Personal Skills

Priority Setting

http://paigefaulkner.blogspot.com/2012/06/priorities.html
Assignments are due tomorrow; presentation is the day after, appointment with
friends tonight. Sounds familiar? So many things to do but yet so little time to do it?
These are the normal occurrence that happens in the university students life. Ever
wonder how to multitask and finish all the tasks given and still left with ample of
time for yourself to relax and enjoy? Below are some of the tips that one needs to
follow to finish all the tasks given:
1. Be Aware of how you spend your time now
This step is for you to be aware about how much time you are spending on
different tasks every day. By knowing the amount of time spent, you may be
able to allocate your time better on more important stuff by reducing the time
spent on other trivial matters.
2. Determine and identify your goals
Everyone has goals in life. As for you, your goals are to accomplish the entire
task given by the lecturer. Always set your goals in finishing your assignments
and presentations first before setting other goals as a student. You may ask a
few questions:
-What is important in my life right now?
-Where do I spend most of my time?
-Where do I spend less of my time in?
-What areas that require my attention now?
3. Get specific
Once goals are set, you should focus on identifying specific steps on how to
accomplish these set goals. Be specific by writing down specific actions which
needs to be taken and a time frame to accomplish them. You are advice to
prepare a to-do-list.

4. Keep your focus and accomplish them

Once specific tasks are set, you should focus on adhering to the to-do-list.
Follow closely what you have set and accomplish them in the time given.
However in reality it is hard to do it, always think back why you set these
goals in the first place and visualize what are the feelings and problems
encountered when doing things in the last minute.
5. Reward yourself
Once you have accomplished the task given, always reward yourself. After
doing so, continue setting new priorities in life in order to scale greater
heights.
Organizational Skills

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Organizational skills are one of the skills that help you get things organized.
This skill facilitates oneself to set things straight and enjoy the benefit of
managing things accordingly. It helps you accomplish a task before a specific
time and date.
1. Develop goals and specific task

Start from setting a clear direction on how to complete a specific task

given. One must be flexible because the situation will always surprise us.
With this, one must use their analytical skills in dealing with the situation.
2. Create a schedule and list of responsibilities
By creating a schedule and list of responsibilities, one can achieve the
target set easily. The schedule is a guideline for us to keep track on the
accomplishment of the task. The responsibilities list is for us to keep track
on who and what task they should be doing to complete the task at hand.
3. Recheck the task given
Always come back to check on the accomplishment of the tasks given.
Make sure that youve delegated the job properly and everyone is doing
their part based on the job specification given. Make necessary changes if
needed.
4. Other skills
Organizational skills are correlated with leadership skills. One has to be a
leader in order to possess good organizational skills. Besides, it also works
together with time management skills, communication skills, problem
solving and decision making skills. One has to learn these skills in their
university years in order to be efficient in future undertakings.
Time Management Skills

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Ever wonder why we always say there is not enough time. Everyone has 24
hours a day but it is how we manage our time that makes us efficient in our
work. This brings to us the most important skills which is time management.
1. Be vigilant that we only have 24 hours a day
Most of us take our life for granted. We say it is another day, so we still
have time. Sounds familiar? We should never take time lightly because
once the time has passed, it will never come back. So focus on the things
you should do by following the second point.
2. Prioritize
Prioritizing can help a person to assess what is important and unimportant.
Always focus on the most important task to be accomplished. How to know
which is important as we have many things to do? Always refer back to
your priority list and then put more time on the task.
3. Plan your day ahead and make a schedule
Always make a plan, be it for a year, month, week or even day. Make sure
it is well-planned with specific tasks written on it. One can always keep
track on it by using a calendar.
4. Make some free time
Always set some free dates for any unprecedented situation. This is
important because sometimes problems arise and we need time to finish
the task. So always plan wisely on the task given.
5. Be disciplined
After planning, one has to be disciplined to follow it. Discipline comes when
one has clear goals and tasks to accomplish and they are aware of what
will hinder them from achieving these goals and tasks. It requires a person
to have self-control and patience to see through that the task is
completed.
6. Learn to say no
Students need to learn to say no when additional unimportant tasks are
given. Always stick to your priority and do not clutter yourself with
unnecessary things. Learn to be selective in things you do that carry more
weight in your benefit.
7. Evaluate
After a year has passed, always evaluate on your year, month, week and
day planning. This is essential for you to develop an even more effective
plan for next year.

