Looking to land your dream job? Before you can truly interview well, you have to understand what hiring managers are looking for and how that aligns with your job skills and experience.

After all, when they ask you about your strengths or fit, you want to wow them by describing the strengths that they most want and need in a candidate.

Every job requires different technical knowledge and abilities, but beyond that, there is a set of essential job skills and competencies that will increase your value with just about any employer.

We have compiled a list of the 10 most universally valued job skills based on our extensive experience working with recruiters, hiring managers, and candidates. Our findings are also backed up by numerous surveys of employers, including those conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

We’re diving deep into each one so we’ll do it in 3 parts, starting with the top 3 (and stay tuned for the next installments so you can weigh in on where you agree and disagree on the rankings).

These are the competencies that are prized in both entry-level roles and senior-level positions, in industries from technology to medicine to finance.

So naturally, these are also the skill sets to highlight in your resume, cover letter, and interview talking points. And if you’re lacking in any of these areas, we’ve got suggestions to help you develop and become a stronger candidate.

I recommend reading through the list and rating yourself (on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being perfection) in each category. This will give you a pretty clear idea of which strengths you should be “selling” (and it’s amazing to me how many naturally modest candidates shy away from properly demonstrating their strengths in interviews) — and which are areas for development (or maybe even your “greatest weakness”).

Most Valued Job Skills 1-3

Employers want to hire people who are able to communicate effectively with those inside and outside of the organization.

The communication skills category includes both verbal and written communication skills. That means being able to get your point across in discussions both in-person and virtual.

It’s not enough to be well-spoken. Writing skills are now critical for almost every job because email has become such an important means of communication (and an email is often your first or only impression on a colleague, client, or partner).

In most roles, you must be able to tailor your communications for different audiences. You have to be able to provide the big picture to senior executives and then get down into the detailed instructions for the technical experts. You may be writing directly to customers while simultaneously speaking the right lingo with your coworkers in different departments.

As an employee, you may also be called upon to write reports, newsletters, blog posts and articles, summations, employee reviews, and more. Without adequate (or stellar) written communication skills, your career could suffer.

Why Are Communication Skills So Highly Prized by Employers?

Strong communication skills make you more productive and more effective. When you communicate well the first time, you save a lot of time that would otherwise be wasted on clarifying, answering questions, correcting wrong perceptions, chasing people down, and fixing mistakes.

Great communication skills can set an employee apart. At the very least, they can mean the difference between the potential for advancement and a stagnant career.

Communication skills are also key to getting hired in the first place. After all, the way you communicate your strengths and what you bring to the employer’s table in your resume and during your interview plays a huge role in whether you get hired — or not.

I have seen many well-qualified candidates get passed over due to communication skills. That’s when they come to me for coaching and see the dramatic difference they can achieve with a little preparation.

Once you’re in the job, your ability to communicate reflects, for good or ill, upon the entire organization.

Many times, poor performance can be traced back to poor communication skills.

Be sure to mention examples like this on your resume and in your interview as they serve as indicators that you are, in fact, an outstanding communicator.

What can you expect your interviewer to ask you regarding your communication skills? Here are a few examples:

Take one of our development suggestions (for any of the skills listed in these articles) and highlight it in your annual review to show your commitment to continuous improvement.

According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook 2015 Survey “the ability to work in a team structure” tied with leadership skills as the #1 most attractive job skill for prospective employers, with 77.8% seeking both of these qualities.

Yes, calling yourself a “team player” is a big cliche, but it has become a big cliche or a reason. Hiring managers want to hear that you can get along with others in a professional setting.

Working well as a member of a team requires a combination of qualities — communication skills (see above), being open to collaboration, a generally positive attitude, and the ability to deal with different personalities (especially the “demanding” ones).

Why is Teamwork so Important for Today’s Employers?

Almost every job requires employees to collaborate, or at least get along, with a diverse group of humans. This makes the ability to work with others a highly-valued trait for employers.

We’ve all worked with people who didn’t “play well with others”— and it can really have a negative effect on both productivity and morale.

A team player is able to work with different personalities, can work through disagreements productively, and makes his or her individual preferences secondary to achieving the goals of the team.

Employers like to see evidence of your ability to work in teams when reading through your resume and cover letter or listening to your answers in interviews. For a new graduate or junior-level candidate, it’s important to show that you’ll be able to get along in the office environment.

If you haven’t yet had much opportunity to work on a team in a work setting, be prepared to talk about academic group projects or extracurricular team experiences. You want to show that you can jump right in and get along with your coworkers and clients.

Note:  For more information on answering teamwork interview questions, be sure to check out Big Interview’s Answering Behavioral Interview Questions: Teamwork guide and Big Interview’s Answering Behavioral Interview Questions: Handling Conflict guide.

