As a student, you probably care most about the specific skills you need to excel in academia and land a promising job. But there are other skills, known as general, or soft/“life” skills, that are no less important.

For example, every time you look for an essay writer helper on EssayHub, you use critical thinking and problem-solving skills – did you know that? These skills, by the way, are the two fundamental ones that every student needs to work on!

Others include:

  • time management;
  • long-term planning;
  • stress and anxiety management, and more.

Read on to see our complete list.

Time Management

Time is arguably the most valuable asset, so poor management can cost one dearly. But most students have so much on their plates that it’s hard to decide where to begin.

After graduation, things get even more complicated. Having work, family, continuing education, and personal interests, one cannot balance them effectively without advanced time management skills. Fortunately, one gets better at time management with time!

Long-Term Planning

Remember the Cheshire Cat? Which way you ought to go “depends a good deal on where you want to get to.” But if you have no final destination, how can you build the route?

Long-term planning is vital for students lest they want to get lost in the multiverse of possibilities, failing to reach their ultimate goals. If you don’t have this skill, you might find yourself in the wrong place after graduation.

Stress and Anxiety Management

That nagging feeling that everything will not be okay disrupts plans and causes a wide array of mental health problems. So, the earlier you learn to deal with stress and anxiety, the better.

At first, these two beasts may seem indestructible. But some neuroscience-based techniques can help anyone handle stress and anxiety marvelously. This skill will come in handy long after your finals week, so spare no effort to master it!

Concentration

Every activity requires concentration, but intellectual work is impossible without it. Think about essay writing: without focusing on the task, how much can you write? And even if you do write something, will it be good enough to ensure a high mark?

Luckily, you can train your concentration skills. Technology is also ready to aid you in your quest for stronger focus by offering an abundance of anti-procrastination apps so that you could block away distractions.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

These two skills are fundamental for every human being, regardless of age, status, occupation, and everything else. We all use them both hundreds of times every day, every waking hour.

Yet, deciding which shoes to wear is one thing, whereas choosing which job offer to accept is quite another. In college, critical thinking and problem-solving come in handy every time you write an academic paper, sit an exam, or invent a clever way to explain your absence from class after that big party you went to yesterday night.

Self-Care

Though modern culture still encourages workaholism, it is also gradually beginning to acknowledge that proper self-care is key to any person’s productivity.

Self-care for adults includes such simple things as:

  • getting enough sleep;
  • eating healthy food;
  • drinking enough water;
  • having sufficient rest, etc.

Ordering an essay can also be an act of self-care: we all know how overwhelming college assignments can be! Just make sure you read EssayHub reviews by essay review service NoCramming to ensure you choose the perfect service – and don’t feel self-conscious. Everyone needs a little help from time to time.

Financial Literacy and Budgeting

Students and money rarely go well together. The primary reason is, of course, that students spend the largest share of time studying, which leaves them with fewer opportunities to earn. But poor budgeting and bad spending habits contribute a great deal to the equation.

To avoid living on the verge of poverty while in college (and, possibly, after that), students should learn to plan their finances. Luckily, there are lots of opportunities to do that nowadays, from finance-related electives in college to onlinSelf-Assessment and Self-Presentation

In college or university, students are assessed by their teachers. Some students, therefore, get so used to it that they forget to learn how to assess themselves. So, once they get a degree and start looking for a job, they don’t know what they’re worth.

Sometimes, the main problem is not wrong self-assessment but poor self-presentation: fresh graduates know what they can do but have no clue how to showcase it. Lack of self-assessment and self-presentation skills can be a serious hindrance during the work search process, so you’d better learn them while still at college.

Communication and Cooperation

Some people like working on their own, and they know how to do it well. But as a rule, teamwork is more productive and rewarding. Unfortunately, many of us have poor communication skills and cannot cooperate to achieve the best results.

During student years, the inability to work in a team results in lower grades and causes interpersonal problems. Outside of college campus, lack of communication skills may seriously narrow your career choices, as most employers expect their workers to be cooperative.

Resilience and Perseverance

Two more critical skills for everyone are resilience and perseverance. Sometimes, only these two can make a difference and determine whether we reach our goals or not.

Though resilience and perseverance are often considered personal traits rather than skills, it’s possible to train them as any other skill. A proven way to do it is to engage in sports, experts say. So, if you’ve been thinking about joining your college sports team, don’t think twice.

Wrapping Up

Everyone cares a lot about specific skills – but general or “life” skills often make all the difference. Thus, to succeed in academia, in a future career, and in life in general, students should train these skills as diligently as any hard skill.

In this article, we’ve listed the most important general skills for you to pay attention to. How many of them do you already have, and how strong are they?

NCS
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