First Year Story Time!!

Coming into college as a straight-A “no less than a 4.5 GPA” student, I believed that I would not struggle academically. In high school, I was super involved in Key Club and took on many projects and led a team all while doing sports and getting good grades — so I genuinely thought I was on top of my time-management game.

And then Spring Quarter 2015 hit me like a truck.

As an ambitious first year bio major, I wanted to do everything and I definitely put my academics as second, or maybe even third on my list of priorities. My first spring quarter was LOADED. I was training to be an AMP mentor, training to be a SPOP staffer, had positions on the UCI Circle K Dance for a Chance League and the CNH Circle K District Public Relations Committee, all on top of 20 hours of work per week at the UCI Student Center. As you can tell, I didn’t have a lot of time left over to invest to my academics which sucked because during Spring as a bio major, I had to take my first chem lab (the worst one) on top of HumCore and Math 2A and the regular Chem 1C class.

I would be out of my dorm from 7AM to 3AM. I forgot to eat regularly, didn’t eat healthily, didn’t sleep regularly, and eventually grew very weak and constantly got sick. I mean, if I had used Google Calendars at the time, it would look like this!

Needless to say, this quarter was literally killing me.

EFFECTIVE PLANNING & TIME MANAGEMENT

My first step to effective planning and time management is organizing my priorities and then building my weekly schedule. I get that as a first year in college you want to do The Most™ but you have to remember why you’re here at UC Irvine and what’s going to keep you here: your academics. If your GPA drops to below a certain number, your status as an Anteater could be jeopardized.

USEFUL TOOL: Google Calendar. If you aren’t already using some form of planner or schedule to organize your time as a college study, get into it! I personally prefer to use Google Calendars because I can color code my time commitments and my phone gives me reminders 10 minutes before them. For example: Blue is for work, orange is for studying, green is for self-care, light red is for AMP, and teal is for spending time with friends! I typically will spend 30 minutes max on Thursdays and Saturdays to design my schedule for the upcoming week.

I also recently found out that you can do checklists for tasks on the side of Google Calendars! If you go to the bottom left of your Google Calendar there should be a tab that says "reminders" which you can change to "tasks" and it'll create a task list on the right. When you do that, you can also assign deadlines to those tasks so they show up on the calendar. Here's what my calendar looked like during Week 3!

If you don’t like working with Google Calendars, there’s also a written planner! A popular written planner alternative is a bullet journal! It’s sort of an artsy way to plan out your life, which is good for those who like to express themselves through drawing.

When building my schedule, I go in a particular order of priorities. I typically lay down my time commitments in this order:

1. Work

2. Academics

3. Involvements

4. Self-Care

WORK. My schedule for the UCI Student Center comes out on Thursdays, so I begin building my schedule around my work / class hours. I put work as first on the list because not only am I getting paid, but I need to be there for my co-workers and for the functionality of the UCI Student Center.

ACADEMICS. One thing I learned from Spring Quarter of my first year is that you aren’t here at UCI to play around. If your professor says the best way to study for the class is to do practice problems, DO. PRACTICE. PROBLEMS. (I’m looking at all you kids taking chemistry and any form of math.) Studying is a time commitment, so you gotta act like it is. Someone once said you can't expect an A if you only put in "B" quality work. Convince yourself that your own study hours are mandatory — it’s a matter of self discipline and willpower. Even though you tell yourself they are mandatory, they can be flexible around the rest of your schedule! Maybe even fit time between classes! Make the most of the time in your gaps! Use it wisely and effectively!

INVOLVEMENTS. Once I have my work schedule and study hours, I lay out hours for my involvements. If there are events for my involvements, I lay those down on my calendar and then schedule time to do any sort of work for the position(s) I hold.

SELF-CARE. Now this is a strange and new concept to some of y’all, but trust, you’re gonna need it. How do you expect to be the best and most functional version of yourself if you keep wearing yourself out? Everyone needs a break. I began scheduling actual hours for self-care to take a break and go grab a bite to eat, especially since I failed to do so during my Spring Quarter first year. These hours can be anything from taking a nap, showering, going for a run, eating — anything that isn’t work or academic related! Go watch anime! Play some mindless video games! Unwind! I typically schedule these in large gaps between classes and study hours and work, usually right after large blocks of other time commitments.

ACADEMICS & STUDY STRATEGIES

Ever read an entire page of words but not actually read any information? Same. Studying with no motivation or focus is still something I struggle with. Like… how am I supposed to know where to start when there’s lectures upon lectures upon readings upon assignments to review? That’s why I like to stay organized and prepared to learn!