How to Become a Better Team Player

If you have limited experience working collaboratively or feel it is a weakness, there are ways to improve.

Victor Hugo said it best: “Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.”

Employers consistently rank initiative as highly important (a 4.4 on a five-point importance scale in this representative survey) across roles and industries, making it a key quality to demonstrate if you want to get hired.

Employers want self-starters who are constantly looking for ways to contribute instead of sitting around waiting for assignments. The goal is to have employees who proactively seek out ways to propel the business forward.

Many employers also see initiative as the ability to take ideas and run with them, to persist in the face of difficulty and inertia, and see a project through to completion.

Why is Initiative Important to Employers?

In today’s competitive and fast-moving business environment, companies are always looking for an edge on the competition. To position yourself as an ideal hire, you need to show you will go above and beyond the job description and really contribute.

Initiative is attractive in any candidate, but it’s particularly desirable for certain types of positions. For example, startups typically look for people who can wear multiple hats. Many teams within larger organizations also find themselves tasked with “doing more with less” and greatly appreciate a candidate who can contribute beyond their formal job description.

For employers, it’s hard to know if a candidate has initiative through their resume alone. Smart hiring managers will use behavioral questions (“Tell me about a time…”) to get a sense of how the candidate has approached work in the past and if he or she has a history of taking initiative on the job.

Tips to Develop/Show Initiative

If you’re not someone known for showing initiative, the good news is that you can change that perception pretty quickly. “Initiative” is less about having some innate ability and more about looking for opportunities and putting yourself out there.

Here are some ways to show more initiative in your workplace.

• Think Differently. Make time for brainstorming new ideas that could benefit your team or company. Schedule an hour into your week or set a quota of x new ideas per month to research. Not all of these ideas will be winners, but you’re certain to find a few gems along the way. This process also trains you to look for new ways to improve and contribute on a regular basis.
• Be Your Best. Take full advantage of all of the training options available to you. You have to be proactive because if you wait until you “have time for training,” that time may never come. First, explore the training opportunities available to you through your job (whether company-provided or company-reimbursed). However, don’t limit yourself to the obvious options. Look at free courses available through organizations like Coursera and EdX. Even if you have to pay your own way (some companies are unfortunately stingy with training), seek out ways to develop your skills and knowledge. This can help you show initiative in your current job and will also make you more marketable for future opportunities.
• Ask for Input. If you’re having trouble finding ways to take initiative, talk to your manager about where you can add the most value for the group. Ask how you could make his or her job easier. This can help you identify new ways to contribute — and just asking the question demonstrates initiative.
• Act on Constructive Feedback. If your manager or a colleague gives you constructive feedback, act on it and let them know that you acted on it. For example, if your boss mentions that your writing could be more concise, sign up for a writing class or pick up a book on writing skills, then make a point of thanking your manager for the advice and mentioning how much the class/book has helped you.

Assuming no disasters, this will be the last year of my PhD program. Before the final push, I want to share some hard-earned wisdom so that those entering programs now can find success and avoid common pitfalls.

At this point your mind is probably fairly settled with respect to doing a PhD (although its resolve will be tested–believe you me!). Before that enthusiasm wanes, I’m going to share what I take to be some of the most important strategies for thriving and surviving in what will be both the most grueling but rewarding period of your life so far.

No Person Is An Island

Despite most of our social awkwardness, we are intrinsically social creatures. As Aristotle put it:

But he who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god: he is no part of a state. A social instinct is implanted in all men by nature, and yet he who first founded the state was the greatest of benefactors.

If you think you’re going to get through grad school alone without a social support network, you’re deluding yourself. In practical terms this means you should create favorable social and psychological conditions for your success–that is, you need to join, create, and invest in community.

You may not like everyone in your department but at minimum you should attend official department events (social and otherwise) and organize/participate in some unofficial social events, for example parties, karaoke nights, bowling nights, and day trips.

Grad students who don’t invest in their community run the various risks associated with social isolation and lose out on many of the obvious benefits. You can’t afford these risks or to lose these benefits. Shift the probabilities of success in your favor and spend some time getting to know other grad students and faculty outside of the classroom. Here are a few reasons why.

Emotional Well-Being

At some point (perhaps many) in grad school you will experience bouts of depression and despair–even if you aren’t typically disposed. The most effective buffer and remedy to depression is a community–friends that care about you and that understand what you’re going through; i.e., other grad students. It’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to pull yourself out of a depression by your own bootstraps. You need to be in an environment where others care about your well-being.

But here’s the catch. You can only have a community of people who care about you if you’ve invested in that community beforehand. Few people are sympathetic to those who only take support when they need it but are conspicuously absent when they don’t.

