Get Organized for College: Week 5 Productivity Hacks

Hi, everyone!  This is Lara Hammock from The Marble Jar Channel and today's video is the fifth in a 7-part series to help you Get Organized for College.  Even though this targets college students, it could be helpful for anyone who is struggling to organize life!  This video covers productivity hacks -- ways to manage your time, be more efficient, and actually get things done.

We've landed on Week 5 of this series.  By now you have tamed your communication streams, figured out a calendar, instituted a task management system, and started a filing system for all of your notes and papers.  This week I'll share some thoughts about planning and getting things done.  Let's get started. 

Everyone's brain works a little differently, but almost none of us has a brain that wants to sit and study for 8 hours straight.  The most important thing is to befriend your brain and figure out how to get as much productivity out of your brain as you can.   You'll need to think about yourself and your preferences to determine whether any of these hacks might be useful to you and match your studying style.  This is a summary of some productivity hacks, but for more detailed information, I've included links to longer videos in the description below.  First off,
  • Workspace - figure out how to make your workspace conducive to working.  Do you work best alone?  In a crowded coffee shop?  With music?  Without?  I listen to ADHD Focus Music when I need to get things done.  Do you need a clear workspace?  Do you do best at the kitchen table smack dab in the middle of all the action?  Noting your preferences here should help you to determine where you want to work in college.  And it doesn't just have to be one place.  You can do your reading on your bed, studying in the coffee shop down the road, and write papers deep in the stacks of the library.  The important things is the take note of what works for you and then go looking for spaces or arrange your spots to fit those criteria.  Think of this as a self experiment.  What works today, might not work 2 months from now, keep trying different options until you find what is working for you now.
  • Body Doubling - One hack for being more productive that is geared towards ADHD brains is body doubling.  This is the concept that, if you have another person present -- either in the room or over a screen --  also doing some task (even if it's not the same as ours), it really helps us to focus and get work done.  There are lots of reasons why this might work, but if you are having a particularly hard time accomplishing something -- ask a friend to go to the library with you.  Or create a Zoom with a couple of friends so you can all work silently together.  There are also live TikToks and online services that match people who are looking for a body double.
  • Chunking - This is an important concept, particularly for large projects that seem overwhelming.  It's important to break them down into doable chunks.  Use your new note taking system to write down all of the steps and how long you believe each step will take.  Are you still feeling too overwhelming to get started?  Then ask yourself what minimal thing can you do today that will help you chip away at this boulder?  Chunking is one of the keys to overcoming procrastination and reducing the stress that comes with putting off huge projects to the last minute.  We'll talk more about this in regards to big papers and projects for school in the last week.
  • Rewards - There are lots of ways to reward yourself.  I have an episode and a half left of a show that I'm watching which I will allow myself to watch after I finish writing up these videos.  You can also pair something bad with something good.  In other words, I have to clean my room, but I'm going to listen to my favorite podcast while I'm doing it.  Even if you are doing something that you can't really pair with something else, you can at least make the environment as pleasant and soothing as possible.  Make yourself a nice cup of tea.  Put on relaxing music, dim the lights.  These are all ways of making the experience better and training your brain to not react to school work as a threat.
  • Order - How do you decide what to do first?  Again, this depends on how YOUR brain works.  And this may be different depending on the day or the tasks you have to do.  Sometimes I do the most difficult thing first when I have the most energy and then everything else seems easy in comparison.  Or sometimes I need to get some small wins by knocking a bunch of little tasks off my list, just to clear some space in my brain to do something more difficult.  Again, this is about experimenting a bit and doing what works best for you.
  • Timers - I use timers a lot.  I use them when there are gaps between parts of a task -- like remembering to change the laundry, but more specific to this discussion, I use them when I've estimated how long a task will take.  I play a game with myself and I race against the clock to see if I can get it done within the time I've estimated.  This gives me a little dopamine rush and creates a false sense of urgency which, in my case, increases productivity.  I also set timers for breaks and when I get on social media to make sure I don't take longer than I've allotted.  The beauty of timers is that they help to break down unstructured time, limit procrastinating, and make your internal clock tick a little louder.  And finally,
  • Time blocking - this is a method of planning when you have a lot of unstructured time.  Basically, you chunk out blocks during your day to do either specific tasks OR work on a project that doesn't necessarily have specific tasks to accomplish.  It's like the way high school is planned -- 1 hour for each subject.  What you get done in that block, you get done, but when the bell rings, you are onto the next class.   Obviously, if you have specific tasks that you have to complete, you may have to shift things around if you haven't finished in the allotted block, but it is great as a student to plan out time during your week to work on specific classes.  That way, even if you complete all of your current work, if there is time left, you can look ahead to plan out or start working on big projects.

This Week's Tasks
This week's tasks are more about thinking than doing.  You'll consider your preferences for work environments, and how you might use body doubling, rewards, ordering, and timers to increase your productivity.  There is a link to a worksheet containing all of these topics in the description below. 

I'd love to hear how things go.  Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!



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