Stress Management

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/celestinechua/15125394735
Stress is the feeling you get when you cant cope with things that you are not
capable of. When you are stress, you are prone to experience various bad effects
such as headache, increase heartbeat, upset stomach, back pain and trouble
sleeping that is detrimental to your general well-being. It will also make you moody,
depressed and tense. Thus, below are the steps that can help you to lessen stress.

1. Identify the source of stress

Firstly, you should identify the source of stress that occurs in your life. It may
be because of our own perception, thoughts and feelings. Search for the
source and try to tackle the problem there and then to reduce your stress
level.
2. Avoid unnecessary stress
When a stressful situation arises, there are various ways to avoid them. One
can learn to say no to a situation that may cause you stress. Besides, do not
get too close to people who are easily stressed out. By getting too close to
them, it will affect us and cause us to be even more stress.
3. Take control of situation

Whenever you are in stressful situation, assess the situation and take full
control of the problem. You should know what you are expecting out of the
situation and make necessary changes to alter the situation to suit you.
4. Manage your time wisely
Often than not, we are cluttered with tons of tasks that leads us to feel
stressful. This boils down to how we manage our time wisely. Try to not
procrastinate when a task is given and complete it as soon as possible. Try to
say no to activities that may hamper your schedule.
5. Think positive
When we face a stressful situation, always think positive and cling on to it.
You can take a deep breath and reflect on all your blessings that have been
showered on you. Be appreciative and this can help you to reduce stress.
6. Adjust your standard
When we face stress, it may be because our perfectionist behavior. So, we
should adjust our expectation by lowering it down a little. This will help us
breathe easier and thus help us to better manage stress. This will also be a
guiding point for us for future reference when we set our target.
7. Share your feelings
Try to share your problems with friends that are understanding and willing to
listen. Never bottle down all your feelings because eventually one will
explode. Remember dont feel shy to open up your feelings because you may
never know what advice others might give in return. Do not ever think that
you are a loser and it will burden other people when you share your feelings.
8. Willing to compromise
Sometimes, as a human being, we are generally very stubborn in getting
things we want. So, we should try to compromise on things to have things a
little simple. We should change our stubborn behavior and try to accept things
as they are.
9. Acceptance and just do it
When we know that there is no chance for compromise in a particular
situation, we should just accept the situation and do it without question.
10.Exercise
Always do some light exercise, for at least 30 minutes 3 times a week. Try to
find time even in a busy schedule because health is wealth. Exercise can help
you to release tension and also improve your health.
11.Relaxation
Do spend time for relaxation purposes. You can meditate to relax yourself.
This is the time where you can relax yourself from earthly worries and stress
which ultimately leads you to be a calmer person that sees things differently.

12.Socialize
In the world we are living in, no man is an island. We should socialize to learn
more about other people and share together with their joy and happiness to
brighten up our days. Focus on topics especially our hobbies that will make
you enjoy and be happy when surrounded with people. Sharing jokes with
others will also make us laugh to vend off unnecessary stress.
Decision making and Problem Solving Skills

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Every day we faced issues which may be minor or even major. We have to solve
these problems with good decision making and problem solving skills. Once it is
solved, we will feel more relieved and happy. Below are a few ways to solve a
problem.
1. Identify the problem

