Tag Archives: College

April 25, 2013

Commuting To School, Work & More – Tips To Saving Money

Let’s face it. Commuting can be both a time suck and get extremely expensive for you. Whether it’s driving to and from class, or driving to work, or social events, gas + car maintenence + insurance adds up, and it’s added up all the way up to graduation day and will continue to after.

So what are real ways to save?
Today’s post is inspired by a recent article on LifeHacker.com.

2 of our favorite tips?
1) Change your work hours
- While this may be difficult for the just recent college grad to ask for a flexible schedule or work at home accommodations, it’s not to say you can add things to the beginning or end of your work day. Consider avoiding rush hour by hitting the gym early, or hitting the gym later . Grab groceries nearby to pass the rush hour instead of driving then grabbing them. Plan ahead, and you can often shave off a lot of minutes from your commute.

2. Partner up
Heading to the local coffee shop to study? Partner up with your girlfriend, boyfriend, or friend. Not only will this be more fun but you guys can switch off on driving each time.

April 17, 2013

Staying Positive Before Graduation

Staying positive can be a challenge, especially in senior year right before graduation. For many, positivity may be elusive because your “real world” plans haven’t been finalized yet. Where will you work? Have you interviewed? Did the job offer come yet? Where will you live? Will you move back home?

These questions and concerns can easily overcome our days and stress you to a point where we become paralyzed from the countless decisions to be made. But what’s one to do? When real world situations, family issues, or relationship issues all seem to collide at the most inconvenient time, or sh*t hits the fan? That mixed in with the stress of upper division courses and grade/graduation requirements can make for a tough Spring quarter/semester.

Today’s post is inspired by a recent post titled “6 Simple Ways To Be A Positive Human” from Pickthebrain.com.

What are the tips? Our two favorites were:
Take Action, Don’t be a Talker – Taking action instead will always trump criticism. If you don’t like how something is done, go fix it or take a step to helping out. It’s not too late to help out your fraternity, sorority, or student organization. Don’t just sit on the sidelines and be a critic, but get in the trenches and help out.

Choosing the Right Friends – Choosing the right friends can go such a long way. Surround yourself around go getters and people who are motivated in life. They’ll lift you up, and you’ll lift them up. As the saying goes “The whiners, they keep on whining even in heaven.” – Don’t let these people bring you down.

Have tips to stay positive? Share them below!

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lel4nd/5455224577/

April 8, 2013

Frozen Grapes in Wine?

So with graduation and graduation parties coming up soon, for those that do choose drink and enjoy a glass of wine, have you heard of this trick?  The trick is adding frozen grapes to your wine and using them as ice cubes.

Why you ask? Because wine is often best served between 45-60 degrees. Adding in the frozen grapes will likely not dillute or throw off the flavor and would be a quick way to do it in case you forgot to chill your wine.

So wash a batch of grapes and throw it into the refrigerator as soon as you can so that when commencement comes and you’re decked out in your graduation gown and sash, if you do forget to chill the wine, you’ll have a solution!

Read the full tip here
Photo Credit: http://www.improvisedlife.com/2011/08/29/dept-of-chill-wine-friendly-grape-ice-cubes/

March 11, 2013

Tips to Clean A Dorm Room or College Apartment

Let’s admit it, keeping a clean apartment or dorm room in college can sometimes be as challenging as an upper division course. Whether it’s because of your personal habits, your roommate from hell, or the guests who come over, often times common areas can become dirty and disorganized so quickly.

So how is one to combat this?  Especially with a full course load, work, and prep for graduation?  Well, there’s many ways, but today’s strategy is inspired by Unclutterer.com’s method.  The method focuses around a concept of 15-minute cleaning sessions everyday.  Squeezing those in either in the morning, in the evening, or whenver you have some down time.  In these microbursts, the goal is to focus on just 1 area of your room/apartment and in doing so you’ll get to your entire room in a week’s time.

Check out the full tip here.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26531284@N02/7824359066/

March 4, 2013

Meditation for Students

Screen shot 2013-03-04 at 9.17.04 AMWe’ve all heard of the health benefits of meditation. But why is it that so many of us just don’t do it? Even if meditation is for only 10 minutes, or 5 minutes… or just 2. We end up browsing Facebook, or constantly checking emails, or just about anything else instead of taking a second to breath and take in our environment. What is it that stops many students and people in our generation from taking time out of our busy lives to do this?

