You have heard of and no doubt seen the perfect student, the one with the perfect 2.0 average on a 4.0 scale. He is described as being right in the middle of the curve. On the one hand, he has not made a lot of A's, but, on the other hand, he has not made a lot of F's. He has not overextended himself, but neither has he slacked off too much. He misses as many classes as he is allowed, but he keeps up with his favorite TV programs. He spends as much time in the bars as he does in the library. He is perfect, well balanced, but for what is he perfect ? This perfect student probably works, physically, as much as he tries to study. He is mediocre at both work and study. He does not distinguish the types of work, between that with his body and that with his mind. He does not prioritize; he does not manage time, the one dimension that most defines his humanity. 

A tired body operates against intellect and spirit, not with them. Consequently, students do not concentrate well when their bodies are tired no one does. And although physical work keeps the body supple, it contributes little to intellect, or to spirituality. So should collegians work while attending classes? It is almost impossible for students who work at menial tasks to be other than our proverbial perfect student, each a metaphor for mediocrity. When the body is tired because of menial tasks, its energies go towards replenishment, not towards learning, creativity or spirituality. Some exceptions may occur, but not many. 

Every student has 24 clock hours each day, no more, no less. But some students seem to have more clock time than others because they use their clock time better. They fish in the stream of clock time more abundantly than others because of their ability to concentrate, to focus the energies of the mind. Concentrating the energy of the mind allows it to respond to tasks quicker than it can if its energy is scattered on many unrelated tasks. Thus, the more things in the mind requiring its energies, the more difficult concentration becomes. To concentrate your energies, you need to simplify your life, to remove from your life as many things that require your attention as possible. Students who work at menial tasks that deaden them tend to lead lives of quiet desperation because their lives are too complex too soon, occupied by things at home, at work and at school.  They have not learned to simplify their lives so that they see the stars, see divinity within them. Work, physical work, keeps them bent to the ground; details frittering away their lives. In proportion as students simplify their lives, Thoreau says, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. Simplicity! Simplify. Simplicity and concentration are the keys to more clock time, to good grades, to good study habits, to more leisure and to happiness. Students are good students only in proportion to the number of things they can leave alone. That students attend college when their lives are relatively simple, before they have families, before their work lives begin, is no accident. 

Of course you need not go to Thoreau and the 19th century to confirm this principle. Oceola McCarty, the Black Mississippian who set up a $250,000 scholarship fund for Black students at University of Southern Mississippi, is a contemporary Black woman whose life has been a model of simplicity. She so simplified her life that she could concentrate on the quality of her life. She worked hard, saved and invested almost all of the money she earned washing clothes by hand. For most of her life, she had few modern conveniences, few encumbrances, yet even today the quality of her life is outstanding, spiritually and physically. Her life is an inspiration to others. Through her scholarship fund, she now improves the quality of the lives of other Blacks. So how do students set about simplifying their lives? 

The first step to simplification is understanding the interrelationship of body, intellect, spirit, and their product, work. The second is determining what your purpose in life is and what motivates you, giving you something to work for. Prioritizing reduces things and events in proportion to your purpose in life, allowing you to determine how much emotional capital you will invest in each of your courses. The third is setting immediate, reachable goals. The fourth is ridding your life of everything unessential to either your immediate goal or your purpose in life. 

First, body is a vessel commanded by will. It is the means through which stimuli reach intellect and become knowledge. When the body is tired, its stimuli are seldom appreciated by intellect, because the energy of the mind is consumed by restoration of the body. Intellect and spirit precede will. To simplify your life you need intellect, spirit and will. You need only to maintain the body such that it is healthy and comfortable. Efforts beyond bodily comfort and health complicate your life and pits body against spirit, causing you to spend time working for something unessential. Money buys things for the body, but it cannot buy one thing necessary for the soul. So examine the things that you think you need money for. What about books? Books are essential for the scholar, for intellectual and spiritual development, and because intellect ranks high on students' lists, books are essential. You will need money for books, tuition, food, clothing and shelter. If you use libraries, eat only enough to nourish you, and, as Thoreau says, wear clothing that shields you from modesty and keeps your body heat in, you will reduce the amount of money you need. Tuition must be paid. You will need money for it. If you must work physically for money to pay tuition, you have no choice but to work. If, however, you concentrate on the essentials of college life, you can reduce the amount of money you need. You will have leisure to do the things you most like to do. Simplicity takes will. 

