1 . How to be more productive in your first hour of work

After you grab a coffee, chat with your co-workers and scan your emails, the first hour of your workday has blown by.     1    .

    2    . Sitting in front of the computer with food and coffee make you more likely to surf blogs and social media instead of jumping to important tasks. You can’t really work when you’ve got a spoon in hand and are constantly reaching for something.

Most people write to-do lists with easy tasks on top so they can feel good about crossing those items off.     3    . Instead, organize your list with long-term goals on top to remind you of what’s most important, and daily goals at the bottom to plan how you’ll reach them. Daily tasks should be specific,

Instead of scanning through your email or social media, figure out what’s challenging you the most. Ideally, tackle the thing that most has your attention. Often it’s the thing that’s most bothering you, Getting that stressor out of the way will make you more relaxed throughout the day.

Force yourself to stay in the zone by setting strict periods of uninterrupted work, Setting a 50-minute timer will give a long enough period to get into the zone and make progress in your work before taking a 10-minute break,     5    , but a separate kitchen timer or hourglass are recommended for a visual reminder that keeps your hands away from the distraction of your phone notifications.

3 . Do you love fossils and dinosaurs? I’m lucky enough to be a fossil preparator (化石制备师), which means I work with fossils, like removing rocks from fossils and gluing fossils together to make sure they’re not broken. Sometimes, we have dinosaur bones that need to be arranged and put back into place.

I like the job from the bottom of my heart. When we make “jackets” — these are things that store the fossils — we have to accurately and scientifically figure out how to make them for specific bones or fossils, which can be different shapes and artistic expression.

Since I was a kid, it’s been my dream to be a paleontologist (古生物学者). When I was 12, I went to this kind of event at the Houston Museum of Natural Science called Dinosaur Day. I got a chance to meet paleontologists. At the end, I asked, “Hey, can I volunteer?” And somehow, they let me, as long as a parent came with me. At 12 years old, I got to go to a fossil excavation (挖掘), and I got to work with dinosaur bones and fossils in the lab for the first time.

Fossils are very old. We don’t always get all the pieces. We’re working with something that’s incomplete, sometimes. We do our best to fit the pieces we know back together. And as for the pieces we don’t know, we don’t try to make anything up. But sometimes, we have a gap in a specimen (标本) and it needs support. We’ll put some material in there that’s clearly not fossil, so when people go to study it, they know not to study that part.

People would wonder how I find other kids, especially girls, who shared my interests when I was growing up. As a matter of fact, in my friend group, I was the only dinosaur girl. My friends were interested in other things, but they were all super supportive of my love for fossils.

4 . Starting a new job is exciting for lots of reasons. You meet new people, learn new skills, and become part of a team. But there are several things you need to get under your belt before you can really show your new workmates and bosses what you’re made of.

    1    . You just talk with your boss, and understand your responsibilities. Get specific in terms of these expectations. If you’re in sales and part of your job relies on meeting quotas (指定额度) find out what the specific quotas are.     2    , whether your quotas are bringing in a specific amount of profit or a specific number of new clients.

Listen and Learn. Listen actively and learn quietly during team meetings, one-on-ones with your manager, or even casual conversations by the coffee machine. This is not just about understanding your role, it’s about absorbing the company culture, team dynamics, and business objectives. Too many to remember?     3    .

Get to know your boss. His or her leadership and communication style can offer invaluable insights for your long-term success. For example, does your boss prefer weekly email updates or quick daily stand-ups? Do they like to be consulted on every decision, or do they give you more leeway (余地)?     4     because they can make your actions and reporting style more in line with your boss’s expectations.

Accept constructive feedback. Always ask for feedback and take it wisely. Constructive criticism can be challenging to hear, but it offers valuable lessons for improvement.     5    . Then, develop a plan of action to address the points raised and discuss this with the person who offered the feedback.

5 . On-campus jobs offer tons of benefits on their own, making them an ideal choice for most students. Here are some.

Resident assistants are responsible for managing a lot of the normal operations of their assigned dorms, including supervising move-in and move-out procedures, enforcing dorm rules, overseeing dorm security and helping solve minor conflicts. Free room and board can be got.

Compensation

Anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 or more per academic year.

How to Apply

Visit your school’s residential life department.

Library attendants are typically responsible for answering general questions, directing students, assisting library patrons with checking out books, and helping maintain an atmosphere helpful to studying. They might also help organize library materials, sort and shelve books or other print resources, and perform administrative tasks like answering the phone or emails.

Compensation

The average pay is $11 per hour.

How to Apply

Inquire directly at the library.

It’s a high-energy and social job that will help you develop your interpersonal and public speaking skills as you interact with hundreds of potential students and their parents. And it’s an ideal campus job to help maintain your cash flow.

Compensation

It makes $11 to $14 per hour.

