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When it comes to studying, sometimes you have to do what you have to do. That includes cramming at the last minute. Even with a narrow time frame, you can eke out a passing grade.

It is essential that you approach any studying, especially last minute studying, from a healthy frame of mind. If you worry too much about the potential outcome of an exam, you will only cause yourself undue stress and make it more difficult to remember what you need to know. Remember, the worst that can happen in you will fail one test.

If you understand that in the grade scheme of things, one test will not wreck your grade point average, you will be in a much better mental state in which to study. Come at it from the perspective that you would already be failing the exam, so anything better than an F could be considered a success.

Once you accept your present state, you can approach the material with a clear head and a calm body.

Keep in mind that many of your classmates may be finding themselves in similar situations. You are all essentially trying to swing as high a grade as possible while putting in a minimal amount of effort.

Learning experts agree that the best way to approach such last minute cram sessions is to break down the subject matter into smaller packets of information. Much study material is already subdivided into chapters or subheadings. Pick out the concepts behind the chapters and parse it out from there.

Take the key points from each chapter or section of your material and master those as best as you can. Ignore miscellany and specifics as much as you can. Go through all test subjects in this way until you have completed it all.

Once you have cycled through all the material, you should have a much better concept of what you are to be tested on. Even if you aren’t an expert as a result of this work, you should at least manage a passing grade.

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Dealing with our fears in is something we have been doing for millions of years, it all came about from what is called our lizard brain … also known as the amygdala. This primeval brain stem is our lower brain, where basic emotions function from. Call it a memory bank for emotions … fear being one of them.

We all make quick decisions when cornered, some of these decisions are irrational and afterwards we wonder why we reacted the way we did! What made us do it, why did we have a panic attack and become feared in an irrational way? We use something that is called the ‘emotion of fear’. It is something that is stored within all of us. How do we overcome such irrational fear like public speaking for instance? We have to start by working on changing the stored emotions.

So when you are in a tight spot and take instant fight or flight action, it is the lizard brain which sits at the base of the skull that takes over. Evolutionists tell us that we’ve had this ‘lizard brain’ since we were, well, lizards. In the context of fear, the lizard brain’s reactions to everything are limited to: eating, attacking, running away and mating. That is why you sometimes make irrational judgments.

Accommodating these fear emotions is like feeding a hungry lion, it will only become hungry again and you have to go through the same cycle. So why not just rid yourself of these fear emotions for good, as that is the answer to the fix you require. You wouldn’t get out of your car when travelling around a wild animal park and embrace a wild lion, and that is how you have to see your fear. Do not embrace it as it will bite you nastily. Yet some therapists say you should embrace your fear! Well of course now you can see that this advice is very risky, as unsafe as asking you to embrace a wild lion! Why? Well because all what you are doing is storing that fear emotion within your lizard brain’s memory banks, and then it can be drawn on again and again to make you feel just as bad the next time you are confronted by what it is you are feared of. So do be warned.

Why is it dire to allow these fear memories into your life? To accept these negative thoughts reinforces the emotion of fear. Accepting the feeling can reinforce it even more at a later stage. Some therapists advise you to accept the feeling of fear so as to nurture your true self. This is unreliable as it causes more emotional memories to be stored in what is known as the lizard brain, and hence your fear is perpetuated.

These emotions of fear drawn from your memory bank actually feed the very fear you want to be rid of. It goes around in a vicious circle, a one that you just can’t seem to find an end to. Some therapists advise that you go into the fear and accept it for what it is! However, top self help author Stephen Richards says, “By embracing the very fear you want to rid yourself from you are reinforcing the emotional memory of that particular fear. Frankly you need to ground yourself and transmute this fear into something else. By maintaining your relationship with the fear emotion you are inviting it to remain within your life.”

When we freeze with fear it is something that has been brought on by over activity of the amygdala … the lizard brain. When signals from the body are misread by the amygdala it can cause out of place actions. If only you could have stopped that emotion of fear being stored in the first place then you would have been able to prevent it kicking in again at a later date. So we have to get in there and stabilise everything and clear out those memory banks before it gets too big to handle and becomes even more debilitating than it already is.