Second, determine why you are here and what motivates you to learn. You alone can do so. The most obvious answer will be, I am here to enjoy life. Enjoyment of life is more likely to come from accomplishments than it is from anything else. If this is so, you can say, then, that you are here to do some tasks significant to both yourself and to others. Once you determine what these tasks are likely to be, or at least the area that they are likely to occur in, and once you know how much clock time your mind requires to build cells for difficult tasks, you can set the time you need to accomplish them. Determining who you are and why you are here are aspects of self-assessment. 

Philosophically, prioritizing for students should mean putting intellectual and spiritual development first. Developing intellect and spirit does not mean the accretion of hard fact by hard work, memorizing data for instance. It means working enough problems in math, chemistry or economics to grasp the principles underpinning each academic discipline. Practically, prioritizing for students means managing time so that they prepare well for the courses they need for graduation and for spiritual development. Prioritizing is ordering your clock time to fit both the importance of courses to your curriculum and the strength of your intellect. It means examining the courses you are taking and putting time more clock time and more concentration into the courses in which you are not as strong as you need to be. It means examining your test grades and setting study times that match the same time for A's and more for C's. It means setting specific time for reading works that reveal the moral contexts, frames of references, for who you are and for the facts you encounter in each class. Students who establish contexts for facts and data invariably perform better than those who simply memorize data and facts because they use their frames of references to make sense of the facts and data. It means setting time to develop the skill to set these contexts down in writing so that they are clear to you and to others. Writing objectifies ideas, gets them out of the mind and on paper so that they can be examined for logic, consistence, validity and truth. Writing allows you to prioritize because it prevents you from forgetting or repeating things you have already done. 

Before you can perform a task, solve a problem or discover a context, the mind must develop enough cells for you to do so. You must keep trying until the mind develops enough cells to allow you to do whatever you are trying to do. Once the mind develops cells allowing you to perform a task, you can never unlearn that task. The clock time your body requires to develop these cells differs from person to person. The amount of time you need depends on the your ability to concentrate. Concentration focuses the energy of the mind on a certain area. With the energy of the mind focused on a specific area, the time required to develop enough cells to perform a task is shortened. Listening to the radio or television while studying dissipates the mind's energy. Prioritizing means setting aside tasks that prevent you from concentrating preventing your mind from developing the cells it needs. 

Managing time for students means using as much of the day as your body comfortably allows for studying, discovering contexts for facts, and concentrating the mind's energy on studying to the exclusion of other things that require the mind to divide its energy. Murphy's law number 2: Events, people, and things expand to use up the time you have. Managing time means preventing them from using up your time. 

Third, set immediate, reachable goals. For collegians, immediate goals are easily set: passing courses with good grades, completing the semester, graduating and finding suitable work. Work does not mean effort towards accomplishment; work means accomplishment itself. 

Finally, rid your life of everything unessential to either your purpose or your immediate goals. With fewer things to manage in your life, you can concentrate your energies on being outstanding in something you enjoy doing. 

Should students work while they take classes, especially at menial tasks? No, unless they work to pay the tuition! Paying tuition is essential; therefore work that pays tuition is essential. Work other than that used for tuition and books and that used for intellectual development or suppleness is debilitating. It tires the body such that it does not allow intellect and spirit to freely function. A tired body works against intellect and spirit. A tired body demands the kind of rest that makes intellect and spirit inattentive. Work that keeps the body supple is good. 

Does this admonition apply to internships? No. Internships develop intellect as it relates to productive income after graduation. They come under the category of essential.