You want your grad student community to be a place of caring, strength, and support. But this doesn’t happen on its own. You must invest. I promise you that if you do this you will get out much more than what you put it.

Writing/Research

The quality of your work increases when you engage your ideas with a community of experts and experts-in-training. I know it’s romantic, but few of us are Nietzschean ubermench holed up alone in our cave single-handedly creating ideas beyond our time. Most of us run into mental walls. To escape the thought loops and dead ends in your own head, you need other people to bounce ideas off of and to read your work. People will only do this for you if reciprocate.

Some of your best ideas will emerge from discussions with your colleagues at coffee shops, at bars, or on walks. But these discussions only happen if you’re willing to listen too. No one wants to be talked at. People also want to discuss their own ideas.

Being a Good Community Member

Take on duties, fulfill them. But understand that for community that won’t be enough on its own. Caring communities require reciprocal care and empathy. Recognize that you’re not the only one in your program that’s struggling. Ask people how they’re doing. Offer to talk about how someone’s doing and about their ideas.

From the point of view of relationship-building, the most difficult but most important thing you can do is to recognize that we each come into grad school with different resources and to offer to others who lack where we don’t. Ask yourself, what are the background conditions of your success? Did your parents go to grad school? Do you have a loving and supportive family?  Do you have natural self-confidence? Do you have high relative social status compared to your peers?

The best community members recognize where they have won the resource lottery, and do what they can to support other members who aren’t as lucky. To the grad student who is the first in their family to attend grad school, encourage and support them. To the grad student who has a poor relationship with their family, be caring. To the student who is insecure, build them up. Let them know when they’ve asked a good question or made a good point in seminar. A few words of recognition will do wonders.

Most importantly, listen and learn from others who don’t share your social background. Just because you haven’t experienced something doesn’t mean others haven’t. And just because you have experienced something doesn’t mean others have.

Scheduled Down-Time

Grad school–especially if you have teaching duties–is like drinking from a fire hose. You will almost NEVER have everything done on time that you’re supposed to. From this it follows that you can very easily burn yourself out if you only allot yourself down time “when I’m done everything.” Also, the occasional couple of hours off isn’t going to cut it.

If you never really know when your time off is coming it’s easy to fall into low productivity, procrastination, and/or burn out.

Every week schedule for yourself a full 24 hours off. I do from Saturday evening until Sunday evening. Pick whatever 24 hour period works for your semester schedule. It should be the same every week. This way, when you’re starting to feel burnt out near the end of the week you can push through knowing that you will get a full 24 hours off in just one more day.

This is not to say that you can only take 24 hours off. Some weeks and days will be busier than others. However, regardless of how busy your week is, always have a scheduled 24 hour break. Overall, you’ll be happier, more resilient, and more productive.

Avoiding Self-Esteem Traps: You Are Not Your Work

Possibly the best advice I ever received about grad school came from my sister (who had completed her PhD several years before I applied). She said, “don’t wait until after grad school to start living.” I’ve found this advice to be invaluable.

If all you do is academic work then it’s very easy to conflate the success or failure of one’s coursework and research with one’s self-identity and self-worth. Positive feedback on your work=”I’m happy, I’m awesome!” People critical of your work/research dead ends=”I’m sad, I suck.”

The inevitable vicissitudes of your research, writing, and ideas do not make them a stable foundation for your sense of self-worth. This is not to say your identity should be entirely disconnected from your work or being a student, but it’s easy to make the connection too tight when that’s all you do.

To avoid this problem you should expand your identity and source of self-worth to include other activities. In other words, participate in at least one non-academic group/activity. Volunteer with a charity, join a recreational sports league, do art, practice dance or martial arts. Find some activity that is entirely disconnected from your academic pursuits and make it part of your regular schedule. This way, when things aren’t going so well in school your entire sense of self-worth won’t comes crashing down along with it.

You are valuable for other reasons. Find meaning and purpose in other domains.

Healthy Body, Healthy Mind

Again, this goes without saying. Do not let your physical health go to crap. There is no shortage of literature demonstrating that people who exercise regularly have lower stress levels, are more productive, and have better mood regulation, amongst other benefits.

The main thing in this. In grad school, your primary battle is for your mental health. When you start to let yourself go, you’ll start having negative thoughts about yourself. You can’t afford more reasons for negative self-talk on top of all the other ones that already come with academic work.

The best physical fitness program is the one that you will actually do. Find stuff you enjoy. Not everyone needs to get swoll. Go for an hour walk a day if that’s what you enjoy. Group fitness classes are a fun way to stay in shape. Try hiking, biking, dance, and so on. It doesn’t matter–but do something at least 4 times per week. Much of your success depends on it.

