Now that September has creeped back into our lives, most of our semesters have started and are back in full swing. If this is your first semester as a graduate student, you may be juggling your new course work on top of all the other elements that come with adjusting to a new life and new routine. Whether you’re a new student or this isn’t your first rodeo, we can always benefit from some helpful graduate student life hacks. Here are some ideas to implement into your graduate life to help you navigate this new journey!

Develop a plan and set goals.

Approaching any new chapter in your life can be overwhelming and daunting. One way to combat this to think through the semesters ahead of you and what you’d like to get out of them. I feel much less overwhelmed when I play out my academic weekly & monthly schedules, and take a minute to highlight the especially busy days or weeks. This makes it much easier to make time for myself, my friends, and other personal life stuff, all while staying on track with my work. Setting goals helps me visualize my semester and properly allocate my time to certain tasks. When setting goals, make sure they are realistic and achievable, otherwise they will cause you lots of unnecessary stress! 

Know how to prioritize.

Prioritizing your tasks and work is one effective way to combat the urge to procrastinate. Ideally, create a list each week of the tasks that need to get done and another list of the tasks that you’d like to get done as well, if possible. Work on the most time-sensitive and critical assignments first, then gradually work your way down your list. Depending on the tasks in front of you, the harder assignments should be completed first so you can easily manage the remaining ones. However, if you have a few smaller tasks that won’t take too long, I find it helpful to do these in the morning before I jump into my bigger project. It makes me feel like I’ve been productive and gives my mind some ease knowing I checked a few things off my list, which makes me more motivated and relaxed to jump into my more important tasks for the rest of the day.  

Planners are your friend!

Planners are such effective tools to stay on track and manage feelings of anxiety. They are key to planning your semesters and setting goals. I highly recommend using either a virtual or physical planner/agenda/calendar to record all of your deadlines and plan your tasks and to-do lists. As I mentioned above, it makes staying organized much easier and can help one feel much less overwhelmed and in control of their semester. Planners are super helpful for managing your time, which is super important in graduate school, and keeping track of your daily goals. Planners can also help you attack large projects and break them down into more manageable tasks to eventually get it done. Along with my planner, I use a habit-tracking app on my phone to encourage me to maintain healthy habits during a stressful semester. Like completing my daily goals, checking off the habits each day makes me feel accomplished and proactive!

Know your prime hours.

Everyone has different times of day when they are most productive. Personally, I work best very early in the morning. If I have a lot on my plate, I’ll wake up super early (and hate my life for a few minutes) and immediately start my work for the day. This means I usually experience a slump mid-day around 12-1pm, but by then I’ve usually finished a few tasks and feel much less overwhelmed. Rather than work through this slump, I’ll take a break and change up my scenery by doing the necessary household chores, going to the gym, and making lunch. By the time I’m done, I’m ready to sit back down and complete the rest of my tasks for the day. Oppositely, I have a friend who works best late at night. She would rather sleep until 1-2pm, and stay up super late to get her work done. She has a completely different routine and schedule than I do, but we both get the work done and do well! Do whatever works best for you. There are no rules!

Fight off procrastination.

If you have a tendency to procrastinate, try doing a “power hour” or “5-minute miracle” to fight this urge. The power hour involves devoting chunks of time to the tasks at hand, completing shutting out any other distractions. Maybe work on a task for a 20 minute interval. After this, you can take a short break to rest, and then repeat the work cycle. The trick is to balance focused time with relaxation to avoid straining your brain and make the most of its peaks. The 5-minute miracle has you think of a small, manageable action that you can accomplish in 5 minutes. This can be anything from reading one page of your textbook to editing one paragraph from a research paper. While small, this action can help you move your bigger task forward. Set a timer for the 5 minutes, get to work, and slowly you’ll see just how much of a difference that small amount of time can make!

Change up your study space.

I find it so difficult to study in the same spot for hours on end each day. For some people, this works. For most others, they can benefit from a change in scenery. Your environment can significantly influence your mindset, and it’s important to figure out where you are most comfortable and productive. You might be partial to total quiet and bright spaces where you can devote your full concentration to your readings. Or, you could be more at home at a coffee shop with some study-music or background noise, and some snacks and coffee. Studying in a new location with your ideal attributes can make you feel refreshed and better able to focus! 

Take good notes!

So many people underestimate the power of good note taking. Good notes can significantly impact your ability to memorize and apply material or understand key concepts. Throughout undergrad and now graduate school, my notes have always been color-coded and neat. I usually pick one overall color for each class, and then use colored pens and highlighters during lectures to identify and label important notes. If I’m typing up notes on my laptop, I write the important things in different text color and still use the highlight feature. Yes, I am that girl with all the colorful pens on her desk with the pretty notes. It’s not just for aesthetics! Color-coding works wonders for memorization, something I’ve had to do a lot of during my academic career. I’ve created 72 page study guides containing an entire semester’s-worth of class material, all color coded and organized. It might take me some extra time to put together, but it has ALWAYS been worth it. Friends in the same classes have asked to use my study guides because they are so effective, and some have even told me to sell them online because they’re so great! Even if your specialty doesn’t require memorization, using colors to map out complex concepts or annotating works can significantly help your understanding and conceptualization of the material. If all else fails, you can seek out online note taking resources to ensure your notes are neat and organized, or try established note-taking methods like the Cornell method.

Prioritize your SLEEP!