PRE-LECTURE PREPARATION SURVIVING LECTURE

1. FEEL IT OUT. Get a feel for how your professor lectures and how you learn best. Typically if the class has slides to print, some people will print and write on those slides. For me, I like to write EVERYTHING so I can’t use the slides as training wheels. Find what is most comfortable for you!

2. TAKING NOTES. Don’t try to write everything and everything your professor says! I tend to stick to main ideas and then jot short handed notes about it. Then when I revisit my notes, I re-write the information in a more organized and comprehensible fashion!

3. STAY AWAKE! When you wake up, down a glass of water and eat a banana or something. You need energy for the day and sitting down and listening to a professor is gonna put you to sleep. Going to lecture half-awake the entire quarter is not going to help you. Have a designated buddy to keep you awake or keep you focused!

4. STAY FOCUSED. You go to class to LEARN not to sit and scroll on Facebook or watch Snapchat stories for an hour. Put your phone in your backpack or give it to a friend to fight temptation!! If you wanna be a good noodle, you gotta C O M M I T!!

5. READ. If there are pre-lecture readings, R E A D THEM. I used to think pre-lecture reading basically meant I was off the hook from any kind of work for the class, but trust me, IT HELPS. When you enter lecture having some idea of what you’re about to learn, you learn it more thoroughly. Think of reading as learning the content and lecture as reinforcement of the content. Reading will provide a backbone to being successful in the course!

PRACTICE & REVIEWING

1. LEARNING GOALS. Does your professor provide learning goals for each lecture? Treat those as a checklist for your studying process. They will help provide structure to what you study and allow you to achieve what the course is designed for.

2. SCHEDULE REGULAR STUDYING. Like I mentioned earlier, if you want to do well you have to schedule study hours and stick to them! Find points in your schedule where you can schedule regular daily / weekly hours to study. a

3. CREATE CHECKLISTS. When studying I like to create lists of topics to study and cross them off. A sense of progress and accomplishment helps me get things done!

4. DRAW. If it’s relevant to the content, draw! Draw diagrams, draw flowcharts, draw and re-draw images!

5. TAKE BREAKS. Just like we emphasize self-care, always take breaks! It’s hard to concentrate and study to your best ability when you’ve worn yourself out.

6. EVERNOTE. There’s an online note taking program called Evernote! (evernote.com) It’s completely free and you can organize your notes in a very aesthetic way! I especially am motivated to take good notes when it looks nice! The example is shown above, right under "Practice & Reviewing!"

1. ENVIRONMENT. Sometimes where you study affects how you study! For me, I like to study at 7Leaves Cafe because a lot of other people study there and I can have a good drink! Surround yourself in a productive environment, whether it be a library where it’s dead quiet or at home by yourself or at a cafe!

OTHER USEFUL TOOLS & APPS:

• TO-DO LIST: Online to-do list

• ANY.DO: Great app for creating to-do lists and personal goals

KYLE DIMLA

• Commissioner

• Year:4th

• Major: Biological Sciences & Education Sciences

• Involvements:

• Orientation Staff 2015 (Evergreen Year)

• Orientation Staff 2017 Returner (Prism Year)

• AMP 1516 Media & Publicity Coordinator

• AMP 1617 Assistant Commissioner

• UCI Student Center Operations Crew Lead & AV Trainer

• Kababayan General Member

• CNH Circle K District Cinematographer ’15-’16

• CNH Circle K District Public Relations Committee’15-’16

• Former UCI Circle K General Member

• Past Key Club President / Division News Editor

Hi y’all, thanks for reading! My name is Kyle Dimla, a 4th year bio sci major from South San Jose (YAY AREAAA~ 408 what’s good LOL). Although I am studying biology with an intent to go into educational policy and media through neuro, I am also an aspiring graphic designer, cinematographer, and photographer — so hit me up if you want a new profile picture! I’m especially a fan of night and cityscape photography. I’d like to say I am pretty proficient with Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and After Effects If I’m not busy studying, working at the UCI Student Center, or doing anything media related, I typically spend my time looking for new music (favs include Trippy Turtle, Black Bear, Galantis, TroyBoi), scrolling through Tumblr, or watching anime (pls don’t judge me, I’m lowkey a weeb). And if I really have time, I like to sit down and read (anything Murakami, horror, or fantasy related) or watch Netflix (HTGAWM, Orange is the New Black, etc.) I have a bad 7Leaves addiction and I plant a lot of succulents (one for every midterm I take, gg) LOL. But yeah, thanks for reading and I hope this article helps you!