Gratitude

One of the biggest traps you can fall into is to fail to be grateful for the extreme privilege of going to grad school. You begin to complain about how hard your life is. We all do it. But take a look around at how the majority of the world lives. Most people struggle just to survive. And if they aren’t struggling, they go to work at a job they probably wouldn’t choose if not for purely pragmatic reasons.

But you get paid to study and write about the things you love under the tutelage of experts. Think about it. Like just about every PhD student, you have a scholarship and stipend. Your education is free and–depending on the institution–you have somewhere between just enough for a simple life or a little more.

Most importantly, you chose this life. Unlike so many in this world, this life was not a choice forced upon you. Of all the possible choices you could have made after completing undergrad, you chose grad school. Nay, you had the privilege of making a choice.

Don’t let these thoughts stray far from your mind. It’s vital that you keep this attitude of gratitude throughout your studies. You chose pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. What made you think it would be easy? Or that you wouldn’t have to struggle? Isn’t that part of the reason you chose it in the first place?

When things get tough, remind yourself of the extreme privilege you have; that this was your choice; that you had a choice; that society pays you to do what you purport to love.

You are privileged beyond most of humanity for all of human history.

Be grateful.

Be Process Oriented

You are in grad school to become a scholar. You aren’t one yet. This means that you must focus on developing the skills and virtues of a scholar rather than on producing particular research units. If you develop these skills and virtues, the results will follow. But if you fail to develop them, the success of your research is purely a matter of luck.

This mindset will help you see criticism from your professors and peers as something positive. They are pointing to areas where you need to improve. You haven’t developed the virtues yet. Your skills are underdeveloped for genuine scholarship. The fact that your professor covers your paper in red ink is a blessing. Look at all these opportunities for development! These red marks point the way to becoming the scholar you wish to be.

Be grateful they took so much time on your work. As you’ll soon learn, grading and giving constructive feedback is tough time-consuming work. Imagine if they hadn’t said anything and allowed you to continue, oblivious to your undeveloped academic skills and virtues? You’d never become what you came here to become.

Epictetus describes the wrong attitude toward criticism:

And so far from looking for someone to bring you to your senses, you are distinctly offended by any advice or corrections. You say, ‘He’s nothing but a mean old man.’

 – Discourses II. 17. 37

Thank your professors for pointing out where you need to improve. If all you seek is praise, you’ve come to the wrong place.

Extend the attitude of gratitude to your professors and peers for their feedback.

More on Mind-Set

To my mind, no one has surpassed Epictetus when it comes to describing how we ought to approach grad school:

You see, you are going to have to become a student again–that universal figure of fun–if you really mean to subject your opinions to honest examination. And you know as well as I do that this assignment can’t be completed overnight.

 – Epictetus, Discourse Bk I. 11.

I take this to mean that we ought to approach grad school with humility, intellectual honesty, courage, and joy. We also need to understand that success won’t happen overnight, nor will it occur without sustained substantial effort. Grad school requires a great deal fortitude.

As I pointed out in the beginning, none of us are islands. We will sometimes falter. We will sometimes despair. And that’s why it’s so important to develop a caring community around you–people to support and encourage you when you can’t do it alone.

Grad school is incredibly rewarding but tough. You will be tested. At times, you will suffer doubt, depression, and occasionally despair. To overcome these mental obstacles you need to proactively create an environment and habits that mitigate affective volatility and foster support and resilience. A large part of this has to do with creating and participating in a caring community. The other big piece is to structure your life with good habits of action and of mind. With these features in place, you radically shift the odds of success in your favor both for becoming a scholar and for well-being.

For more great advice on grad school from Epictetus, I highly recommend: Discourse Bk II. 17 and 19; Bk III. 5 and 23; Bk IV. 4.

The last two years of my doctorate, I had a side hobby of researching and experimenting with productivity tools and teaching others to apply them to their own lives via my blog The Tending Year. I started The Tending Year to manifest personal accountability to accomplish big goals; as a result I learned how to focus my labor so I could accomplish my to-do list in less time and with more intention. I have chronic health issues that affect my energy and ability to focus, and I live with chronic pain that requires me to take breaks from sitting, so I was particularly interested in learning how to write my dissertation in short, focused work sessions. Plus, I genuinely loved my dissertation topic, and I wanted to make the process as fun as possible.

So, how did I finish my dissertation on time and enjoy the process?

I knew what steps to take and in which order.

I broke the larger dissertation project down into actionable and achievable steps. This meant knowing which component tasks made up a larger goal, tracking how long certain types of tasks took me to complete and using that data to set deadlines that were reasonable. I shifted my approach from “write a chapter” to assigning actionable tasks to work sessions, such as “write a mind map for the first analysis section” or “draft a one-page description of my method.”

I knew how to plan an effective work session.