Top of the list when it comes to fear is speaking in public or at meetings. Second on the list is asking someone for something, perhaps asking someone out on a date that you have taking a liking to. The fear of looking a nerd and being told “no” is the stumbling block. This is fear of rejection. What makes you freeze when fear comes on? Easy! It is caused by the overreaction of your reptilian brain, the amygdala! This then stores the emotions of fear, but it can act in a way that causes you to act unreasonably … like running off, finding it difficult to breath or even fainting and so on! To correct this is quite easy; it just means resetting the memory of fear within you.

When you are focused on an impending situation you have wrongly construed as ‘dangerous’, like public speaking or going on an aeroplane when you are feared of flying, the body undergoes many changes that prepare it for intense action, albeit this is a falsely activated call to arms. This brings on symptoms like: difficulty in breathing, increased body temperature, localised sweating, decreased motility of the stomach, constrictions in the stomach and intestines, as well as making your hair stand on end.

Once the floodgates of fear are opened it is a tough job to get them to close. What we need is a way to stop the false fear response. Many therapies are listed as a means to resolving this, but some are a little extreme. Immersion therapy whereby you are confronted by the very thing that sets off the fear is quite forthright in what it does! Of course it’s not a very nice or acceptable way to go about fixing fear! Then there is cognitive therapy, slowly exposing you to the trigger of your fear! But what if there was a way that you didn’t even need to confront your fears?

Why are there so many self help books and why do they all read the same? Surely they can’t all be telling you the same thing about overcoming fear? What if only one of these was right for you, which one out of the hundreds of thousands out there would it be? Well to save you the search and to give you something more direct than just a book, there is something far more potent than taking pot luck with a book that may not fit your needs.

After quite a few years of research and development now there is something that substantially instils positive emotion within you. It’s not hypnosis or even subliminal messaging … they are a little old hat and long in the tooth now. International self help guru Stephen Richards has designed an extremely effective tool that will fix it for you to start overcoming irrational fear within less than 30 minutes! The barrier to rational thought is lifted; there are no more uncertain situations and a more positive outlook can now be instilled.

Technology since the days of hypnotherapy has moved on, now there is a far quicker way to channel new thought processes into the mind and to empty that emotion memory bank which is full to the brink with fear memories. This is where you can move things up a gear and integrate the fix into your busy lifestyle without hours and hours of costly therapy.

There must be 1001 ways to overcome irrational fear, but none so fast as this method. This method overcomes the need for frequent visits to your hypnotherapist, and of course saving you the immense cost too. The specially made CD by Stephen Richards zones in to the heart of the problem, and the best part is you can hear every word being spoken. What would have been thought impossible ten years ago is now reality. In less than 30 minutes the primary track on the CD targets the area in need of help, simple as that.

This remarkable up to date method designed by Stephen Richards used in the “Releasing You From Fear CD” is unique because it targets the zone of the amygdala. It totally disarms the harboured memories of the specific fear emotion that is causing you distress. Methods previously used to target this area did not take into account the fear emotion and how your lizard brain reacted in certain trigger situations. Minor obstacles and irritations which were once magnified and a cause of the cycle of fear can now be fixed.

Banish unexplained fears today when you use the soothing audio CD by self-help guru Stephen Richards. Find out more from his site. This article, “Why You Should Never Surrender To Fear And Never Accept And Embrace The Feeling.” is available for free reprint.

I see personal productivity as the natural result of having a specific set of skills. These skills are: learning, organization, time management, mental control, enhanced creativity, and decision making. In this short article, I will shortly discuss what these mean, and why they are useful. It might also be a good idea for everyone to develop some or all of these skills, as these are all, in fact, quite handy.

Today’s work is rapidly changing, making learning more and more important. Even if the professional skills would not change that fast, we still have to face with constantly changing software, and more modern tools. Many of us are also faced with a push towards constant learning from our employer. Tools like mind maps, and skills like fast reading, can really come handy.

