Nerdify reviews the best ways to get better sleep
Sleep is important, we love it (especially here at Nerdify), we spend a third of lives doing it and yet lots of people have a problem waking up every morning.
Lack of sleep is a real problem and has been linked to short-memory loss, difficulty concentrating and depression. According to a recent study, from the Rand Corporation, United States economy loses staggering $411 billion a year due to lack sleep among the working population.
An average person needs roughly 7-8 hours of bedtime to be in tip-top shape. But simply lying in bed won’t cut it. The quality of sleep is equally important.
We’ll share some tips with you, on how to get the best sleep possible every single night:
1. Keep a constant sleep cycle
Our bodies have a natural biological clock, called “circadian rhythms” that basically say when you should be awake and when you should be sleeping. Messing with it will make you tired all day long. Try focusing on going to bed (and waking up) at roughly the same time. That way, your body will adjust its melatonin production ( the hormone responsible for making you feel sleepy) to your sleep cycle.
2. Switch off your laptop/mobile phone
Our screens emit “blue spectrum light” which makes our bodies think it’s “daylight” suppressing the melatonin production, hence you stay awake past midnight checking your FB or watching YouTube. This is EXACTLY the reason why staring at your mobile phone or laptop when going to bed, is a terrible idea. Thus, 1 hour before bedtime – put your mobile phone away and switch off your laptop!
3. Take a shower and cool your room
Various studies have shown, that the best sleep comes at around 68 degrees °F (approx. 20 °C) room temperature. So try cooling your room before bedtime. Another thing you can do is taking a quick hot shower. This will help you relax and let your eyes rest before going to bed.
4. Read a book or meditate
The last 30 minutes before bed should really be all about relaxing and preparing your mind for sleep. Clearing your mind with meditation or yoga, reading a book will quickly take a toll on you and you’ll be falling asleep shortly. You can also sniff some lavender essential oils! Many studies have indicated that breathing in lavender help people relax and get better quality sleep.
5. Once you wake up – get some sunlight
As discussed previously – melatonin is the hormone that makes you sleepy. Our body starts producing it when the sun goes down. To STOP melatonin production – get some sunlight right after you jump out of bed, production of the melatonin will stop and your body will know that it’s time to wake up!
Here at Nerdify, we help you succeed during your academic years. We think it’s incredibly important students achieve their goals because education is one of the biggest investments one makes in his life. If you feel like the pressure is mounting up and you need a helping hand – get in touch and we’ll make sure you have enough sleep today 😉
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December 4, 2018
Hey there! What a lovely day to enjoy new Nerdify reviews post. Ready to unleash your bad habits and fight them?
It’s already December and soon enough you gonna think of new resolutions to make. College is a challenging time, which always comes with risks of really bad academic troubles that we all seem to go through from time to time. There are new challenges, unknown environment, too much studying, and the joy of youth kicking in, so it is only natural that you try to cut the corners and find an easy way out! Nevertheless, it is important to take care of your college life and do your best to ditch the bad academic habits.
- The Art of Procrastination
Procrastination problem is what most students face on a daily basis as soon as the battle of deadlines versus the fun times starts! There is a movie that you definitely want to see or a party that you want to join early to meet your best friend or even a blog post that you want to read. This is when procrastination gets in the way. Trust us, we all have been there and it is only natural to put off some difficult tasks and think that you can do it later. The best way to ditch this bad habit is writing down a list of the “urgent” and “not so urgent” tasks in two columns. This way you can get more focused at tasks at hand and organize your time in a more efficient way!
2. Junk Food Problem
While it is tasty, quick, and you do not have to spend way too much time cooking, junk food can become a bad academic habit that comes up as soon as you start the college and try to get through the myriad of tasks. You run around, you catch a bite here and there, you talk to your friends as you eat, run around in the park, still chewing something. Sounds familiar? Add the late night pizza and Chinese takeouts to the list and you risk making all the healthcare specialists sad and angry! If there is a kitchen in your college room, start cooking your own simple food and check with your college friends to share the tips and get the best recipes. Moreover, stick to more accurate dining times and make sure that a time when you eat something is not in the middle of another task!
3. Using “you know”, “like” and “totally” When You Speak.
Now that you are about to become a skilled professional, your task is to work at the social skills and strive for academic success. You have to learn how to speak in a professional way and get rid of all the rubbish words and slang. We all get this “you know” and “like” bugs in our sentences, yet getting rid of these words can be really helpful. Just give it a bit more thought and learn to breathe! They call them “the filler words” because they are used to fill the space when you do not know what to say or when your lack of confidence comes through. Instead of using all these words, try to think and learn to talk at a slower pace, allowing yourself to focus on a subject and remember all the important information. This way the people will listen to you and know that you are experienced and have sufficient knowledge.
