how to get ahead of 99% of students

your alarm rings at 6 30 in the morning you're feeling somewhat excited but you're also nervous your hand hovers over your alarm clock and just as you're about to press snooze you resist you decide that this is going to be the school year you get your stuff together so you jump out of bed freshen up eat some breakfast and head out for the first day of school look chances are school started a couple weeks ago or it's about to start very soon here's how you're gonna make this your best year yet first I want you

to realize that getting ahead doesn't mean you have to crank up the intensity or work every single hour of the day it's about working smart and taking that one extra step that most students don't take this video is going to be a little bit different from my other ones because I'm not just gonna sit here and tell you about study techniques or academic tips why because becoming the best student you can possibly be extends beyond the study techniques or tricks that you use in addition to considering variables like academics you also need to consider organization

lifestyle extracurriculars your social social life going just slightly above and beyond in each of these categories is how you get ahead as a student so let's start off with the first category organization most students don't have an organization system and I know you probably see a bunch of YouTube videos about the perfect notion planners or the perfect study systems and most of them are solid but for some students looking at all these organizers can get overwhelming and trust me I'm not the biggest fan of them either but I do think it's important to have some

sort of structure especially if you're in high school or college becoming more organized as a student comes down to using the structures and tools that can enable you to complete your work more efficiently and I think it's super important that students have both a digital and a physical system digital systems include tools like Google Calendar notion and todoist physical systems include things like notebooks or sticky notes now when it comes to figuring out which of these physical and digital systems is the best for you I have different advice depending on what kind of student you

are so I'm going to give a different piece of advice for students in each each of the following buckets one those who don't have any organization system whatsoever to those who have one but don't use it consistently and three those who have one and use it all the time if you're the student that doesn't have an organization system whatsoever I recommend that you start off with something extremely simple jumping right into a super comprehensive study tool might get a bit overwhelming all I recommend you use is Google Calendar and a notebook that's it use Google

Calendar to track your class schedule exam dates and homework assignments use your notebook to jot down any assignments your teacher gives during class then once you get home transfer over anything you've written down into Google Calendar and actually this is an important piece of advice for everyone your digital and physical organization systems should work together in harmony you should get into a routine of writing everything down while you're in school coming home and then transferring everything over to a digital system that you can use to organize your thoughts similarly if you have folders or binders

that you bring to school maybe you can can color coordinate both your digital and physical systems for example you can use the color red for your matte folder and binder and to designate any homework assignments in your Google calendar you can use the color yellow for English green for science purple for social studies and so on of course you can mix those colors up but green always has to be science now there is one caveat for college students because you all can use your phones and laptops during class so it might not be that important

to have a physical system for tracking your assignments and taking notes alright now let's move on to the second kind of student those who have a system in place but don't use it consistently say you have a Google Calendar or a planner but don't use them as often this is the year to change that chances are the classes you're taking this year are harder than the ones you're taking last year so it's good to get into the habit of using these systems as your classes continue to get even harder alright and now I want to

have a word with the students who have these systems in place and are using them very consistently chill out I'm just kidding but I do know what it feels like to get super attached to your system and to almost must feel like you're living your life in a very robotic way try to find a balance think of your calendar and to-do list as guiding the things you're doing throughout the day don't let them Define how you live every single moment of your life alright now let's move on to the second category you have to perfect

if you want to get ahead as a student studying now I don't want to spend too much time here because if you've washed my shorts chances are you've already picked up on a bunch of my study techniques and tricks but I do want to cover one thing that I think every successful student practices hire order thinking take a look at this diagram it's called Bloom's taxonomy it shows the different levels of cognitive thinking the lowest being things like memorization and recall and the highest being things like synthesis and Analysis ultimately these higher order skills are

what the most successful students possess they not only know information but they know how to apply that information for example a lower level cognitive skill might be to recall a chain of events for history class a higher level cognitive ability might be to compare and trust these events and to even explain the causal relationships that led from one event to another a few techniques that can help you exercise higher order thinking include mind maps and practice exams mind maps are great because you can find unique relationships between different concepts and making them requires you to

think through how different ideas are related practice exams are also great because they very rarely only test your ability to recall information you'll also get questions that might require you to construct your own thoughts and opinions but here's the thing the smartest students don't just practice higher order thinking you need to master both lower level and higher order thinking in order to be a successful student for example in Spanish class simply memorizing vocab which might be a lower order thinking skill might be all that you really need for biology maybe you need to Simply recall

