Don’t desperately try to memorize

Don’t desperately try to remember things. It will just worsen the situation. Rather enjoy your reading. Read slowly, yet steadily. Don’t stress on the fact that you have to remember, just tell yourself that you should understand each point thoroughly. A stressed mind is more susceptible to forgetting.

Repeat

Don’t expect your brain to work like a genius that you read once and retain things. Repeat your reading, if not each sentence, but the main content. In first reading you may not always get the right meaning, you may also skip few important parts. So repeating will help you to get the right meaning and retain as well.

Underline important lines

Don’t forget to underline the important points. While you read, underline the points which are vital, require attention and need to be remembered. Underlining important points will not only help you to remember, but also to get back to the important points at any point of time effortlessly.

Make small points

While you read, it’s better to jot down points too. Writing always helps in memorizing things better. At the end of each chapter or paragraph you may jot down the main points in bullets. It will help you to remember content of the paragraphs or chapter as a whole. While revising your lesson, you can simply take a glance of then points jotted down. Such points will not only help you to memorize better but also to browse through the chapter at a glance.

In front of your eyes

If you actually want to remember some vital points for the purpose of examination and it’s little unmanageable for you, write the important points on a white board or stick on pads and keep them in front of your eyes. Place it above your study table or just in front of your bed, so that every time you pass you take a look of the points. This way even unknowingly you will remember the points.

Now, isn’t memorizing task so easy?

Do not schedule any important meeting on the interview day

This is to be done to stop you from messing up either of the two, and to keep your mind uncluttered on the very day. An important meeting scheduled on the day of interview will engross a significant part of your thinking brain, which will distract you during the interview as well. You should, therefore, avoid scheduling anything important on the interview day.

Do not use office mail for communication

I know you follow this, but still I felt like telling you that never ever use the e-mail ID given by your company to schedule or fix a meeting. This could spell bad luck for your existing job, which I presume you do not want to lose, unless you get something solid on hand.

Negotiate as much as you can

The best part of searching for a new job when you already have one is the fact that you can bargain with the prospective employer from a position of strength. Unlike a fresher who needs a job then and there, you do not have that urgency as you already have a job. You should, therefore, try to get the job on your terms. This is very much possible.

Being already employed, you already know the tricks of an interview meeting, so I left them out of this article, and instead mentioned those that are relevant for you alone, and not for a fresher. You must put these tips in use.

Spell check, spell check, spell check.  There’s a reason word processors come with spell checkers, take advantage of clicking that  button.  Spellchecker won’t catch everything, but it will catch some mistakes that you may have missed.  But remember to double check spellchecker, because computer spell check programs don’t factor context into it’s suggestions.  Spell check could tell you to change a word, when in fact you’ve committed no spelling error.  Which is where the next step comes in handy.

Any word you’re unsure about, don’t hesitate to look up in a dictionary.  The internet has a wealth of free dictionaries online, take full advantage.  Double check a word to make sure your usage is correct, and that your spelling is proper.

Now read through your article.  This step is most useful when you read your article aloud.  That will give you a good idea of how somebody else will be reading your article.  Check sentence structure, as well as paragraph length and make sure both flow.  If you find a sentence getting muddy, tidy it up a little as you go.  Then give a quick re-read after you’ve made your changes to ensure the article flows effectively.

From there do one last check for errors.  Usually it helps to go through your article backwards.  When you read normally there are still grammatical errors that you could miss.  By reading backwards your brain can’t make sense of a sentence, so individual words and punctuation marks will stand out more.  This way you can double check your spelling, and punctuation, and make sure all the untidy bits are properly corrected.

Something that people are usually able to write about at any time, is an issue that bothers them.  Whether a story in the news, or in your personal life, write about something you dislike.  This can be a useful exercise, as it’s easy to let yourself rant.  Once the words start flowing about something, they’ll start flowing about everything.

If you have a personal blog, which all writers should have, try writing about something different.  If you mostly focus on your current daily life, try writing about your past.  Think about the way things were before you are now.  Confront some hardships, or an aspect of your life that you miss.  Anything that moves you, to get those creative parts of your brain moving and working.

Try to challenge yourself.  Write outside of your comfort zone.  Anything that forces you to think outside of your normal box.  That’s a useful activity to help you constantly see scenarios in different ways, so that you’ll always have new ideas.

The more you can force yourself to write about different things, the  more you’ll be able to write.  Part of writing is letting yourself write content that you aren’t confident about.  You don’t always have to submit that work for someone else’s approval, but progress is progress.  At least getting something out will make you feel better, and less stressed for the next time.

-Make sure you get enough oxygen.  Typically when you are ready to go to sleep at night your body slows down the breathing process.  Because you’re not doing any activity you take fewer, deeper breaths, which helps to lull you to sleep.  If you’re feeling tired make sure to keep your breathing up, oxygenating your muscles and helping them feel awake.  A few quick deep breaths should do the trick.

-If the meeting is one of those you have to be there, but nothing really important happens affairs, the task of staying awake can be especially daunting.  Try taking pen and paper and make a list of something you have to do later.  Or make a list of things you’d like to do this week, or after work.  Anything to get your brain thinking.  Plus those around you will just see that you’re taking notes on the meeting, so you look informed and you stay awake.

-Bring a bottle of water with you, and if you’re feeling tired take a few sips.  Or even chew some gum quietly.  Anything to get your body moving and using energy.  Both of which will help to keep you awake.

-Finally, if you just can’t keep yourself going, then at an appropriate moment excuse yourself.  Excusing yourself is a much better solution than risking falling asleep.  The ultimate goal here is to not look slack enough to fall asleep at work, and excusing yourself accomplishes that, even if you anger a few folks in the process.

Well, always reread anything you’ve written a few times, to ensure that your sentences flow naturally, and to clear up any grammatical mistakes you may have made.  Good policy also suggests reading your pieces aloud, as it’s a fantastic method to double check how your writing sounds on the whole.  Reading aloud will give you the opportunity to make sure that everything flows properly, and that all sentences sound complete.

Another widely used, and remarkably effective tactic, is to read in reverse.  This is helpful for weeding out those cursed grammatical errors that you may still miss despite completing two or three rereads.  When you read your piece in reverse it eliminates the brain’s tendency to remember what you’ve written, which can cause you to skip over mistakes without even knowing that you have.

When restructuring a sentence never add more words to the sentence than were originally there, always cut the excess.  The problem with most first drafts of any piece of writing, is that they are much longer than necessarily needed.  Focus on condensing your concepts into as few sentences and paragraphs as possible, that way you can form a short concise work that will appeal to a broader audience.

These are just a few quick editing tips, there are many, many more concepts when you really get more in depth into what the editing process can do for a piece of writing.  But follow those guidelines and you’ll find yourself well on your way to becoming a better, and more complete writer.