• Every time I sat down at my desk, I determined one to three actionable and achievable goals for the time I’d allotted to work that day.
• I monotasked, which means I focused on only one task at a time, which enabled me to reach a state of flow much more often.
• I developed a fun practice that I call the Goldilocks Approach to Productivity, which involves identifying a to-do task that is appropriate for the time/energy I have at the time and my goals for that day’s work session.

I used tools to help me focus.

• Like many academics, I’ve fallen in love with the Pomodoro method, a pulse-and-pause technique that involves predetermining a task, working uninterrupted for a set amount of time, taking an intentional break and then repeating the work/break process.
• I co-worked with others to mutually hold ourselves accountable to starting a task, working on it and sharing how the process went. Co-working is a great motivator to get started when you feel blah about your work or are procrastinating.
• I set intentional boundaries around my technology, such as deleting social media from my phone, using website blockers on my laptop and simply putting my phone out of my reach and inside a box or bowl with a lid while I worked.

I shifted my perspective from perfection to “good enough.”

• After hearing the phrase “a good dissertation is a done dissertation” multiple times, I finally decided to start using the comments function to write notes to myself and my adviser during the drafting process. These notes might say, “I know I need to research this historical event; I’ll do that in revision” or “I have brain fog and can’t think of the right word; will look up later.” This meant I finished drafts sooner and sent them to my adviser to get comments on the larger ideas instead of spending stressful hours on writing or revising tasks that truly could wait until later.
• Instead of pre-emptively diving deep into literature reviews and historical contextualization, which often felt overwhelming, I asked my dissertation adviser what her preference was for the breadth and depth I needed to include for examples, footnotes and context. I found that she was often very satisfied with one or two examples, and I saved myself hours of unnecessary labor.
• I tracked my progress not only by words written, but more intentionally by time spent laboring, and I endeavored to value the invisible forms of labor that go into writing a dissertation, such as brainstorming, outlining and revising.

I prioritized my mental and physical health.

• I took a lot of breaks and tried to make myself look away from my screen, get a glass of water and walk the dog around the block.
• I had strict start and stop times for working on my dissertation to ensure that I took time to care for myself and nourish my relationship and friendships.
• If I was experiencing pain, brain fog or fatigue due to my chronic health issues, I gave myself permission to take breaks, rest and take the rest of the day off.
• When I really focused during a work session on a predetermined task, I made a lot of progress, so when I finished my work “early,” I took the rest of the day off from dissertating. I also gave myself permission to take off whole days and weekends from working on my dissertation.

For so many graduate students, this summer has already proven itself to be unlike any other they’ve encountered so far; and with ongoing global crisis, graduate students should feel no guilt for prioritizing their personal well-being over their productivity. That being said, summer has always been a time of free fall for graduate students — assistantships end, funding becomes unstable, precarity increases and the work structures that we rely on to keep us productive throughout the semester suddenly disappear. All the while we are expected to prepare for fall teaching, continue our own research, catch up on tasks that we shuffled off during the academic year and make real progress on a slew of tasks. Whether this summer has been particularly disruptive for you or whether summer always proves a time of uncertainty, here are some strategies for making progress in your work, however small.

Be Kind to Yourself

While it’s worth practicing self-compassion no matter the circumstances, this tip feels especially necessary now. As graduate students, we keep seemingly endless lists of tasks and goals, aspirations and to-dos. With so much on our plates at all times, it can be easy to slip into feelings of doubt, guilt, despair, stress and anxiety. However, as you may know from experience, such feelings are entirely counterproductive, serving only to paralyze us in the face of even small tasks. As a result, instead of holding yourself to incredibly high standards this summer, be realistic about where you’re at, where you’d like to be and what steps you’ll be able to take in the time that you have.

Setting huge goals for yourself (“I will write every single day!” “I will finish two chapters this summer!”) may feel good in the moment, but it can set you up for a work freeze if you fail to live up to those goals (“I missed writing yesterday. Why am I so terrible at this?” “I’ll never finish this chapter at this rate — why even bother?”). Instead of responding to inevitable setbacks with guilt, shame or frustration, treating yourself with care can make all the difference in your willingness and ability to bounce back.

Instead of judgmental self-talk, try to speak to yourself like you would a close friend, a loved one, one of your students or even a child. Whatever approach you need, responding to yourself with compassion and understanding will make you more willing to try (and potentially fail) later, making it easier to get back to work even after a setback.

Work Backward

Perhaps already a familiar strategy to those who have experience creating lesson plans, working backward from your intended goal to accurately plan the steps that will get you there is a powerful way to build your own structure and deadlines. Think about the goal that you’d like to reach and its ideal deadline.

