For many students, studying is a challenge not because they are incapable of grasping the material, or because they don’t know the correct study techniques, or because they can’t make the time. Rather, there is a simple explanation for why many students struggle to study effectively: procrastination.  Studying is first and foremost about taking the time to read through the material, and a student who doesn’t give himself that time is likely at a disadvantage as far as academic success in concerned.

That being said, it’s understandable that students procrastinate and find themselves lacking in motivation. Schoolwork is often dry and boring. Distractions are around every corner. Nobody wants to study, ultimately, so it’s always easy to make excuses and postpone your work.

How can this be avoided? How can we compel ourselves to study when we’re thoroughly lacking in motivation? Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Get a study partner.

If you aren’t motivated enough by your workload and your grades, you can try to create accountability by finding a study partner who is in a similar situation as yourself. You and your partner don’t need to actively discuss the material together, but simply sitting at the same table and insuring productivity from the other is a great way to keep yourself honest – and help your friend out, too. This follows the model set by finance, organizational behavior, and business administration courses, where students work together and report far lower levels of procrastination.

Lose the distractions.

When we procrastinate our studying, we usually occupy ourselves and put off our work by seeking out distractions. These distractions could be social (such as a conversation with a friend), internet-based (such as watching videos or reading articles online), or activity-focused (such as going to the kitchen and helping yourself to a snack), among others. If at all possible, sequestering yourself away from these distractions can help you become more motivated by default. Ditch your computer, head to a library, and bring nothing else besides your work. You’ll be amazed to see how much more you get done.

Divide and conquer.

Students usually report that they are least motivated and most procrastination-prone when they begin a new assignment or start studying for a new test. Getting started and tackling something new is ultimately where students find themselves daunted and unmotivated. You can counter this issue by dividing and conquering: split a new task into ordered parts and address them one by one. This way, getting started and building motivation won’t be as much of a challenge.

This are just a few of the tips students can use when trying to motivate themselves to study rather than procrastinate. Whatever method or methods you employ, it’s ultimately important to find a technique that works best for you.

One of the best ways to study successfully is to really like living in your dorm room. Buying coordinated college bedding from a good supplier is one of the easiest ways to make your dorm room comfortable quickly and cheaply. Here are 12 fun do-it-yourself (DIY) projects to make your space comfortable for very little money.

1. Build Your Own Beanbag Chair

Rather than paying a fortune for a pre-made beanbag chair, have fun building your own. Beanbag chairs can be round, square, banana shaped or stitched together in the center like a Turkish pillow. Get creative and have fun. For the sack you will want to use two different layers of material to keep the stuffing in the chair. In a pinch a large garbage bag can be used for the inside bag. Cheap material or coffee bean sacks also make great inner liners. The outer bag can be made from old sweatshirts, old sheets or draperies or bits and pieces of fabric. Even an old prom dress from a thrift store can work as the outer shell. A zipper or buttons can be added but this is not really necessary.

The inside stuffing can be made from anything. Perfectly round little pellets can be purchased in bulk online but Styrofoam packing pellets, left over plastic grocery store bags and crinkled up bits of paper can be used as well.

2. Peg Board Storage and Wall Art

Simple pegs placed on a board make this a cool form of storage and a great addition to any dorm room. Cut the peg holes with an electric drill onto ½-inch plywood. Adhere the pegs with glue and then paint.

3. Jam Jar Candle Lights

This idea comes from annaboosehouse.blogspot.co.uk. It uses old jam jars of any shape, a can of spay fixative and some bits of old garden twine or lace to make enchanting lanterns. Fit the lace and twine around the jar in a trial run before spraying the jars and adhering the lace. Add a votive candle inside and presto: romantic lighting!

4. DIY Privacy Screen for College

Nothing comes in handier than a good privacy screen at college. Made out of either wood or fabric these can be the difference between content dorm room living and living hell. Fresh Home Ideas has step-by-step instructions for making a cutout privacy screen using a jig saw. Three pieces of ½ inch plywood are cut into sections 2-3 feet wide by 6-8 feet tall. Buy a can of primer and 3 non-mortise style hinges. Prime the boards and paint them with either spray paint or acrylic paint. Art papers also make a great finish. These can be applied with spray glue and then covered with shellac for a shiny durable finish. Attach together with the hinges. When not in use fold the screen away and store it against the wall or under the bed.

5. Student Skateboard Laundry Basket

Buy a plastic laundry basket with holes. Then attach it to your skateboard with bungee cords when needed to get the laundry down the hall.

6. Festive College Cheer In a Wine Bottle

Trying to think of something easier and cheaper than a small tree for the holidays? Dornob.com has a great idea. How about a wine bottle light show? Simply take a string of Christmas lights and push them into several green wine bottles. You can glue the bottles together first to make it easier. Then put the corks back in and turn on the display!

7. DIY Folding Chairs for College

Every dorm room needs an extra chair. Take these light chairs to a game, a party down the hall or anywhere you need an extra comfortable seat. This idea is from Shelly over at apartmenttherapy.com. Shelly takes old bits of fabric, a pair of wooden chairs and some foam to create amazing chairs for about $20.00 each. The foam is held onto the chair with a staple gun and an inner piece of fabric. The outer fabric and trim is secured using a glue gun. Simple tools like these can be found cheaply online from toolhq.com.