Many of the time, we faced problem because of external forces. Sometimes,

we create unnecessary problem for ourselves. For a start, we should know
what the problem sources are by evaluating the information or situation
arises. You can use the W-H questions to state the nature of the problems to
define the problem well before solving them.
2. Evaluate the problem
This step needs you to evaluate the problem in details .The details will lead
you into brainstorming for more options to solve the problem. You can always
seek help from others when evaluating the problem because others might be
more experience and perhaps have gone through the same problems before.
3. Identify alternatives and options
So once you have evaluated the problems from different perspectives, you
can list down all the possible solutions to solve the problems. The solutions
might be general or a detailed one. The detailed solutions are better than
general ones because you have already formed the step by step on how to
solve the problems. Also, identify the effects and also the resources needed
for each solution. Besides that, consider whether the solution is realistic and
what risks are involved.
4. Choose the alternatives and options
After considering all the alternatives, choose the most effective solution that
can solve the problem. You should consider whether this is a long term or
short term solution. This is where your decision making skills come into place.
5. Resolve the problem
After choosing the best alternative, resolve the problem by implementing it.
Bear in mind that during implementation, it will never be smooth going. Thus,
we should be flexible and quick minded in altering these solutions to best
solve the problem.
6. Evaluate the result
This step requires you to evaluate the pro and cons of the solution
implemented. Review the steps again as if the situation has just occured and
fine tune the steps for future references.

Studies Skills
Getting the most from Lecture

http://bit.ly/1ycSCUj
Lecture is a time where a structure talk will be given on a particular subject of a
field. In most cases, students find it tough to understand during a lecture. Lectures
are conducted weekly, with the intention to provide an introduction on a subject.
Then, these lectures will be expanded into tutorial with further readings, discussion
through presentation, essay writing to further gauge the topic. Below are some
steps to prepare you to get the most out from a lecture:
a) Before Lecture
-Do some reading before the class on the topic
-Complete all your prior assignments and works
-Come to class with complete materials, notes and books
b) During Lecture
-Get to class early to choose the comfortable seats
-Jot down notes beside lecture notes for further understanding
-Bring your own tape recorder and camera ready mobile phones
-Focus on what the lecturers is talking
-Always ask questions on things you need clarification

c) After Lecture
-Ask your friends for points that you missed out and quickly copy the notes
them down
-Ask your lecturers for more clarification if needed
-Do reflection on the notes
-Review the notes before next weeks lecture
Studies skills

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There are various skills to improve your achievement as a student. These are the
skills that you can master in order to assist you in exceling in your exam.
1. Know yourself
As a student, you should know yourself better in terms of behaviors,
personalities and preferences. From there, you can draft your plan to improve
your study skills. By knowing yourself, you can set your preferred study
environment, place, style and so on. Besides that, one can choose which
learning style is more suited for them. There are many learning styles such as
visual, auditory, logical, social and so on.

2. Prepare all your materials

As a student, you need to prepare all your materials needed. You need to
separate all the notes according to their course. It is also advisable to put
colour coding for lecture notes to separate them. Besides, one must place
them in places that are easily traceable. Also prepare more reading materials
that are relevant to your subject.
3. Use the best note taking system
Students should try to use short notes when studying. It is important as there
is no way that we can read the contents just from the lecture notes. Try to use
colour when creating short notes as it can help one to remember better.
4. Know the best time of your study
As a student, everyone will have the best time when they are most alert, be it
in the morning, afternoon, evening or night. Choose your time wisely
preferably when you are fresh and focus. Also never study when you are
extremely tired.
5. Study often but with breaks
Always study around 20 to 30 minutes and then have a short break after that.
This is essential because studies have shown that a normal human cannot
focus more than 20 minutes. You can always start by studying the hardest
subject and then proceed to the easiest because your focus and attention is
at tip top condition when you start.
6. Reflective study
Always reflect on what you have studied and the same goes for after a lecture
class. Reflective study can help us to evaluate a particular subject differently.
More often than not, we can come out with ideas on the topic and then we
can seek clarification from our lecturers.
7. Study in group
Students can always study with a group of friends to compliment individual
study. Studying in groups may provide benefits like getting to know more
information from other points of view, gain clarification from others, or even
help other students with your inputs. Overall, group studying is a win-win
situation.
8. Do not procrastinate
Never procrastinate when studying, even though there are many other things
to do. Always focus on what is your objective and visualize what
consequences you will get if you do not achieve good results in your exam.
This will drive you to study and strive for better results.
Reading Skills

