Time Management: Six Questions to get Unstuck

1.     Ask: What is one task that I can do to accomplish my goal?
This is a good technique to use on big, imposing jobs. Pick out one small accomplishment then just do it. Reward yourself, and carry on with another one.

2.     Ask: Am I beating myself up?
When you get frustrated, or your attention wanders, or you fall behind on assignments, ask yourself how you feel about it. Lighten up. Develop a plan to do better. Don't add to the problems by berating yourself.

3.     Ask: Is this a piano?
Carpenters who build rough frames for buildings have a saying they use when they bend a nail or hack a chunk out of a two-by-four. They say, "Well, this ain't no piano." It means perfection is not necessary.  Some people never get started because they demand to much perfection and the task seems daunting. If you can complete a job 95% in two hours, and 100% imperfect in four hours, ask yourself was the additional 5% worth doubling the amount of time you spend.  Sometimes it is a piano. Accept lower standards where appropriate, especially when time is short.

4.     Ask: How did I just waste time?
We operate by habit and tend to waste time in the same way over and over again. When you have noticed things that kill your time, you are more likely to catch yourself in the act next time. Observing one small quirk may save you hours.

5.     Ask: Would I pay myself for what I'm doing right now?
If you were employed as a student, would you be earning your wages? Ask yourself this question when you have taken your third popcorn break in 30 minutes. You are investing in your own productivity and sometimes you don't realize what a mediocre job may cost you.

6.     Ask: Can I do just one more thing?
Almost always you may have enough energy to do just one more short task. If you get in the habit of working until you are done, then doing one more thing, those end-of-the-day tasks will soon add up.

12 Tips for Use of Time at College

1.     Plan two hours of study time for every hour you spend in class
students making the transition from high school to higher education are often unaware that more is expected of them. The benefits of following this rule will be apparent at exam time.

2.     Study difficult (or boring) subjects first.
If your chemistry problems put you to sleep, go to them first, while you are fresh. If you discover that you continually avoid a subject, that course is a potential trouble area. Take a look at the circumstance of this behavior.

3.     Avoid scheduling marathon study sessions
three 3-hour sessions are more productive than one 9-hour session. With a great deal of study ahead of you, the temptation is to put off by sharpening a dozen of pencils and changing the light bulbs. When you study, take planned breaks every hour. Focus for short spans, then give your brain a rest.

4.     Be aware of your best time of day.
One hour of daylight study is worth one and one half hours of nighttime study. Study your most difficult subjects when the sun is up.

5.     Use waiting time.
Five minutes waiting for the bus, 20 minutes between classes - waiting adds up fast. Have short study tasks ready to do during these times: 3x5 cards with equations, formulas, or definitions can be pulled out anywhere; class notes can be reviewed in fifteen minutes if you are prepared.

6.     Pay attention to your attention.
Breaks in concentration are often caused by internal interruptions; your own thoughts jumping in to tell you another story about the world. What then happens, notice the thoughts and let them go.

7.     Agree with living mates about study time.
Make the rules clear, and be sure to follow them yourself. Make explicit agreements not to disturb or tempt each other during study hours.

8.     Avoid noise distractions.
The overwhelming majority of research indicates that silence is the best form of music for study. Some students have reported good results with carefully selected and controlled music.

9.     Notice how others misuse your time.
Be aware of repeat offenders, ask yourself are certain friends who consistently interrupt your study time. If avoiding the interrupter is impractical, send a clear message.

10.  Turn off the phone
A cell phone is the perfect interrupter. You don't have to be a text or phone victim. If a simple, "I can't talk, I'm studying" doesn't work, use dead silence. It's a conversation killer. If you assume that you are responsible for the texts and calls you receive, than take control of the situation.

11.  Learn to say no.
This is a valuable time-saver for students and a valuable life skill. Many people feel it is rude to refuse a request. Saying no can be done effectively and courteously. When you tell people that you can't comply yourself because you are busy educating yourself, 99% will understand.

12.  Hang a "do not disturb" sign on your door.
They work. Using one will relieve you of making a decision about cutting off each interruption - a time-saver itself.

The Purpose of APA

By Jessica DePalatis, ARC Consultant

It has been three and half years since I migrated to George Fox and during this time I have discovered a trend on campus. It caught my attention in my general psychology class freshman year and has particularly manifested itself when I serving as an ARC consultant.

Students loathe writing papers in APA.

Personally, I find this sad, for I have come to love this method of presenting information. However, I know most students only get one or two encounters with APA during college, which is not enough to master it. Still, I would like to take a minute to defend APA and explain in part why it behaves the way it does.

First off, do you know what APA stands for? No, not a torture device. It stands for the American Psychological Association. This means APA style was created by psychologists for psychologists. It was not made with Lit majors in mind or even aspiring elementary teachers. In fact, many of the qualities that separate APA from MLA can be explained by the goals of the discipline that developed it.

For a psychologist, the bulk of the writing one encounters and crafts are research reports and journal articles. Therefore, APA style is particularly suited for these. The idea was to create a strict system so that researchers could easily present their findings. If everyone must report in the same fashion then I will know exactly where to find your results or method sections. This explains why APA has so many rules.

Another example of APA catering to journal articles lies in the in-text citations.  If one paraphrases or summarizes an article then he or she does not  have to put page numbers in the in-text citation. Journal articles are normally short, which means if you want to look up the concept cited you might as well read the whole article. And then there are the doi numbers that gives so many students head aches. Yes, they are important. They are the best identification system for pulling up articles on the web.