4. Ignoring College Group Projects
While far not everyone is guilty of this bad academic habit, it still exists and can be damaging to your college success, future resume, and a list of strong social skills that you definitely should have. Think of the group work where some people seem to do it all for the others while you just sit and watch. Do not be like one of such students and take an active role! Show some good work ethics and find a golden medium between a laid-back attitude and being a control freak. Be open to suggestions, yet learn to speak your opinion. It is a group project after all and everyone should do their best to be responsible and contribute!
5. The King of the Party
Sometimes it seems that it is not possible to survive through college without partying! While some of this is true since you do not have to turn nerdy and geeky being stuck in a college room with the books all the time, you have to remember of all the important deadlines and organize your parties (and the ones you want to join) wisely, so it does not affect your academic schedule and the other commitments. Make a party something to look forward to with no dark shadows from the tasks you have not finished yet! Even if you are a king of the party and like to have fun, remember that you can do both, if you manage your time and the plans!
6. You Bite More Than You Can Swallow: Doing Too Much at Once!
It is no wonder that an endless list of homework to do, confusing classes, and all the extra-curricular activities can make things a little bit too difficult! As a result, you may get a bad habit of trying to do it all at once. You start multi-tasking and aim for finishing several tasks at the same time. You may be a member of several clubs and you try to join two or more group projects, yet you start noticing that you are stressed out and anxious. It is a normal reaction of your mind and body to biting more than you can swallow. The solution is to take one step at a time and form a daily timetable to make sure that you give your best to each task. When you cannot do your best in a club or fail your friends by not being there, thinking of a next activity, it is never any good!
7. Bad Sleeping Habits
This is definitely one of the worst habits a college student may get! It is also one of the most challenging problems to get rid of! As your sleeping habits get worse and start to affect your grades and health in general, there are several ways to stay away from trouble! Schedule some morning time at the college gym, for example, or team up with your roommate by making plans for a specified time. This way you can keep quiet when you have to study and party hard when you both feel like it! Make sure to go to bed at the right time and remember that sleeping is important even when you feel energetic.
8. The Lack of Fashion
Maybe not really a bad academic habit, but it still makes a certain impression about you! The talk is about a lack of fashion or a specific fashion a college student may have. Think of your favorite t-shirt and the sweatpants that you just put on and let go. While it is quite convenient, it makes you look stressed out and not so professional. Choose the clothes that make you look stylish and professional, making it clear that you care for your outfit. Once people notice that you care for the way you look, you are no longer “that college student”, but a “bright and motivated person”!
9. Spending Too Much Time Online
Not exclusively a college student’s bad problem, the time we spend online is more harmful to your life and success when you have to study and get the good grades. We often tell ourselves that “five more minutes” won’t make a difference and scroll down to another post on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Yet, it all takes time! Just make your online presence useful for your future major by making your profile look professional and combine your social networks knowledge and skills with the exploration of a subject that you study!
10. Getting Rid of Laziness
Laziness is always a trouble for a college student and basically anyone who tries to reach some progress and grow as a person! Do not waste your time for the meaningless and dull things that just take your time and teach you nothing. Join social clubs, get involved in volunteering, and explore the opportunities that a college life offers! Do not sit locked in your college room, meet people, smile to others, have fun at the party, share your knowledge, experience, and skills, and learn how to make new friends! Do not be lazy because listening to this bad habit is actually stealing your own life!
Take care and stay motivated,
Nerdify reviews team
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November 21, 2018
Howdy, pals! Even though you may think that your time management skills in college are good enough, Nerdify reminds you that there are still some helpful tips and tricks.
They will help you upgrade your knowledge and see how you can make your college life much easier and fun. One of the reasons why your time management skills upgrade can be essential is because you may want to add more to your schedule and get involved in all the fun activities, yet there seems to be never enough time to do it all! Let us see how you can act as an engineer of your own time and resources in a little bit unusual way!
- Learn to study in blocks!
The trick here is to approach the different study scenarios where you try different time passages or the time-blocks for your college assignments and the times of leisure. This way you can see how much time you may need to get focused in a proper way! While 30-40 minutes time blocks are ideal for studying before you take some rest, you may still need to make them either shorter or longer to see what fits you best. Remember that you have to take the breaks and switch from subject to subject to have a clear mind before you continue with the same or a completely new task. You can take a walk and have a cuppa before you continue with the studies.