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http://bit.ly/14YxDZu
Often when we open our files of notes, we will feel terrified and worried because of
the amount of notes that we need to read. This is where reading skills come handy
to help you to search for the important points to read.
1. Do some initial browsing
Always start by reading the title, abstract, table of contents, headings and
reviews when reading a book. This will help you to have an initial idea on what
is to come from the book.
2. Skimming and scanning
Always skim and scan for important details. This will save you time and get
the gist of the book. These skills are important to master as it will help you in
other future readings.
3. Search for main idea
Always focus on the main idea of the book. You can search for the main idea
through each paragraph. Main ideas are important as it can help us expand
our ideas from the main ideas. Students can memorize the main idea for their
examination and it will help them to save time.
4. Extracting important details

From the main idea, search for the important detail or message from the idea.
Every main idea will contain one important detail. The more important details
you find, it will help you when you are doing revision before the exam as it is
the main point that you need to write in your examination. Based on the main
idea, one can expand the sub point or supporting point from there.
5. Dont do lip reading
In order to speed up the reading process, never do lip reading. Lip reading will
slow down the process and it will waste your precious time.
6. Regression
Regression is the process of re-reading words again. Never do this as it will
slow down your process and make you lose flow of the structure. Besides, it
will also decrease the overall understanding of content.
7. Jot down notes
Always note down any important points into a piece of paper while reading.
You can underline or highlight the text and then transfer them into the notes.
This shows that you are concentrating on the important keywords presented
by the book.

Writing Skills

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Writing gives us a chance to express ourselves in the form of written language.

However, we are still lacking in many ways to even write a proper sentence. Good
writing can really bring us far as we are able to articulate our ideas well. Writing
requires complex combination of thinking and also using words effectively. Below is
some of the writing process that can help you to write better.
1.
Pre-Writing
This is the planning stages of writing where you seek for ideas, build on your
ideas and structure them into written form. In this process, students need to
brainstorm and do some research to gather constructive ideas on what to write.
Always consider the audience or reader that will read your writing to form ideas.
2.
Drafting
After finding the ideas, it is time for you to draft them down. This process is
where students write freely on a piece of paper without worrying about the
conventions or format of writing. Thus, your writing does not need to be neat.
3.
Revise and editing
Once the draft is complete, it is time for revising them by editing to check the
coherency of the draft. This is where you should read your draft and add or
delete various irrelevant topics. Besides, you should do editing too such as
proofread, correcting grammar, punctuation, style and clarity to come to a final
write up.
4.
Publish/Submitting
This process is where you publish your write up. The main essence of publishing
is to share with the audience our book. However, at the undergraduate level, it
is not requirement to publish any book. Thus, this is where we submit to our
lecturer for marking. We hope to share our ideas on a particular topic and get
graded for it.

Presentation and Communication Skills

https://tendenci.com/photos/1242/in/43/
Presenting information is to communicate ideas, concepts, and even knowledge. It is
a valuable skill because it is needed in every field. With this valuable skill, you are
able to articulate your way to make an impact towards others. Thus, it is
prerequisite for you to learn this essential skill now.
1. Preparation
During this stage, you need to know what is your presentation about, why do
you do it and for what effect. Once you can answer these questions, you can
proceed to collect more information on the content that you are about to
present. You can write a draft on the various points, then read them to review
the draft. After that check the coherency of the draft and revise them again.
Then prepare the slides by using visible and adequate text, colours, number,
animation and sound.
2. Pre-presentation
After making your presentation slide, you should practice the presentation.
Prepare a method on how you are going to present your slides. On that day,
try to come early. Try to calm down your nerve before going up on stage.
Always prepare the equipment before the presentation. When on stage,
always remember you are commanding the crowd and you are always in
control.
3. Presentation
Start off with greeting to the audience. Then, present your information in
short, simple and nice manner. Always present within your time limit. Use eye

contact, good body posture and facial expression to present your information.
Speak clearly, with correct speed, tone and pitch of voice. Avoid moving too
much on the stage because it will show that you are tense. Relax and slowly
articulate your thoughts and ideas.
4. Post-presentation
After the presentation, prepare for question and answer session. Answer the
questions with calmness and give good response to the audience. Never avoid
any question but in fact gently and politely state that you are not sure but will
come back to them later.

