Recently, Stephanie Swanberg (User Services Librarian), Carrie Pyeatt (Director of Student Services), and Andrew Kaleita (Writing Specialist) hosted a series of presentations where they shared their advice for succeeding with your graduate studies. Over the next few weeks we will be sharing their tips in a series of blogs.
Note Taking
One of the best ways to increase your productivity during graduate school is ensuring you’re maximizing your note taking. This can help you maximize your studying time and is a way to reduce stress by ensuring things are easy to find. Many graduate students have already developed a system of note taking as undergrads, but if you’re looking for a way to refresh here are some tools to try.
- Notability – a digital tool that can be used to create study guides, storyboards, and annotating notes
- Goodnotes – a digital notetaking tool, that lets you treat technology like paper
- Apple Pencil – this tool is incredibly useful for notetaking with an iPad (other tablets have similar tools as well)
Project Management/Organization
With the many assignments and commitments required of a graduate student it is vital to develop a system to stay on top of everything. Take sometime at the start of the semester to familiarize yourself with the syllabi for each of your classes, consider when you’ll have assignment due in each course and pay special attention to when deadlines may overlap. Once you’ve done this is may be helpful to set your own deadlines, or goals, for when you want each assignment completed to make sure you have plenty of time to get everything done. For larger projects, you may find that breaking the project into smaller sections and setting goals for each one makes things more manageable. For more on project management tips you can check out our blog Tips and Tricks: Technology.
Time Management
Time management can be an important aspect of project management but it is also an important life skill outside of the the classroom. When it comes to time management here are some of Carrie’s favorite tricks and tools.
- Consider the following questions and then create a plan
- Where do all your minutes go?
- What is your capacity?
- How can you optimize your time?
- There are many different ways to keep track of your time, schedule, and to-do list, both physically and digitally depending on your preference. Some favorites are:
- Google calendar
- iPhone calendar
- Planners
- Whiteboard calendar
- Bullet journal
- Time management worksheet
- Make sure that in addition to keeping track of your school and practicum/work experience you leave time (or schedule it in) for friends and self-care.
Have questions?
- Make an appointment with Andrew. Andrew is available to help students navigate the transition to scholarly writing. This could be anything from help with specific assignments to brushing up on APA style.
- Make an appointment with Stephanie* or stop by the library. Stephanie (or any of the MSP librarians) can help you navigate the multitude of resources available to you as an MSP student. She’s also a great person to contact if you need help with research.
- Email Carrie to talk about your specific support needs, accessibility needs, or anything else. If Carrie isn’t the right person to talk with, she’ll know who is.
*Must be logged into an MSP email address.
