What strategies help(ed) you most to START and then FOCUS on studying?
I am one of those "HOLY SHIT It is 4 PM and I haven't started my day yet?!" people.
Posted Apr 14, 2014, 4:39 AM UTC
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Do you have any "go-to" distractions? Get rid of them. Change your Reddit/social media passwords and only let your friends know what they are so they limit the time you spend on them. Uninstall any games/hide any books you read for fun to distract yourself.
I'd highly suggest making a list of everything you need to do, but be sure it includes very SPECIFIC acts - like don't just put "clean my room" or "finish my homework", put "throw away trash on floor in room" or "finish music theory worksheet" - and the amount of time you predict it will take you to finish them. My list for tonight might look like:
- clean desk (5 minutes)
- watch music theory video (15 minutes)
- finish practice worksheet (30 minutes)
- take shower (10 minutes)
Or something along those lines. It can really help me to see exactly what I need to do and then how long it'll realistically take me; often when you think of something nebulous like "write a paper" it seems like a huge task that'll take super long when, in reality, little chunks will take less time and be more doable.
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This is actually really helpful. Normally, I just save the entire day for studying, but not studying for anything specific or scheduling it. Just study six hours for statistics or something. So when I go on reddit or text someone, it doesn't seem like a big deal since I have so much more time to study later. I'm going to try breaking up my day for tomorrow. Thanks!
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No problem! Took a class a few years ago because I was having that exact issue, tbh. The list thing helped a lot. Also, charting out a few days to see exactly what you're doing with your time can be helpful. Like make blocks of 1 hour on a sheet of paper and then fill them with what activities you do in that hour. Really revealing.
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Yeah! I'm writing my day-to-day list right now for tomorrow and feeling pretty psyched about it. You're right. It is overwhelming. I'm giving myself two hours to finish our review sheet that I've already started and scheduling the rest of my day.
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I hope you get some original responses here that I haven't heard before because I'd love some strategies to help me focus, too!
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Tell me about it. I have some stuff coming up in June that I cannot fuck up because there won't be a chance to take those exams again and I'm such a horrible procrastinator. ;__;
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It's easier to never have started than it is to stop.
If you start out your day doing all sorts of fun stuff and procrastinate from the very beginning, it's really difficult to avert your attention from that. Start out your day calmly with a cup of coffee, or other beverage of choice, while you check and consider the work that needs to be done. Make a mental or written down planning of which thing you feel like doing the most and start with that.
If you start out with the less fun stuff from the very beginning, you know you have more time before you and there's less of the deadline stress in the back of your mind. It's easier not to get distracted if you haven't done so before you started, because you get into the mindset of studying, instead of having to switch from 'fun' to 'serious business' in the middle of the day.
Get into the habit of starting early and try to stick to specific rules. One of mine is to avoid working in evenings as much as possible and with the above strategy I mostly manage to do this.
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Taking all my study materials to a coffee shop really helps me, both because of the caffeine and the change of environment.
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Oh man. I feel you. I use a series of alarms on my phone with increasingly rude/guilt tripping captions. At least five. I always end up ignoring a handful of them before I finally cave and start studying so it still feels like I'm 'beating the study system' and getting some fun time in. And for staying focused? Don't. Or at least, don't for long continuous periods of time. Take breaks for air guitar, doodling on your notes with topic-related illustrations, and spinny chair spinning. It keeps things fun and makes studying less of a chore.
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I totally feel you - I suffer from this issue as well. Maybe not with studying at my age, but definitely with productivity in general.
I've found that the best thing I can do is to do ONE task as early in my free time as I possibly can. Home from work at 6? Go straight to the kitchen and do the dishes. Having at least one finished product totally sets me on a roll, and then it almost becomes like a game to get things done.
The longer I put something off without at least starting, the worse I feel. When it's 8PM and I still have laundry to do, I make the, "Well, I've waited this long..." excuse and end up continuing to put it off even more.
Also, it helps that the space where you're doing your work is pleasant. Back in college, I used to go study at coffee shops because simply being in a new environment made getting work done exciting.
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I never fought against being lazy. I just let myself be lazy because the harder I fought against it, the more I didn't want to get started on anything. I'd rather have a 1 hour session of focused studying vs. 3 hours of "studying" on my laptop, clicking on my browser tabs to read news and celebrity gossip, then 10 mins. of "focused" studying.
It worked for me. Crunch time, I'd do my 3 hours but I'd set timer: 25 minutes of study, 10 minutes of break, 30 mins. of study, etc. And I didn't deviate from my time limits/constraints on myself. That's the most important part.
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like this
In all truthfulness, I never was a studier except in the case of language. I practice every day and I do my learning (i.e. first time encountering new words) immediately prior to bed, so that there's little information between what I learned and sleep, which moves short term memory to long term.