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<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Photograph via Pinterest. </em></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here are five things I did in school last year that I’m </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">not</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> doing this year:</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m not waking up at 6 am to groggily finish a paper that&#8217;s due at 8 a.m. I’m not frantically asking ChatGPT for a summary of a reading that I haven’t done as I walk to class. I’m not avoiding eye contact with my professor, scared I’ll be called on and forced to comment on a class discussion I’ve completely checked out of. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’ve done all of those things before, and at the end of last year, I realized that, in doing so, I was making school a lot harder than it needed to be. Many of us feel like doing the reading, participating in class, or writing our own essays (rather than outsourcing them to AI) will be a lot of work. What we don’t realize is how much </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">more</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> work it is to fake your way through school. (Not to mention, you get nothing out of school when you cut corners.)</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here are some of the changes I’ve made this year that have drastically improved my inner peace and even restored my spark for learning.</span></p>
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<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><b>I try my very hardest not to use AI. </b></li>
</ol>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is definitely the biggest one. With very few exceptions, using AI to help with school always ends up making your life harder. For one, when you’re faced with a circumstance in which you absolutely cannot use AI (say, an in-class assignment), you feel absolutely useless. You’ve weakened your critical thinking skills by never using them, and now reading a 5-page article you could have blown through in half an hour in high school feels impossible. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Also, there’s often the ridiculous irony that it&#8217;s harder to get AI to complete a task successfully than it would have been to do it yourself. First, you have to feed it all of the relevant information, then you have to get it to clarify itself numerous times, and then (if you’re smart) you yourself have to go in and change the wording so you don’t get flagged for using AI. Is all that really easier than just doing it yourself? And of course there&#8217;s the bonus of, one, knowing what you&#8217;re talking about and, two, not having to stress out about your professor catching you. </span></p>
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<ol start="2">
<li><b> I don’t use my computer in class unless I need it. </b></li>
</ol>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Last year, I got into the habit of walking into class, sitting down at a desk, pulling out my laptop, and clicking through it mindlessly. I’d spend most of class time reading emails, checking my Google Calendar, or even texting my friends. When class ended, I’d snap back to reality and realize I had barely heard a word anyone said for the past hour. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That’s a </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">really </span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">easy way to fall behind in a class. Plus, lately I’ve also been realizing it definitely hurts a professor’s feelings when they’re talking to a room of people and not a single one is acknowledging them. This year, I keep my computer (and my phone) in my bag for the entirety of class unless I’m asked to take it out. </span></p>
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<ol start="3">
<li><b> I scheduled my classes back-to-back.</b></li>
</ol>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It&#8217;s a controversial opinion, but I like having classes back-to-back much more than having long breaks in between. I’m taking 5 classes this semester, all on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have class from 8:00 to 9:15, a short break, and then class from 11:00 to 4:45. I find it&#8217;s much easier for me to get into school mode once in the morning than to fall in and out of it all day. It&#8217;s definitely not for everyone, but I think it’s great. Plus, I only have class two days a week! That gives me plenty of time to finish homework (or do more fun things) on the other days. </span></p>
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<ol start="4">
<li><b> I keep track of how much I talk in class. </b></li>
</ol>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I’m not the most outgoing person, and I’m also not a big fan of talking in class. I feel awkward; I don’t like the way my voice sounds, and God forbid I get the answer wrong. For that very reason, I make myself talk at least once in every class, every day. Forcing myself to participate means I have to pay attention. It also means my professors get to know me better, and it improves those pesky participation grades. </span></p>
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<ol start="5">
<li><b> I physically limit distractions when I’m studying. </b></li>
</ol>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It originally started as an accident during finals last year. I forgot my phone in my dorm when I went to the library to study, and I didn’t realize it until I sat down at a desk. It seemed stupid to walk all the way back to my dorm to get something that would distract me every ten minutes for the entire study period, so I didn’t. I studied for four or five hours without my phone, and I was </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">so</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> productive. Now I leave it at home on purpose.* I also have an app for my computer called </span><a href="https://selfcontrolapp.com/"><span style="font-weight: 400;">SelfControl</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> which lets me block websites for anywhere from 1 minute to 1 day, and I use this when I find myself scrolling on Instagram on my browser. </span></p>
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<p><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">If you don’t feel safe walking to the library without your phone, DON’T. You can also give it to a friend who’s studying with you, leave it in the book stacks on a different floor (don’t worry, no one will take it), or turn it off completely. </span></i></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I also don’t study with other people if I’m trying to get serious work done. As harsh as this reality is, it&#8217;s </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">much</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> harder for me to focus on schoolwork if there are people I want to talk to nearby. Instead, I do my most pressing work (essays, dense readings) on my own, and save lighter work (essay editing, practice problems, completion-grade reflections) for when I want to have study sessions with my friends.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I had to learn all of these methods the hard way, but I’m so glad I started incorporating them into my studies. In addition to having better grades this semester, I also </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">feel</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> better. I’m ahead of my assignments, I’m not stressed, and I actually know what’s going on in my classes. I hope these tips help you, too! </span></p>
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<div class="wp-biographia-container-top" style="background-color: #FFEAA8; border-top: 4px solid #000000;"><div class="wp-biographia-pic" style="height:100px; width:100px;"><img alt='' src='https://tulanemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_0203.jpeg' srcset='https://tulanemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_0203.jpeg 2x' class='wp-biographia-avatar avatar-100 photo' height='100' width='100' /></div><div class="wp-biographia-text"><h3>About <a href="https://tulanemagazine.com/author/ecarter7tulane-edu/" title=" "> </a></h3><p>Eleanor Carter is an English major at Tulane and originally from Austin. She loves writing stories about people and culture, and when she’s not editing for the Crescent, she’s probably reading a David Sedaris book, rewatching Sex and the City, or wondering around New Orleans.</p><div class="wp-biographia-links"><small><ul class="wp-biographia-list wp-biographia-list-text"><li><a href="mailto:e&#99;&#97;rt&#101;r7&#64;tu&#108;&#97;&#110;&#101;&#46;e&#100;&#117;" target="_self" title="Send Mail" class="wp-biographia-link-text">Mail</a></li> | <li><a href="https://tulanemagazine.com/author/ecarter7tulane-edu/" target="_self" title="More Posts By " class="wp-biographia-link-text">More Posts(2)</a></li></ul></small></div></div></div><!-- WP Biographia v4.0.0 -->