Follow up: Producing and Sharing Value

It seems like my previous article was fairly popular.

It made me realise a few things:

1. That what I said I would do, I re-affirm now. Real posts that help students instead of wishy washy stuff.

2. That there is hope to be had. When students get stuck in a rut and therefore panic, they tend to forget where the light switch is. That post suddenly reminded me as to where my switch is.

I had a look at my list of 'edit posts' and I wrote another 15 or so dedicated to a range of topics. That, coupled with the above really does make me feel keen to get going.

In addition, someone new found my "how to survive an all-nighter" article. A lot of love was put into that, so I'm really glad that she found it, and that it proved useful.

When things get in the way, it's sometimes best to just, "do". Less worrying/procrastination and more action. Even if you don't know where you're going or you don't have the right plans in place, just kick starting even part of a project can do wonders, academically and personally.

I'm deciding to use "taking action" as my new personal mantra. Perhaps you're also thinking of trying it, or have been doing so? Let us know how you've kick started the study habit again.

Return of the Jedi

As you might have noticed, things have been rather quiet.

Life got in the way.

The thing is, life does tend to do that. And it seems to happen repeatedly.

Some people bury their heads in the sand. That's okay. Everyone's done it.

Eventually though, it's time to start over. And I don't mean a new academic year I mean, literally, whenever. It's never too late to kick start good study habits and it's also (with it being exam time,) a good time to get back into work flow.

I'm going to try and help with that.

Any suggestions, of course, let me know.

P.S - the upcoming posts will be dedicated to MA - a lovely lady who was quite ill and unfortunately died of a heart attack in January. Bizarre how in the blogging world even a short period of time allows friendships to develop, and MA was extremely supportive to me, in public and private. RIP

Producing and Sharing Value

"I think everyone has a way that works for them but they have to discover it and THAT, in my opinion, is the hardest bit." - MA in the comments section: her blog is here.

FACT: there are millions of blogs out there.
FACT: many of them are on study skills, ways to improve your life, etc.
FACT: I don't want to be one in a million. (This goes for life as well as blogging.)

I was recently reading Steve Pavlina's post on how to create real value. I've spent a fair bit of this year reading blog posts mainly in the study hacks area. This is great, but I haven't really acted on the multitude of useful advise. I haven't even acted on one.

There is, however, one thing I have done: I started this blog.

But what's the point if you aren't creating real value? This isn't my own personal blog, otherwise I could rant and rave about whatever, and real value as such wouldn't matter. This is a blog where I want to show other students who've found studying as tough as I have that there are ways of solving this.

This does not mean that I've managed to get the art of studying 100% sorted. What I have done is learned a lot, and as I continue to learn I wish to share this information with other students.

I am thus comitting, publically, to only producing posts which create value. There will occasionally be admin posts and other fun things, but the aim of this blog is to produce posts which will show students not only tips to either survive or improve their studies, but tips which, in last-minute Academic style, have been shown to work. This is what I am going to do. Not starting in 2009, but now.

"I think everyone has a way that works for them but they have to discover it and THAT, in my opinion, is the hardest bit."

I have yet, to date, seen a post that could answer the following quote. There are lots of posts which talk about how to find out what works for you, which organisational method is best and so on. But that doesn't always help. For me, it has helped generate ideas in my head, but I haven't really acted on them.


It is in the end actions which show who we are. I am resolving right now to do more. This I feel is going to be the way in which I best serve others as well as myself. At the moment I don't think that I am yet able to write which shows people how to work out 'what works for them', but I will certainly try. Over the next few weeks, and this new year coming, I'd be glad for your input.