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Study tips
Now and then everyone has trouble to stay focused. If it’s for work or studying, some people just have a harder time to stay focused than others. The past year I’ve had multiple projects running for school, work and hobby. In this post I will share my experiences that have helped me to actually get something done.
1. Find the right place to study
Finding the right place to study can sometimes be really hard. Most people study in their bedroom. Which might work for you, but this might also be the place with most distractions like your laptop, console or anything else that can keep you from your work.
Some of the things you can do to have fewer distractions are turning off your Wi-Fi and your phone. But I find these not working for me, because it is way too easy to turn them back on again.
1. At home
Besides your bedroom you can study somewhere else like in the living- or dining room. These places might have fewer distractions. Unless you have a cat. They will distract you wherever they can.
2. At school
If you are in school, this is most likely the best place to do any studying. Every school has a library, cafeteria or a classroom dedicated for studying where you can get your concentration.
If you’re really desperate, you can always get yourself in detention. This is maybe even the best place to get some work done. But I wouldn’t suggest getting in trouble just to study 😀
3. Somewhere else
Some other places you can study are: A regular library, coffee shop or at a study partners house. These are often great places to work or study.
2. Accountability
If you really want to get work done, find someone who will check your progress. This can be a teacher, study partner or you could ask your parents or one of your friends. For example: you can make an agreement with someone, that they check your progress after every study session. This way you can set goals every time you study and have someone check in with you.
3. Find a way to get some extra energy
The main reason why you might not be studying in the first place, is that you don’t have the energy to do so. You probably want to do something that doesn’t require as much energy from your mind.
So beforehand try to look for something that will give you that energy boost you need. A view things that work for me are:
1. Waking up early in the morning
If you go to bed early (for me 9 p.m.) and get out of bed early as well (for me 5 a.m.) and actually stick to your time schedule. You will feel lots more energetic after you wake up early in the morning. Force yourself to get out of bed immediately and take a good breakfast. With all the spare time you have before needing to go to work or school, you’ll be able to do a lot more. Instead of after school or work when you are already exhausted and rather do something else.
2. Caffeine
Another thing that helps for me is coffee. I don’t drink as much coffee as I used to, so now when I do, it actually has a positive energy effect on me. Because the more caffeine you take in on a daily basis, the less effect it has. When you take in too much caffeine, you start getting immune to it. That’s one of the reasons I stopped drinking so much coffee. And maybe because I was kind of addicted too 😀
3. Exercise
Exercising is also something to get you energized. You don’t have to do a whole marathon or anything, but just go outside and walk for about half an hour or something. You will feel a lot better when you do. What I like to do, is go out cycling early in the morning. I take my camera with me to take some sun rise photos. This gives me the extra bit of motivation to get out.
4. What works best for you
Maybe you get energy from listening to music or something else. Try finding something that will give you that energy boost, like these things do to me. If you have any good suggestions, leave them in the comments below 😉
When you have found something that gives you energy, you’ll find yourself way more active and motivated to do something that you have been procrastinating for too long.
4. Planning
When you have a lot of work you need to get done, the amount will get very overwhelming. That’s why it is very important to plan your day/week/month, so that you’ll know you have enough time to get everything done.
If you have multiple assignments you need to get done, it’s smart to make an estimate of how much time you’ll need for each assignment. Try to make a planning for when you work on which assignment and when you need to have each finished. For some people it is also important to finish one assignment at a time, before you start on the next. Otherwise you’ll lose track on what you’ve already done and what still needs to be finished.
Plan your time well. Look at what is really important to get done. The best thing to keep in mind is that you need to make the assignment before a due date. First make the general assignment, so you’ll have something to turn in. With the time you have spare, you can always make it as beautiful, detailed and perfect as you want. A great way of planning is using a Bullet Journal. You can find out more on how I use my Bullet Journal in my blog post “How I use my Bullet Journal”.
5. Why?
Besides getting yourself to do some work, maybe it’s just as important to think of WHY you should do this work. What is your motivation or goal for doing this. Make it fun for yourself to study instead of forcing yourself to do it. What are you studying for? To become a doctor and help patients? Use this as a drive to get something done. Take a look at the bigger picture instead of focusing on the small task at hand 😉
6. Get motivation from you idol
Seeing your idol do what you want to be doing also works motivational. For example: If you want to become a big movie director. Just look up some interviews on YouTube. They didn’t get where they are by procrastinating (probably, maybe they did. I dunno). So no better motivation to get, then from the one you admire most.
7. Extra tip
Work on time, not towards how much work you want to get done at the end of your study session. For example, you want to finish a chapter of your math homework in the next study session. This can go one of two ways: 1. The chapter is easy and you’ll get it done within the given time. Or 2. It is more difficult than you expected and you’re not able to finish the chapter in the study session. This will get you demotivated because you didn’t meet your expectations. But when you say something like: I’m going to study 2 hours a day, and within those 2 hours you’ll just see how far you’ll get. It won’t matter how much homework you’ll have done at the end of those 2 hours. Some sessions you’ll get more done because the assignments were easier to do than other times when it just takes some more effort. This way it will compensate how much you’ll be getting done each session.
