The 80:20 Rule!!!!!!!!

Dear student,

Vidyalankar would like to contribute positively in helping you achieve the success. You are only a month away from your exams; hence the most important thing now is how you manage your time to get the best results.

This is neatly summed up by the '80:20 Rule'.

This argues that typically 80% of unfocussed effort generates only 20% of results. The remaining 80% of results are achieved with only 20% of the effort. This ensures that one achieves the greatest benefit within the limited amount of time spent.
Concentrate on results, not on being busy.

Many people spend their days in a frenzy of activity, but achieve very little because they are not concentrating on the right things at the right time.

Find out How Much Your Time is Worth

The first part of your focus on results should be to work out how much your time costs. This helps you to see if you are spending your time profitably. Calculate how much your time is worth. This helps you to work out whether it is worth doing a particular job’.


Vidyalankar wishes you

‘The Very Best for CAT’.

7 Essential Skills for Employment

In this highly competitive economy, employers are looking for workers who can do more than just fill a vacancy - they are looking for people who can help them grow. While any job has a specific skill set associated with it, companies want workers with "evergreen" job skills that are always useful in changing times.

1. Research skills
Nobody has all the information they'll ever need in their head (or on their desk) already, but if you know how to do research, you'll always be able to find the information in a timely manner.

2. Logic and reason
Every company runs into problems, and those problems need to be solved. A firm grasp of logic and reason will make you an invaluable asset.

3. Technological literacy
Computers have taken over the workplace, and every worker needs to have at least a basic level of skill and comfort with modern technology, just to be able to function.
You don't need to have a degree or special training in computers or information technology, but you'll be expected to have a basic level of ability to work with computers.

4. Communication skills
Every job will require you to communicate with other people, in speaking and often in writing as well. Employers are interested in workers who can express themselves clearly in their dealings with supervisors, underlings and co-workers.

5. Organization
A messy desk may be acceptable (though it is never recommended), but a messy approach to your work is never something an employer is looking for. You'll probably have to do a lot of different tasks, each with a different schedule and deadline, and being able to organize your work is crucial.

6. Interpersonal skills
Every workplace has people in it, and those people often have different personalities and temperaments. Being able to work well with others, and communicate across barriers of culture and personality is necessary.

7. Career-minded orientation
If you don't know where you're headed, neither does your company. Having a plan for your own career will make your employer more willing to help you achieve your goals since they will benefit from your growth.

These skills aren't the only ones that you'll need for your specific job, but they are skills that will make you an asset to any employer, and serve you well in any position that you'll find yourself in.

Concentration Techniques

1.Jot down things that are on your mind before you study.

2.Study at the same time each day. A regular schedule can help you frame this as “study time”.

3.Set a timer for an hour, don't allow yourself to stop studying until it goes off.

4.Take breaks. A three minute break for every 30 minutes of study is a good guideline. Take a longer break after 90 minutes.

5.When you have met one of your study goals, reward yourself with a short break. Then, return to your study area.

6.Study in an area away from distractions such as a library, study lounge, or an empty classroom.

7.Make sure you have everything that you need before you begin.

8.Make sure your environment is conducive to studying, no TV, no telephone, no roommate, no boyfriend/girlfriend.

9.Combine different kinds of study into one session, e.g. reading, writing, taking notes, memorizing, etc.

10.Identify how what you are studying is relevant to your life. Draw connections between things you already know.

11.Insure that you are sleeping enough, eating well, and getting regular exercise. Your mind will be more alert,and you will be less likely to fall asleep or daydream.

Time Management Tips

“Lost time is never found again.”
Benjamin Franklin

Time is the biggest asset for us and we should utilize it effectively and productively. These are just some simple ideas that can save your time and help you work more effectively.

1. Utilize “productive procrastination”
Procrastination doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing if you use it to delay working on low priority tasks that may not need to be done at all. Wait until a task becomes important enough to deserve your time before you work on it.