With organization skills, we mean the ability to organize things physically. A structured approach to this often helps for better information retrieval. Questions like “Where did I put that important letter?”, tend to be frustrating, and especially when you are in a hurry. Two good measurements for your level of personal organization are: 1) the size of your email inbox, and 2) the tidiness of your desk at work. You know what I mean.

As third, we have good old time management. Notice how I list time management as a part of personal productivity. For me, time management means things like managing tasks and email efficiently, and having an orderly way to manage your calendar. This is undoubtedly a enormous productivity booster.

Keeping yourself mentally healthy is crucial in society today. We are constantly faced with different pressures from the left and right. If you are not able to cope with stress, you might see your productivity sink through the floor. Ways to keep yourself mentally healthy include meditation, socializing, and living in the present moment.

We have all also faced the challenge suddenly to come up with solutions to difficult problems that are not easy to solve. What should we do in such situations? There are generic ways to solve problems. They allow you to reach a conclusion and motivate it to anyone, even if you are not completely familiar with the field in question. I recommend using these methods in such situations.

Last but not least we have decision making. We all know people who cannot make even the smallest decision, as they simply don’t have the guts to do it. What do I say again? There exists tools to help persons like this.

Putting in some effort and studying the areas above will help your personal productivity. That is guaranteed.

The author, Harri Jussila, contributes regularly to his blog Time Management Solutions, which is fully dedicated to time management and personal productivity. In addition to other articles around managing time efficiently, there you can also find a more comprehensive productivity definition.

categories: personal organization,personal productivity,time management,productivity,self help,Self Improvement,work-life balance,motivation

It seems like the older we get, the more we look back and regret all the time we wasted. We start to see how precious time is, and we want do good things with the time we have. There are a few things most of us have in common to save time, and this article will talk about how to make them work for you.

Hands down, the biggest time consumer is watching TV. Most of what we watch is just stuff that fills our senses with noise, and there are so many better things to do than flip through channels. Add up the time you waste watching TV and you will see how much of it can be used doing things that are productive and rewarding.

Another thing I like to do is to record my favorite shows and watch them when I want. This way I don’t have to be home at a certain time to see them. Not to mention how great it is to be able to skip the commercials. Once I discovered how much skipping a few minutes here and there added up, I had much more time and my productivity increased.

Wasting time in waiting rooms is another huge time consuming activity that can be better used. If you know that you will be sitting for a considerable amount of time, bring some homework or your laptop. This way you can work on something productive while you wait.

I also learned that by getting news and information online and downloading the podcasts and listening to them in the car also saved me time. The car radio is a huge time killer, and waiting through commercials to hear news can be better used.

Stay off your phone when you are driving as well. It is dangerous and you should always have your hands free.

These tricks have served me well in freeing up my time, and you will find ones that work just for you. Just take time to think about how you can make better use of the empty time in your day and you be surprised at how much you can save.

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To feel your best, it’s critical to get a good night’s sleep. How much sleep you need is individual but everyone should try to get their optimum rest as often as possible.

Our body clocks are all somewhat different from one another’s, and everyone has their own sweet spot. I myself can get by on less sleep than most, yet my sister needs at least 8 hours nightly or else she’ll never feel functional the next day.

To get a consistently good night’s sleep you have to establish a regular sleeping pattern. It may be easier to establish a set waking time rather than bed time, since it’s hard to know when you’ll be tired enough to go to sleep.

You have to listen to your body to determine what is right for you. It will tell you if you are a morning person or a night owl. If you wait until you are tired before hitting the sheets you will not waste time staring at the ceiling waiting to fall asleep.

Often people loose sleep because they wake up in the middle of the night. Pay attention if this happens to you a lot. You may want to see a doctor to determine if there is a medical reason you are not sleeping through the night. It may be caused by sleep apnea or some other health-related source.

Sometimes people find themselves waking up because something else is bothering them. This can be a noise outside or a bothersome streetlight shining through the window. Shut the windows or by light blocking shades to make sure you’re sleep is undisturbed.

Many people don’t know the importance of keeping their food intake reasonable during the last few hours of the day. Contrary to popular belief, eating heavy meals at night will keep you awake for longer in many cases. This goes against the wisdom that lots of food makes us tired.

