A lot of silliness and a bit of botanical wisdom. The start of the academic year can be a stressful time for graduate students. New classes, new projects, new deadlines. So today, The Well-Ordered Blog is going to take a break from graduate school productivity tips to introduce our new mascot, Walter, the Well-Ordered Cactus….
Find what works for you, but consider these essential components of a good time management system. The internet is full of good advice about how to manage your time. In this post, I’m going to share the components of an effective system. I’ll also share how I apply them. Just remember, no system, however shiny,…
What Can You Learn from First-Year College Students? Several years ago, when I was working with mostly first-year college students, I held a reception with ulterior motives. I invited all the second-semester freshmen to hang out and eat cake in exchange for their insight into what they had learned in their first semester of college….
Some tools for figuring out what “important” means and how to get it done. “We confess, quite apart from our sins, ‘we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.’” Charles Hummel, The Tyranny of the Urgent, 1967 Saturday…
Why SMART works, what might be missing, and what running can teach us about setting goals. “Hone” means both to smooth or sharpen something, such as a blade, as well as to refine or perfect. The two meanings are related – the reason to smooth and sharpen a blade is so that it works more…
Kicking a ball around a field with a bunch of friends is fun. Kind of. Add some aluminum posts and a polyethylene net at each end of the field, though, and you have a game that is not only more meaningful for the participants but is also an enjoyable spectator sport. Why We Need Goals…
I became interested in motivation when I worked with undergraduate students at a small, Christian, liberal-arts college. We had many conditionally admitted students (students whose high school grades or standardized test scores did not meet regular admissions standards). Some of these students did well in their classes once they got to college. Others struggled and…
Is “checking the boxes” the way to move past our fears? Many years ago, my mother-in-law shared her philosophy of housework with me. She told me that she mopped the kitchen floor every Tuesday, and if, immediately afterward, the kids (there were seven of them) ran across the room with muddy shoes, she didn’t care….
