5 easy ways to incorporate exercise in your daily routines

As a student I know that most of us won't always have the time or goodwill to go to the gym or to change clothes for exercising otherwise. While exercise is important for looking better and feeling better, I also often happen to wonder 'but when should I do that?' or 'meh, I don't want to dress up for that'. Therefore, I will now post some advices about incorporating exercise in things you do on a daily base, regardless of how much time you have. 

The first advice is to walk or ride your bike whenever you can. Of course, when it is raining cats and dogs, you are excused, but taking the bus on a sunny day while you only have a 10 minute walk or 5 minute bike ride ahead cannot be justified by anyone. A nice bonus is that you get to catch some sun, which means that your body receives vitamin D, which stimulates the production of calcium, which - in turn - is good for your bones, nails, and teeth. 

The second thing to do is to replace the elevators and escalators by stairs. Sure, for a 10 floor building, you may start out with walking only half of the stairs and then continue by elevator/escalator, but in a 4 floor building there is no excuse unless you are in a wheelchair or bound to walking with crutches. 

My third advice is something I tried out myself. Given that you can stand the looks of people when they see you doing it, you might hold your bottles of water in your hands and train your biceps as you walk.Simply buy or fill two 0.5 litre bottles with water and hold one in each of your hands. Then, when you walk on your left foot you train your right biceps and the other way round. Once you arrived at your destination, drink the water. Because it is good for you. 

The fourth thing you might do is for when you stand in a queue or in the bus/train.Squeeze your butt, hold it for a few seconds and then relax again. It is fairly simple and nobody has to see you doing it when it is crowded or when you stand strategically, but you will see results if you manage to do this a couple of times on a daily base! 

Last but not least: your abs! You can train them by squeezing them all day long. Doing this will give you a better posture, a slimmer silhouette and you also train your abdominal muscles to become slightly stronger. Although the real thing is doing sit-ups, this exercise is effective for those do not want to lie down on the floor. 

So, what do you do to stay in shape? Do you make the most of little moments like I do or do you plan actual exercises and gym sessions? Let me know! 

How to prepare for a job / admission interview

The time of the year is there to apply for summer internships, summer jobs, college programs and so on. Usually, interviews will be part of the admission procedure, regardless of what you apply for. This post will mainly be about preparing yourself for the contents of the interview and not so much about your appearance during the interview because although your appearance is important, the contents may be more important.

First thing to do is to find which person(s) within the organization is/are going to interview you. Knowing this is useful so that you can search for this/these person(s) on the Internet to get an idea of his/her/their interests and activities. Once you know this, you can tailor your interests to fit his/hers/theirs. It may also make you less nervous to know who sits opposite of you. 

The second thing to do is find out what you can add to (a department) the organization. For an employer or university, it is important to know what you can add to their organization so that they can see whether your needs match theirs. If they have a certain need and you happen to be able to bring them that need, there is a perfect match between their needs and yours. During the interview, knowing what you can add also gives fuel to a discussion about which person(s) within the organization can help you add your knowledge and skills to the organization.

And of course, the things mentioned above can be found on the  Internet.

Thirdly, you may want to print stuff. Your motivational letter and résumé you submitted are the documents they go by when preparing the interview with you, so you will look more prepared if you printed your own stuff compared to "excuse me, may I take a look at the letter you have there?" Your printed documents may also serve as a reminder during the interview.

Fourth, now that you have taken a look at the documents you have submitted, put yourself in the shoes of those who are going to interview you and consider what they might ask based upon those documents. Which things may require further explanation? Are there things unclear in your letter or résumé? Be prepared to answer this kind of questions, because they will be asked. 

Potentially other relevant documents for me.

Fifth, after printing the documents you have submitted, also take other possibly relevant documents with you.  Diplomas and certificates are evidence for what you have written down on your résumé or in your letter. They may also serve as another reminder of things they may ask about. It may, for example, be helpful to have a list of your study results with you in case questions arise about it during the interview. Seeing the course name and the grade your teacher gave you may also help you remind how you obtained that grade.