8. Recycled Collegiate T-shirt Cushions

Made out of old t-shirts these cushions are an easy way to acquire dorm room décor and relieve stress. Simply cut t-shirts into strips and weave away. The entire tutorial is available from Dani Cakes.

9. Dorm Room DIY PVC Tube Stacker Shelf

Making a DIY tube stacker shelf is one of the easiest DIY projects around. These can be used for holding everything from shoes to electronics. Start at a home improvement center with a long piece of large 6-inch white PVC plumbing pipe. Buy the cheapest grade because it will be easier to cut. Also buy a small bottle of all-in-one PVC pipe cement and a hacksaw. Cut the pipe into sections and glue them together into any shape that fits your needs and space. You can even hang these on the wall depending on how deep you make the “shelves” and how securely you attach them to the wall.

10. Tree Branch Headboard

Collect some old branches. Then clean and lightly sand them. Using a drill attach them up in a row against a flat 6-inch board. Use another board on the bottom to secure the branches. Screw the entire thing to the wall and push the bed up against it.

11. Binder Clip Organization for Electronic Cords, etc.

binder clips are excellent for more than just holding papers together. They can be used to hold together plastic crates for shelving or make cell phone stands. Binder clips can even be turned into sculpture in a pinch. The binder clip is a college student must have! By the way, they are close to free on Amazon.

12. Curtains for any Dorm Room

Making curtains is a breeze and they add character and warmth to any room. Improvise by mixing and matching left over curtains found at bargain stores. Sewing sheer curtains on top and heavier material at the bottom provides privacy while still letting light into the room.

I love to read. At least, I did love to read. But somehow, the last couple of years I fell asleep watching the latest episode of How I Met Your Mother, rewatching Friends or playing the new episode of Diggnation.

Anyway, I did anything but read. And back in my childhood, I read for hours before going to sleep. Sure, I had to be in bed by 9 pm, but did this withhold me from reading until 2 AM? Of course not!

But somehow I didn’t do this anymore. And I pity this. So I began to wonder what it was and I start to taking books in bed and everything, but somehow I just didn’t read in bed. Until Steve Jobs’ Biography came out. I got this book on my iPhone and start reading. And I was thinking: ‘well, if I can read from a screen, maybe I should get an e-reader’.

After talking to some friends with an iPad I decided I didn’t want one for reading books. The problem on my phone was that I would still switch over to another app and I hated the bright screen. Especially in bed, this wasn’t perfect in any way. Apps in the background can be VERY distracting..

Having some gift cards from Amazon, I decided to get an Amazon Kindle and started reading on it.

Kindle for Students – My Experience

I started with Steve Jobs, as I didn’t finished it yet on my iPhone (have you seen the size of this book?!), and I was astonished. The screen of the Kindle is just not a normal screen, it isn’t anything like it.The e-ink of which they are really proud simply works. If I play a game on my phone for an hour (favorite game of this moment is Muffin Knight) my eyes hurt. After reading for half a day I don’t have any problems with the Kindle!

Getting books on the device is really easy as well, just a USB-cable (WiFi doesn’t seem to work, probably as I don’t live in the US or something) and it is done.

And I finally started reading again. Read Steve Jobs, I Will Teach You to be Rich and am currently reading Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. This is more than I read in an entire year last couple of years (with the holidays excluded).

Study Material

The thing is, I hate printing. There are tons of people who print all the summaries, print all the assignments and just print whenever they can. My reaction? The question ‘Do you just hate trees or something?’ We live in a time where printing isn’t necessary anymore, so please stop printing at every moment you can.

The Kindle is a big solution to this, I put all my summaries, assignments and pieces of text for meetings on it. I can read it as easily as a sheet of paper, so why wouldn’t I?

Currently I am using the summaries to read and create flashcards out of them, all of this with the Kindle and without a bright screen. This works out great for me, especially as the Kindle has a great battery life.

Features – So You Know What I am Talking About

So I mentioned already some features, but I want to make a quick sum up for you as well, so you know what I am talking about here. No unimportant sales-letter stuff, but just information students care about.

• Batter life. Long enough. Amazon.com says it is like 15 hours I think, but after using it for a while, the battery life is long enough. I didn’t have any problems yet with an empty battery, with using it a lot. I don’t even look after it, how much battery there is left.
• Weight. I carry my Kindle in my coat. It is really light-weight, something you won’t expect from a device like this. Way better than carrying a book around!
• Size. Again, it fits my coat pocket, it fits my paints pockets as well.
• Screen. The screen is made out of e-ink, so it won’t hurt your eyes – even after days of reading.
• Capacity. Enough. As well, the device can hold up 1400 books, of course, you won’t reach this number.
• Price. Cheap. Not even 80$ on Amazon right now. In my case it included some taxes and shipping as well, but I was still happy to put that money down.

Other People Their Experience with My Kindle

One other thing I love about the Kindle is the reaction of other people. I live in the Netherlands and the Kindle just didn’t make it’s appearance here yet. There isn’t any e-reader very popular over here, except from an iPad (which I think isn’t an e-reader). So the reaction is just hilarious.