For instance, if your goal is to take your comp exams by Oct. 1, but you know that your exam materials must be submitted two weeks prior to your exam, then your real deadline becomes Sept. 17. Then, you know that you want a good three weeks to write and revise each of the two essays required, which means that you’ll want to start drafting by July 21. Before that, though, you’ll want some time to finalize your bibliography, read and annotate your sources, and talk to your committee, all of which you can fill in as tentative deadlines on your calendar.

So, now, instead of Take Comp Exams by Oct. 1, you have June 10: Contact Committee, June 15: Compile Possible Sources, June 22-July 17: Read and Annotate, July 20: Finalize Bibliography, July 21: Begin Drafting First Essay, Aug. 11: Begin Drafting Second Essay, Sept. 17: Submit Materials to Committee, Oct. 1: Exam.

Thus, instead of setting large goals into your calendar, build in smaller deadlines by breaking the goal into its components (the topic of the following tip).

Set Actionable Tasks

Admittedly, there exists a page in my own planner that includes the task Write Chapter 3 — a worthwhile goal, perhaps, but not an actionable one. After all, it would be impossible to simply sit down and suddenly produce a complete and usable third chapter. In fact, the only way to eventually reach a finished Chapter 3 will be to first complete the reading, research, brainstorming, planning, drafting, revising and all of the other minute steps that make up the work of chapter writing.

As you think about working backward, and thus consider all of the small steps that make up much larger goals, think about how you can break large goals into even smaller actionable steps that you can realistically complete.

To use the example above, the July 21 goal of Begin Drafting First Essay will give you a clear deadline for your monthly calendar, but it isn’t yet at the more achievable level of daily to-do task. As you get closer to this deadline at the end of July, you’ll want some more clear direction. For instance, your to-do list for July 21 might include items as small as Create New Document for Essay 1, Title, Draft Rough Introductory Paragraph, Import Bibliography Into Document, Draft Bulleted Outline Beneath Introduction, etc.

The idea is that you first set realistic calendar deadlines by breaking a goal into smaller goals, but then you can further break those small goals into daily to-dos that allow you to make real progress each time you sit down to work and cross something off of your task list each day (instead of only getting the satisfaction of feeling “done” once the whole project is completed).

Be Consistent

As scholars like Joan Bolker (Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day) and Helen Sword (Air & Light & Time & Space) make clear, the most successful academic writers are those who are the most consistent in doing work. While it can be tempting (or unavoidable, or necessary) to step away from work for extended amounts of time or to work in large, sudden blocks, working regularly, even in small sessions, ultimately produces larger amounts of usable work.

Breaking your goals into small, achievable tasks can help with your consistency. After all, it’s much easier to want to write each day if your goal is something like Write for Five Minutes or Add Transition to Final Paragraph instead of the imposing and seemingly unattainable Write Chapter 3.

Rewarding yourself with small treats or writing trackers (today’s final tip) can also be a great way to motivate yourself to want to work. Regardless of how you do it, however, the fact remains that small and consistent progress adds up much quicker than sporadic bursts of work. Consistency can help you become more compassionate with yourself as well, since you no longer have such large expectations for your working time. Instead, remember that any work done (no matter how seemingly insignificant) is still work done.

Reward Yourself

While other articles exist with ideas for how to reward yourself for your work, it’s simply important that you are getting some kind of regular payoff for your work to keep you moving forward. These should be (like your work itself) small and consistent rewards. That is, while you might be planning some way of celebrating completing your comp exams in October, you should also be including smaller-tier treats for finishing each step of the process that will get you there. You might even want a weekly or even daily reward for completing work — you know your needs best.

Even if they are small rewards like a new sticker for each day of work, a morning pastry with your coffee after every three consecutive workdays or an at-home spa day at the end of a full week, keeping yourself motivated with self-generated rewards is necessary to becoming more productive. Rewards keep you motivated and make you more likely to want to keep going. After all, the promise of a sticker might be the difference between sleeping in on Friday or shuffling out of bed to add a few sentences to a draft.

Even without external structures of work, colleagues, etc., you can still be self-starting — capable of caring for your needs and the reality of your situation, building your own deadlines, breaking your goals into achievable tasks, working consistently, and providing yourself with rewards and motivation for your hard work.

Get ready for sun, fun and the summer of a lifetime! Now that another year of college has passed, it’s time to kick back, relax and enjoy some well-deserved time off. Whether you’re heading back to your hometown, festival hopping or traveling to a tropical paradise with friends, it’s important you make the most of it.

However, it’s not uncommon to get into the routine of getting too relaxed. This means junk food, lots of TV time and general laziness. Although it feels like it’s needed, this routine can be extremely damaging to your health. It’s best to use the time you have over summer to maintain your wellbeing, and trust me, you’ll feel so much better in the long run!

To start you off on the right foot, here are a few tips to get you started so you can enjoy a happy, healthy summer!