The last thing to do seems like a no-brainer, but take notes of everything you might be asked about as you are preparing yourself for the interview. Write down key-words that just must be used in your answers and also take notes of the questions that arise from your side as you are getting ready. One reason for doing this is that you will definitely forget some of the things you wanted to say/ask as you sit there. The nerves will grab you, empty your brain, and make you lose some of your memory. The other reason is, again, that you come across prepared. Coming across prepared is always a plus, because in your work and study, you will also have to be prepared for tasks. Being prepared also shows interest in the function/position and the organization. 

These are my tips for preparing for the contents of a job/application interview. Have you ever been so nervous during an interview that you forgot what you wanted to say/ask? Have you done some of the above for interviews or maybe you have never even had an interview yet in your life? Let me know! 

5 reasons to dress up ...

... as soon as you leave your house/(dorm) room.

We all have those days that we just do not feel like dressing up. May be you were late, or you just want to dress comfortable. Regardless of the reason why you may not feel like it, it is important to dress up whenever you leave your place because of the following reasons.

First, you will really feel better when you dressed up. My personal mantra is: "Dress well, feel well". If I have a bad day and I am not dressed well, I feel twice as bad as when I have a bad day while being dressed up fine. 

Did I have a bad day? Can't remember, but I felt good because I was dressed up! 

Second, you never know whom you run into. It can be the cute guy from your English Literature class or the head of the admission committee from the special honours programme you wanted to apply for. In either case, you will want to hit your head against a wall if you walk around with your just-out-of-bed look. 

Imagine some hot dude sitting here while you are wearing your oldest, least charming clothes.

Third, you simply look better. If you are dressed up in class, you show respect to the teacher, because not only you are present, but you also bothered to give your teacher or professor something better to look at than a scarecrow. If you have an appointment scheduled for that day, you show respect for the person with whom you have the appointment. Of course, no need to go all formal, but just make sure you wear clothes! 

Fourth, it is important to distinguish night-clothes from day-clothes. As comfortable as your nightwear is, most of it is just not made to be worn at daytime. Most of my nightwear is too cold, too sporty, or too [insert anything making it unsuitable] for daytime. Under my blankets, a simple tunic is fine, but without them, I become an ice-brick at the spot! 

I don't like wearing thick clothes at night, so if I'd jump out of my window with the snow here, I'd freeze! 

Fifth is related the above: changing clothes for your hygiene. All girls must have read at least a couple of times in their lives that it is important to cleanse your face before you are going to sleep. The same goes for your clothes: change them when you get out of bed. I sweat a lot of night and I would not feel fresh if I wore my night-clothes to class. 

These are my reasons for dressing up during daytime. Do you dress up when you have to leave your place? Are you going to change the bad habit of not dressing up for leaving your place after reading this? Let me know! 

4 things not to do during study breaks

When I wrote my post about what to do during a study break, I felt tempted to write also about what not to do, so here is the follow-up with four advices addressing this issue. 

The first thing you should not do during your study breaks is going on the computer, unless you have iron discipline. Facebook, twitter, and all your other favourite websites provide more distraction than you are aware of, and before you know, your 10-minute break becomes a 40-minute break. Despite all this, computers and Internet may be necessary in order to study. In that case, download everything you need to your harddisk or an external memory and shut off the Internet for the time you plan to study.

The second thing is slightly related to the above. As much as you want to reward yourself with an episode of your favourite TV series halfway through the day, it is wiser to save these up for the evening. Your break is at best 10-15 minutes: long enough to empty your mind, but not so long that you get so distracted and your mind gets set to very different things. Episodes of TV series usually take 40-45 minutes to watch, which is far outside the 10-15 minutes range.

Next is staying in the same room as where you are studying. Being surrounded by your textbooks and lecture notes will not help you relax, so it is better to get away from them. If you really insist on staying inside  the room, then turn your back on your books. 

Last but not least, avoid stressful people during your study breaks. Avoid the people who always complain about things. All these complaints have a very demotivational effect on you that is likely to keep you from studying when your break is over. Also avoid stressful people because stress is contagious and another thing that inhibits good study behaviour. 

This was my post on what not to do during study breaks. What do you do when you take a break from studying? What do you avoid to do? Is there something else people should avoid during study breaks, according to you? 

