Productivity Secrets From 29 Straight-A Students
I recently had the chance to interview 29 straight-A students while researching my new book, 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management. I collected a wide range of advice and I'm reminded by my own teenage daughters that there is no one way to achieve productivity and success as a student.
However, what is clear from the word cloud analysis above is that there are consistent themes among the academic elite.
Secret #1: Limit Social Media Use
The topic that most frequently came up was the lure of social media. Almost everyone mentioned the siren call of Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. Most of the students I interviewed mentioned that they use "access blocking" apps or browser plug-ins to literally turn-off access to distracting sites. The ones most frequently mentioned were SelfControl and StayFocused.
Caitlin Hale was a 4.0 student in high school and now attends medical school. In an email she explained:
Staying focused on schoolwork can be a pretty daunting task, especially with all of the social media apps pinging in the background. I use an app called SelfControl, which lets me set the amount of time and specifically which apps I want to avoid--including Facebook and Instagram.
Victoria Shockley was a straight-A in high school and graduated summa cum laude from NC State University in only three years. She told me:
Limit your time on social media until AFTER your work is finished. This is a big one - it's so easy to get distracted scrolling through our Facebook newsfeeds or checking out photos on Instagram. We can start chatting with a friend or surfing through Twitter and before we know it, half the night is gone.
Jane Ninivaggi takes it a step further. Her advice:
There is nothing wrong with social media, but it can take over a student's life if they are not able to disconnect from it. During exam weeks, I delete Twitter and Instagram off my phone. I also make sure to leave my phone at home when there is something that I know I need to put all of my focus into.
Secret #2: Use a Calendar
There is the old saying, plan your work, then work your plan--and straight-A students plan with a calendar, not a to-do list. This theme was consistent with what I discovered from almost all of the ultra-productive people I interviewed. (See my article: Millionaires Don't Use To Do Lists.)
Coraima Medellin, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, shared the power of time-blocking enough hours per class.
Managing my time was something that I struggled with a lot when I first started at Penn...It's been suggested that for every hour of class lecture you attend, you should study for two to three hours...[I use] a weekly schedule that I put my work schedule and my class schedule in and then wrote the times that I planned to study for each class. I found that it works when I have an exam or a huge paper coming up to keep me motivated and focused.
Jacqueline Kopicki color codes her different obligations:
I put everything in my calendar on my phone, and I color code my activities and appointments. For example, I will code athletics one color, the school musical practices another color and my assignments another color.
Krystie Seese, a graduate student at Post University, plans her schedule a week in advance. She told me:
This process has yet to fail me. At the beginning of each week I plan what I will complete each day specifically. This helps alleviate the overwhelming feeling of seeing 10-12 assignments that need to be done. As I complete them, I check them off. Simple as that!
Secret #3: The Power of Priorities
I discovered that high achieving students were very conscious of the limited number of minutes in each day, and also very astute in that they knew not all assignments are weighted the same. Investing more time into a high-value assignments, and working on what was due sooner were keys to their success.
Jason Khoo is part of the President Scholar Program at California State University Fullerton and on the Dean's List for the Mihaylo College of Business and Economics. His advice:
Maintaining good grades is having a good understanding of the construct of your grade. Most classes are weighted and thus different assignments and tests have a larger impact on your grade. Know when the most important assignments, tests, and projects occur, then make sure at that time you are ready to work. I've seen many people who are excellent planners and never procrastinate only receive B's and C's. This is because they don't properly weight their effort.
Nihar Suthar, an undergrad at Cornell University, stresses putting school work first.
Prioritize! I always prioritize the most important tasks that I have to get done for the day. The first on the list for me is always schoolwork, then writing (I write books), any athletic practices, and then hanging out with friends. I find that if you prioritize, you will almost always be able to get all your work done and have extra time to spend with friends as well.
Joshua Eickmeier, an online hybrid MBA student at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper School of Business. In my interview he said:
You need to set your priorities early on and stick to them. I suggest that you maintain time with family and friends, but be quick to cut low-value activities like video games or TV shows. When you have to make more difficult choices, look at things from a long-term perspective. Don't waste time feeling guilty about your choices - think of them as effective compromises that will lead to your long-term success.
While there is no single path to excelling at academics, limiting social media, setting proper priorities and using a calendar is advice that can increase anyone's level of productivity and success.
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