Good habits help
Blog 2 - Form your habits now
It will never cease to amaze me when students tell me how early 9am is. I have a final year lecture which takes place at 9am on Monday morning, the graveyard shift for lectures. When in reality it should be an opportunity for them. You see final year students are less than one year away from being in the 'real world'.
These students are doing a professional degree, which if they are successful in moving into the field, will see them predominantly working a 9-5 (ish) life. This means that they will have to up, ready, and actually at work BEFORE 9am, and they probably wont live as close to their work as they do their lectures.
My module has 85 students on it this year, I normally start the lecture with around 35 and by 10am I will have risen to around 60. People sauntering in up to 80 minutes late for a 120 minute lecture, and bringing breakfast with them to eat while they make no attempt to listening or figure out what they may have missed. I'd rather they didn't bother, but not tapping their ID card into the electronic register would have them absent, (most students are more concerned with being marked as present, than making sure they don't miss out on learning).
I even had the temerity to suggest that for the 24 weeks which is teaching for the final year, they should aim to on campus for 8.30 every morning, EVEN IF THEY DON'T HAVE A SESSION. As this would help them twofold
1 They could actually work on their assignments and research for their dissertation and projects so that the workload was spread and managed.
2 They would begin to become used to getting up at a reasonable hour and this would stand them in good stead when for when they are actually employed and are being paid to on time and ready to contribute at the start time, not just when they manage to make it there
Last year when I had this discussion a student actually said to me that of course he would turn up to his job on time, as he is being paid to be there at a specific time. Whereas now he is the one paying, so he will arrive when he feels like it. This was the same student who told me that he should get help from staff to catch up on work which he missed by not turning up as he was paying £9,000 and should get the extra help. He wasn't very pleased when I pointed out the complete ridiculousness of claiming that he should get what he wants for paying £9,000, yet reserves the right to not bother because he is paying customer. I'm sure if he failed it would be the lecturers fault, but I taught this student in second year for three consecutive years so go figure.
Mature students usually succeed near the top of their university groups, especially those with children at home, they are used to being awake before 7 and having to march to the beat of someone elses drum, so have no problem managing their time effectively to maximise their performance in their studies.
By forming the habit of getting up at 7am and going to where you are supposed to be for the start of the day, you can use this time to be infront instead of always chasing your tail. It will also mean that when you have an employer with the power to punish you for not being able to turn up on time, you will be in front of that curve as well
Get up before you have too, go somewhere before you need to, do something before someone makes you, eventually you will realise that you are a productive and reliable person and this will help in the long run.