This is so important and something I never did throughout high school and college. Sleep is amazing for your memory and executive functioning. Even if you plan to pull an all-nighter for an exam or presentation (we’ve all been there), get at least 1-2 hours of sleep before class, and you will notice how much better your recall is! Even this small period of sleep can help your writing skills if you are pulling an all-nighter for a paper. This makes for less typos and less editing later! Ideally, you should always try to get at least 7-8 hours of sleep each night. But if we are being honest, this is simply not achievable some nights when you have a lot on your plate. It’s very difficult to put yourself first and go to bed when you are stressed and feel the pressure of graduate school on your shoulders. However, lack of sleep will hurt your daily executive functioning and ability to do even simple tasks. It will also significantly bring you closer and closer to burn out. Your mental health and functioning is more important than any assignment, so even if it’s hard, try to prioritize your sleep as much as possible. The occasional all-nighter won’t hurt, but don’t make it a regular event! 

Don’t immediately jump to buy textbooks.

Textbooks are notoriously expensive, and almost every class will require at least one. Before jumping to buy textbooks, always check online or free copies or PDF copies. This has saved me hundreds of dollars so far in graduate school. My friends and I make a collective effort to scour google and any other site we can to find online versions of textbooks. Usually, it’s fine if the textbook is a different edition than the one required. My professors have noted when the exact edition required is crucial. If all else fails, always check if you can rent or buy used textbooks for much cheaper on Amazon.

Utilize campus resources.

Many graduate students fail to take advantage of all the resources offered by their school. I highly recommend using all of GW’s resources to better your graduate career, such as the IT and writing centers in Gelman Library, tutoring, student success coaches, and the GW career center for services like resume guidance and interview preparation. Utilizing these resources can really help set you up for academic and professional success!

Utilize student discounts and rewards programs.

So many places give student discounts or offer special student deals, and there are way too many to list them all here. Seriously, if you just type in “places that give student discounts” into google, you will find a plethora of websites listing the ways you can save money using your student status. Some of my favorites are Spotify, Target, Starbucks, Best Buy, Bed Bath & Beyond, Amtrak, and a bunch more. Even if you don’t think it’s saving you much money, it really adds up! The same goes for helpful (and free!) websites that all students should know. While I can’t list them all here, a simple google search of “best websites for college students” will provide you with lots of useful (and free!) websites that can make your graduate life much easier.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help!

Sometimes, we just can’t handle or solve a problem on our own, and that’s okay. You are graduate students, not experts in your field (yet). Reaching out to professors or other professionals can be daunting, and I’ve always be afraid of asking “stupid” questions and appearing unintelligent. The truth is, there really are no stupid questions and its your professors job to help you and answer any questions brought to them. This also applies when you are struggling with non-academic issues that may impact your performance. If this is ever the case, I highly encourage you to email your professor or set up a meeting with them. It never hurts, and you never know how forgiving or accommodating they may be. I always strive to establish a comfortable relationship with my professors during the semester, that way I’m never hesitant to ask for their help or explain to them a situation if it comes up. Depending on the issue, it could also be beneficial to seek professional help, such as through our campus counseling services or student success coaches. You are more important than your academic work, so please do not hesitate to ask for help in getting you back to your best self!

It’s ok (and very necessary) to set boundaries!

This is something I’m not very good at. Setting clear boundaries is important in all aspects of your life, but especially your academic life. There is much more to life than school, and your sanity is worth more than any class or assignment. Some boundaries I’ve implemented include turning off my phone and computer before going to bed, not replying to emails after a certain time at night, not replying to emails or doing work during designated “me” time or vacation time, and learning how to say NO. If you are feeling overwhelmed by your responsibilities, it’s perfectly reasonable to decline tasks or events. Also, you do not necessarily owe anyone an explanation for your decision most of the time. I’ve declined outings with friends sometimes because I’m too exhausted from the week or day and just need some time alone. I’ve declined tasks at jobs if I’m too overwhelmed and they will interfere with my main responsibilities. It can be difficult at times for the people-pleaser in many of us, but again, you have to put yourself first or else risk further decline in productivity or even burn out.

Give yourself room for failure.

It will happen. You might get a bad grade, or get rejected from your dream internship or job. Life is (unfortunately) full of failures, and things like these happen to all graduate students. While disappointment and sadness are expected responses to hardship, it’s important to not internalize failure and have it define yourself. Failure is perfectly natural, and everyone has experienced it. Learning how to effectively deal with failure is an important skill throughout your life. Learning from failure is always one of the best ways to proactively deal with it. Maybe you need to study more for a certain class, or work on your interview skills. Just because it’s cliché doesn’t mean it’s untrue! The graduate journey is a difficult one and will likely carry with it some failures. You always try to avoid it, but understanding that it will likely happen at some point will help you deal with it more effectively when it does occur.

Celebrate all achievements, no matter how small!

Listen, graduate school is hard. There will be times when you feel defeated and unmotivated, or even burnt out. When things get hard, something that I find really helps me and my friends is celebrating every success we have. This helps us build back up our confidence and motivation to get back on the horse. There are no rules! It’s not against the law to celebrate answering an email that you’ve been dreading and putting off. It’s not against the law to celebrate writing a single sentence for that major paper you’ve struggled with. 

Well, there you go! Now you have a bunch of tips and advice to help you better navigate graduate school. You can always find new tips and tricks with a simple google search, and almost always you can find some more specific hacks if the need arises. Sometimes, Google is your greatest ally and most helpful tool in the toolbox. I hope these few tips and tricks were helpful and that you implement some into your graduate life going forward!