Spartan Daily

Baums Away: Adjusting to the world around you

Margaret Baum is the Spartan Daily Features Editor. Her column "Baum's Away" appears bi-weekly on Tuesdays.

It's fairly common to see students running around campus like chickens with their heads cutoff.

Last semester, I was one of those students. In some respects, I still feel like I am some days.

Every student knows the feeling. The research paper that you have been working on for a week is due in 20 minutes and to no avail your printer dies.

You are rushing out the door with your coffee when you spill it all over yourself — by the time you clean up the mess you are late for class and you inevitably miss the review for your midterm exam.

Whatever can go wrong, seems to go wrong.

This has probably happened to every student.

It seems like a fact of life, or maybe it's just preparation for the real world.

Over time, I have learned a very important lesson — life happens, things go wrong, and preparing for them isn't enough.

You have to adjust to your surroundings and deal with the way things play out.

This semester I have really tried to take a different outlook on life and academics with this thought in mind.

I took on what seems like way too much this semester, jamming my schedule full of classes and work without thinking to leave extra time for homework and relaxing.

Instead of sitting around and fretting about the situation, like the old me might have done, I have learned to deal with it.

I know I have to stay organized and focused.

If I have a free minute or a class gets out a few minutes early, I hop on my laptop and get started on my homework or start reading a chapter that is due next week.

The old me would try to plan my day around what I know I needed to do rather than what I wanted to do, but like most students I often ended up getting distracted by things around me.

Now, I know that I really have to manage my time.

I ordered all ebooks this semester, so that I could just bring my Kindle along and have access to all my  materials at my fingertips. This way I can just read a few pages here and there when I have some downtime.

I use a weekly planner to schedule my time, as well as a daily calendar with time slots on it, so that I can easily set aside time to work on specific projects.

I make lists and I make myself sit down and focus on something for an hour at a time. By doing this, I feel like at least I am getting something done.

It feels better than the alternative — getting nothing done.

I have to plan my day around what I know I need to do, instead of what I simply want to do.

Thinking about the future isn't always at the top of a student's list, but I try to keep it in the front of my mind.

I know that the harder I work now and the harder I try to stay on track, the closer I will be to my goals.

Even though, it can be extremely hard for students to stay focused, especially with all the distractions surrounding them, one has to learn to stay focused.

I have had to learn to stick to my plan.

If I learn last minute that it happens to be a friend's birthday on a specific day, I don't necessarily skip going, I just make up the time.

If I do take timeout for fun distractions, I know that I have to get back on track.

I might set aside extra time on the weekend to catch up, or leave an hour earlier than I might otherwise.

I often remind myself that I have to do a task, even if it might not be due for another week.

I have found that by tricking my brain into thinking I have less time then I do, I am really able to focus.

It's all about dealing with what life throws at you.

It's a give-and-take of what works and what doesn't.

  Over time, I have learned a very important lesson — life happens, things go wrong, and preparing for them isn't enough.