Vitamin MBA is my attempt to help applicants work through road blocks to success that may include self-doubt, anxiety, procrastination and generally feeling overwhelmed by this process. I now present you with a dose of “Vitamin MBA”:

Happy Bunny recently wrote about extreme frustration with the essays.  I have little doubt that these thoughts and feelings resonated with many of you out there.  One thing that I have found helpful when trying to manage through frustration, is setting appropriate expectations for this process.  If you expect to set aside a Saturday afternoon and whip out a cool set of drafts, you are bound to wind up perplexed.  If you you expect that with focus and preparation, the process will proceed smoothly, you will certainly end up frustrated.  This is a truly challenging, often frustrating, anxiety provoking process that does not have a clean, clear path.  You need to understand that you will go through many iterations, you will rip up many drafts, you will revise and back track and perhaps spend days working a lot and producing little.  You should know and believe that at the end of the process you will end up with something great.  However, absolutely exect it to be an arduous process, or you will be setting yourself up for failure.  Sometimes preparing yourself for hardship makes the actual hardship easier.  If you gear yourself up for all of the hard work, you will probably be driven to work harder and be less upset when hard work does not always bring the immediate results you were hoping for.  Hang in there – you WILL get it done!

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Vitamin MBA is my attempt to help applicants work through road blocks to success that may include self-doubt, anxiety, procrastination and generally feeling overwhelmed by this process.  I now present you with a dose of “Vitamin MBA”:

I recently read an interesting post in the LifeDev blog, which discusses Abraham Lincoln, and how he positioned himself for success.  I agree it makes sense to learn from other successful people, so why not from the 16th President of the United States?

You can (and should) refer to the full entry, but here are some highlights that I found particularly interesting and relevant to those of you slugging it out with your MBA applications.

Point 2 – Learn the value of hard work.  This may be a difficult pill to swallow, but hard work is necessary to success, even when it is not always FUN.  Sometimes we procrastinate and come up with multitudes of excuses because we just don’t want to do something, (like write another essay about short and long term career goals).  However, for me it makes it strangely easier to acknowledge that – true, it may not always be fun – but you still need to slug it out and get it done.  Lincoln said, “My father taught me to work; he did not teach me to love it.”  So…like or not, tired or not, frustrated or not…just do it!

Point 3 – Don’t fret about formalities.  I have said this many times:  stop worrying about all of the steps and outlines and checklists, websites, meetings, forums…just start creating.  There is no ”right” way to get this done, you just need to dive in and start making your applications appear.

Point 11 – Don’t fear adveristy.  Lincoln said, “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.”  Applicants can become crippled with anxiety.  They wonder what the competition looks like, how fierce the competition is, how admissions will evaluate them, have applications increased this year, are they good enough, is their score good enough, is their GPA good enough…?  This is all somewhat irrelevant.  Set your goals – make them both ambitious and reasonable, and then go after it and do your best.  Stop feeling scared and focus on the accomplishment.

Many applicants face a set of challenges that are very different from GPA, GMAT and resume. I want to help applicants work through road blocks to success that may include self-doubt, anxiety, procrastination and generally feeling overwhelmed by this process. Hopefully with a bit of “Vitamin MBA” I can help you to overcome these challenges so that you can put our other resources to work and truly excel on your applications. I now present you with a dose of “Vitamin MBA”:

I read a blog post on GTD Times that I found fascinating. Many people feel they are more productive when multi-tasking. I know that I am guilty of trying to increase efficiency by completing several things at once. It makes sense – why would you research business schools online and then call your mom, when you can do both at the same time? However, consider the following:

Brain scan tests have been conducted on the subject of Mutli-tasking, with interesting results. Brain activity for a person focusing on one task show around 80% of the brain churning on the task. With focus split between 2 separate tasks, the same brain shows only 20% activity – or 10% on each task!

Wow. After reading this I am truly inspired to focus completely on whatever it is that I am working on. Even if it is just 15 minutes of research or 30 minutes of drafting essays, it is worth putting aside other distractions and really honing in on the work at hand. If you are toggling back and forth between your email inbox and Word as you write essays, you will be less productive. If you peruse school websites while chatting on the phone, you are not going to gain as much from your research. Don’t you think your Harvard application deserves as much of your brain as possible? Good luck single-tasking and let me know how it goes…

In our blog, we provide news, tips and tools to help you navigate the MBA admissions process. Despite the high volume of information that gets printed every week, we do not regularly address the fact that many applicants face a set of challenges that are very different from GPA, GMAT and resume. I want to help applicants work through road blocks to success that may include self-doubt, anxiety, procrastination and generally feeling overwhelmed by this process. Hopefully with a bit of “Vitamin MBA” I can help you to overcome these challenges so that you can put our other resources to work and truly excel on your applications. I now present you with a dose of “Vitamin MBA”:

Every Wednesday is tip day on the The Happiness Project. Below I have reprinted a very relevant post on Tips to get some writing done. Since all of you applying to business school need to get some writing done (to say the least), I thought I would start you off with her very wise words: “One of the challenges of writing is…writing.”