Others just don’t get it. The average conversation I had about the Kindle:

‘Hey Stefan, what is this little thing?’ ‘A Kindle, an ereader from Amazon.com, the international version of Bol.com (there are even people who don’t know Amazon..)‘ ‘A ok, some sort of iPad?’ *Start to random touch the screen* ‘No, it is just for books, so no other apps to distract me. And it isn’t a touchscreen, look at the buttons over here. The screen is not lightened, so it won’t hurt your eyes.’ ‘Ah ok, looks cool.’

And then they walk away or something. I have had this conversation a couple of times, but there was one guy who got more interested:

‘So, you have your study material on here as well?’ ‘Yup..’ ‘All of these printed sheets?’ *Points to his own sheets* ‘Yup..’

One week later I saw the guy again, without his stack of papers and waiving his Kindle to me. Priceless.

Concluding thoughts

Maybe you just need to understand the potential. Maybe you just need ‘get’ it. Anyway, there is a ton of potential in this device. Not having to carry all those papers around, always having a book in your pocket (I carry mine in my coat actually!) and the light weight gives it a very good touch.

I am very happy I made this investment. With only a 79$, you will earn it back soon enough in not having to print everything anymore! Let me know what you think about the Amazon Kindle! And more important, if you have book recommendations, let me know as well!

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This is a guest post by Scott.

In tough economic times, many people are looking at ways to save money. With rising inflation and the dollar having decreased buying power, it is more important than ever you make your money go as far as possible. In general terms, you would need $700 in 2011 to buy the same amount $100 would have bought in 1962.

Ten Tips to Save Money in 2012

1. Turn Off the TV

The average cost of a basic cable package, without fees and taxes, is $50 a month, which adds up to a total cost of $600 a year. By switching to an online streaming service, you won’t have to miss out on your favorite movies and TV-series. Netflix’s streaming package is $7.99 a month with no additional fees or taxes. That leaves you a cost savings of $504 a year.

Note from Stefan: You probably know how I hate television. Serious, this number one tip can save you LOTS of time and money.

2. Become a List Shopper

The easiest way families will blow their budget is at the grocery store, especially if you go shopping for groceries when you are hungry. Write down a list of all the essentials you need and stick to the list. You can also sign up for customer reward programs. Be on the scope for sales in order to find the best price or try your hand at couponing. Ten years ago, the cost of milk was $2.00 a gallon, now it is hard to find for under $3.00 unless you look for the sales.

3. Pay Your Credit Card Debt

Another significant drain on the family’s budget is credit card debt. The average American family has ten credit cards. Consider keeping only two with the lowest interest rates and balances. If you cannot afford to pay more than the minimum monthly payment, pay more on the cards with the highest interest rates. Call the credit card number on the back of your cards and ask for an interest rate reduction. If they say no at first, ask to talk to a supervisor and explain you can take your business elsewhere. Most of the time, they will reduce the interest rate. However, this really only works if your account is in good standing and you have been making the payments on time.

4. Kick Bad Habits to the Curb

If you have never sat down and figured out how much money you spend on smoking every year, just on cigarettes alone, not including doctor bills or increased insurance premiums, you may want to consider doing just that. Most people who are smokers will smoke a pack per day and the average cost of a pack of cigarettes, depending on your brand, is $6.87. That is an average cost of $48.09 a week, $192.36 a month and $2500.68 a year.

5. Turn Off…Everything

Turn all electrical devices completely off when they are not in use and pretty soon you will see the savings on your utility bill. If an electrical device has a power light that stays on even when it is turned off, it is still drawing electricity and costing you money. Over time, you will start to see a savings.

6. Get Your Yard Sale On

In the past, used items seemed to get stigmatized and everyone was all about buying everything brand new. This is not the case anymore. If going to garage sales is not your thing, try searching classified sites online like Craigslist or auction sites like eBay. You can also visit second hand stores or consignment shops for a significant savings over the cost of retail.

7. Try Your Hand at Gardening

Growing your own vegetables is stress-relieving and saves you a ton of money. Grow your own tomatoes and make your own spaghetti and pizza sauces. It is simple to do and it saves you from buying bland and tasteless store bought sauces. You also do not need a lot of room to garden most vegetables, especially tomatoes. An outdoor deck will work fine. Do some research about container gardening to find more cost-effective ways of growing your own food.

Note from Stefan: I’m growing my own peppers – amazing taste and they are growing in my growing in my window

8. Car Maintenance

Keep your car in good running order and you can save yourself hundreds if not thousands of dollars in repair costs. Also, be sure to keep your tires aired up according to the manufacturer’s recommendation. You lose 1% gas mileage for every 2 PSI your tires are under, so keeping them aired up is almost like getting free gas.

9. Home Maintenance

The same concept applies to your home. Fix leaks as soon as they appear in order to prevent future problems with rot, mold or mildew which can be expensive to remedy. Make sure all your windows are sealed properly to prevent the loss of heat in the winter and cool air in the summer.

