One often hears that college life is the most beautiful period of one’s life. Also, It’s that time of life when a person can have fun after years of slogging at school. Hence we make our mindset to enjoy college to the fullest.
But, college is a bit more than that. There are in-numerous ways of spending time at college to make it productive. The achievers always seem to be up to something that keeps them busy. They also have a secret mantra. That mantra is productivity. The following ways can help us improve ourselves during our college years. Here is a list of 10 ways to make college life productive:
1. Doing an Internship
Internships can be done during college or college holidays. They are of two types – paid and unpaid. The best part is, it helps us get our pocket money. On the other side, it goes a long way in our CV and brings us a good impression among the employers. Websites like Internshala and Twenty19 provide internships both internationally, locally and also work from home types. So gear on and hop on to the internship bandwagon.
2.Party all night
Yes, partying is an essential tool. It helps us socialise well. To make it better, learn a dance style like hip hop or jazz or anything you like. It could help you impress people at college. Also, it will be beneficial when you get down for work. Basically, during company parties, the entertaining people are noticed by bosses and are usually the ones that are sought after. It goes as an important networking skill.
3.Network
It is the contacts we establish that ultimately matter the most. It could be done simply by saying ‘hello’ to peers or wishing them a good morning. But, it works more effectively when you get a tinge of personal connection with them. It could be done by talking about sports, a native festival or a trendy topic. Thus, get ready to put your networking goggles on.
4.Play a sport
Playing a sport keeps up the team spirit in you. It helps you understand the other person better. It has benefits at every level both college and at work, as you play with those people. It helps to establish a good relationship between your seniors, which helps in a lot of ways. Ultimately, it helps you stay fit to do whatever you wish. Get Sporty!
5.Competitions
There are a lot of competitions that happen often. They could be cultural, entrepreneurial or technical, name it. The cool part is the prize money. Moreover, it helps us get exposure to that topic. The real fun is the time spent with your team in a different place altogether, which doubles the fun. Finally, we get participation certificates which go handy at times.
6.Learn Coding
Coding is something that has become a necessity in this digital age. Right from a project to a competition, it is often needed. Also, it might serve as a backup for a job in the future. So get ready to learn some simple coding languages like C, Java, and more.
7.Social Activities
It is that time of life when you can to get onto some voluntary work. We can involve in some social activities like NGO, teaching children, and the environment drives to lend a helping hand to others. The best part is the satisfaction which we gain out of it. Also, it has an added advantage; most of the colleges abroad give importance to this aspect.
8.Speed Reading
Reading is necessary, but speed reading is important in many aspects. Most of the competitive exams such as GRE, GMAT, CAT, and Bank exams have this reading test as comprehension and answering the questions that follow. On average, a person can read 80 – 100 words per minute, but one is required to have a reading speed of about 300-400 words per minute to crack such tests. Hence it is imperative to develop that. It can be done by being a voracious reader. But firstly, it could start with reading newspaper often and regularly.
9.Improving Presentation Skills
No matter how much we might have prepared, it all goes to vain before delivering a talk. And thus your presentation skills come in handy at those times. It is usually the attractiveness of the content and how it is presented and not the text itself that grabs the attention of the audience. It is necessary to get comfortable with some presentation software. One such is Prezi, which adds beautiful transitions to your slides.
10. CGPA
There goes a quote, often referred to by Charles Davidson, “Pain is temporary, CGPA is forever”. Yeah, the sour truth is our CGPA is given importance in our present system. Most companies keep CGPA as a factor to filter out applicants. Not just that, even some internships keep that as an important factor. Hence it becomes important to have a safe CGPA to get into our dream companies.
I hope this list helps you to set out your priorities for college life. You can have all the fun you want but always remember to maintain a balance in life. Remember these 10 steps that you can put to practice right away. Feel free to take on these steps to develop a more productive college lifestyle. Let us know what you thought about these steps and share your own productive college-ideas in the comment section.