the organelles of a cell but then for an APUSH DBQ that's when it's time to bring in those higher order skills alright so we've gone over organization we've gone over studying now let's cover the third category Lifestyle the most successful students tend to have the healthiest Lifestyles and note that I'm saying tend to do they ever pull all-nighters of course they do do they ever skip breakfast probably but over the long term the most successful students tend to get enough sleep eat well and probably even get some physical activity at some point during the week

and in my opinion physical exercise is pretty underrated when it comes to becoming a better student numerous studies show the positive link between regular exercise and cognitive abilities such as memory according to this piece from Harvard Medical School many Studies have suggested that the parts of the brain that control thinking and memory are larger in volume in people who exercise than in people who don't the article even States exercise can also boost memory and thinking indirectly by improving mood and sleep and by reducing Stress and Anxiety so here's a list of healthy lifestyle habits I

think you should adapt if you want to do better in school number one get at least eight hours of sleep each night and to improve your Sleep Quality try to stop using your phone at least half an hour before bed and to stop eating at least two hours before number two to get sunlight every morning I go for a quick 15 minute walk to get some fresh air and sunlight do I feel any immediate benefits I'll be honest usually not but I have noticed that the days I get sunlight and start the day strong are

the days that I tend to be the happiest and get the most done and that's the interesting part here the benefits of a healthy lifestyle aren't just physical but they're also mental and I'll go so far as to say that they might be mostly mental simply knowing that I'm taking care of myself and controlling my well-being heavily influences the quality of my work and how I feel about the day tip number three drink enough water I have a water bottle that I keep on my desk at all times and I usually sip on it as

I'm working some sources say that you should take half your body weight and drink that much water in ounces each day whereas others say that you should simply drink whenever you feel thirsty I'll be honest I don't really track my water intake but whenever I do feel thirsty I do make sure to drink a glass of water and tip number four get physical exercise a while back I made a short about my workout routine and it did pretty well and then I followed that up with the short about my favorite protein snacks and that did

even better for some reason so I'm glad to see that y'all are interested in working out now if you're young some lightweight daily exercise should be fine but if you're older and trying to put on some muscle or just simply lift a simple PPO routine I think should work just fine now this isn't a video about working out so I'll stop right there but yeah get your exercise in alright and now it's time for the fourth category extracurriculars so the students who get into the best colleges aren't just the ones with the highest grades they're

also the students who are pursuing novel and unique activities both inside and outside of school now look at a fundamental level I think you should do extracurriculars because they're fun and will help you develop hard skills like coding speaking writing but they'll also help you develop your personal qualities like leadership and determination and on top of that having interesting Pursuits will make you an interesting person and if you're trying to get into a top college that's the route you want to take sure join newspaper Club student council National Honor Society if that ask the stuff

you want to do but I also recommend you carve out your own activities outside of school for example if you're into web development you can start building your own web apps and make a business out of it in fact that's exactly what I did back in high school I developed over a dozen different websites and along the way I learned SEO graphic design coding and so much more joining a platform like skillshare is a great way to pick up these skills and bring your ideas to life skillshare offers courses on almost any creative topic you

can think of graphic design UI ux film photography marketing and of course web development whether you're looking to learn JavaScript to build your own web apps or photoshop to design student council posters skillshare is the place to find world-class teachers who can help bring your ideas to fruition but I get it school is hectic and maybe you don't have the time to take on a whole new project or course luckily skillshare also offers a bunch of productivity courses that can help you sharpen your skills as a student for example if you've ever wanted to optimize

your workflow and take better notes skillshare's got you covered best of all skillshare is an on-demand platform meaning you can learn all of this at your own pace on top of that skillshare classes are broken down into short bite-sized videos which makes it easier to understand Concepts if you're ready to pick up some new skills this school year head to my description the first 1000 people to use my length will get a one month free trial of skillshare alright but back to extracurriculars this year I want you to try something new if you want to

build a web app go for it if you want to upload YouTube videos find out what kind of content you want to make and start filming if you want to do biology research find a research mentor and go for it top students are those who craft their own extracurricular Journeys they have a clear idea of what they're interested in and constantly seeking new ways to deepen their interest now if you're young and don't know what kinds of activities you want to pursue I recommend joining as many clubs as you can and then cutting down the

ones you are interested in alright and now let's cover the fifth category your social life look in this pursuit of self-improvement and becoming a better student I find that some lose touch with their family and friends but keeping in touch with your loved ones and having the right support system around you is so incredibly important it's important for not only succeeding as a student but also as a friend a peer a mentor a sibling make time to see your friends and make time to do things with your family and sure I could talk about all

the superficial benefits of socializing like becoming a better speaker and becoming confident But ultimately it's the people around you that will enable you to be successful and to live a healthy and fulfilling life drop a like if this helped you and subscribe for more videos like this in the future