10. Create a Budget

Creating a budget can be one of the best ways to see where and how you spend your money and the areas that offer the most potential for saving money. Stick to your budget and do not give up if you go over, just reaffirm your decision to save money and try again.

Note from Stefan: Probably going to write an entire article about it, but if you want to learn more ways to save money and to handle money responsibly, check outI Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi. Best personal finance book if you ask me.

Next?	Stefan Recommends
View the StudySuccessful homepage.	9 ways to get motivated for college – The ebook by Stefan Knapen (free)
More on the author.	Learn More, Study Less – Relearn learning
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This is a guest post by Jabe from MindMaple.

As a college student, my lack of organization skills was often an obstacle to my success. I am a creative thinker, but if I let my creativity run wild it can become as much a problem as it is a benefit. When generating ideas for an essay or project in college, I never found myself stumped by a lack of inspiration but rather by an excess of unfocused ideas. After a brainstorming session I would often end up surrounded by more ideas than I knew what to do with, and without any idea of how to integrate my thoughts into a unified argument.

In our electronic age, we have access to an enormous amount of information. However, without effective methods of organizing and connecting this information, we can be easily overwhelmed. In this post I will show how mind mapping software, a creative organization tool used by many professionals to manage projects and information, can also be an extremely valuable tool for students.

Mind mapping allows us to represent information visually. We can organize topics and ideas by categories and subcategories, and it is easy to show the relationships between different ideas. Using mind maps, we can analyze specific ideas in detail while maintaining an awareness of our general goals and concerns. Mind maps can be used for brainstorming, taking and sharing notes, organizing projects and schedules, and many other purposes.

Let’s imagine we have an assignment to write an essay on Shakespeare’s play Macbeth for an English class. Our end goal is to have an essay that makes a clear argument by guiding the reader step-by-step through a complex but organized system of information. The essay must be linear and highly structured: it must have an introduction which leads the reader into a rich body of related ideas that support and develop one another, and eventually it must bring the reader to a sensible conclusion.

When we are initially brainstorming for the essay, however, our thought process will be anything but structured. Different characters, scenes and themes from the play will flash through our mind. Our mind will be making constant transient connections between different elements of the play. The challenge of writing an essay, or creating any kind of presentation, is turning this unstructured intuitive thinking into a structured argument.

To organize our thoughts, we might think to make an outline or list using a word processor. However, the problem with word processing, or even writing an outline by hand, is that outlining is an inherently linear form of organizing ideas—one idea must follow another directly, and it is difficult to represent complex relationships and networks. An outline can be useful for representing the basics of the final essay, but it is hardly an ideal tool for planning in the early stages of the project.

Mind mapping can provide a solution to this challenge. Mind mapping’s ability to represent ideas spatially provides an enormous advantage to us as we consider various thoughts and ideas. When we are children, our brains learn to process complex visual information long before we are able to use language effectively. Organizing thoughts visually is a highly intuitive process, and allows us to think about information in new ways, often revealing ideas and connections we might otherwise miss.

The following images provide an example of the enormous difference between organizing thoughts with mind mapping (using the recently-released mind mapping software MindMaple) and with a commonly used word processor. For this example, I imagined having to brainstorm ideas for the Macbeth essay.

The difference between the two formats speaks for itself. Making a mind map is fun! It encourages us to be creative and follow our intuition. There is always space to add new categories and ideas, and it is simple to illustrate the relationship between different ideas. My mind map is somewhat cluttered, but you can make your mind maps as organized as you like. A simple web search will bring up countless
examples of organized mind maps on a variety of topics. The specific mind mapping software MindMaple is perfect for both beginners and advanced mind mappers. Unlike many other software products, which restrict the placement of new topics, MindMaple allows you to move and rearrange products freely. For beginning users, or for users who might prefer more structured maps, MindMaple also includes numerous formatting features to help you keep your maps organized and clean, as well as tools for integrating documents, pictures, and other features into your maps.MindMaple is available for download at www.mindmaple.com

As mentioned in the latest post I started with a new project to earn a residual income. This project is writing articles for a website which shows 75% of the time my Google Adsense ads.

I write for InfoBarrel, a revenue sharing website. The idea is really simple. There are two big ads on the website and 75% of the time they show ads with the ID of the writer of the specific article. Now, the writer only needs to write articles and he will have his ads on the internet!

Really? That is all? Yup. That is really all!

Passive Income: the Intriging Aspects for Students

I got interested in this website after listening to tons of podcasts from Pat Flynn from SmartPassiveIncome.com. He talks a lot about how to create passive income streams to get a steady income without doing anything. Passive income is all about working hard now and chillaxing later while getting your income automatic!

As probably everybody I am interested in automatic income without doing anything. The main problem with passive income though is it takes a really long time to create. I am not going to lie to you, if you start now with creating passive income streams, you are not very likely to have a good stream of income in the upcoming year. And that is the main problem for students: we don’t need money later, we need money now. As a med student I am pretty certain of a good salary later for instance. But there is still a big reason to work on passive income anyway:

A free income stream. Not only for the near future, but for forever.

The thing with passive income is you don’t need to put any money in it right now, you can start writing articles for free right now and create some income. With that money you could start some niche sites and earn even more money.