2. Ask questions
Asking questions can be an effective tool to help keep you on track. Whenever you are unsure of what to do next, just ask yourself “What is the most valuable use of my time right now?”

3. Apply the 80/20 rule
The 80/20 rule states that 20% of your tasks account for 80% of the value in your to-do list. Some tasks have a much greater return on your investment of time and energy than others. Use prioritization to identify and focus your time on these high payoff tasks.

4. Avoid attempting to do too much
While it is good to balance important long-term projects with urgent tasks, you can take this too far. If you spread your time and energy over too many different projects, you may not be able to make meaningful progress on any of them. Good time management often requires that you focus your time on a smaller set of objectives.

5. Use your energy cycles
We all have times in our day when we feel productive and other times when we feel sluggish. Use these highs and lows to your advantage. Get complex and mentally challenging tasks done during your energy highs. During the lows, take care of low priority, routine, or non-challenging tasks.

Life Skills!!!!!

Self-awareness is useful to us throughout our lives and the ability to self-reflect is particularly useful in an educational environment.

In simple terms self-awareness is about trying to understand who we really are and why we do the things we do, in the way that we do them. By becoming a bit more self-aware we can gain a greater degree of control over how we are operating in the present, instead of reacting to something conditioned by our past.
Much of the learning we undertake these days encourages us to look at our responses to the work we do, reflect upon them, and then develop our ideas further.

By understanding ourselves better we can:

•gain more control
•be more flexible and confident in our approach
•help ourselves deal with challenges in a more positive and less anxious way
•interact better, communicate more effectively, and understand our relationships with others more fully
•make better decisions
•reduce our stress levels
•get more out of life

Some steps to gaining self-awareness

•Talk to friends and other people whose opinions we value.
•Make a list of our strengths and weaknesses: knowing more about ourselves including our weaknesses can often allow us to turn them into strengths. Listing our strengths can help us feel good about ourselves!
•Start recognizing different ‘parts of yourself’: we are made up of many different feelings, thoughts and behaviors depending upon the situation; it can be helpful to think, beforehand, about the way we might respond to a given situation. Also it can be valuable to reflect, or think about our responses
• It can be useful if we can put ourselves in another person’s shoes and try to look at what is happening from their point of view. This can help us try to understand how the other person might be viewing something, and help us when we communicate with them.
• Think about body language and those other subtle messages we send and pick up. If we are with someone, what are we communicating by the way we are: do we try too hard; are we a bit diffident or uninterested; or do we appear confident and comfortable?

Top Ten Stress Relievers for Students!!!!!!

Most students experience significant amounts of stress, but with all of the activities and responsibilities that fill a student’s schedule, it’s sometimes difficult to find the time to try new stress relievers to help dissipate that stress. That’s why we’ve compiled the following list of stress relievers that are most appropriate for students: relatively easy, quick, and relevant to a student’s life and types of stress. They’ll help you to function at your best, and enjoy the journey.

1. Power Naps
Students, with their packed schedules, are notorious for missing sleep. Unfortunately, operating in a sleep-deprived state puts you at a distinct disadvantage. You’re less productive, you may find it more difficult to learn, and you may even be a hazard behind the wheel!

2. Visualizations
This one is easy, effective, and can help you to do better in school. Visualizations can help you calm down, detach from what’s stressing you, and turn off your body’s stress response. You can also use visualizations to prepare for presentations, to stress less and score higher on tests by vividly seeing yourself performing just as you’d like to.

3. Exercise
One of the healthiest ways to blow off steam is to get a regular exercise program going. Students can work exercise easily into their schedules by doing yoga in the morning, walking or biking to campus, or reviewing for tests with a friend while walking on a treadmill at the gym. Starting now and keeping a regular exercise practice throughout your lifetime can help you live longer and enjoy your life more.

