4 . For many high school students, it seems that there is never enough time. There are several steps you can take to organize your time better.

Make a to-do list every day. It makes it easy to plan any activities or meetings you may have in addition to homework. Be sure to set priorities (优先事项).    1    

Use spare time wisely. Instead of wasting your spare time, read a book or do homework.    2    If a friend asks you to do something and you have homework to do, think about which is more important and see your friend later.

Decide on the time that is good for you to do certain things. If you are more of a morning person, try getting up an hour earlier and do schoolwork before school.

Review your notes every day.    3    . If you spend a few minutes at the end of every day going over what you learned, it will mean less time spent on studying when it is time for the exam.

    4    Studies have shown that getting enough rest helps your memory. When     you are tired, everything seems more difficult. It is best to stay on a regular sleeping cycle as much as possible.

Tell your friends and family about your work timetable. Explain that you will be working at certain times and ask them not to disturb you.    5    you can call your friends later.

6 . I read somewhere that we spend a full third of our lives waiting. But where are we doing all of this waiting, and what does it mean to an impatient society like ours? To understand the issue, let’s take a look at three types of “waits”.

The very purest form of waiting is the Watched-Pot Wait, It is without doubt the most annoying of all Take filling up the kitchen sink(洗碗池)as an example. There is absolutely nothing you can do while this is going on but keep both eyes fixed on the sink until it’s full. During these waits, the brain slips away from the body and wanders about until the water runs over the edge of the counter and onto your socks. This kind of wait makes the waiter helpless and mindless.

A cousin to the Watched-Pot Wait is the Forced Wait. This one requires a bit of discipline. Properly preparing packaged noodle soup requires a Forced Wait. Directions are very specific. “Bring three cups of water to boil, add mix, simmer three minutes, remove from heat, let stand five minutes.” I have my doubts that anyone has actually followed the procedures strictly. After all, Forced Waiting requires patience

Perhaps the most powerful type of waiting is the Lucky-Break Wait. This type of wait is unusual in that it is for the most part voluntary. Unlike the Forced Wait, which is also voluntary, waiting for your lucky break does not necessarily mean that it will happen.

Turning one’s life into a waiting game requires faith and hope, and is strictly for the optimists among us. On the surface it seems as ridiculous as following the directions on soup mixes, but the Lucky-Break Wait well serves those who are willing to do it. As long as one doesn’t come to rely on it, wishing for a few good things to happen never hurts anybody.

We certainly do spend a good deal of our time waiting. The next time you’re standing at the sink waiting for it to fill while cooking noodle soup that you’ll have to eat until a large bag of cash falls out of the sky, don’t be desperate. You’re probably just as busy as the next guy.

8 . Have you ever complained that there just aren’t enough hours in a day? Do you usually find yourself falling short on time in completing assigned tasks?     1     No matter how hard I tried, tasks just kept piling up towards the end every day and it became extremely difficult to stay productive. In spite of trying all kinds of free and paid to-do apps, nothing helped.

That didn’t change until I discovered the time management technique called Time Blocking. Since then, I have been able to transform my daily schedule for the better with the help of Time Blocking.     2    

It is a simple time management technique where you schedule your day such that it is divided into time blocks that are dedicated to specific tasks or groups of tasks.     3     Imagine that you have a dozen or so tasks that you want to finish working on tomorrow. You open your to-do app of choice and neatly list down everything that you plan to do, and then plot some important meetings and reminders in your calendar app.     4     The more specific you are about the task, the more focused and productive you will be and thus, more productive.

    5     It not only makes your to-do list more manageable, but also it gives you more control over your day and helps you prioritize your tasks. It also improves your focus and helps get rid of procrastination(拖延症), as it allows you to focus on one project at a time.