Well luckily now, there seems to be a great solution to help with this. Calm.com gives you a guided meditation experience that can help you rest in intervals of 2 minutes, 10 minutes 20 minutes, or more.

And the great part? It’s available in a format that so many of us are familiar with, an App!

So the next time you have some time between classes or fraternity or sorority meetings, be sure to check out this app. Maybe it’ll help you focus before your big event or test!

Check out the app here & more at Calm.com.

February 21, 2013

Homework Productivity

Productivity. It’s something we all strive for. In college, it’s getting through all of the readings and assignments without being distracted. In the real world, it might be hitting that deliverable deadline on time, and consistently.

But what does it really mean? Does productivity mean always being busy? Would a worker who is done with his or her work in 4 hours, and sits around the rest of the day be more or less productive than a worker who takes 8 hours to finish the same amount of work?

When thinking about this, but in the context of college, I’m sure we’ve all had our friends who were more “productive” in class. In that, they could read or study material once and just get it. And for others, including myself, sometimes we’d struggle to fully understand the concepts of discrete mathematics, or credits and debits, or a sociology topic.

So what are tips that can help you be more productive as you move one step closer to graduation and dawning those graduation sashes and stoles?

One tip is to use the rule of three and keep major decisions to three of fewer people. So when you’re trying to decide the course of your final project, or how to organize your chapter’s next event… consider going with the rule of three.

Looking for more productivity tips? Check out this great article on the globeandmail.com. While the tips pertain more to companies, you can see how this can easily apply to study groups, Greek chapters, and more.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/toothrot/6965598661/

February 12, 2013

Being Geniune

If we haven’t mentioned it before, LiveYourLegend is easily one of our more favorite blogs to read and follow. Whether you’re your young professional a few years into your career, the high school senior ready for college, or the college grad ready to dawn your graduation sash and gown ready to join the “real world,” LYL provides practical advice and tips on how you can start pursuing your dreams and live a more fulfilling life.

The quote that we’d like to share with you today comes from today’s post which is about being genuine and friends with people you’ve yet to meet.

“If you want to surround yourself with the people who make the impossible your new normal, then you must seek them out.”

Like this quote? Check out the full post here or read more on the official LiveYourLegend website.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/makelessnoise/240072395/

February 8, 2013

Soda & College

As you can imagine, we’re all about life hacks here at YourSash.com and finding little things that can make college life just a bit easier for you. Whether that’s by saving you time, money, or recommending healthier options, we hope that these little tidbits of info can help you on your road to graduation.

Today’s interesting tip comes from lifehacker, and it’s on how to organize your minifridge for soda.

Check out the full post link below, but the picture above should cover it!

Why didn’t we think of this?

Photo credit and source: http://lifehacker.com/5982483/split-a-12-pack-in-half-to-fit-it-in-a-mini-fridge

February 1, 2013

One Habit at a Time

“Please note that this is one habit period — don’t think you can do one fitness habit, one social habit, one work habit, etc. One habit only. Do not break this rule.”

Habits. We’ve all made new ones, broken old ones, and repeated the cycle. Along with new years resolutions, it’s often this time of year when everyone seems to be reevaluating their lives or the next step before dawning those graduation sashes and gowns.

Today we wanted to focus on tips to creating a new habit. The post is inspired by a blog post from ZenHabits.

Two of our favorite takeaways from the post?

“Only do the habit once a day, and again, just for a minute or two each day.” – This is so true. Especially when it comes to exercising. Even starting with 5 push-ups a day could make a big difference and as you build onto that habit, running, cardio, weights and more will follow naturally.

And secondly “Don’t Miss Two Straight Days. This is the key. ” – We couldn’t agree more!  Missing two days in a row, or taking a “break” from your diet that spans from Friday to Sunday might not be too beneficial to your goals.

So what are you waiting for? Set some new goals, start a new habit, and finish strong on your way to graduation!

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zigazou76/5846249822/