Try limiting your meals at night and cutting out the midnight snacks. Don’t go to sleep hungry, but leave some room in your stomach and you’ll likely have an easier time falling asleep.

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It’s clear that many of us just don’t have a lot of spare time in our everyday lives. With this lack of free time it can be difficult to get everything done around the house that needs to be done, yet it’s important to stay on top of your chores to keep a safe and clean home. It’s helpful to break down these tasks according to how frequently they need to be done, whether it’s daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

The first daily task to complete is to make the bed. You’ll thank yourself later that night when you fall into your clean and well-made bed.

Before leaving for work, clean up any cookware and cutlery that was used to cook breakfast. It’s dangerous to leave these things lying around all day unwashed since the bacteria can easily spread. You’ll want to do the same after eating dinner at night. If you have a dishwasher, you’ll find that these tasks only take a couple of minutes.

Disinfect and clean any surfaces that you use to prepare food or to eat. Leaving these areas dirty is just inviting bacteria to grow. Your toilets should also be cleaned every day.

To give yourself extra time in the morning, pick up any stray mess that’s left around before going to bed every night. You’ll appreciate the effort the next morning when you don’t have to clean up while hurrying to get ready for work.

Floors should be cleaned and carpets should be vacuumed on a weekly basis, focusing on the rooms that you use the most. If you plan on dusting, do your vacuuming first since it can create dust clouds that would only require an additional dusting.

Once a month you should clean your windows, both on the inside and outside surfaces. You can use a long-handled brush to clean out any cobwebs that have formed in the corners. If you have floors that need to be waxed, it’s a good practice to wax them once a month. Any woodwork in your home should also be washed once a month and light switches should be disinfected.

Invest in a professional cleaning for your carpets and curtains once a year. Steam cleaning is one of the more popular methods and it works quite well.

Keeping up with these cleaning guidelines will keep your home not only clean and pleasant to live in, but healthy as well.

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Studying for a test is never easy when there are lots of distractions around. Most people would rather be doing anything else than learning what they consider a bunch of boring facts.

This often means they procrastinate until the last minute and then try to cram for the upcoming test. You may get lucky once in a while doing this but there are better ways to study for long term retention.

It’s not complicated. Just set aside a bit of time to study every day. Try doing it right after class. Sit down and reread your notes. Use just 15 minutes a day to review your material and you will see results.

Even if your next test isn’t for a few weeks, the incremental approach to studying can help a lot. If you study each day, you will be already familiar with the material when it comes to review it before the test. This will cut down on the amount of straight memorization you may need to do. This approach takes discipline, but it is effective and helps with comprehension.

Try reading your study material several times and highlighting key points. Jot important notes in the margins for review time.

Don’t rely on just the notes you’ve taken. Ask your class mates if you can review their notes, as well. Let them read yours, too. This will help with the review process and ensure you didn’t miss any important points in class.

Other effective ways to study include, creating home tests for you and writing pertinent lists down from memory. This will give you an indication of how well you know the material and how much studying you have left to do.

Try all the techniques mentioned until you find one or more that works for you. Some people like flashcards, while others prefer pneumonic devices. It’s all up to you.

It’s always a good idea to carry your notes with you a week to a few days before test time. That way you can get in as much studying as you can during what ever free moments you have. Every little bit counts and may make the difference when you receive your grade.

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If you pay attention to the majority of air travel stories today, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it must be an inefficient, time-wasting, chaotic ordeal. It seems that everyone has a story about long delays or being hassled at baggage check. Fortunately, these stories are exaggerated.

Airport security has definitely been tightened over the past few years, meaning that you’ll have to wait in more lines and go through more checkpoints than before. You also won’t be able to have a loved one accompany you to and from the gate. But these are really the only major changes, and delays have been common with commercial flights since the industry’s infancy.

Thankfully, there are things you can do to make your flight experience go as smoothly as possible. Here are some tips for getting on your plane and making it to your destination with very little worry.

The definition of “packing light” varies from person to person. Some people think that only bringing four whole outfits for a one-day trip is packing light. If you tend to think this way, you might have a hard time adjusting to this first tip. Try to go without bringing any checked luggage at all, taking just your carry-on with you on your trip.

