Page 79 - Keys to College Success

get practical

CONQUER YOUR TIME TRAPS

Complete the following on paper or in digital format.

Think of two common time traps that you encounter. For each, come up with two ways to manage it effectively.
Here’s an example:
Time Trap: Texting

Response 1: Tell friend: “I’ll call you in an hour. I need to finish this paper.”
Response 2: Decide I will respond to my text messages after I’ve read two chapters.
1. Your turn: For each time trap of yours, name it and describe two possible responses.
2. Next, for each of the two time traps you identif ed, name which of the two responses will most help you to take
control of the situation and why.
3. Finally, what did this exercise teach you about your personal time traps? Do you f nd yourself needing to be
stricter with your time? Why, and how?

WHAT WILL HELP YOU MANAGE
the stress of college life?

STRESS
Physical or mental strain If you are feeling more stress in your everyday life as a student, you are not alone.
Stress levels among college students have increased dramatically. Stress factors for
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or tension produced in
college students include being in a new environment, increased workload, difficult deci-
reaction to pressure.
sions, and juggling school, work, and personal responsibilities.
Dealing with stress can be an everyday challenge. The greater your stress, the greater
the toll it may take on your health and on your ability to achieve your goals. However,
this doesn’t mean that you should try to get rid of all stress. Moderate stress—often
brought on by reasonable risk-taking—can actually bring rewards, such as motivating
you to do well on tests, finish assignments on time, and prepare for presentations. Key
2.6, based on research conducted by Drs. Robert M. Yerkes and John E. Dodson, shows
that stress can be helpful or harmful, depending on how much you experience.
Your course may go into more detail about emotional and physical wellness and
how they connect to stress management. In the meantime, here are some stress manage-
DELAY GRATIFICATION ment tools that are right at your fingertips.
To forgo an immediate
pleasure or reward in order Work to Delay Gratification
to gain a more substantial
You may be aware that setting yourself up to make fewer decisions per day can help you
one later.
to maintain your willpower. That willpower is necessary for delaying gratification.
Recent studies reveal that the ability to make a sacrifice in the moment in exchange for a
later reward is at least as important a factor in academic success as native intelligence. 11
Following up on the well-known “marshmallow test” study that observed whether
young children were able to resist eating a marshmallow in front of them in exchange
for having more marshmallows 15 minutes later, research shows that people who

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