EduLinks – 10 “Best of 2007” Links

Who needs books when you’ve got so much quality information online?

After posting my own top links from 2007, here are 10 more sites offering their best stuff from last year. Each blog has a slightly different focus, so this lot should keep you going for ages!

1. Zen Habits – Best of Zen Habits in 2007

From 2 readers to 26,000 subscribers (and goodness knows how many more readers!), Zen Habits is a real success story. Leo’s articles should help you on the way to life success too.

2. Mashable – 2007 in Review: Best of the Best

All the best online news and stories wrapped up in an easy package.

3. How to be an Original – In 2007

Goals, development, making the most of your life. Lodewijk’s blog has gone from strength to strength since it started earlier in 2007.

4. Inspiration Bit – Best Inspiration Bits in 2007

For inspiration, ideas, design tips and a lot more. Find something new and interesting here today.

5. Organize IT – Year in Review 2007

Putting life hacks and personal development to use straight away.

6. Life Optimizer – 2007 Review: The Best of Life Optimizer

‘Life’ is quite a broad subject. The posts linked here refer to all sorts of things, from staying calm to being excited, from individual time management to spending all your time with others.

7. Lifehack.org – Year in Review: The 70 Best Lifehacks of 2007

One of the best. How could you NOT know about this site? Well, if you want a recap of some of the best posts from 2007, neatly put into subject headings, this is the place to check out.

8. Online Tech Tips – Best Posts for 2007

Make your computer and the internet work even better for you.

9. Get Rich Slowly – Greatest Hits 2007 Edition

Money matters greatly to students because, frankly, most of us don’t have enough of it! While this site speaks in American money, there’s still more than enough that would be relevant for you in the UK.

10. Life Coaches Blog – Best of 2007

“Strategies for a Greater Life” is what they say at Life Coaches Blog. In two parts, this series of posts deals with complimenting people, seducing women, leaking power, being happy alone, the science of happiness, and a wealth of sometimes quirky, yet wildly useful subjects.

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I’m sure you won’t get close to reading all the articles from all the blogs…but if you try, I’d love to hear how you managed!

Don’t ‘Learn’ it, ‘Understand’ it!

When it comes to strange and fascinating facts, it’s no surprise that some are kooky enough to take hold of your brain and stay with you for quite some time. But read too many silly facts and you won’t remember them all.

If it’s hard enough to remember something outrageous, how difficult must it be to remember everything you need for an exam?

The answer is in the way in which we learn things.

After reading some useless trivia, you’re not given the encompassing reasons behind the facts. There’s nothing to take with you other than the figures themselves. Because of this, you’re only able to learn that information. You haven’t been given the tools to fully understand why the answer is structured the way it is.

Your revision can go two ways too. On one hand, you can try digesting the hard facts, arguments, opinions, quotes, and statistics in isolation of the bigger picture. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a vague grasp on the wider implications and remember most of the facts so you can cobble something together under exam conditions.

On the other hand, you can take in the bigger picture first, truly getting to grips with the how and why of what you’re studying. If you’re faced with some facts that you need to learn, you’ll have a greater chance of remembering them if you ask yourself where this information fits in and how it works.

Your aim is to understand what you’re revising, rather than learning it by rote.

It’s not that good students pick this stuff up with ease. The secret is more that they ask questions and get background on what they don’t understand. When you’re given certain information to learn in preparation for an exam, things can go two ways:

A good student says, “I don’t understand this. I can see it’s important and clearly needs to be remembered, but how does it fit in with the bigger picture? How did this fact come to be?”

A half-hearted student says, “This is so difficult to learn. It just won’t go in. Why can’t I remember this kind of stuff? I don’t understand it anyway.”

Both types of student are in the same position, but one is willing to go beyond the surface in order to get a fuller understanding of the subject. Yes, it may require a little more time and research, but it’s not going to take much longer, so the payoff is good.

In fact, any research that takes a good student too long becomes a false economy…so they don’t do it, natch! The main thing to remember is to always keep one step ahead. It’s one thing to be clueless about an entire subject, but it’s another to waste too much time on a small area that’s difficult to perfect. Even the best students have blocks and difficulties. You need to know when to stop obsessing and start relaxing.

If you can develop the mindset to ‘understand’ and enhance your working, you’ll be well on the way to some quality revision and a confident state of learning.

In my next post, I’ll set out five tips for revision that will help focus your revision even more clearly.

Swing straight back in to uni life

I hope you had a fantastic Christmas break.

It’s time to get back into the swing of things. No matter what balance of work and play you encountered over the hols, you need to focus on the return to uni life.

So don’t hang around. Make sure you achieve a successful return with these tips:

1. Check noticeboards, pigeonholes, e-mail, timetables, etc.

In all areas of uni life, many changes and additions could have been made since you went away. Before you forget – or before it’s too late – find out if anything has been updated. You only need to do the full sweep once and it’s unlikely you’ll find much, so it’s not going to kill you to do it.