But wait. What about books? Books are normally discouraged from use in papers and reports for several reasons. One, books don’t have to be peer reviewed where as journals do. Second, psychology is changing so fast that old books are only useful if you are writing about a particular old theory (normally the flaws of it) or a dead psychologist. The most current information about psychology in our internet saturated age is on the web in the form of peer reviewed journals, or textbooks that are constantly being upgraded.

I hope this gives a small explanation for why APA is different. Don’t worry. If you are not a psychologist you probably won’t have to submit to the APA very often. (Unless you are a business major. Don’t ask me why on that one). All in all, if practiced and used for articles, APA makes a lot of sense in the long run.  

For details on APA and other styles, go to http://www.georgefox.edu/arc/Style%20Guides.html.

Grammar? There's an App for That

By Maddie Schubert, ARC Consultant

Do you struggle with grammar? Do you avoid playing Mad Libs in public because you don’t want to get caught confusing nouns and verbs? Are you tired of your Great-Aunt Tabby correcting everything you say?

There’s an app for that.

Seriously though, there really is an app for everything, including brushing up on your grammar. In my quest for informative, fun, and effective grammar apps however, I did discover that not all apps are created equal. Here is a list of some of the better (and free!) ones, although, as you will see, there are both positive and negative aspects to each.

(Note: These apps are all from Apple iTunes because that is the device that I have access to, I apologize if some of these can’t be found for non-Apple products)

• English Illustrated Idioms: Provides comic-strip illustrations of English idioms, including where they come from and what they mean now. This is one of the most interesting grammar apps, but only applies to the narrow category of idioms. 

• Grammar Up and Grammar Express: Very thorough quizzes and ways to keep track of your scores by category, however there is no explanation or teaching guide anywhere. Grammar Express apps go in-depth into a single topic, depending on which app you choose (e.g. Tenses, Pronouns, Articles etc.) 

• Mad Libs: A digital version of the classic car-ride and party game. Comes with 21 free stories (with the opportunity to purchase more), offers a review page on the parts of speech, and is set up so that you can play either in a group or on your own. 

• Grammaropolis: The School House rock for a modern generation (likely the generation younger than us, but I personally will never outgrow catchy grammar songs). This app provides videos, books, music videos, and quizzes for each part of speech. This is absolutely my favorite app for learning the parts of speech, but the free version unfortunately only offers the material for nouns. If you want to learn about the other parts of speech, you have to purchase the full version of the app.

• Grading Game: This is your opportunity to test your paper editing skills. You choose what level of paper you wish to edit (college, graduate, etc.) and try to find as many mistakes as you can in a short period of time. The only downfall is that the game instructs you to give a person the worst grade possible as quickly as you can—an unfortunate and skewed view of the grading process, but still quite entertaining. 

• English Grammar 2: A thorough, though not flashy or entertaining, app to practice basic English skills. Provides fill-in the blank quizzes about parts of speech and tenses, flashcards of English vocabulary, articles about different elements of grammar, and the ability to track your statistics on quizzes.

The Importance of Asking Questions

The Importance of Asking Questions

By Drew Miller, ARC Consultant

 “I am the wisest man because I know one thing: that I know nothing.”   - Socrates

As I sat in my general education music class earlier this week, the professor began to talk in language I did not understand. The truth is, I did not really know what he meant by the term “melody.”  If you know me, that would not be a surprise to you. Indeed, I am the one who took piano for two years but never practiced enough to play well. I am the one who giggled with his friends during high school choir and hardly learned anything about reading music. This past week, I was the one sitting in a college music class, struggling to understand what the professor was saying.

My professor continued with his lecture, and besides thinking “Boy, I wished I’d pay more attention in when I was younger,” I also thought, “Sheesh, I want to ask a question but I’d look like an idiot.” So I kept my hand down.

The fear and shame I felt in not understanding something very basic is a common part of the classroom experience. Humans dislike admitting what they don’t know. But when we become so afraid that we are not able to ask questions, we also lose our capacity to learn. What do we have to learn if we do not try to grapple with the things we don’t already know? 

The classroom, however, is not the only place to ask questions. The classroom is a place to learn to ask the questions that we must learn to ask with our lives. Many of us have already asked the most difficult questions in life, but that does not mean we have actually understood what those questions were and are. As we grew up, life asked us: How will you treat this unpopular person? Why are you growing up in the family you are? Why have you had this challenge to overcome? Our lives will continue to ask difficult questions: How should I love my neighbor? How should I love my enemy? The classroom is where we can become conscious of these questions. If we are not conscious of our questions, we will never become conscious of the answers. 

Ranier Maria Rilke, an early 20^th century poet, writes in his book Letters to a Young Poet, “Do not now seek the answers that cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now.” We can begin to ask these questions in the classroom so that soon we will be able to live them.  

Perhaps my question about defining the “melody” did not have profound implications on the rest of my life. In fact, after I eventually garnered the courage to ask my no-way-this-guy-is-a- music-major question, I received response that was interesting and important, but not nearly inspiring. But without knowing musical or technical terms like “melody,” I’d have no way of identifying the emotional themes that the melody carries. It is the same with any other discipline; if you don’t know what a metaphor is, it’s hard to understand a novel with a central metaphor. We have to acquire technical and often mundane language to ask questions about greater meaning.

Being inspired is not the point of most questions. In fact, the question of loving our neighbor, which most questions are rooted in, is not very inspiring and beautiful when we learn how difficult it is. The value of a question does not come in its content, but in the courage it takes to ask it. We will never learn to live the question of how to love our neighbors if we cannot ask a simple question in music class. 

So, no matter the profundity of our questions, we must learn to have the courage to ask. And, if we learn to ask little questions and then the bigger ones, perhaps one day, as Rilke contends, we will learn to “love the questions themselves,” and “gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”