My personal goal is earning around 100$-200$ by September 2012, most of all because I will start with residencies by then. I will be in the clinic for 3 years, without payment. Besides that the Dutch government took some measurements which make the life of students way more expensive in the upcoming years. Because I won’t have any time anymore to work side jobs, I find the idea of a passive income stream interesting!

Passive Income Stream: InfoBarrel

I started to write for InfoBarrel, a revenue sharing site. As said above, you write articles and your ads will be shown to your audience. This will result in clicks which result again in money!

Why InfoBarrel is interesting for students:

• Students have tons of knowledge. On InfoBarrel you write articles about every subject you want to write about. We have the advantage of continuously learning new information as students. You can put this information straight into an article and you will have an extra article to make money from! For instance, if you have a class and you make really good notes, it can be pretty easy to write an article from your actual notes. As we are learning everyday something new, we can share this new information and make money from it.
• It’s free to use. You don’t need a starting capital to register a domain name, no need to buy hosting, you can just start writing and start earning!
• It has a great revenue sharing model (especially if you have time). No we don’t have a lot of money as students, but most of us have free time. The good thing with InfoBarrel is that it is great if you have time. The revenue sharing model is you get 75% of the income. But if you write more articles, or write on certain topics, you can earn up to 90%! When your goals are only long term, this won’t really work for you, as you have to keep writing, but if you want to earn a buck now as well, this is better, because you have a higher chance for clicks, thus income!
• InfoBarrel has a great community. I knew something about internet marketing. I did knew a couple of things about SEO as well. But I learnt a lot in a small time frame, thanks to the community. InfoBarrel has a forum where even the top writers are sharing their secrets. The thing I love the most about the forums is how motivating they are.

Writing for InfoBarrel: What is the Next Action?

Hopefully you got enthusiast about the idea to write for InfoBarrel. But what is the next action? What do you need to do right now? Let me give some advice:

1. Sign up for InfoBarrel right now. Get an account and see what is what. Introduce yourself in the forums and enjoy the reactions.
2. Browse the forums and find some nuggets concerning keyword research and how to write for InfoBarrel. My biggest mistake with InfoBarrel is I just started to write. I had no clue about what keywords would make money and which not. I actually wrote an article about a button on Facebook and things about Barney Stinson. But if you want to write successfully for InfoBarrel you need to write articles which could make money. Things about finance for instance do good on Google Adsense, so will do pretty well on InfoBarrel as well probably! But this is a high competitive niche, so it will be hard to have a successful article. This all comes down to keyword research. I will later devote a complete article on keyword research here for you guys. A good forum post to start with is the ‘Consolidated, Ongoing, InfoBarrel 1-tip Thread‘!
3. Write articles and learn while doing! Just try something, just write and see what works or not. When you are writing more you will find what type of articles work for you and what not.
4. Don’t stop because you ‘are not earning anything. At InfoBarrel your success won’t come overnight, well, it won’t even come within two months. The articles need time to mature and you need to write more to make more money. Give it time and have a steady pace with your writing, but make sure you don’t give up!
5. Share your success here! I would love to hear from people who give it a try! I would love to help you as well with your InfoBarrel career. With over 60 articles I learned a few things. I did actually made money with it as well already, around 15$ now! Although it is not a lot, I am already really, really happy with it!

Hopefully you got interested to write for InfoBarrel. It wouldn’t harm if you just tried it out.

Please note: I used a referral link in this article. If you sign up for InfoBarrel, 2% of the time my ads will be shown on your article, which is taken off of InfoBarrel’s cut. Not yours. Besides this I can see how many people sign up. So if you sign up, I can directly friend you and therefore help you!

Next?	Stefan Recommends
View the StudySuccessful homepage.	9 ways to get motivated for college – The ebook by Stefan Knapen (free)
More on the author.	Learn More, Study Less – Relearn learning
Get in touch.

College success starts with attitude. There is only one thing in life you have full control over: your attitude. Pay attention to your attitude and you will find that studying becomes easier and your grades will improve.

Towards the end of fall, when the weather starts to get darker and colder and college classes have turned into nightmares taught by evil demons it’s easy to let your attitude slip. Dorm room living can make the entire experience seem like you are stuck in some level of Dante’s Inferno. However don’t despair, here are some quick and easy tips you can use to beat the dorm room boarding blues.

• Add a few funny customized ring tones to your cell phone. Many free and inexpensive ring tones are available and there is no better way to meet new people and brighten up even the dreariest day. An added bonus is that most smart phones will let you assign different ring tones for everything from notifications to calls from special people.
• Buy a bag of mini marshmallows. Marshmallows actually have a medicinal past and they can be good for your health! Even if you don’t like hot chocolate or marshmallows it’s a sure bet some of the people on your dorm room floor will. It’s amazing how fighting over melting lumps of gelatin can instantly turn enemies into friends and brighten everyone’s mood.
• Clean up your dorm room and get organized. No matter how many classes you have, take some time to make your dorm room clean and inviting. This is where you come to rest and recharge. If your space is horrible it will most certainly affect the quality of your rest, your attitude and your studies.
• Along the same lines, get a warm, comfortable dorm room bedding set. All mammals make a nest when they sleep. If you are cold or uncomfortable in your dorm room bed there is no faster way to get the boarding blues.
• Make amends with your horrible roommate or move. By now you and your roommate either like each other or you don’t. Take an honest look at the relationship and decide if it is taking a toll on your attitude. If it is, get over and talk to your resident advisor. If they can’t or won’t do anything for you, talk to the manager of the dorm. In roommate situations the squeaky wheels get to move. Living with a gargoyle who makes it impossible for you to study is absolutely not an option.
• Use music to lighten up your mood and improve your attitude. The power of a new tune is unbeatable. Humming and singing have also been proven to improve circulation and stimulate multiple “feel good” centers in the brain. Music and radio are fantastic because they free up your hands and body to do something else. For students who spend so much time sitting and studying movement is critical for maintaining a healthy body and spirit.

