How to Start a New Semester or School Year the Right Way - College Info Geek

Hope you're ready for the 2016 spring semester!

Here are some tips on starting a new semester, school year, or term as smoothly as possible - calendar hacks, methods of maintaining motivation as the semester progresses, how to always know when your professor has office hours, and more.

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How to never be lost or late on campus (a more in-depth look on the blog):

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Companion blog post with notes and resource links:

http://collegeinfogeek.com/new-semester-tips/

Thanks to my girlfriend Anna for camera help :)
http://annaellenberger.com/

~ created by Thomas Frank

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Closed Caption:

Hello, friends!
A new semester is upon us
and in this quick video
I wanna give you a few
things that you can do
to make sure that
semester goes smoothly.
And one of the biggest things
I wanna focus on in this video
is setting yourself up to not
burn out and lose motivation
as the semester goes on.
'Cause I know when a new
semester comes upon us,
you're full of a lot
of motivation, right?
You're full of all this
like, new, refreshed energy,
and you really wanna do
well in all your classes,
and get involved, and
hang out with people,
and do all that stuff.
As the semester goes on, you
start to lose that motivation,
right?
Things just pile on, and
due dates start to pile up,
and your motivation
starts to wane.
So I wanna talk about
some things you can do
to make sure that doesn't happen
or at least, to let you
mitigate those effects,
and not let them
make you lose steam.
But first, I wanna talk about,
just the changing of habits.
So in Charles Duhigg's
book, The Power of Habit,
which I have read
and highly recommend,
he talks about
how people are apt
to change their set patterns,
their regular behaviors,
more often during
large life changes,
such as moving to a new
house, or becoming a parent,
or getting married.
People who get married
or move to a new house
are really apt to change the
brand of coffee they drink
or the cereal they eat.
And the book mentions
that people going through
these big life changes
are actually more
vulnerable to marketers
because of these huge
upheavals in their life.
Now, this is great
information for marketers,
maybe not such great
information for you
if you wanna be a
discerning shopper.
But it is good
information for you
if you wanna change
you own habits
because just as those habits
are vulnerable to marketers,
they're also vulnerable
to intervention on
your own part, right?
So a new semester is a perfect
time to look at your habits
and see what changes
you can make,
see what systems you can
build to become more efficient
and effective as the
semester goes on.
So I want to talk about
a couple of things
that could really help
you out in that regard.
But first, I have
some quicker tips
that will help you before
the semester starts
or right when it starts,
to make sure things go
as smoothly as possible.
Number one,
you wanna know exactly
what you require
in terms of gear, and textbooks,
and all that good stuff
before the semester starts.
Does this mean you need to buy
all of your textbooks right
away, before classes start?
Not necessarily.
What I recommend doing
is at least looking at
the book requirements,
maybe even emailing
teachers and saying,
"Hey, do I actually
need the book?
"Do I need the newest edition?
Can I get a used edition?"
And just having that knowledge
stored in your pocket,
know it in the
back of your mind.
Now, if there are books
that are going to
take a while to ship,
you can only get them in paper,
you can't rent them
as an e-textbook,
or you can't get them from the
campus bookstore in a pinch,
yes, you're gonna want
to get those books
well ahead of time
just to make sure
you can get a good start on
the first week of the semester.
I always think, you
know, in my opinion,
that it's better to spend
a little bit of money
on a textbook you're
not quite sure about
than it is to lose
a lot of progress
in your first couple
weeks of class,
while you're waiting
for it to ship
because that can derail
an entire semester.
However, for books at
you can rent very quickly
via Amazon Kindle or
other e-textbook methods,
or maybe something you can
find very cheaply in town,
maybe it's okay to book gamble.
You know, wait 'til
the first day of class.
See if you can share a book
with a friend or something,
or see if it's
actually that required.
And if it is, you can go
pick it up very quickly.
If not, you've saved yourself
a good amount of money.
Another tip that
I have used a lot
during my whole college career
was actually put my
professor's office hours
on my Google Calendar.
Now, Google Calendar
let's you actually create
multiple different calendars
that you can turn off and on.
So usually, I would only
be showing my class,
and work, and event calendars,
but I had this other calendar
that showed all my
professors' office hours
that I could turn
on and off at will.
And that way, if I did
need to go see a professor,
I didn't need to go digging
through the university website
to see when they'd
be in the office.
I had it all in the calendar.
I had that set up before
the semester started
and everything got busy,
and I could see exactly
where their office was,
when I could go in, what
their phone number was,