1. Make time for shut-eye

It’s extremely tempting to stay up late when you want to maximize your vacation time—but never underestimate how important it is to get enough sleep each night. The recommended amount is around 7 to 8 hours per night. Without sleep, you’re bound to become grouchy and lethargic. And once you’re sleep-deprived, you run the risk of being anti-social due to lack of energy.

2. Stick to a routine

Being in college is all about routine. Getting up at the same time every day, having lunch at roughly the same time and attending lectures in a structured manner. It’s not surprising that you feel like you need a break from it all. However, it’s essential that you maintain some kind of routine during your summer break. This means eating on a normal schedule, sleeping at regular times and establishing a few hours each day to carry out the tasks you need to do, such as washing clothes, exercising or working on any summer projects you may have.

3. Prioritize a proper diet

Eating clean is the foundation of living a happy, healthy lifestyle. This means you should eat at least three meals a day and avoid snacking on processed foods in order to make sure your body receives the vitamins and nutrients it needs to function. It’s actually amazing how quickly your body can start to suffer if you start living off junk food. This means having a healthy, well-balanced breakfast every day and cutting down on the chips and sweets.

Jackie Morris, a nutritional specialist from Essay Roo from explains,

“Making sure you eat properly every single day is possibly one of the most overlooked aspects of living a healthy lifestyle. It can be so easy to fall into the trap of overworking and missing meals, likewise, it’s easy to procrastinate and snack all day, resulting in you not being hungry at meal times. Ensuring you have a healthy, scheduled diet is the best way to be happy, productive and live life to the fullest!”

4. Relax & unwind with hobbies

There’s no better way to relax and have fun than doing something you enjoy. Whether it’s walking, running or playing sports, staying active will keep you healthy.

In addition, it’s so important to keep your mind active as well. The best way to achieve this is by reading and writing. You can write about anything you like—you could even start a blog detailing your adventures over the summer. For tips and advice on how to write on a professional level, you can use websites such as Paper Fellows or Write My Essay, allowing you to write with great sentence structure whilst guaranteeing you haven’t made any obvious mistakes.

5. Be prepared

As summer dawns ever closer, there’s no reason you shouldn’t start practicing these healthy habits before it arrives. There’s no better way to start your summer than ensuring you’re stress and anxiety free. Put time aside every day to finish your assignments and complete the work you have to complete.

Educational expert, Carl Manning, from Boom Essays states,

“Whether you’re in college or working full-time every day, it’s important to keep your stress levels down. It’s so easy to get caught up in everything and let things get to you and stress you out but it doesn’t have to be the case. By taking an organized approach to your work, you can ensure that everything gets done on time without hassle.”

A great way to achieve this is by minimizing the amount of time you procrastinate. Work for around two hours and have a 15-minute break. This means you can keep your productivity levels high allowing you to complete your work faster, resulting in less stress and more free time.

Urban Dictionary defines finals week as the following: “The worst week of a college or high school student’s life. Finals week involves pulling an all nighter to reverse the months of slacking… Finals week involves a lot of stress and very little sleep, the college or high school student will be on edge the entire time…”

Yes, it’s true, Finals Week can definitely be one of the most stressful weeks of the quarter. But, we are determined to help you get through it and create the perfect recipe of success instead of stress! We created this guide to help you prepare for the busy weeks ahead to hopefully help you stay calm, organized and feeling well. While it is important to get good grades and pass your finals, it is also vital to take care of yourself. This self-care guide will help you balance finals week by providing you with practical wellness tips that will help you conquer your exams while staying healthy and happy!

How to use the Self-Care Tips list:

While it is important to maintain a balance in all of these areas, we know how difficult it can be to be to juggle work, school and personal life as a student. We suggest you pick 2-3 areas from the self-care tip list that you would like to incorporate into your schedule during week 10 and finals week. If you find yourself able to tackle and incorporate 2-3 tips in your everyday routine and to-do list, you can slowly start adding more!

Self-Care Tips List:

Sleep

Sleep is usually a low priority during finals week but staying well-rested is important in helping your body stay balanced and going through finals week without getting sick or being exhausted. It is also important in maintaining all the information you just memorized in long-term memory.

• Stop studying 30-40 minutes before bed: Try to clear your mind and take a break from the material you have been studying all day. Do something that you find relaxing instead like catching up on your favorite book, taking a shower, or listening to music. Try unplugging from social media if you can.
• Sleep environment: Evaluate your sleep environment to see if the temperature, noise and comfort levels are conducive to getting a full night’s rest. Blocking out the light and avoiding screen time (such as cell phones or laptops) before bedtime are other ways prepare your body for sleep.
• Napping: 20-30 minute naps have been shown to be beneficial as a supplement to getting your 7-9 hours of sleep while boosting your energy and increasing your memory. For more information on our student ranked nap location on campus visit our Nap map.