Career Management

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After graduation, many of us are stuck when searching for jobs. We do not know
where and how to search for a job. The resume that we have written is not giving us
an edge over the others. Worse still, we could not ace an interview. Thus, below are
some steps to help us to kick start our career.
Writing Resume

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Resume is brief document to highlight various information about ourselves, skills,
experiences and so on. It is vital for us to create a good resume to get the dream job
that we yearn for. Follow the points below for a good resume.
1. Self-Analyze
Before you start to write a resume, do some self-analysis on yourself to ease
on what to write on resume. Collect all your relevant certificates and arrange
them in order. Think about all your past working experience and prepare a list
for that too. Brainstorm all the relevant information such as education, skills,
experiences, and qualifications and write it down on a paper.
2. Select the right format for resume
Many of us do not know how to produce a professional resume. Your resume
should consist of your biodata, objectives of job application, education
background, past experience, references and even attachment with
certificates.
3. Keep your information precise
Many resumes always have long winded information which sometimes is not
relevant for the job you are applying for. Always bear in mind that your

employer will not read everything in your resume. They will hand pick certain
points and question you on that. Thus, always keep it short and simple.
4. Never lie
Never ever write something that you have never experience before into your
resume. The employer might ask you for clarification on the things you have
written. This will cause you tp be tongue-tie and the employer will catch
sometime amiss. Thus, be honest in your resume.
5. Prepare different resume for different jobs
Always prepare different resume for every different job application. Do not
ever try to reuse the resume for other jobs as the contents might not be the
same. This is because different jobs require you to write your experiences that
are precise and suitable for that particular job only.
6. Proofread
After you have completed a resume, always do proofreading. Proofreading is
essential to recheck any mistakes that you have done especially typing errors,
wrong usage of italic, bolding, formatting and spacing. Have other people to
proofread your master copy if possible.
Ace an Interview

http://www.thomasgreig.com/job-interview-preparation/build-rapport-duringyour-job-interview/
Undergraduates are often faced with this problem on acing their interview.
They are unable to confidently articulate their thoughts during the interview

and thus costing them their dream job opportunity. Thus follow the point on
ways to ace an interview for your next job interview.
1. Know yourself.
Before you even start the interview, you should know yourself well. Ask
yourself questions like why are you applying for this job, is it important to
have this job, why not other jobs? These questions will lead you to know
how important that job interview is. With these, it may enhance your
performance thus helping you to ace the interview.
2. Know your target
Next, do some researches on the company, the corporation aims,
objectives, hierarchy of people and job specification that they might hire
you on. This will help you tremendously in predicting the questions for the
interview.
3. Practice
This is the best thing you can do before the interview. Get a few friends to
set up a mock interview with you before the interview. This will help you to
feel the actual experience that you will face during the interview.
4. Dress well
Often these have been taught and have been a repetitive issue for
undergraduates. Employers want to have a good first impression towards
you. So dress smartly and accordingly for the job interview.
5. Arrive early
This is the prerequisite step before the interview. You should always arrive
early to accustom yourself to the environment besides finding the location
of the interview. This step is important for you to prepare and calm
yourself down before the interview.
6. Answer confidently politely with eye contact
During the interview, always speak out and do not mumble. Focus on the
interviewer and give your honest opinion on their questions. If you do not
understand, do not be afraid to politely ask them to repeat the question
and then answer it. Always give yourself some time to think of what are
the best possible answers that the interview wants. Maintain good body
posture while answering the questions thrown to you.
7. Ask a question
Before the end of the interview, feel free to ask any questions for
clarification. It will guide you in determining whether this company is
suitable for you. Asking questions shows that you are interested to know
more about that company.
8. Thank them and follow up

At the end of the interview, always walk straight up to the interviewer for a
formal handshake and thank them for their time. This shows that you are
well mannered. After interview, do some follow up to show that you are
still interested and enthusiasts in the job offer.