and all that good stuff.
So I highly
recommend doing that.
It's really easy, just look
on the syllabuses you get,
syllabi, I guess
is the plural word,
or look on the
university website.
Most professors have
their own little website
and you can create
that stuff right there.
Now, a couple of other
calendar related tips.
Number one, get all
of you classes into
your Google Calendar
before the semester starts.
And, a little less obvious
tip to attach to that,
actually look on the
university website and map,
figure out what the
locations and room numbers
of your classes are, and put
that in the details section
of Google Calendar.
I actually wrote an
article last year
about how I, every semester
before classes started,
would go around campus,
making sure I knew exactly
where my classes were,
especially if I had
multiple classes
that had a very small
gap of time between them.
That way, I wasn't
wasting time getting lost
and it was just a better way
to start the semester, I think.
But having that information
in Google Calendar,
even if you don't go looking
for your classes' locations
personally, in the flesh,
before the classes start,
you'll actually
have the information
and you can look up a diagram.
I would also link to the campus
maps and building diagrams,
like floor plans, in
my Google Calendar,
just in case I got
really confused
and needed to see
where something was.
On more than one occasion,
I actually was able to help
somebody else who was lost
and needed to find a
classroom on the same floor
that I was going to.
And lastly, on that
calendar front,
it's good to put the
semester's significant dates
in your calendar.
I'm talkin' stuff like days
when there won't be school,
the start of Spring Break, the
start of Thanksgiving Break,
when finals are.
That stuff is usually up
on the university website.
They usually have a calendar
of significant dates
in the semester
and you can transfer that stuff
all towards your calendar.
The reason this is
a really good idea
is because I advocate
every single week,
looking at your
calendar on Sunday
and creating a week's
plan of events and tasks.
And if those event's are
already on the calendar,
you can look at,
say Monday, and say,
"Oh, that's Labor Day.
I don't have school.
"I can work on a new project
or I can go have fun."
And you don't have to go looking
at the university website
for those dates
during that week.
And you don't have to
be surprised about those
significant dates.
You'll know well in advance
because you put in the
groundwork before hand.
Now, let's talk about
things you can do to ensure
you don't run out of steam
as the semester goes on.
You know, you're
really motivated as
the semester starts.
We wanna make sure you can
keep as much of that motivation
as the months wear on, as the
assignments and test pile up.
And the first thing
that you want to do
is make sure you have
good study habits.
And one of the best ways
to build good study habits
is to make sure you have a
good location for studying.
If you remember in
a previous video,
I talked about a study done
at The University of Hawaii,
where students literally
just turned their desks
towards a wall and
put a note on a lamp
that said Study Area.
And the students that
actually did this
were able to raise their GPAs.
So before the semester starts
or maybe during the first week,
identify a good location
for you to do most
of your studying in.
And you can pair that with
a set studying time each day
or maybe a time that works
for each day on you calendar.
So maybe the library is
a good location for you.
It's quiet, there's a lot
of other people working,
so you kinda get that
good vibe of focused work.
And you can put on your calendar
that every day from two to
four, or something like that,
you're gonna go there, you're
going to get all the studying
and reviewing assignments done
that you need to get done,
and that'll start
building a habit.
So two months down the line
when you're a
little bit stressed
and you've a lot
more assignments,
you still have that
habit engrained.
You're still gonna be at a
library every single day,
like you said you would,
and you're keeping steam
going throughout the semester.
One final tip for that
first week of classes
is to introduce yourself
to your professors.
Maybe go up to them
after the first class,
shake their hand,
introduce yourself.
And that's gonna
make it a lot easier
for you to get over the
initial mental blocks
for going to office hours
if you happen to need
help during the semester.
You already know the professor,
they're a familiar
person, familiar face,
and you won't have
as much trouble
going in and asking for help.
That's gonna help you if
you run into difficulties
during this semester,
which could otherwise cause
you to derail on your studies.
The worst thing
is getting behind.
Yes, you can recover
from getting behind
with a lot of hard work,
but if you can prevent
that by seeking help
and assistance when you need it,
and you can make that
as easy as possible,
then that's going to
be to your benefit.
So I hope these quick
tips helped you out.
If you're watching this at the
beginning of a new semester,
I hope your new semester
gets off to an awesome start
and stays that way.
Thanks for watchin' and
I'll see you next week.
- [Voiceover] Hey, guys.
Thanks so much for
watching this video
on how to get a great
start to the new semester.
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