Make Time to Study Smarter: Part 1

Jim's alarm jolts him awake at 6 a.m.

Because his job keeps him up until midnight most weeknights, he schedules most of his study time for the mornings before classes. And makes sure he never takes a class before 10 a.m.

Unfortunately (for his grades), most mornings he's so tired, he just automatically punches the snooze alarm and sleeps at least another hour.

On a good morning, he drags himself out of bed and sits down at his desk to study.

Today seems to be a good morning. He's up by 7, has two cups of coffee, and opens his business ethics text. But Jim, who recognized long ago that he was not a morning person, finds his attention wandering. All too soon, he ends up nestling his head on his book and nodding off . . . until his roommate shakes him awake and informs him he's already late for his first class.

Well, maybe it wasn't going to be such a good morning after all.

Jim's classes end around 1 p.m. He treats himself to lunch in the student union building and, afterward, to an hour of video games. "I deserve a break," he convinces himself. "This day has been totally frustrating so far."

Despite his best efforts, he feels guilty anyway, because he isn't using his free time to study. By 2:30, with only a couple of hours left before he has to go to work, he reluctantly leaves the video arcade. He's falling further behind in his classes every day, so he knows he has to use the rest of the afternoon for studying.

Filled with resolve to catch up on all of his school work before he goes to his job, he heads for the library. As he walks, he begins to mentally catalog the various readings, papers, and tests he has to work on. He quickly slows his pace when it suddenly dawns on him that catching up before the end of the term would require five or six hours of studying . . . every day . . . including weekends.

By the time he gets to the library to study, he's discouraged again. Obviously, anything he can do in the next two hours is a miniscule drop in the bucket compared to what has to be done. Nevertheless, he resolves to do at least a little bit.

As he pulls his books out of his backpack, a scrap of note paper flutters out. It's the piece of paper he wrote his history assignment on two weeks ago . . . the term paper that's due in two days!

Not only has he not started it yet, his history book is back at his apartment. He decides he'd better run home to get itthe next two hours is the only time he has to work on it before it's due.

On his way home, he runs into a friend. The two of them commiserate about their impossible schedules. By the time Jim finally gets home, he's decided to ask for an extension on his history assignment. It will be the second extension he's asked for, which means he's got two overdue assignments, one other term paper, and four finals to prepare for . . . in the next two weeks.

There's one hour left. "How can I do a paper in 60 minutes?" Jim groans. Deciding he can't, he throws his book bag on his desk and surrenders to the time pressures. There's no way he can get any real studying done in just an hour. He crumples on the couch, turns on the TV, and, as the audience gasps at the sight of a 350-lb transvestite sumo wrestler on Jerry Springer, asks himself, "Why is my life so difficult?"

[To be continued...]