4. Breathing Exercise
When your body is experiencing a stress response, you’re often not thinking as clearly as you could be. A quick way to calm down is to practice breathing exercises. These can be done virtually anywhere to relieve stress in minutes, and are especially effective for reducing anxiety before or even during tests, as well as during other times when stress feels overwhelming.

5. PMR
Another great stress reliever that can be used during tests as well as before bed (to prepare for sleep), or at other times when stress has you physically ‘wound up’, is something called Progressive Muscle Relaxation, or PMR. This technique involves tensing and relaxing all muscles until the body is completely relaxed. With practice, you can learn to release stress from your body in seconds.

6. Music
A convenient stress reliever that has also shown many cognitive benefits, music can help you to relieve stress and either calm yourself down or stimulate your mind as your situation warrants. Students can harness the benefits of music by playing classical music while studying, playing upbeat music to ‘wake up’ mentally, or relaxing with the help of their favorite slow melodies.

7. Staying Organized
It’s a fact that clutter causes stress, and can decrease productivity and even cost you money! Many students live in a cluttered place and even have cluttered study areas, and this can have negative effects on grades. One way to reduce the amount of stress that you experience as a student is to keep a minimalist, soothing study area that’s free of distractions and clutter. It’s worth the effort!

8. Eat Right
You may not realize it, but your diet can either boost your brain power or sap you of mental energy! While a healthy diet isn’t generally thought of as a stress management technique or a study aid, it can actually function as both! Read more on the consequences of a poor diet, and learn how to relieve stress with a healthy diet. It takes virtually no extra time, and can keep you from experiencing diet-related mood swings, light-headedness and more.

9. Self Hypnosis
Students often find themselves ‘getting very sleepy’ (like when they pull all-nighters), but—all kidding aside—self hypnosis can be an effective stress management tool and a power productivity tool as well. With it, you can help yourself release tension from your body and stress from your mind, and plant the seeds of success in your subconscious mind with the power of autosuggestion.

10. Positive Thinking and Affirmations
Did you know that optimists actually experience better circumstances, in part, because their way of thinking helps to create better circumstances in their lives? It’s true! The habit of optimism and positive thinking can bring better health, better relationships, and, yes, better grades. Learn how to train your brain for more positive self talk and a brighter future with affirmations and other tools for optimism.

Source-Internet

HOW TO CRACK COMPETITIVE EXAMS???

Fortunately or unfortunately, competitive exams have become a strict norm for selection to various professional courses in our country. The need to win or succeed in competitive exams is a must to have a successful career in developing countries like India. The competition is intense for exams. In such a scenario, everyone wants to succeed.

Some crack these competitive exams with ease and confidence. But to many success is not guaranteed even after repeated attempts attended with hard preparation. This indicates more emphasis towards the mindset besides hard work required. We also need a proper approach and strategy for the preparation.

Keeping this background in mind, let us explore how one can succeed in these competitive exams:-

1) Definite decision to target or achieve the goal:-
As a foremost thing, set up a desired score (say-99%) or the order of rank (say within-1st to 10th rank) you wish to achieve in the competitive exam. This step brings a clear clarity of what marks or score you need to achieve in the exam.

2) Definite plan to make up the target:-
Once the target is set, assess how much of target or score you can make up by your present or current standards. This can be affirmed by solving a previous exams paper of i.e. past papers within the stipulated time. Once you solve them, evaluate the answers yourself honestly by referring to previous answers i.e. key released after previous exam.

Having known your standards, know the syllabus you need to cover in entirety for the competitive exams. Fix up a time to cover the syllabus and maximum possible number of times to revise the covered syllabus.

3) Amendment of plan to achieve target:-
One should cover the subjects keeping syllabus in to consideration. Some chapter may appear tough and time taking to process, then you cover it as briefly as possible and go to next. The briefly covered chapters become easy for your minds to process next time.

4) Revise and Revise:-
Once syllabus is covered go for revision as many times as possible with constant evaluation of your standard by solving previous question papers after each revision.

Have A Right Mindset!!!
Happy Preparing!!!