Any tips for doing well/not getting overwhelmed w/ College?

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So I was away at college for the last year and a half. I've got a very high IQ and am intelligent, but at the same time I've not done well in school since midway through high school. I get completely over stimulated during classes/lectures, get easily distracted and and, while I can make friends, I was so overwhelmed trying to to maintain social relationships that I ended up isolating myself or doing even more poorly in classes. To top it all off, I was rooming with someone I was decent friends with and never felt like I got alone time, nor was I able to maintain a schedule. My main problem, though, was putting off work, not being able to maintain my own life and learn information that wasn't that hard. I

This semester I'll be living at home and taking some of the classes I did poorly on online. My problem is I'm not very good at keeping myself in line as far as doing work.
Does anyone have suggestions for setting up an environment for myself and for getting work done without getting overwhelmed? Any ideas for setting up a stri

Hi Bells, your post seems to have cut off in the middle, after "any ideas for setting up a stri." Hope it didn't cut off any questions?

First of all, if you were feeling overstimulated by the classroom and the other students, great idea to take the classes online!

I'm a senior in college, and have struggled with a lot of the same things, but managed to earn a 3.8 gpa. In high school, before I knew I had ADD, I homeschooled and had to take an online class. It's hard to make yourself do the work, but if you figure out what works for you, it's definitely doable! Since different study habits work better for different people, here are the questions I'd ask...

1) What motivates you?
Are you motivated by relating your work into a special interest? A future career goal? Competition with yourself or others? Grades? I find that thinking about ways my classes relate to my special interests motivates me to study and also helps me understand and remember the material better.

2) Your schedule.
When do you feel most alert? Least alert? How long can you work productively before needing a break? Do you need to hyperfocus for several hours at a time, or do you work best in 15-minute sessions? (Or maybe you're like me and you benefit from either, depending on the task and the day?)

3) Place matters.
It feels different studying in bed, at a desk, at the school library, etc. Obviously who's there matters, and how much background noise. So does posture (I'm prone to neck and shoulder aches if I sit in any of my usual positions too long). Oh, and it's demotivating to have to keep getting up to get the materials you need--pencils, paper, textbooks, whatever. So you'll want to have all the supplies you need nearby and accessible. This is a case where being lazy will help you get work done!

4) What reminders can you set for yourself?
When I was younger, I used to need my parents to remind me to do things. (If you're living at home, maybe you could enlist their help?) Now, I set cell phone alarms & other timers, I use Google Calendar religiously, and I send myself email with to-do lists. Some people benefit from leaving post-it-notes around the house, but they've never worked for me, because I tend to get visually overloaded and ignore them.

5) What task do you want to start with?
Are you someone who gets the most done if you start with the easiest task ( to overcome the inertia), the hardest task (to get it out of the way while you're still alert), the most urgent task (to ensure it's done on time), or the most important task (so at least your priorities get done)?

6) Does having a routine help you? And is it fairly painless for you to set up a routine?
Personally, I find it almost impossible to set up a routine, but it takes a lot less willpower to put your butt in front of the computer and start working if you do it at the same time every day.

7) How long does it take you to do the different kinds of work for a class?
I know from experience it takes me a week of work to plan, outline & write an essay. Some people can write one in a night; if you're one of them, awesome! On the other hand, I go to every class & take good notes, so I only need a few hours to study for most exams. So I know to start my essays a week before they're due and start studying for exams a couple of days before.

Look ahead at the syllabus and see if there are any "fright weeks."
Let's say you have a group project due Monday, a presentation due Tuesday, an essay due Wednesday, an exam due Thursday, and four small reading and writing assignments due Friday (this is an only slightly-edited version of my workload one week last November). If you know how long it takes to do each of those assignments, you know how far ahead to start working on them.

9) Any long-term projects due at the end of the class?
Read about them in the syllabus as soon as you get it and put the due dates in your calendar. Then start thinking about how far ahead you'll need to start working to get it done. A good teacher will often break the final product into steps with assigned due dates, which helps immensely. If your teacher doesn't do this, you'll have to break the project into small tasks yourself. That's a post in and of itself...

10) Sensory issues?
I know some people who can only work in utter silence. I, on the other hand, have relied on hard rock to keep from falling asleep while working. Some people must see reminders of everything they need to do or they forget to do it (whether that's in the form of a to do list or a pile of library books right next to your computer). Others get visually overloaded and can't concentrate if more than a few things are visible at once. (I have both tendencies, and nope, still haven't figured out how to deal with that one). Do you need to get up and stretch frequently? Does chewing gum or moving around help you think better?

I know you've probably already chosen your classes, but the class and teacher you choose are really important. While my study skills have improved a lot in almost 4 years in college, they're not 3.8-gpa good! I know I study better in hard classes, I thrive on writing and discussion, and I need professors who care more about big-picture understanding and creativity than memorization of details. Almost all of my classes have played to these strengths, and as a result, I've gotten good grades. What sort of classes and teachers reward your strengths?

Sorry about the tl;dr. Hope these ideas help. Good luck!

Find someone thats doing the same stuff as you. It helps to have someone to work with if you get stuck

1. Do your work as soon as you get it. There is nothing more discouraging then waiting at the last minute.

2. If you feel motivated, do all the work you can while in that mood. Concentrate on one thing at a time.

3. Read ahead on the lecture material. It really lets the material sink in. It also gives you more opportunity to think about the material and ask insightful questions in lecture.

4. Try to do cool things with the knowledge. Attempt to apply it toward everyday life. Are you learning the mechanics of physics? Calculate the maximum velocity your dog can go. Learning the table of elements? Pretend there is a person that will give you a million dollars if you can answer every question correctly.

5. Study for forty-five minutes and then take a nap. Sleeping involves turning your short term memory into your long term. Studies (just google it) have shown that people who sleep after studying retain the information a lot better. This is a strategy that I use.

6. Study in the morning and afternoon when you are the most alert. Also study right before you go to sleep for about twenty minutes.

7. Replace the fear of failure with the will to succeed. We are human. Emotions can have more effect on us than we would like to admit. Negative emotions like fear can make us loose focus.

My 20 -year old son has had a lot of trouble succeeding in college altho he is also very intelligent, actually gifted in math--he failed twice at two different colleges. We're going to try a high support environment to give him some success. We're in SC but are looking at Minnesota Life College. They teach "life skills" while you are earning your degree at a local technical school. It's expensive but you can get financial scholarships to go there.

Pick classes that both challenge you and that you have an interest in and only take a couple classes at a time. Don't let the recruiters overwhelm you with an excessive course load - that's merely to have more credit hours worth of income for themselves.

Thank you all so much for responding. I honestly have been looking through your replies - though somehow I managed to not respond to anything - and some of the suggestions have already really helped me out.

The most important thing to consider before going to university is your motives. Unless you have viable career ambitions that are backed up by work experience and/or vocational training, you shouldn't be there.

In the UK, we've had a lot of problems as a result of giving government funding to any fool who thinks he needs a degree. I had to learn the hard way and would have been a lot better off if someone had said: "Look mate, you've got no experience or training and you don't know what you want to do. If you want to go to university, you'll have to do it on someone else's money".