otherwise teachers might not be happy, and also the environment of say, a biology class, is most conducive to studying biology in it.
• Never allow yourself to do nothing. Don’t just stare into space when there are things to do (and there should always be things to do.) If you’re staring at a wall, be doing so because you’re meditating or thinking about something, not because you’re feeling lazy. If you’re engaged in some mindless chore, use that time as worry/think time, or use it to plan the weekend or something. Don’t let your mind wander aimlessly. There’s no pleasure in it, and you usually regret it later, so just get in the habit of using all your time doing something worthwhile.
• Do your homework properly, don’t skip steps, but don’t take unnecessary steps either. You don’t need to illustrate in color a ten page outline of a chapter that was only eight in the textbook.
• Prioritize. If you’re taking seven AP classes and an SAT you will have to make some sacrifices. Focus on the things that really matter, because your time is limited.
• Always be mentally involved when you’re being taught, otherwise it takes twice as long to learn. If you’re listening to a lecture, there’s really not much of a point in copying down notes without thinking about it. Too many people look at a PowerPoint presentation and write down every single word because they think it will help them learn. It will not. You have to make a commitment to sort through information and find what’s important, and mentally process it and write down that part. That’s how you learn. Either way you’re sitting in a desk listening to a lecture and writing notes, so you might as well make it worthwhile.
• Books are your friends. Many classes adhere to a curriculum that is completely covered in a textbook. If you’re having trouble understanding a lecture, or if you are not an auditory learner, or if you simply find it more effective to read a chapter in a book than trying to absorb it from an only semi-relevant lecture, by all means, read the chapter. AP books for AP classes are also a good option; essentially everything you need to know for an AP test is written in AP books, so they can at the least be a good supplement to the classroom learning.
