Say you’re not the type who wants to learn yet another piece of software that syncs with your cell phone, work and home e-mail. Never fear – the good old daily/weekly/monthly planner is still in existence in every office supply store in the country.

You may be thinking, “isn’t that a little old school?”  Why, yes it is. And, that’s the p0int. Sometimes taking it back to the purest way of doing something keeps you focused.It could be as simple as a color code system for the date blocks: green for tests, pink for quizzes, orange for papers – etc. Keep it with you at all times and even add in your personal stuff so you’ve got everything in one place.

(Source: Evolve.com)

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You’re a college student, probably juggling studies with work and other obligations. You even may be guilty of staying up all night to cram for a test or finish a paper. If only you could get some sleep!

Sleep deprivation has some bad side effects, including decreasing your ability to focus on course work or anything else. Even if you can set aside a decent number of hours to crash, what if you can’t fall asleep?

Here are some ideas that may help you get the rest you need, perform better in school and feel better:

1. Follow a consistent bedtime routine. While there may be exceptions, try to stick with a consistent bedtime.
2. Give yourself time to prepare for sleep with a nighttime routine. Don’t expect your best sleep to come immediately after turning off the computer and hitting the sack. While this works for some blessed few, you need time to wind down.
3. Consider reading part of a novel or other non-academic book before you go to sleep. If you can immerse yourself in a story, rather than the last page you read about statistics or the Crimean War, it might help you reduce stress and thinking about worries.
4. Try to get a full night’s sleep every day. For some, that’s eight or nine hours, others wake up refreshed after six. Figure out what works best for you.
5. Do we need to say this? Don’t drink coffee, tea, sodas — or eat chocolate (ouch!) — within several hours of bedtime. Caffeine is not a good way to end the day.
6. If you have too much to do — and literally not enough hours in a day to accomplish what you need — consider what changes you can make to reclaim enough time to feel rested and not stressed 24/7. What could you remove from your list of tasks or activities that are overloading you?
7. If you can, keep TVs out of the bedroom, and leave the computer behind, too. Sleep in a quiet, dark room that’s not too warm.
8. Hungry before you go to bed? Try a glass of milk or a small healthy snack.
9. Don’t work out, run, jog, or do the Stairmaster before bed. Cranking up your heart rate before crashing isn’t a great way to prepare for sleep. 
10. Get up at the same time every day. There’s no such thing as “catching up on your sleep.” Staying on schedule is the best way to feel rested.

Today I came across this great post from the PsyBlog, “Boost Creativity: 7 Unusual Psychological Techniques”. It  gave me a great idea for using these same techniques for boosting creative levels in online students.

The first technique was to use psychological distance. This implies not only separating yourself from the task, term paper, assignment by physical means, but also by mentally taking some space as well. Their suggested insight is to imagine the project you’re working on as distant and disconnected from your current location. That space should encourage higher level thinking.

Mulling over a problem, or a discussion post could lead to a more insightful response. Another technique is re-conceptualisation. Instead of jumping straight to conclusions of what another student posted, or a question your teacher posed to the class, take your time to concentrate on the central issue and re-conceive the problem from different angles before trying to solve it.

Follow the path of most resistance for your next creative cue. Typically reviewing an item or topic in a new way can lead to a more creative variation to a popular theme. But using this method in itself may be more difficult to try and conceive an innovative and more creative solution. For something more novel, making passage down the road traveled by so many before you can provide more creative answers since previous attempts allow you to build on top of existing ideas.

Play on an ill mood. Using drama in the workplace, or your home, can boost creativity as well. Generally positivity is more conducive for problem solving and rational and flexible thinking, but in this case the negative mood may give you a different end result. Try working on a discussion post when you’re feeling just to one side of grumpy and see where your thoughts take you.

Use life as a general motivator. Have you noticed how the simplest things that happen throughout our day make us stop to ponder how it all relates? Another great technique they mention is absurdist stimulation. This means the more absurd an experience, the harder your mind has to work to make sense of the event. They suggest reading an absurd short story, ‘odd news’, or use a strange encounter at the store you had that day and channel that energy towards your work online.

Looking into the human mind is one of many ways to best discover how we think, and why we do the things we do. Try out one of these tips the next time you’re stuck for topics in class, or you need a thesis for your term paper. Creativity doesn’t have to be in short supply.

- By J. Mason