Depression among young adults isn’t funny. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young adults ages 15-24. Take care of your attitude because this is your most valuable possession. Feeling glum this time of year if you live in dorm is pretty normal. Lets face it the rooms are pretty small and uncomfortable and the food is usually less than divine. However, with a good attitude you can make almost anything fun- or at least funny!

Next?	Stefan Recommends
View the StudySuccessful homepage.	9 ways to get motivated for college – The ebook by Stefan Knapen (free)
More on the author.	Learn More, Study Less – Relearn learning
Get in touch.

File storage. I had problems with it, big time. No idea where everything was and no idea where I should put them. Until Martijn Engler came along. Martijn is a Dutch Apple Coach which knows, and has a lot of experience in, a lot about file storage. He developed a system where you will never lose a file again. There are some real nuggets in this 45 minutes long episode!

Items Mentioned in this Episode:

• Obviously: Dropbox!
• Getting Things Done by David Allen
• Selected Sync
• Free Extra Storage on Dropbox
• Martijn Engler on Twitter: @martijnengler
• Stefan Knapen on Twitter: @StefanSSF

Please subscribe below to the podcast to get automatic updates:

• Click Here to Subscribe through iTunes
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Thank you a lot for your support. I would love it if you could leave a rating or review. Please leave me an honest one on iTunes here. It will help the show and it’s ranking in iTunes immensely! I appreciate it!

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My very dear readers of StudySuccessful! I’ve not handled this site as I should. To be honest, StudySuccessful, my baby, got to the background the last couple of months. Not because I was that busy with offline life or something (well, as well actually). I got busy with other things online, which I will share in a second.

But I am back to business. A recent guest post, The Best Music for Writing, Reading, and Studying went viral on StumbleUpon and now there is simply a big mass of readers coming to the site. (A really big mass, I almost fainted when I saw the number.) Now that is some motivation, right?

Let’s dive in what got me busy and what I have in store for you.

What Got Me Busy?

Basically it was both an online problem as it was an offline problem.

In real life the academic year started again, which is always a busy time. Starting going to lectures again, starting with a committee I am doing and some parties of course. Not a lot, but it got me busy. Besides the normal curricalar stuff I am going to do research in the psychiatric field. Research in sleep, which should bring up a ton of interesting articles, both about sleep and about doing research.

Online there is more I want to talk about. To be honest there have been two major things I have been working on. Both of these are money-generating adventures, while StudySuccessful is, in the first place, an information-sharing place, where I just want to write what interests me and what I think will interest you as well. I do earn money from this site, but not a ton. As I am going to start with my clerkships next year, where I don’t have any time for anything, I want to build up a residual income, therefore I started a couple of projects. Let’s get into them.

Revenue Sharing Site: Writing for Money

I started to write for a site called ‘InfoBarrel‘. At InfoBarrel the writers can write up articles and 75% of the time the website will show the ads of the writer and 25% of the time the ad of their own.

This site is becoming a bigger and bigger authority site on information. With over 30,000 writers and some critical admins there is being put a lot of (quality) content on that site. You can lift on the success of the site because when others are doing good, you will do better as well.

One of the most amazing things of this website is when your content is on there it will stay on forever. And even better, your ads will stay on this content as well forever! So if I write an article right now, people can still find that particular article in 3 years from now and I can generate income from it.

The thing is writing a lot for the website. If you have a lot of content you are more likely to generate traffic and therefore revenue. So I am writing a lot for this website. I have some amazing goals for October which I am, if I continue like this, am going to reach.

InfoBarrel is an amazing platform and I will talk about it a little more in the upcoming future! Check it out yourself right now, I can highly recommend the nice forums and the easy way to start writing! (If you click on this link I will earn a commission on whatever you earn (2%), of course this is paid by the admins, not by your income!)

Niche Site: Legendary Barney Stinson

You guys know I am a fan of How I Met Your Mother and in particular of Barney Stinson, one of the five main characters.

As ‘Five Things We Can Learn From the AWESOME Barney Stinson‘ continued to be one of my top posts (in traffic) on this website I decided to create a niche site out of it, called ‘Legendary Barney Stinson’. A Niche site is a website which is focused towards a niche or only one topic. StudySuccessful could fall under the ‘college’ niche, but I don’t write specific enough to think myself of a college blogger alone.

