Study habits are different for everyone. It is upto you to find the best study methods that work for you. Study patterns are influenced by a variety of factors such as whether you are an early bird or night owl, whether you are a hyperactive or calm person, your surroundings, health, social life and many others. Finding the study techniques that work best for your work ethic is essential for paving your path towards success.
There are many different ways of studying. For example, the Pomodoro Method assumes that the concentration span of an average person is about 20-25 minutes. Hence, it follows that after every 20-25 minute study sessions you take a 5-10 minutes break. This gives you sufficient time to take a break as well as giving you space to quickly get back into the study mood. After about 3-4 of these, you take a longer break of 30-40 minutes. However, given that these intervals are based on the average person’s concentration span, it is likely to not work for every individual. In contrast, there are some techniques which are likely to be effective for almost every student in order to concentrate and complete one’s work efficiently which I will be outlining in this blog.
Environment plays a huge role in deciding your concentration. If your environment contains distractions such as phone, a messy workplace or loud background noise, it is highly likely that one will be less concentrated. However, for some people background music is likely to improve concentration. Nonetheless, having a comfortable environment is key to being productive.
Moreover, it is wise to keep different environments for relaxing and studying as it will engage different areas of the brain. If one sleeps, eats, studies and relaxes all in the same environment, then the brain is likely to get confused between different tasks and be alert all the time. This could not only cause disruption in studying but also other activities you do.
Furthermore, creating a specific plan for each study session enables you to create a sense of direction in your studying and prevents you from falling into a rut . Also, it gives you a sense of accomplishment by the end of the session which can motivate you. Positive reinforcement in the form of incentives can enhance your willingness and ability to concentrate on your tasks and gives you something to look forward to.
Additionally, scheduling your breaks can give you time to take a break from studying and will prevent unplanned breaks full of guilt. By scheduling your breaks, you are allowing yourself to rest and prevent feeling guilt as well as increasing your overall productivity level. It will allow you to keep better track of your time and ensure you do all the things you need and want to during the day.
There are many other habits that one can follow in order to study better such as making use of recall, group-studying and sleeping well at night.
Personally, I find that the hardest part of studying is actually getting started with the work. Due to my need to often do everything perfectly, I often end up procrastinating my tasks as the burden of doing the tasks becomes greater. What I find helps me is using the “eat the frog” method which basically means completing the hardest task the first thing in the morning so that I don’t feel the constant nagging feeling throughout the day. Another technique that helps me is setting a fixed number of hours to do a task and finishing it within that given time. No more, no less. This allows me to not waste my entire day trying to procrastinate or perfect something.
In conclusion, there may be some methods which are already known to us but of whose we don’t realise the significance and don’t implement and there are others which are completely unknown to us. Nonetheless, it is important to identify our own paths to success and the study habits which will get us there.
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