But it may just save your skin. Who knows what rescheduling’s needed that could get in the way of your detailed revision timetable…you do have one, don’t you? 😉

2. Plan the next few weeks carefully

Resist the temptation to live in ‘party’ mode 24/7. The excitement is bound to be there, as you all make your way back into familiar ways and want to make up for the weeks apart. But there will also be the upcoming exams, essay deadlines, new reading lists, and lecture/seminar preparations.

Write down what you have to do and how long each piece of work should take. Factor in some overspill time (just to be on the safe side) and see how much time you have left for anything else. If you’re lucky, you may achieve more free time than you think. With a structured plan, your free time can be even more relaxing.

If you’ve been even better and got 90% of your revision out of the way over Christmas, maybe you should plan the next few weeks with a lot of relaxation time. You need to get away from the work once in a while!

3. Pace yourself

If Christmas was an excuse to stay in bed, eat and drink to much, and generally do everything you’re not used to, you can’t expect to make a miraculous comeback the moment you return to uni.

Even if your general routine has stayed intact, a lot of your university routine will be shot to bits. There are still loads of differences between everyday uni life and everyday Christmas holiday life…

You’re not going to be thrown into the deep end as soon as you get back, even if you have exams shortly.

In your own time, take care to settle into what’s needed. If you know a few early nights are in order, put this into your plan and stick to it. If you have a great deal of research to get on with, build things up over a few days before you’re working flat out. If nothing else, you’ll be more enthusiastic about the work if you gradually work toward full speed. No point in burning out when it’s easily preventable.

4. Check the library for new books and renew your current books

The last thing you want is a huge fine. So make sure all your books are well within date.

Be one of the first in the library after the break and have a nosey at any new titles that have come in. And if you have any new reading lists, get a head start on this too. Get the first choice on books.

All libraries are different. If you’re uncertain, just ask the librarians if they have got any new books in. Some keep details of the new items, so it’s worth asking. Others put a selection of new titles out where you may have never noticed. By asking about new books, it could save you half an hour finding out that there isn’t anything new. And if there are new books, you may be able to browse a list, rather than pick needles out of haystacks…

5. Top up on stationery

With the New Year sales, now is the time to replenish your supplies. Don’t wait until you’ve completely run out of kit, get your pads and pens while they’re (hopefully) cheaper.

Running out would be bad. You know what it’s like. You end up taking about twelve pens to exams…your main pen, a spare in case the main one runs out, a spare in case the spare plays up, one more for certain, a lucky pen, a ‘failsafe’ pen in your pocket if all the others don’t work, etc., etc.

Because the sales bring cheaper products, it’s worth browsing stuff you couldn’t usually afford. Some normally expensive organisers, folders and storage solutions can cost next to nothing and anything that makes your life and work easier can only be a good thing.

6. Buy a diary!

If you didn’t get an academic diary before you went off to uni, get yourself a standard 12-month diary now. As we’ve just entered 2008, many shops will be selling their diaries cheaply…some less than half price.

Even if you already use an electronic diary on your computer, it’s wise to get an old-fashioned diary to keep on your desk. Having a physical copy will make it harder to ignore plans and take your actions more seriously.

You may also like to buy a very small pocket diary for when you’re out and about. They can come in very useful, so long as you keep them up to date!

My advice would be to get a diary that suits you. It’s no use buying the cheapest if it doesn’t work the way you’d like. We all organise ourselves in different ways, after all.

7. Make proper use of your free time

Everyone has a very different workload at this time of year. If there’s nothing else to do and you’re bored, it’s not surprising that many people will default to surfing the net, doodling, playing games on the computer, and so on.

If you’re at a loose end when everyone else is beavering away, ask yourself two questions.

“Why don’t I have much work to do?” – You might be kidding yourself. Don’t be so sure that you don’t need to revise for that ‘easy’ exam. And don’t be caught out with forgetting an essay deadline or something…check check CHECK!
“What can I be doing in order to spend my time productively?” – It doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to find more work to do. It simply gives you scope to question your actions at all times. That’ll stop you moving toward any old rubbish without thinking. If you question your actions each and every time you’re bored, you’ll soon realise what stuff you default to. When you do, push yourself to choose a different activity each and every time.

8. Breathe easy

Now you’re back, there’s a million things out there for you to enjoy. If you’re anything like I was, you’ll be amazed you managed without all this for so many weeks.

Time to catch up!

Best of TheUniversityBlog 2007 – Fifteen Top Posts

We’ve now arrived at the end of 2007. But we’re nowhere near the end of the Academic Year. So it’s time for a roundup of the best feature posts since TheUniversityBlog started in September.

New year - photo by djayo

Before I let you loose on the links, I’ve already started to work on my Blogging Goals for 2008. Last night, I sat down for an hour and belted out 24 post ideas and ended up with 1500 words, so that’s a good start on all the ideas. During the Christmas break, I may well be feasting on turkey and quaffing the finest ports and single malts, but I’ll also turn some of these ideas into finished posts.

As for now, please enjoy (in chronological order) some of the previous posts you may have missed. The posting begins again on January 4 2008.

I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a stonkingly good New Year. Don’t be too decadent…oh, go on then, just this once!