LegendaryBarneyStinson.com is a niche site. The articles only focus around our Legendary bro and nothing more. My aim with this site is to provide content about Barney Stinson with, where necessary, links to Amazon. I have a post about Barney Stinson’s Halloween Costumes for instance where I link to Amazon where you can buy the complete outfits. There are articles as well about Barney Stinson’s Bro Code and Barney Stinson’s Playbook.

Recently I started a newsletter at this site, which enable me to cater the readers even better with even more targeted articles.

One of the cool things is: I have an amazing PDF file for your in store when you sign up. 214 Quotes from the Legendary Barney Stinson! And there are more good things coming your way when you are signed up to that newsletter! (How many awesome high fives do you want? )

What Do I Have in Store Now?

So that is cool. Did I sell out? I don’t think so, I just had to focus a little more on revenue generating opportunities, most of all because I am starting my clerkships next year and also because a little extra money never hurts.

For now I have a couple of things in store. As said, I am doing research in the field of sleep, so I gained knowledge about that subject. You can expect an article about sleep soon, with real references.

Besides that I have a podcast scheduled for tomorrow! A podcast with a Dutch buddy of mine solely about Dropbox! Two nerds talking online storage for 45 minutes.

Thirdly I am going to talk a little bit more about InfoBarrel soon, revenu sharing sites are really interesting for college students and a great way to earn some passive income!

That is it for now. I know Darren Rowse from ProBlogger says you should never excuse yourself for not being as up to date as you should be, but I feel good I told all of this. I think being honest can make the SSF community even more awesome!

Next?	Stefan Recommends
View the StudySuccessful homepage.	9 ways to get motivated for college – The ebook by Stefan Knapen (free)
More on the author.	Learn More, Study Less – Relearn learning
Get in touch.

This is a guest post by the writing team of BusinessInsuance, if you would like to feature a guest post send me an email!

I know. Not everyone prefers listening to music while studying or reading or writing or creating art or whatever. But I think most of us can agree that it’s nice to have music around for activities like these. They can help set a pace for your project, break up the monotony, and (in their greater moments) inspire us. Of course, not all music provides the optimal environment or setting for creating or digesting words and ideas. Some music is too distracting or abrasive while other music might just put you in the wrong mood. This is why it’s important to have an extensive arsenal of a variety of musical styles that fit your every aural need in your quest for knowledge or creation. So without further ado, below is some of the best music to accompany your writing, reading, and studying endeavors.

Sigur Rós

What music is better for working and proving something of yourself than an epic dream-like post-rock band from Iceland that uses a hybrid of Icelandic and English and bowstrings on their guitars? This band has a variety of track lengths, but most of them are well beyond the five minute mark, which lends the music well for writing or any extended focus activity. Most Sigur Rós songs, like “Glósóli” linked above, begin with a very soothing, beautiful opening and just build upon that opening with a rich arrangement of sounds that just get bigger and bigger until you feel like the song is representing the most important moment of your life. In short, Sigur Rós sets the perfect soundtrack for doing activities that are important to your life, and they inspire.

Most of Sigur Rós’ albums are great for any quiet creative or knowledge work, but in particular, Takk…, Agaetis Byrjun, and (). Their most recent album Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust actually has less epic buildups and more contemporary songwriting; both are great albums but not as ideal for writing or studying.

Do Make Say Think

While Do Make Say Think (DMST) falls under the post-rock genre, it sounds quite different than most post-rock bands. DMST employs more of a jazz aesthetic to its sound, using plenty more horns and two drumsets playing simultaneously; the band is mostly instrument although they do use vocals sparingly on rare occasions. DMST does build some epic ten-minute songs, but they are less linear in buildup and tend to have unexpected turns (hence the jazz description). DMST also has a distinctively more rock-band sound, utilizing much more grunge or dirty sounding guitars with less reverb and delay. If you feel like whatever post-rock you’re hearing might be putting you to sleep, try out DMST. The sophisticated musicianship and unexpected songwriting work great in accompanying any creative activity.

DMST has a beefy discography full of great musical moments that are sure to inspire; if you are unsure where to begin, I would advise starting with Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn and following that with & Yet & Yet or You, You’re a History in Rust. Their most recent album Other Truths is also riveting but may be a little too heavy or rock-sounding for some people’s attention spans while studying.

The Field

Let’s take a quick break from post-rock, and look at something entirely different but just as inspiring. The Field is made up of one electronic musician from Stockholm, Sweden named Axel Willner. As far as genre can be discerned, Wikipedia calls it microhouse and ambient techno. I also hear trance elements as well and wouldn’t be surprised if someone described it as intelligent dance music (IDM). The Field usually creates lengthy tracks mostly over five minutes (and some just a bit longer than ten). Sometimes voices are sampled, but they are used distinctively as instruments and wouldn’t distract someone reading how a lyric-heavy band or singer would.

To best describe The Field’s sound, imagine a simple beat on a loop that gradually morphs textures every few seconds until a living, breathing, and moving song emerges. The beat will drive your mind and focus as you work while the subtle variations will keep your mind from becoming restless and wanting to change the music to something else. Since they have a limited discography of only two full albums, I recommend checking out both the critically acclaimed debut From Here We Go Sublime and the more recent Yesterday and Today.