A little note in between ...

Dear reader(s),

I am sorry for not having updated much the past week. Unfortunately, my schedule for the next few weeks turns out weirder and busier than I thought, so I will not be able to update more often than once or twice a week. I expect to post my updates on Sundays. It's simple: university course work and other work have higher priority for me than my blog. If you have something you want me to write about, let me know, but I cannot promise I will incorporate your ideas immediately. Same goes for comments: I cannot promise I will approve them the day you write them. Feel free to take the time and read the posts that are up already and I will update next Sunday! 

Greetings, 

your busy college student.

Professionalize yourself online

Today, almost everyone spends time online and almost everyone has at least one personal niche on the web where they profile themselves. This is often a social network site, like Facebook or Twitter, but it is also common to have blogs on WordPress, Blogspot or even a website of your own.  It is therefore not unthinkable that people go look you up on the internet when you are going to apply for an internship or a job. I happen to know the lives of some people on my Twitter timeline from minute to minute, which can be amusing for the followers, but which also gives away very much about yourself. The people in companies and businesses who check the online profiles also try to analyse your personality based on what they find on your profiles. So, if you often complain loudly and with swear words about your jobs and lectures, they may consider you inapt for the labour market in general. Hence why I decided to give a few tips about professionalizing yourself online. 

It is best to start searching for yourself on the web first. Try different search entries, such as first name + last name + hometown, your e-mail address(es), and some other combinations of tags by which you are easily identifiable and findable. If you come across 'unwanted' profiles of yourself, delete them or, less rigorously,  (temporarily) deactivate them. I just found a LiveJournal profile of myself that hosted immature stuff from when I was a teenager, I immediately copy-pasted the posts into private documents and deleted the profile. My stories are safe, yet they are not openly readable to everyone. It is also important to browse yourself from time to time. When I googled myself a few months ago, my LiveJournal did not show up in the search result, but today it did. 

Now that you have searched yourself on the web and deleted unwanted information, it is time to take a look at the profiles that you wish you keep active and that you cannot live without. Facebook has an option that allows you to view your profile as it is shown to the public or to specific friends. Analyse all visible information: what do you want your future employers to know immediately about you and what not? Do you want them to see you lying on the beach in bikini? Do you want them to see you pole dancing on the bar the one night in your life you were drunk? Does it add something to you if your future employer knows how often you declare your love to Robert Pattinson on your wall? To all these questions, the answer is probably no. You either delete these things from your profile or you change your privacy settings so that only your friends can see these things. What you do want your future employers to see, however, is a curriculum vitae or résumé. I personally have my settings so that they can see my education and work experience. In the following picture you can see what my Facebook profile looks like to non-friends. No posts, no wall, just an overview of where I worked what I did there.  

On Twitter, you can protect your tweets, that is, your settings are such that only those you approved as followers will be able to read them. Of course, you might as well just think before you post. Once online is always online, after all. Keep in mind that you decide what others can see! Check your settings and deliberate who you want to see what of your online profiles. 

So, you have cleaned and cleared your social network profiles (at least, I hope you have, or maybe you were one of those wise people who never had everything visible to everyone). Now it is time to have a look at your e-mail addresses. angelofhell@hotmail.com or pinkpetals@gmail.com sound cute and might say something about who you are as a person, but in professional contexts, it is better to have a more professional address, based on your name(s), initials, and/or date/year of birth. My university gives every student a university e-mail address, based on initials and your surname. You may use this, but you have to be aware that there will be one day that your university mail address is no longer for you.

Now comes the real thing, the thing that shows the world that you are grown-up and mature, that you are ready for serious internships or the labour market. The most well-known website that hosts millions of résumés and CVs of people all over the world. LinkedIn. I was joking about the grown-up and mature thing, but it is a great place to show the world what you are capable of and what you have done in the past. It allows you to provide the world detailed descriptions of your education, (volunteer) work experience,  extra courses you have taken, internships, theses, publications, languages, skills and expertise, and projects you have participated in. LinkedIn is basically a website that shows an extended résumé of yourself and where you can connect with teachers, classmates, (former) co-workers, and other people who work in your field. Since it comes down to sharing strictly professional and educational experiences, it is perfectly safe to add all of your teachers and colleagues. I love LinkedIn because it lets me connect with teachers from university without having to show them my holiday pictures. 

