6 Small But Powerful Study Habits

Many students—including myself at one point—tend to think that making big strides towards their academic goals means also making drastic changes to how they’re used to approaching academics and studying; however, making big strides towards your goals oftentimes only requires that you make small changes in your day-to-day behavior. For instance, you can replace small unhelpful habits (like checking social media between classes) with small helpful habits (like reviewing notes or flashcards between classes). These little behaviors accumulate over time to lessen the burden of big tasks. They can also build a stronger sense of self-efficacy and mastery, both of which go a long way to motivating you when it comes to the bigger goals. Here are 6 small but powerful study habits that you can adopt:

1. Do 5 minutes of revision everyday by reading through your class notes and creating questions for yourself to answer at a later time.

Doing this will help you identify what you don’t understand early on so you have time to learn and ask questions. It also gives you a chance to practice and quiz yourself on material you may feel confident about. As a result, you might be able to narrow your focus on what you truly need to study come exam time and not waste time reviewing material you’ve already mastered.

2. Write down your homework and important due dates during or at the end of each lesson, ideally in a planner that you include other tasks and events.

This is one of the simplest yet most important steps you can take towards better academic performance. It ensures you meet your deadlines and can help you realistically visualize the time you have available in comparison to all your other tasks and events. If you don’t have an accurate sense of the amount of time and energy you have to complete a certain task or meet a deadline, you won’t be engaging in other small, helpful habits to work towards that goal.

3. Self-monitor your learning.

During class, ask yourself if you’re understanding what the professor is saying. While taking notes, reading, watching an educational video, or doing any other study task, ask yourself what the key points were and try to identify areas that you can’t articulate or summarize well. If you identify these areas and come up with questions, be sure to write them down and fill in the answer at a later time to measure how well you addressed those lapses in comprehension. If you find that the answer still seems confusing, you can then ask your professor for additional guidance.

4. File notes in the right place everyday.

Make sure that your notes for each class are separate from other classes and grouped with other related notes. It would be even better if each subject was filed or organized in a way that you can easily distinguish between units and sub-units within each class/subject. Keeping your notes organized allows you to easily revise and review. It also creates a mental image of the information. For example,if you have a specific method to organizing your notes and use that method to review them, then you may be able to imagine going through your notebook or binder to find a particular piece of information during the exam.

5. Read one online article or watch an educational video to supplement your classroom learning everyday.

Extra reading reinforces the ideas that you’ve learned in class and places them in a wider context. It also strengthens your critical thinking and comprehension skills.

6. Reflect often. Each day, ask yourself: what went well? What didn’t go well? How could you improve?

The more specific you can be, the better you can identify solutions to improve. It’s also helpful to ask these kinds of questions after big events like the end of a project, essay, exams, and the end of the semester.

Best Wishes, Bujo Paper Creations

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More Posts from Patiencepea and Others

patiencepea

4 years ago

TW//addiction

I am recovering from my pill addiction, instead of scouring the house for some, I went to my dad and sister. They gave me hugs and said I'm doing great, and said I should do some self-care. So I'm taking a little nap, then I will get up and get some food, clean or homework. It feels nice to be honest and not get rebuked.

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tw recovery wholesome trigger warning motivational drugs drug addiction

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patiencepea

4 years ago

i’m starting the second semester of my junior year soon, and recently i’ve been dealing with a feeling of burnout and lack of motivation. it’s hard to force myself to study and power through.

one thing that has really helped is taking good study breaks! it definitely also helps if you’re staying up late studying or having a marathon study session… like for finals ;)

when should i take a study break?

here are a couple of options—find what works for you, or try a bunch of different methods!

pomodoro method - this generally involves working for 25 minutes, then breaking for 5 minutes. after 4 work sessions, you can break for 15 minutes. good pomodoro timers are the marinara chrome extension and tomato timer for iphone!

between subjects

between different assignments (ex. after a paper, then after a worksheet)

whenever you feel tired or unmotivated!

study break DON’Ts:

watching 5-10 minutes of a longer tv show episode - my ULTIMATE don’t. you’ll just be tempted to watch the full episode…and 3 more afterwards! save the tv-watching for after you’re all done. tv is meant to be compelling and enjoyable - NOT something you just watch 5 minutes of at a time.

reading a chapter of a book - for the same reason why tv-watching is super ineffective! you’ll just want to know what happens next.

watching 5-10 minutes of a longer youtube video

playing a video game

sleeping/napping - super short naps are ineffective and you’ll just be groggy. HOWEVER if you’re staying up super late and set an alarm to wake you up, a 30-minute power nap can be good!

scrolling through instagram/twitter

doing stuff you do before bed like showering or skincare - this will make you sleepier since you associate it with going to bed!