To get by with just a carry-on, bring items of clothing that can be used in multiple outfits, giving you flexibility from a smaller number of items. If you can fit everything in your carry-on, you won’t have to waste time in line getting your bag checked.

If you bring a checked bag you’ll also have to wait for it at baggage claim after the flight. A carry-on bag is with you and ready to go as soon as you’re off the plane. If you don’t have a carry-on you may also be able to check in online before you even get to the airport, which will save you from having to wait in yet another line.

Be careful about what you bring in your luggage; don’t take anything that could possibly be considered a weapon by security. If you have to ask whether a particular item is safe, take that as a sign and leave it at home.

Incendiary items such as matches and flammable liquids are definitely not allowed on planes, as are sharp objects such as scissors and metal items. You’ll no longer get flagged for bringing liquid on a plane as long as it’s a volume appropriate for travel and it’s contained in a clear plastic bag with a zipper.

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There’s an old saying that 90% of what you do in life is just showing up. While some people consider this to be true, almost everyone will agree that showing up on time is 100% of life. However, some people still think that it’s okay to be consistently late to various appointments.

You wouldn’t want other people to keep you waiting - it’s just poor etiquette. Keep your friends waiting on you too often, and they’ll start to think that you’re not as good a friend as they once believed.

Being frequently late to your job is an obvious behavior to avoid, yet some people continue to do it. Most companies have no problem firing an employee who’s consistently late. Similarly, being late to classes can mean that you miss out on important information that could have an effect on your grade. Being late will almost always result in negative consequences, while it will rarely impart any benefits.

First, you’re only using more energy by being late. Having to come up with an excuse for your lateness is mentally draining if you have to do it too often.

Put that energy toward something positive instead. Being on time will free you from having to worry about excuses, and you’ll be able to focus on the important things. You’re also causing yourself undue stress by being late, so just arrive on time and you’ll easily reduce your stress levels.

If you’re paid as an hourly employee by your company, it’s almost a guarantee that they want you to show up on time every day. Many offices allow a five-minute grace period before they consider you tardy, but it’s really best not to push your employer’s patience.

Think about it this way: if you arrive to work on time every day while another coworker has a less-than-stellar record when it comes to tardiness, who will the bosses be more apt to promote? All other things equal, being punctual will display good time management skills, and that could mean the difference in getting you the next promotion.

Whatever your situation, it’s always going to be the case that being on time has benefits while being late has consequences. Save yourself the headache and make it a goal to always be on time, and you’ll reap the rewards.

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If you want to learn how to get rid of procrastination today then this article will help. Procrastination has been known to cause a large number of problems. People put off doing things that are very important when they procrastinate. Procrastination distracts us from doing the jobs that need doing and so we find reasons to do other jobs rather than the one we have been putting off. The good news is that an individual holds the power to beat procrastination and with work it can be overcome.

If you don’t like doing something then it is easier to get started with it sooner rather than later. Working towards achieving the task that you have put off for so long is one step further than you took yesterday. Procrastinators learn to say that they will do something tomorrow when the truth is tomorrow never comes. If you put off housework then it will eventually become too daunting to deal with.

The sooner procrastination is overcome the better chances of the problem not spiralling out of control. Once of the best ways of dealing with procrastination is making sure you don’t have any distractions. If it means either putting the phone off the hook or ignoring it for a while then all very well because at least it means you are not procrastinating. Also you might want to tell people not to disturb you and not answer the door if someone rings.

Try not to find any reason to prevent you from doing the job that you have been putting off. Try to change your belief systems and instead of saying “no” learn to say “yes”.

It is difficult to break habits especially ones that have been there for a long time. Try to cope with one task at a time and be pleased with what you have achieved. Procrastination in itself is a habit that needs to be broken. However it is going to take work on your behalf to achieve success.

Usually people who procrastination a lot find that eventually it does take over their life so they hardly get anything done. Combatting procrastination takes discipline, but that is very hard when you are beating yourself up about not being able to do something.

Check out how to get rid of procrastination once and for all with this beating procrastination system.