What you see in the picture above is a short summary of my LinkedIn profile. But you still are not done. It is also important to check your settings your Google or Yahoo or whichever cloud services you use. Imagine you save your holiday photos in Picasa (using Google cloud services here because I use them most frequently), but you have them set to be visible to everyone. Unwanted situation, of course. The same goes for Google Docs. You just do not want your future employer to know about your Hunger Games fanfiction or your online diary about how much you hate how a course is taught in your university without giving any constructive criticism for improvement! The same goes for any blog, photo sharing, and whatever services  are provided online. Just check your settings and change them if they might yield undesired results. Congratulations! Now you can profile yourself online without concern.

Last but not least, it is important to know that it may occur that people from inside the companies try to befriend you so that they can check more of your profile. It is thus important to only add people if you have met them in real life and if you are sure that you are going to work for the company. You do not want to be refused in the end because some HR person you have never met shared your bar and beach pictures with your no-longer future boss? 

Do you have a LinkedIn profile already? What are your settings for Facebook and Twitter? Do you think twice before you put stuff online? Have you looked yourself up on the web already? How did that feel for you? Let me know! 

How to organize yourself and your college stuff

We all know that awkward moment when you stand in front of your door and you realized you forgot your key. We also know that moment that you were convinced that you had your books packed for class and that, once in class, it turned out you did not have them with you. This exactly why organization is important, but sometimes it is difficult to awake the discipline inside yourself and actually start getting organized. There are different tips and tricks and today I will share some of my own with you. In an earlier post, I gave tips for saving room. Some of these tips might complement the tips from that post. 

Files can hold very much paperwork and protect it at the same time. In Dutch, they are called ordners, and for a reason. Not only can you easily and chronologically order your stuff in the files, but with tabs, you can also make sections for the paper work of each course. No more searching for old lecture notes or papers that might be handy for a follow-up course. As long as you file everything, you will not loose anything! I always keep lecture notes with the printed powerpoint slides of that lecture and add the readings to them, so that I have everything ordered by class session.

In order to know which documents are in which files, you need to use labels. You can keep them very general, such as 'Bachelor, year 1' or 'Master', but if you need several files for one semester or year, it might be wise to label them by course. I have, in fact, gone as far as to label them in the same order as they are in my files: 

I also value mail partitions. Sometimes you get mail that you only have to store, other times you get mail that requires you to undertake some action, such as transferring money to another bank account. Or maybe you just want to have papers within reach of your arm, regardless of what it is and how often you really need it. Mail partitions are the solution, as long as you use one shelf for each type of mail or documents. This should also help you keep track of your private finances. 

It is also tempting to make a mess of the drawers inside your desk. I know all about it and the only solution is to keep your discipline, so that your drawers will keep looking like this: 

Note the divider between the front and the back of the drawer. This way you can also keep things and items for different purposes separate from each other. 

I also like to keep my books together. When you read a series such as Twilight, Harry Potter, Hunger Games, or Gossip Girl, this is fairly easy, but with college textbooks, you might need to rethink your methods. While you can order by colour, I prefer to order them by general, overarching topics, so I keep methodology and statistics books together, I have a section for psychology books, a section for interpersonal and conversational skills, and so on. 

Last but not least, we often forget stuff because we start packing at the very last moment. It is therefore wise to keep a look on the clock and pack your bag the night before your 9 am class next morning. It is an advice my 7th grade tutor gave me, when my class was fresh in junior high school and still afraid to forget books because forgetting something could result in expulsion and detention. In college, no teacher will remove you from class when you forget something, but for yourself it is handier to be prepared. So, pack your stuff in time so that you can remain organized outdoors, after the aforementioned indoor organization advices. 

What do you do to stay organized? Or is your (part of your dorm) room an 'organized chaos'? Do you have other tips to become and remain organized? We probably all have our own ways, so everyone gets wiser by the exchange of information ;)