Here are some tips for actually getting some work done:

1. Write every workday; don’t wait for inspiration to strike.

2. Write in brief chunks of time; taking frequent breaks keeps you fresh. And don’t mislead yourself with thoughts like, “If I don’t have five or six hours clear, there’s no point in starting.”

3. Don’t procrastinate and don’t binge on writing. These habits lead to burn-out.

4. If you have trouble re-entering a project, stop working in mid-thought—even mid-sentence—so it’s easy to dive back in later.

5. Stay patient; don’t get distracted by how much you are or aren’t getting done.

6. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that creativity descends on you at random, or that by staying up all night you cultivate your muse. Creative thinking comes most easily when you’re writing regularly and frequently, when you’re constantly thinking about your project.

7. Remember that lots of good ideas and great writing come during the revision stage.

8. Develop a method of keeping track of thoughts, ideas, articles, or anything that catches your attention. Combing through these materials helps stimulate your creativity.

9. Pay attention to your physical comfort. Do you have a decent desk and chair? Are you cramped? Is the light too dim or too bright? Make a salute—if you feel relief when your hand is shading your eyes, your desk is too brightly lit.

10. Check your body. Lower your shoulders, make sure your tongue isn’t pressed against the top of your mouth, don’t sit in a contorted way.

11. Try to eliminate interruptions—by other people, email, or poking around the Internet—but don’t tell yourself that you can only work with complete peace and quiet.

12. Over his writing desk, Franz Kafka had one word: “Wait.” My friend Tad Low, however, keeps a different word on his desk: “Now.”

I have written in other Vitamin MBA posts about taking the plunge and not getting yourself to psyched out about finding the perfect day to whip out your perfect essays. Point #2, above, rings true – it’s okay to sit down for 45 minutes before bed and crank out a couple of lines, or jot down some thoughts. If you do that every day, you just may have a paragraph at the end of the week! Of course you will need some longer writing sessions as well, but if you can get started and get some momentum going, it will all seem a lot less initimidating.

In our blog, we provide news, tips and tools to help you navigate the MBA admissions process. Despite the high volume of information that gets printed every week, we do not regularly address the fact that many applicants face a set of challenges that are very different from GPA, GMAT and resume. I want to help applicants work through road blocks to success that may include self-doubt, anxiety, procrastination and generally feeling overwhelmed by this process. Hopefully with a bit of “Vitamin MBA” I can help you to overcome these challenges so that you can put our other resources to work and truly excel on your applications. I now present you with a dose of “Vitamin MBA”:

First 30 Days is a website dedicated to exploring change, and making changes in order to achieve goals.  Ariane de Bonvoisin (a Stanford MBA) is the Founder, and recently in her blog, she has had some interesting things to say that are relevant to the MBA admissions process.  In Are You Committed, or Just Interested, she talks about the difference between being committed and being interested.  She points out that even your voice sounds different when you say you are interested vs.  committed.  Try it with your MBA applications:

“I am interested in applying to business school.”
“I am committed to applying to business school.”

Those of you who are interested will probably find lots of things to do this weekend rather than studying for the GMAT or drafting HBS essay 1.  But if you are committed, you will just get it done.  As Ariane says, “there is power in commitment!”  So if you intend to submit your strongest applications this year, get committed!

In her blog post How to Follow Through,  Ariane discusses common characteristics of individuals who follow through on change.  To highlight a couple:

- Take small actions frequently – this links back to what we discussed in our post “Don’t Break the Chain“.  Small actions every day will help you keep your MBA momentum and release the pressure to do it all on any one day.

- Connect to the bigger picture – remember what this process is all about.  Ultimately it is not about submitting a set of essays.  It is not even about getting in to X school.  It is about your future, your career, creating opportunities for yourself.  Get inspired; this will help you to make things happen.

In our blog, we provide news, tips and tools to help you navigate the MBA admissions process. Despite the high volume of information that gets printed every week, we do not regularly address the fact that many applicants face a set of challenges that are very different from GPA, GMAT and resume. I want to help applicants work through road blocks to success that may include self-doubt, anxiety, procrastination and generally feeling overwhelmed by this process. Hopefully with a bit of “Vitamin MBA” I can help you to overcome these challenges so that you can put our other resources to work and truly excel on your applications. I now present you with a dose of “Vitamin MBA”:

If you want to be successful, a good place to look for advice is with other successful people.  According to lifehacker, Jerry Seinfeld has a productivity secret that helped him as a young comic in need of great jokes.  His advice followed like this:

1)  buy a big wall calendar and a magic marker
2)  for each day that you accomplish your task (his was writing jokes), put an X over the day
3)  after a few days you create a chain of X’s, and you will be inspired to keep the chain alive
4)  DON”T BREAK THE CHAIN!

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I think this is very helpful advice for those applying to business school.  Many people procrastinate like crazy and set themselves up for failure by targeting one weekend where they will work around the clock on applications.  I have found that slow and steady is a much better way to go.  Sure, you might have your marathon essay sessions.  But on a day where you are working late, just be sure to spend 30 minutes before bed brainstorming, outlining or revising your resume.  Every little bit helps and the consistency will help to keep this very important goal alive.  Daily action can also help to eliminate the anxiety that grows when you push things to the future and put a lot of pressure on what you can accomplish in one specific day.