How to Apply

Inquire from your school’s office of admissions.

An IT assistant will typically assist students and faculty with installing software, fixing technical issues in classrooms, setting up equipment in classrooms, and occasionally assisting the IT department with updating and maintaining campus operating systems and assisting in the configuration (配置) of new hardware.

Compensation

The average hourly rate is $15.

How to Apply

Check the job board of colleges.

6 . When this year’s all-woman team arrived on Antarctica’s Goudier Island to run the world’s most remote post office, it was shovels they needed rather than stamps.

They’d traveled some 8,000 miles from the UK, by plane and boat, and Britain’s Royal Navy had helped them dig out their new home at the Port Lockroy scientific base, which was buried up to four meters deep under several tonnes of December snow.

It wasn’t just the frozen wastes that first struck postmaster Clare Ballantyne, who at 23 years old was the baby of the four-woman group. It was that “there’s penguins everywhere.”

More than a thousand Gentoo penguins live on this tiny island on the western side of the Antarctic peninsula (半岛), around the size of a soccer field. Since 1944, when the UK’s first permanent Antarctic base was established here, it’s also become a shelter for explorers, scientists and — in recent years — tourists.

Each year, a team is selected to run and maintain the site from November to March, or summertime in the southern hemisphere. Around 4,000 people applied for this job, but just four made the cut: Ballantyne, base leader Lucy Bruzzone, wildlife monitor Mairi Hilton and shop manager Natalie Corbett.

The job also involves counting penguins: The scientific data they gather on the Gentoos’ breeding patterns is part of a decades-long study of the colony.

When it comes to choosing candidates, “there is no recipe we can follow,” says Ballantyne. “It’s about your ability to work together as a team. Cheeriness goes a long way, being able to see the light in life and resolve problems quickly.”

Ballantyne notes that there has been “a bit of a decline in recent years in the breeding success” of the Gentoo penguins, but says “the causal connect ion is the tricky bit.” While climate change is probably “the biggest driver,” they also need to carefully examine if there’s a “human element” as well. In her opinion, Antarctica tourism has boomed significantly in the past couple of decades, but there aren’t legally enforced limits on tourism, which hopes to be a regulated industry.

7 . As a kid, Pamela Akuku spent her weekends exploring the National Museums of Kenya, following along with her mom who worked there. Akuku became fascinated with the researchers. She saw them using various equipment and researching the fossils carefully. “But I didn’t know what they were doing at the time,” she says. “I kept asking my mom about it.”

Akuku’s mom saw her daughter’s curiosity and signed her up for the museum’s Young Researchers Club. Akuku soon took part in mock excavations (模拟挖掘) and reconstructed bones. “I enjoyed reading and puzzles,” says Akuku. “And this was a mixture of the two.”

The museum experiences helped inspire her career as an archeologist. After her four years in university, she was sure that she wanted to study archaeology. She did her master’s in South Africa and majored in zooarchaeology (动物考古学). She is now at the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution in Tarragona, Spain. There, she studies how ancient humans modified (改良) animal bones. Her research is helping to reveal more about where early humans lived. She’s currently studying the remains from Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge, where researchers previously discovered stone tools and evidence of early human ancestors going back as far as 2 million years.

Akuku gives some advice to people who want to do her job. “Be prepared to come across hard conditions. Working in this field is challenging. You have to work twice as hard just to be recognized,” Akuku said. But she has learned to deal with it. Now she always tells everyone the efforts are worthy.

9 . A pacer is someone who runs in races or marathons to help set the pace for runners. There are different types of pacers. A race pacer usually carries a sign highlighting a specific competition time for a race. He helps runners reach their goals without relying on technology, such as a smart watch or GPS. Professional pacers are used in long-distance races. They run at different sections of the race to inspire runners. A record pacer helps a professional runner set a new record, who often leads the race for a predetermined distance at a predetermined pace.

A runner being paced runs directly following a pacer. Having a pacer can be helpful for a long-distance runner because researches show that it takes more energy to lead in a race all through the race than to follow another runner. The pacer takes on the responsibility of timing and establishing the pace so the runner only has to focus on his own running. Having a pacer as a guide in a long race can take some of the stress and pressure off by keeping an even pace. The pacer may also provide encouragement along the way to work towards the goal.

There are times, though, when running with a pacer can be more stressful than beneficial for a runner — especially for amateur runners. Not having taken professional training, you set a goal to run a particular pace, but then you realize this may not be the best speed for you. In some cases, the pacer is running too quickly for what you can stand. Other times, you could misjudge your abilities and run a slower pace than what your body can bear.

It is important to note that you don’t have to stay with a pacer just because you started with him. If you feel strong at the end and want to finish faster, you can run ahead. Or if he is too fast, you could slow down and maybe even join the slower pace group behind you.