Got to study even if you don’t feel like it?
Grrr.. . Thats the feeling isn’t it? You want to study but can’t even think straight.
Don’t worry! Studying is hard! I’m a mechanical engineering student and I realize how hard it is. A lot of people think it’s not, but let me tell you, work is probably easier because you have restraints: you have your boss pushing you to work all day and you get money to work.
On the contrary, studying is a free activity, you can choose to do it or not, and hence it is hard to commit to.
Studying effectively is not a matter of chance. Educators and psychologists have researched studying methods for years.
Lets take a simple example of learning a new language.
If you don’t learn to deal with the negative experiences that bother you during your language learning, you will never learn a new language. You may keep trying but the same thing will happen again and again.
It becomes a pattern.. and by the time you cope up, you’re in the middle of reality.
Yes its reality, and reality is tough!
Now, lets discuss some points that can help you chuck out a big slice of your frustration.
Before we begin, I must tell you – Refraining from studying has many reasons, many of them are related to, in my opinion , psychological instability and stressors!
That means, before we begin… Don’t Stress out! Be Cool.. Keep Calm..
Now..
Let’s Discuss Things that you can do while studying:
- Set up your environment favorably: Well, get rid of all those distractions..
Yes, you can do it!
Turn Off your Mobile Alerts and Notifications.
Turn Off Whatsapp/Messengers/Facebook and all other messaging apps that can manage to distract you very easily.
Keep your phone/laptop/ Playstation etc, away… very far away..
Make sure the place is maintained. Organize study material in decreasing order os difficulty. Remove all useless stuff and make sure the place is seemingly quiet.
NEVER listen to songs while studying. It is scientifically proven that, perhaps, listening to songs while studying decreases your productivity. Thus while we speak of increasing our concentration, say ‘Good Bye’ to Mozart!
http://www.spinedu.com/listen-music-studying/#.WEV6X6J96M4
http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/news/why-you-shouldnt-listen-to-music-while-studying/
Thats it partner. You are ready to dive in !
2. Limit you Session Length: You are absolutely into that subject Partner, Great job!. But don’t get all worked up yet. Take a break!
Now you can go to your phone to see for notifications, drink some water, etc.
Ideally,
After every 90 mins of studying, that does not involve fooling around, you deserve a 5 min -10min break to refresh yourself.
Taking a break, on the contrary of what people say, helps your brain stimulate and accommodate more information!
Oh… and if you’re not convinced: According to leading Psychologists, you learn best when studying in short chunks of time.
The best way to utilize this break is drinking water, get a water splash for your face, stretch a little, and maybe check on those important, only important, notifications.
But hey! Come Back on that seat in time! Don’t get all carried away!
3. Don’t Rely on your mind too much, Take Notes: It is scientifically proven that maintaining good notes, and probably organized ones, helps in studying.
You can say, studying from your notes will act as a catalyst to your study.
Not only will it become easier, but according to psychologists, when you revise from your notes, you cognitively revisit the time when you studied or made those notes.
This improves your speed, and ignites an interest, a spark for the topic in you.
Don’t worry even if you haven’t made any in class. Whenever you study a topic, take a pen and paper and begin taking notes of whatever you are studying. Keep these pages organized and revise through them.
Trust me, with this method, you won’t even know when you’re done with the topic!
4. Don’t think of results and procrastinate:
You’re in pain. This is not the time to evaluate yourself. Do not demand improvement in this session. Just complete it.
You heard me right! That’s your goal. Keep at it until your time is up.
By thinking of results, you will make the mistake of judging your progress when you are frustrated, and you will land to unrealistically negative conclusions.
Don’t try too hard ! Results come slowly. They take time. For now, all you focus on is finishing your study time. When you are done with a sub- topic, mark it as a Mission Accomplished!
A major problem with people honking on their topics is procrastination. In simple words, they tend to worry about results and presume that they are never going to make it and what not!
Ultimately, they end up delaying the task and wasting 1hr thinking how badly they’ll score etc..
Perhaps, they could’ve saved an hour of distress by moving forward on the topic at their pace.
Imagine.. in 60mins you can easily cover a couple of subtopics. What did you get wondering about your result? A waste of 60mins, with the same amount of work yet to be done!
Successful students DO NOT procrastinate studying. Procrastination leads to rushing, and rushing is the cause of silly errors.
5. Don’t Cram it all in one session. Set periodic Goals. Set a Game plan!
Do you often take all your load and do your overtime pulling all nighters?
A key to great concentration is calmly spacing your work over shorter periods of time and rarely trying to cram all of your topics into just one or two sessions.
You can surely not mug up everything overnight or in a couple of hours. Being realistic is important.
But you can do about 80% -90% for sure. Maybe 70% if a subject is huge. But how to determine this?
Well, break down the subtopics, maybe as Tasks. So you have 1 task per session.
Now you know you have to take 4 sessions. That is 4 tasks. Arrange the topics and begin!
To Provide you with some catalysts to your hardcore studying process, here are some tips that you can try out to improvise your level of productivity.
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Reward Yourself: Maybe you did not score well. Maybe you were expecting better. Maybe you slept in the session. Maybe you took a break way too long.
Don’t ever worry. Reward yourself after completion of every session.
You did a great job studying that sub-topic and definitely deserve a reward for the same.
Be Warned– Rewards should be realistic. Maybe a candy, or smoothie. Still stay away from your messengers and other devices that stroll you off the study table.
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Periodic Revision : This is important! You should never be over-confident on a topic. Always revise and revise and revise.
Revision never ends, although the duration of revision will. After you have successfully revised a topic, maybe twice, the third revision will require significantly less time.
Revision strengthens your grip over the concepts, and guess what….. When the hard topics becomes easier, you tend to do them first to get rid of them earlier!
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Schedule Your Study: It is advisable to set your body clock to studying mode to improvise concentration. When you study at the same time almost everyday, you body clock will be set accordingly.
Eventually, your concentration will improvise. This is because your body knows that its study time.
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Diet: Although I couldn’t really follow this… It is said that significant intake of fruits and vegetables, and reduced intake of fast food and fried stuff improvises your concentration. Sometimes Dark chocolate can do wonders….
Also, decent hydration levels of your body is essential for effective studying.
Try it for yourself!
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Exercise, Rest and Meditation:
When you are struggling with frustration you can feel that energy in your body. If you feel the need to blow off some steam, why don’t you go outside for a while?
It’s good to breath in some fresh air. You need to walk it off before you sit back.
It is always essential to get enough sleep. Don’t under-estimate the need for proper sleep. There have been times when teachers offer their ‘tip’ of ignoring proper sleep. This can be your last mistake!
Our body need a minimum of 7-8hrs of sleep in every 24 hrs. In busy schedule it can be reduced to 5-6hrs… But further loss of sleep can be a costly affair!..
Sleep is that time when the brain start sorting the stuff you just studied. Proper sleep gives the brain enough time allocate all that information properly. If you don’t finish the sleep cycle, you will end up disturbing your retention power.
Try some meditation tips on Google. It is good to spare some time, maybe 10-15mins, on meditation.
- Talk to Yourself – Self Motivation :
You must know for yourself that without a challenge we can’t learn. You can tell yourself the goal of your study and your event-driven motive.
Try inspiration quotes. Some of them are quite effective.
Apart from the above, it is understood that it is you and your initiative to improvise your concentration. Thus there will be times when you need to be ruthless to yourself. You need to be disciplined and serious if you want something to be achieved.
Hope This Helps.
EduCrafter M 