Most probably, you have heard an expression: “Work smarter, not harder.” But have you actually managed to implement this rule? If the answer is no, we are here to assist you on the path to becoming more efficient with a list of learning habits you’ll need to develop.
We have spoken to successful college graduates about the habits that helped them optimize the learning process. Based on their tips, we have come up with the top seven practices you can also use to get the maximum result with minimum effort.
Use Helpful Tools and Resources
The modern world and social media encourage us to become more productive and work more efficiently. Thus, no wonder that the market is overflooded with services, tools, and applications to aid you in your studies. You just have to choose what works best for you.
We have grouped the tools into three categories according to the areas students often need help with: papers/essays, memorizing, and task management.
Papers/Essays
If you fail to keep up with the deadlines of your academic assignments, you can use an online paper writing service and delegate complex tasks to professionals. With this service, you can get a plagiarism-free paper written from scratch and free revisions included. Sounds like a dream, right?
Memorizing
Quizlet is an application where you can create flashcards that help you learn foreign words. You can also play games that make it easy to handle learning material in history, science, math, arts, humanities, and other subjects.
Task Management
The number of task management tools and services allows us to write a separate article on this topic. However, we will just enumerate some of them so you could try them and figure out what is the most suitable for you.
So, the most popular apps for planning the tasks among the students we have spoken to are Trello, Asana, and Todoist.
Develop Routines
Morning is a magical time when our brain works at its prime. However, if you force yourself to make many decisions (e.g., what to have for breakfast, what to wear, etc.), your mental energy fades. As a result, less energy is left to actually study. So, it is a good idea to create routines that will spare you from making decisions.
Plan your breakfast, create simple looks, wake up at the same time every day – all these learning habits help you succeed in your studies.
Eat That Frog
The so-called Eat That Frog method means that you start the day with the most challenging task that makes you anxious. Easier said than done, and we get it. However, there are several critical reasons why you should at least try this method.
To begin with, as mentioned above, early in the morning, you have more cognitive capacity and energy to deal with a difficult task. So, the same amount of studying is way more manageable in the morning than late at night.
What’s more, the background anxiety caused by this task distracts you from your other duties and creates a stressful situation for your body.
As a result, postponing an intimidating task harms not only your productivity but also your health. So, eat that frog!
Break Down a Big Task Into Smaller Units
One of the main obstacles on our path to productivity is procrastination. The reasons why we procrastinate are very individual. Thus, there is no standard solution to the problem. However, all the students we have spoken to claim that they tend to put off doing complex tasks in the first place. So, to minimize procrastination, break down immense and incomprehensible tasks into small understandable units.
Let’s say you need to write a ten-page essay, which is a rather challenging assignment you will probably postpone doing. However, if you divide ten pages into smaller chapters, the task will get much more manageable.
Minimize Distractions
We all get distracted from our tasks sometimes. It could be text messages from our friends, family members who want your attention, or a billion other factors. Distractions are entirely normal. However, you should avoid them, and here is why.
Firstly, if something diverts your attention, you lose your focus, and it takes a lot of effort to get it back. Secondly, you lose your train of thought. Both these factors result in an inefficient studying process.
So, before studying, find a place where the distracting factors are minimized. It could be a library, a coworking, or any other place you like. It is also a good idea to tell your family members that you need time to study and ask them not to distract you.
Establish a Study Zone
Our brain is lazy. Quite a surprising statement, huh? Even though it is active all the time, it doesn’t like to solve new problems and gets tired easily if you urge it to. So, you should divide your room into zones. If you study and do yoga at the very same place, your brain has no idea what is up next. Thus, it needs more time and effort to understand what to do.
So, it is critical to establish a space where you study to be productive.
Take Care of Your Health and Well-Being
Last but not least, you have to pay attention to your health to be productive and successful in your studies. Without enough sleep, nutritious food, and exercising, your attempts to work more just exhaust your body. And you don’t want that.
Wrapping Up
We are sure that you will improve your academic success if you follow these simple learning habits and routines. After all, there is no harm in trying. So, go ahead and good luck.