basically, don’t spend your study break doing things that are meant to suck your attention! save that for when you’re done and you can actually enjoy it :)

study break DOs:

eat a small snack

clean up your study area

wash your face or brush your hair - super effective, especially when studying late at night. splash cold water on the back of your neck!

listen to your favorite song and sing/dance along

drink a glass of water

do something boring - give your brain a break and do something important but super boring. send an email, get some forms filled out, etc.

and my ultimate study break tip…

WORK OUT!

this may seem really counterintuitive. why spend a work break doing MORE WORK? however, working out is SUCH A GOOD STUDY BREAK. it gives you a sense of accomplishment, gets some endorphins flowing, and COMPLETELY takes your mind off of studying.

my favorite study break workouts:

pretty much anything from blogilates:

really hard weightless arms workout

another really hard weightless arm workout

extreme abs

under 10 minute yoga practices

10-15 min yoga

i hope these help you! in 2020, let’s start conquering procrastination and lack of motivation together!! :-)

- amulya

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patiencepea

4 years ago

Cleaning Routine

I’m a creature of schedule. If I don’t follow a schedule, I’m pretty aimless. It also forces me to be accountable and to have some standard of discipline, which, when it comes to cleaning, I really need haha. No one likes to scrub down their toilet. Here’s the schedule I’m trying to stick to!

Daily (a 10 minute clean):

make my bed: Make this part of your morning routine, as it honestly makes your bedroom look so much cleaner.

tidy up, put things away: Try to do this at night before you go to sleep, so that when you wake up in the morning, your room is already clean. It will motivate you just a little bit more to be productive.

fold any clothes and make sure they’re put away: My dudes, when I get ready each morning, I am a total hurricane.My closet gets the worst of it, but it’s super ugly to have clothes everywhere, so personally I really have to stay on top of this.

Weekly (an hour clean on Saturday):

clean my bathroom (Saturday): I always clean my bathroom on Saturday so Sunday (which is my rest day) can be free of clutter-induced stress. Because I clean it frequently, it’s a pretty quick clean.

wash my bath towels (or however frequently you need to wash them)

Bi-weekly:

wash my clothes: There’s nothing more annoying than not being able to wear your favorite Harry Potter shirt because it’s

disinfect surfaces: Like your desk, your shelves, your windows, even your doors — these things build up dirt too!

Monthly

declutter: Every month I find I accumulate an awful lot of junk, and every month I try to pare down my possessions.

wash my bed sheets: Really important!

Previous #Wellness Wednesdays post: New Goals, New Semester, New You

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patiencepea

4 years ago

Procrastinating makes me feel really icky, but I can’t help myself. I always wait until the final moment to do something or study for something and then am always rushing, thus I’m always stressed out. This is the way I deal with procrastination. What works for me might or might not work for you, and that’s okay.

Make a list of every single thing you know you have to get done. This doesn’t have to be limited to a certain time, if you know your university applications are due in two months, put this down too! Also include the smaller tasks you may have ignored like changing your sheets or tidying up your room.

Put some sort of symbol next to tasks you want to accomplish first. These can be assignments due soon, or anything you want to get done quick. I usually use exclamation points and for ones with looming deadlines, I put multiple exclamation points.

Assign an estimated duration to each task, ranging from five minutes to two hours, see how much you can realistically get done today.

After making that list, you may have a rush of energy to start checking things off, so start with something that’s high priority and also has a longer time duration. Work on this for at least half an hour, or at most an hour and a half.

Try not to open Netflix or YouTube on this break. Use this time to get something to eat, you can also use this time to finish those small tasks you wrote out, or play with a pet! If you open any addictive apps, you’re probably going to have problems coming back to the tasks.

As soon as your alarm signifies the end of your break, come straight back and attempt a different task now. If you were to do the same task, you might get bored. Work on this task and follow the above mentioned techniques.

After feeling like you’ve accomplished a decent amount, you can reward yourself something. I usually reward myself an episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine or a face mask!

While doing the tasks, keep checking them off, it’s extremely satisfying and once every single task is complete, you’ll feel so good about yourself.

When at least three things have been checked off, you can take a bigger break. This can last anywhere between fifteen minutes to half an hour. During this break, you can use any of the apps previously banned.

Try to remind yourself why you’re studying. Is it because you want to get into a specific university? Is it because you want to make your parents proud? Is it because you want to prove yourself to haters? Whatever the reason is, channel the emotion attached to it and get back to studying.

Just know that no matter what happens, your grades do not define you. You are not just a number or letter on a sheet of paper, you’re a beautiful human being and you can do anything you want to do.

273 notes View Post

patiencepea

4 years ago