Nutrition

During finals it may be hard to find the budget or enough time to cook or eat a balanced meal, but proper nutrition can help you function better and stay alert. Avoid stressing about what to eat during finals week by meal prepping healthy meals before finals week. Find more information about meal prepping and quick and easy recipes on the UC Davis Teaching Kitchen Pinterest.

• Avoid Caffeine: Caffeine, a chemical in coffee, colas, tea, and chocolate, causes hyperactivity and wakefulness which can be appealing during finals week in order to try and stay awake. It’s best to consume caffeine in the morning or early afternoon to avoid staying up too late and disrupting your sleep schedule.
• Cut down on alcohol: Alcohol is a depressant and can actually increase anxiety and induce stress. This means if you drink alcohol it can cause you to become more tired or cranky while studying/taking exams.
• Healthy Snacks: #PackASnack, a balanced snack can help you stay alert during long study sessions and boost your mood. Try bringing a balanced snack to your next study group or review session.
• Locations and Hours: Check out the new Food Access Map for more information about microwave locations, hours and food resources.

Hydration

Did you know that regularly drinking water improves brain function, helps prevent headaches and increases energy? Drinking the recommended daily eight 8-ounce glasses of water can be difficult for some. Try splitting the amount amongst your “to-do” list, or try setting an alarm on your phone as reminders! Here are some more hydration hacks as the temperatures start to rise in Davis. For more hydration tips visit our hydration blog.

• Start every day with water: Try making drinking water the first thing you do each day and before you know it you have incorporated it into your daily routine and created a healthy habit!
• Chase juice and caffeine with water: An easy way to stay hydrated and add in your recommended intake is to chase your juice, coffee, or any non-water drink, with water! This can also help dilute the added sugars and extra caffeine to help keep your body in a balance.
• Infuse your water: Mixing fruits or flavor to your water can help you reach your daily water intake goal by new flavors to your water. Also a great alternative to sugary drinks.
• Locations and Hours: Check out our H2O Hydration Map for hydration station locations on campus!

Movement

With so much going on, we understand that finding time for physical activity may seem like an impossible task. It is recommended to get about 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week. While that may seem like a lot, it breaks down to only 30 minutes of movement a day. Here are some ways to get in your daily 30 minutes of physical activity! For more information on how to include movement breaks while studying visit our active aggie blog.

• Stretching: Include 2-5 minutes of stretch breaks in between your studies to help you stay awake and alert. Your posture at a desk, on the floor or bed may be hurting your back and making you tense and stiff so this can also help blood circulation and aches.
• Walking: It has been shown that walking helps stimulate the brain and activate certain regions that help you do well on tests! Try adding walking breaks in your checklists as easy self-care study breaks.
• Leaving study environment: Whether it is walking, taking the stairs, stretching, biking or playing a game of sports, it is important to try and leave your study environment every once in a while as a study break. This change in environment can be refreshing and help you refocus while studying.

Stress Relief

College is a time that can be notoriously stressful especially during finals week. Along with studying rigorous material, we simultaneously juggle many other commitments such as jobs, relationships, newfound independence and more. Here are quick self-care tips to help alleviate some stress during finals week! For more tips on how to manage stress as a college student visit our stress blog.

• 50/10 Rule: Work in 50 minute chunks and use the last 10 minutes to give your body a break from the material that you have been studying.
• Meditation, music, and having fun: Make sure you are not spreading yourself too thin with your study schedule. Incorporate time for relaxation breaks whether that be yoga, walking, listening to music, or playing a board game with friends!
• Asking for help: Never be afraid to ask for help! Attend tutoring sessions, office hours and ask colleagues who have already taken the class or are doing well in the class for some help.
• Locations and Hours: Visit our Mental Health Map for self-care location and hours on campus.

Time management

Learning to balance your time is a tricky art – many students are juggling school, work, and extra-curriculars. On top of all that, students have to find time to get a healthy amount of sleep and physical activity, as well as maintain a balanced diet. Learning to master time management can be difficult, but with some tips and practice, it can be achieved by anyone! For more information about how to master time management visit our time management blog.

• Creating a checklist: Whether you have a day by day checklist or hour by hour checklist, try planning out what you want to study each day. Try to schedule some of the above self-care tips into your checklist to find time to create a balance between studying and taking self-care breaks. Here is an example of a weekly checklist:
• Prioritizing: Try prioritizing the easy and quick tasks first so you can feel accomplished, gain a momentum and motivation to tackle the more difficult and longer tasks. Keep in mind deadlines when doing this. You may want to set up your own personal deadline versus the actual deadline to give some cushion.
• Location and Hours: Here is a compiled list of great Studying Spaces on campus during finals week (it is updated at the end of each quarter).