Yo La Tengo

Some of you may be thinking, “Yo La Tengo has lyrics. I can’t read or write while someone is singing in my ear.” Well I’ve got news for you: Yo La Tengo has a good number of instrumental albums. A lot of the instrumental tracks come in the form of soundtrack work, but I think even the soundtrack material has a distinctive Yo La Tengo sound. For those unfamiliar, Yo La Tengo is an indie rock band with a wide variety of sound that fits mostly in a mellow arena of dream-rock. Sill, despite many songs with a lulling go-to-sleep tone, Yo La Tengo also sports a good amount of (almost jarring) noise, distortion, and extraordinarily creative guitar solos in its music. Also, even on albums that do have plenty of lyrics, Yo La Tengo’s lead singer has a very modest voice that I’m sure many won’t find distracting at all while studying.

If you’re looking for Yo La Tengo’s instrumental work, check out the albums The Sounds of the Sounds of Science and They Shoot, We Score (scores for four separate films). For those that can’t work while listening to lyrics, there are also a few instrumental tracks on their regular discography that could enhance your drive; these include “Tired Hippo,” “Pass the Hatchet” (excellent guitar solo!), “Daphnia,” “The Story of Yo La Tengo,” and “The Fireside.”

Flying Lotus

Flying Lotus is the product of an incredibly talented experimental music producer who’s actual name is Steven Ellison. While his music tends to run along a BPM much slower than most electronic music, it is stocked full of innovation, surprises, and rich textures that you won’t even notice the slow tempos. His music style takes on a wide range of jazz, downtempo, dubstep, and just plain experimental (wonky also comes to mind). His beats tend to jitter in perfect precision, thriving on a chaotic feel to keep your mind interested while having just enough order to keep you bobbing your head. There is simply nothing that comes even close to imitating Flying Lotus. Perfect for studying; perfect for dancing at a party.

For those looking for a good entrance to this artist, I would start with Los Angeles or Cosmogramma. Cosmogramma has a bit of a rounder, smoother sound with may render itself better for studying, but Los Angeles is far from disruptive. His debut 1983 is also extremely interesting and innovative, but doesn’t have that flow and finesse of the later two albums.

Battles

For anyone unfamiliar with this band, allow me to warn you fully before first listen: This music may induce seizures. However, it may also induce extremely vibrant thought or drive you threw even the most monotonous workflow. Battles is a heavy-hitting math-rock group that loves utilizing loop and distortion pedals. Their music usually builds on a repetitive beat or musical idea but often takes unexpected turns, sometimes resulting in the perfect combination of layer adding and beat turnarounds. While Battles is not for everyone, I strongly recommend giving it a shot. I’m sure it’s not the most ideal study music for everyone, but when it works, it works extremely well.

Battles has a fairly limited discography. I recommend both its full length albums although I personally believe Mirrored is by far the band’s best work. Gloss Drop is still plenty engaging, and be sure to check out the various confusingly titled EPs (IP C, B EP, and EPC if you can find them

.

Jon Hopkins and Brian Eno

I hate lumping these two extremely talented musicians together, but I only do so that I have enough space for other artists. Also, they’ve become long-term collaborators since teaming up in 2004, and their work together produces amazing tracks like this. For those wanting one word describe the music of these two artists: Ambient. However, both musicians have created material spanning far outside the constraints of that genre (sometimes even dipping into relatives of dubstep). It’s extremely difficult to describe their sound, particularly since Eno’s career extends all the way into the seventies (he has a whole wikipedia page dedicated solely to his lengthy discography. I will say that they both arrange and polish massive soundscapes that can make you feel like you’re the only person around for miles or that there is some lurking figure sneaking around behind you.

Where to start. For Hopkins, I recommend checking out any of his full length albums as his career as a musician is only budding. For Eno, I’d start with Music for Airports, which is great for any quiet, concentration work and then start working your way through his ambient career, just going on intuition. He has so many albums available that just listening through a few seconds on each one will give you a glimpse of which albums you make like more than others.

Nine Inch Nails

Nine Inch Nails has so much material ranging from noisy industrial rock to more eerie acoustic work. It’s only natural that it has some great studying music. Not all of Nine Inch Nails lends itself to great studying music, but there is definitely some great material out there for getting your thoughtful work done. While some of the sound can be a bit grating, even the noisier moments all conform to solid rules of great songwriting. Trent Reznor always seems to deliver.

A great place to start for studying is their double LP work called The Fragile. The album transitioned away from the gritty and distorted industrial sound of The Downward Spiral and headed more towards an ambient direction full of soundscapes, ambient noise, and much more melodies and harmonies. This album does have lyrics, but you can tell there is definitely an instrumental emphasis. Of course another solid choice for studying is Ghosts I-IV which is an entirely instrumental concept album full of soundscapes and soundtrack-like work.

This content was recommended by the writing team at BusinessInsurance.org special thanks!

Next?	Stefan Recommends
View the StudySuccessful homepage.	9 ways to get motivated for college – The ebook by Stefan Knapen (free)
More on the author.	Learn More, Study Less – Relearn learning
Get in touch.