The difference in such approach is your being aware of how much time you are going to spend as you study. You do not have to fear that there are hours and hours of studies ahead before you can finally have some rest! Give yourself some credit and remember that you deserve something for a change. Such an approach will not only keep you organized but will help you to divide your homework assignments by the level of importance and complexity as you form your time blocks. Start with the easy tasks first, so you may get an idea of how much time you may need. This way you can also plan the times of leisure for the day ahead when you are the one in control of your plans with all the classes getting in the way!
- Do not underestimate college help resources!
Most students spend the majority of their free time by trying to understand how to start with a homework assignment and how to approach an unknown writing format. Of course, there are countless questions that you try to look up online, yet it does not seem clear or your college professor has a different idea about certain rules. You can definitely save some precious time by turning to the writing help center at college and talking to your professor if you are unsure of a something. It does not make you any less smart if you take some time to speak of your concerns instead of acting cool and trying to find solutions on your own.
There are additional study groups and the special support classes almost at every college that will help you to get a guidance and assistance with the most challenging classes. If there are debates, conferences, social work, and laboratory experiments, make sure that you join the fellow students and stay as active as you can. This way you help to make your name known to others as your social network of friends starts to grow. Smart students will start to notice you and share their knowledge. Professor will see that you are a dedicated student who walks an extra mile to study. It will not only improve your chances for a scholarship and financial aid but will also help you to receive timely help!
- Join College Study Groups!
Sometimes all your free time may be ruined by a single college class that you are struggling with! Even though you may do well in the rest of your classes, failing to understand a subject or follow professor’s speech in your English class or in Quantum Physics is a great challenge! Still, there is a trick that helps you to address the problem professionally – the college study groups. What these study groups offer is a unique advantage to focus on a single subject in a special way where you receive tutoring to cover the curriculum in a faster way. As you join the study group, you can research and ask questions without embarrassment as it is exactly why you are there. In order to help you through the class, you are offered a topic to work at, so you can collaborate with a fellow student on a group task. They call it an enhanced learning because you learn to share and work together starting from the class lecture notes to exploring additional subjects to help you understand the class in a deeper way. In a certain sense, it is like a free tutoring opportunity where you can finally liven up your study sessions and save some time that you spend trying to understand a complex assignment!
- A Daily Schedule Approach!
While it may sound boring to you, it does help to challenge and upgrade your current time-management skills in college! A daily schedule approach will not only motivate you as a student but help you to manage your time in a more efficient way. Here is how it works:
- Make a list of your daily tasks that you have to complete!
- Write the next list with two columns of more important and less important tasks.
- Mark the tasks that are urgent and should be done with one color.
- Mark the tasks that can wait with the other color.
- Place a checkmark next to each task as you get it complete.
- Try to write down an approximate time that you have spent on each task.
- Make an additional list of all the fun things that you may want to do, so you can add it to your primary schedule!
As you try to work with a daily schedule of your college tasks, share it with your roommate and the fellow students, so you can see how it can be adjusted and what helpful techniques you may learn! Keep the daily schedule always by your side, so you can keep organized and focused!
- Work at your soft skills!
Your personal development and growth of time management skills depend on the presence of soft skills. What it means, in reality, is your ability to be independent, adhere to strong ethics, and work at your communication skills. You have to stay patient and unbiased as you choose your sources and the books as you study. Setting the goals and trying to be flexible, you have to work at your character and coordinate what you have to learn with your true passions. The way how you approach your college life with all the studies and fun is a reflection of how well you can do in a future career. This work and experience have already started, so one has to be strong and seek for inspiration inside!
Some Nerdy tips and time management observations!
- Always have a time buffer because the days at college somehow go faster than you expect!
- Take advantage of the days and times when you feel creative and inspired. When you feel like working and know that you can do more, make sure that you do your best!
- Focus on one task at a time because even though you may be able to multitask, your brain easily becomes exhausted!
- Limit and challenge yourself with the deadlines because it keeps you more productive. If you have less time to get the task done, you work extra hard.
- Even though you may have flexible college deadlines, make sure not to procrastinate!
- Brainstorm the ideas and alternative solutions as you get stuck with your homework!
- Try to schedule the important tasks and meetings early in the day because the most challenging time is when you try to get ready for the actual task!
- Get rid of the most disturbing tasks first, so you can feel better about the rest of the items on your list!
- Always take notes and do not think that you can remember everything out there! Write it down and use it as a personal reference to turn to! It really helps to save some time!
- Do not forget to have fun and spend some time for yourself!
