The little things

We’re so focused on the bigger things in life that we often lose sight of the little things, when in fact, real happiness lies in the little moments that we have to ourselves.

1. Curl up in bed with an old book you haven’t read in years. There’s something special about revisiting a book at a later time in your life. It’s like catching up with an old friend you haven’t met in a while.

2. Go for a walk with your best friend or even your mom or dad. Talk about everything under the sun or absolutely nothing. But bonding outside, in the midst of nature, just makes the moment all the more special.

3. Pick your favorite song and sing or belt it. An old hairbrush makes a great mic.

4. Write. Taken a good old fashioned pen and paper and write about whatever you’d like to write about. It could be a story, a journal entry or even a poem. It will help you connect with your creative side which sometimes remains bottled up. It’s also a way to learn something new about yourself.

Share it with others or just read it to yourself.

5. Draw. Color pencils or even a sharpie will do .Remember when you were a child and you would disappear into your own fantasy world the minute your pencil or crayon touched the blank white art paper? Well, it might be a few years later, but you’ll notice that your fantasy land hasn’t changed all that much.

6. Spend some time in a doggy shelter. If you’re ever feeling low or a feeling you can’t identify, then puppies with lots of licks and love bites will be able to erase each and every one of your worry lines.

7. Choose a shady spot, preferably under a tree, and people watch. It beats watching TV and it definitely helps you unwind. Little bits of juicy conversation might float past you and so will laughter and other happy sounds.

8. Do something you’ve never done before. For example, treat yourself to dinner. Go to a fancy restaurant and have a date with yourself. Or take a book with you or even an ipod. Yes, people might stare, but so what? You can feel like a celebrity and wave at them.

Your best friends in College

Books are the only place where even your imagination has an imagination. You can hear things the way you think they sound. You see faces the way faces aren’t meant to be seen. You can even smell smells through every page you turn. You paint a picture in your head, by words written by the writer. It is your private world. And no one else is invited.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Robert M. Pirsig

The Help

Kathryn Stockett

A Moveable Feast

Ernest Hemingway

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Stephen Chbosky

Wild

Cheryl Strayed

Interpreter of maladies

Jhumpa Lahiri

The Republic

Plato

A Farewell to Arms

Hemingway, Ernest

Sula

Morrison, Toni

Time Management

Managing your time might not sound like the most fun thing to do, and it may even sound like a waste of time, but it is essential if you want to be your most productive self. In college, between classes, activities, socializing and studying, time for you will seem near impossible. But not if you make a schedule and distribute your time in a realistic and organized manner. Setting unrealistic goals will only tire you and your work will suffer but more importantly, you will suffer. College should be an incredible experience. And to help you get started on the right note, you can follow some of these awesome tips.

The Students’ Guide to Time Management

Keep your long-term goals in sight. Map a plan to achieve your goals. You are here. What routes must you take to get to your destination?

Schedule everything you know about! Use a calendar to write down class times, work times, social events, and breaks. When up-coming events span beyond the current month, write them into empty calendar blocks.

Start tomorrow at the end of today. Plan each day starting with when you intend to get up. Use a to do list for daily activities. Put scheduled events into their appropriate time slots and prioritize the rest of your list.

Work your plan. Often it’s easy to stop a task and immediately deal with what we think is a small interruption. However, sometimes small interruptions snowball into big time consumers. Work your day according to your plan. If something new needs attention, wedge it into your schedule or if it is an immediate emergency, make sure you reschedule your current task. Also, be sure to mark your place. Write a note to yourself if need be.

Do the tough stuff first. Once, the worst part of a project or assignment is over, the rest will be a breeze! However, if the “tough stuff” is keeping you from getting started, then start with something easy to convince yourself that you can get the job done!

Break things down to the ridiculous. Dividing large assignments into smaller parts makes it easier to fit them into your schedule. In addition, you’ll benefit from a sense of accomplishment as you finish each phase. It’s a lot more satisfying to visualize what you have done than it is to agonize over what remains to do.

Rules were made to be bent. Build some flexibility into your schedule. Give yourself extra time to cope with interruptions in your schedule. As well as time to work, build in some time to play. Scheduling recreational activities and regarding them as important parts of your day gives you something to work towards.

There’s always tomorrow. Like any other skill, it takes time to learn how to manage your time. Even time management experts have days when their whole schedule falls apart. If yours does, don’t quit on time management. Instead, pick up the pieces and start again the next day. Review your schedules at the end of each week to see what did and what didn’t work for you. Build on your successes as you develop plans and time management strategies for following weeks.