Setting up good study habits
There are a number of aspects required to set up good study habits. These include:
1. Study motivation: What are you hoping to achieve as a result of the time you spend studying. If the reason you are studying is great enough, the motivation to study will always be there.
2. Organising study time: Motivation to study is one of the main aspects of generating good study habits. However, you still have to sit down and do some. Using a calendar (printed or computer based) it is a good idea to plan the next 7 days. Slot in the times you are doing other things. For example: Block in sleeping time, travelling time, eating time, and personal hygiene and exercise time. Then the next phase will be dependent on whether you have a job of work, or jobs to do (chores) and / or time at school / college / university. Slot in all these times you are busy. What time is left? Those “free” times need to be allocated to study and / or pleasure. It is important to find balance, so always ensure there is a good mix of both. You cannot study for several hours straight without some kind of a break, so during your study periods, always make sure you get up and stretch, make yourself a cup of tea (or whatever you drink) and then go back and sit down for the next phase. If it’s time to study on your calendar, it is time to study.
3. Organising resources: Before you begin to study you need to make sure you have all the resources you need. This ensures you don’t break concentration as you try and find coloured pens to high light portions of text, or erasers, or flash cards to write your notes on. How you study is down to personal preference, but I have found that reading the synopsis of a book / text then making notes to be a good way of starting the process.
4. Organising the right study location: Some people can study with noise in the background, others can’t, it’s a personal preference. I have invested in a series of earplugs and have a music system directly under my desk, with the speakers either side of my feet. That way I can have the music on without it having to be too loud, but it does diminish the sounds from the rest of the house. And if the rest of the house becomes too raucous then I put the earplugs in.
Hellen
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Reader Comments (2)
You make it sound so easy....when it's not at all. I;ve got the folks nagging me to sit down and study, and i know i've got to. But I still can't be bothered, even the thought of failing doesn't really get me motivated you know.
I mean i can sit down and be all organised and everything, but with the net on hand, it's easy to look busy even if you're not. So how can this help me? See i'm even wasting time talking to you - when i should be studying...
Hi E,
Thanks for the comment. One thing to consider is your reasons. Why are you studying in the first place? This is especially true if you are at College. Why did you want to take that particular course? What do you want to "be" at the end of it? Of course if you are still "at school" the reality is different we know that. But the same thing applies. If you don't study now, what job will you be able to do when you leave school? Again, what do you want to be "when you grow up"? Once you have that worked out, you can work out what courses you need to do to get there. And even if you said - but I don't want to work - well I would suggest reading some law books anyway - just so you know your way around the welfare system.
I'm sure if you have enough good reasons as to why, you'll eventually work out how.
Best regards for the future
Ed