A kind reminder from Nerdify: your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow. Take care and practice time management!
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November 7, 2018
Greetings, Nerdify fans! Did you know that a motivation letter is as important as your CV?
What’s that? Well, a job motivation letter is simply like your average cover letter. Like the latter, you have a few seconds to impress (and persuade) your recruiter with your skills, experiences, and achievements. It also requires you to demonstrate your knowledge about the company you are applying. Most importantly, you have to justify why you are the perfect candidate for the job.
- A powerful letter will surely be a ticket to your desired position in the company.
- It is one of the main requirements of the job application process. However, this depends on the company. Some firms require you to submit a motivation letter along with your resume (or C.V.).
- Hence, it is best to read the list of requirements before submitting your documents.
What Should I Include in my Motivation Letter?
- Your full name
- Your contact information (Ex: Phone number or email address)
- Address
- Name and address of the company
- Content
- Salutations (Ex: Dear sir, /Dear ma’am,)
- Complimentary close (Ex: Sincerely)
- Your signature (If needed)
Note: There’s no set number of paragraphs you can write. The ball is in your court as long as you stick to the introduction, body, and conclusion template. Stick to writing a one-page motivation letter.
How do I Write a Motivation Letter?
- Introspect!
Excited to apply for a job? Make a list of your skills. It can range from researching, marketing, to graphic design. Since you have no job experience, you can write about:
- Volunteer experience (School or extra-curricular activity )
- Internship
Oh yes! You should also list your core achievements and significant contributions too! As early as now, you have to tailor your motivation letter to your preferred job position. It’s just like writing a resume.
2. Look for a job (obviously)!
Read the job description and requirements carefully. Some companies accept applicants who have no work experience. Don’t apply for a job if you think you don’t have anything to market to the hiring manager. Oh yes, don’t forget to take note of the deadline.
3. Research!
Just like academic essays, you have to research the company first before drafting your motivation letter.
- What does the company do?
- What are its core tenets and values?
You can even look for reviews or company press releases if that helps you gain more knowledge about the company. You can begin drafting your motivation letter once you have an idea. Remember, recruiters, are looking for people who contribute.
4. Introduce yourself!
- Express your interest to apply for the position.
- You may tell the recruiter how you found out about the opportunity.
- State your degree, personal values, or career goals. It is best if the company’s goals align with yours.
Depending on the structure of your letter, the length of the introduction should be at least one to two paragraphs long.
- Avoid saying, “I would like to express my interest to apply for this position because I have siblings to feed.” You are begging!
5. Market!
Make yourself the solution and contributor! Narrate how your experiences and skills will be a huge help to the company. Ask yourself:
- How will my volunteer experience/internship as an events manager (or any position) be a huge advantage?
Don’t forget to mention your major achievements or contributions! There’s no need to mention everything.
6. Close with style!
Be enthusiastic even as you end your motivation letter.
- Thank the recruiter for his or her time.
- You can say that you would contact them in a week (or any day you prefer) for a follow-up.
- If you want, you can even state that you are willing to be interviewed by the recruiter.
How Should I Structure my Motivation Letter?
There are many templates you can choose to mimic or download online. This is the basic format of a motivation letter:
September 20, 2018
Ella Emerson
54 Junior Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia
404-610-0182
ella-emerson@mail.com
Felicia G. Reinoso
Hiring Manager
Company A
143 Kuhl Avenue, Atlanta, Georgia
Dear Ms. Reinoso,
Company A’s dedication to research about women’s rights and gender equality has sparked my interest to apply as a junior researcher.
As a graduate of Women’s Studies in University A, this position would not only advance my career but to also to achieve my goal of assisting marginalized populations.
I have worked as an intern for Company C, wherein I was tasked to conduct surveys, analyze data, write reports, and research solutions for our partner community. My achievements prove that I can be of value to the company:
- Researched and created an effective framework to foster gender-sensitive education and teacher training in the community’s public school.
- Educated the community by conducting a focus group discussion to further raise awareness of gender discrimination and misconceptions about feminism to the community members.
- Produced a monthly research report that demonstrates the effectivity of our framework to create a more gender equal society.
I am also equipped with excellent interpersonal and intercultural skills to reach to with the members of the community. My skills and goals are respectively aligned with Company A’s core values of cultural sensitivity and gender equality.
I would love to have an opportunity to join Company A to further improve my skills and help people. I will call you next Thursday to follow up on my application. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Ella Emerson
Of course, you should have someone proofread your letter before submitting it to the recruiter. Nerdify wishes you all the best in your career. Good luck!