Speaker 1: In our wide world, there exists a variety of objects that generally should not be dropped. Bowling balls, containers of pure sodium, that kind of thing. However, by contrast, there are also several things that should be dropped, such as fire ants. In fact, that's probably the most important thing you should drop. Also, the subject when your Uncle Gary brings up politics at Thanksgiving dinner. And also, classes. In last week's video, we looked at some research which showed that academic overload is the most common cause for long-term student stress and burnout. And that's why in this one, I want to argue that it's okay to drop classes when you need to. Now, many students view dropping a class as tantamount to actually failing that class flat out. And I understand their reasoning. We have ideals that tell us to stick with our commitments to follow through. Those that persevere through adversity will succeed, while those who don't are doomed to a life of regret and a distinct lack of sports car purchases. But let's dispense with the inspiring platitudes here. Yes, perseverance is a virtue worth cultivating. And yes, in general, you should approach each of the things you commit to with the intention of seeing them through. But there's an element of tactical decision-making to be injected here, especially with respect to your class schedule. And the reason for that is that many ambitious students tend to overcommit when they're signing up for classes. I've been in the same exact position that you've probably found yourself in. It's time to sign up for classes and you're thinking about the new semester. And in addition to that, you're thinking about new semesters in general, which brings about associations of new beginnings and full stocks of willpower. As a result, you tend to overcommit when you're signing up. Say you've fallen victim to this line of thinking and now you realize that the workload you've signed yourself up for is too much. What's the solution? Well, simple, drop a class. If you're diligent about gauging your classes early on, it's likely that dropping a class will have no negative effect on you. My university, for example, let people drop unlimited classes with no marks on their transcripts up to five days after the semester started. Even after that, you could drop a limited amount of courses up to halfway through the semester. Though if you're going to do this, you should probably know the exact limit that your university has. I dropped courses several times as a student for a variety of reasons. A couple of elective classes I took ended up having way higher workloads than I anticipated, so I dropped those. For another class, I eventually realized I was only part of the program that required it because I wanted to pad my resume out. I didn't actually really care about the program and it wasn't going to help me achieve my goals. So I eventually just dropped the class, actually dropped out of the program, and used the time it freed up to do things I actually cared about. There are other valid reasons for dropping classes as well, such as a professor whose teaching style just doesn't work for you. You can mitigate some of these risks before the semester starts by using things like rate my professors and reading the syllabi to get a feel for the workload, but you won't know for sure how a class goes until you're sitting in it. So here is express permission. Drop classes when you need to. Find out what your university's drop policy is and then use it to your advantage to create a schedule that you control rather than the one that takes over your life. This gives you time to fill your schedule with other useful pursuits like part-time jobs, extracurriculars, events, and much needed relaxation time. In the case of a bad professor, it also gives you the chance to look for a different section of the same class that might have a better professor. Now one caveat here though, when you drop a class, make sure you open your graduation plan and update the change. If you don't have a graduation plan that lays out the courses you plan to take up until graduation, I highly recommend creating one. If you want, you can get a copy of the spreadsheet that I used for my own graduation plan and I've included it as a free download along with my free book that you can get by clicking on the card or link in the description. Now I realize that this might not be a viable strategy for every single student out there. Maybe you're in a program or a college that requires you to take a strict set of classes every single semester and you can't drop any of them. Or maybe you need to take college at an accelerated pace in order to be able to afford it. Likewise, it's a strategy that might not solve all of your time management problems, especially if you're a student who has to spend a lot of hours at a part-time job in addition to your studies and classes. Still, it's something that deserves consideration and I think the biggest takeaway here is that dropping a class should not be seen as a failure. It should be seen as a tactical decision. Now, I'm not the only person who will advocate this strategy. My friend Cal Newport, who's a computer science professor and the author of several books, included this advice near the start of his book, How to Win at College, which I actually used as a high school student in preparation for my own college experience. As he interviewed top students from all around the country for his book, he realized that one of the main strategies they used to stay on top of their classes was creating a schedule that they felt in control of. Careful course selection is one of the best tools for retaining that control and dropping classes is a part of that course selection process that you should be taking advantage of. Hey guys, thanks so much for watching my video on why you should drop classes. If you want to get new videos every single week on being a more effective student, you can click that big red subscribe button right there. You can also get a free copy of my book on earning better grades by clicking the book's picture and that also comes with a copy of my graduation planning spreadsheet like I mentioned earlier, so if you want to get that, click the picture and I will send you both. Do you want to see the companion blog post for this episode or read Cal's thoughts on this exact same topic? Then you click the orange logo to head over to my website. If you missed last week's video, we talked about how to avoid burnout as a student or deal with it if you're already feeling it and also if you'd like to connect with me, ask questions, or get feedback, you can follow me on Twitter at TomFrankly or leave a comment below. Thanks for watching.