In this post, I will share some of my secret hacks to be more productive while studying and reduce stress levels. You'll learn how to stop procrastination, create a nice study environment and most importantly how to ace your quiz/assessments.
Most people, including myself often get anxious before an quiz/assessment. I often worry about things like. 'What if I don't pass?', 'What if I get a bad grade?' or 'What if I don't know how to do the questions and waste my time staying stuck? You cannot completely get rid of worries but we can reduce it. That's why it is important to be prepared and start revising on a regular basis. Keep on reading to find out my study secrets to help you stay motivated and productive during a study session.
Topics
#1: Make your own study environment that you vibe with
#2: No really. make studying more fun
#3: Use the correct tools to help you with your study session
#4: Give your brain time to process and take care of it
Make your own study environment that you vibe with
Creating a suitable environment for yourself is very important. From lighting, comfort, noise and clutter these are all the factors that affect your studying. I used to be a very disorganized person, I didn't care about how messy my desk was or where I put my belongings. I really just did not get the point of being organised. But after I kept losing worksheets and notebooks, I finally got the idea. Some ways I keep my studying area organised at home is to have little storage areas for my desk and having a calendar to mark everything down. I would also regularly clean my desk. However, these require commitment to do these tasks once in a while. (Keep on reading, this is not the only method I've come up with)
*Not sponsored by Notion*
Recently, I came across the site Notion. I've know the site Notion for a long time and that it has something to do with organizing your own to do list or timetables... But little do I know that it was so much more than that. I maybe a little late to the game, but there is always room for learning. I recently came across some video on social media and saw that a lot of people were making their Notion dashboards aesthetic. I quickly started to make my own! After transforming my ordinary to do list and study log to an aesthetic planner, I am finally able to not only organize my current homework but also plan ahead for revision sessions and tests. You can get a FREE copy of my aesthetic planner template down below to customize yourself! After you have clicked the link, you can click duplicate on the top right corner! When you get the template, its quite interactive. Hover you mouse to find out!
Notion template:
No really, make studying more fun
Studying can sometimes be boring if your revising a subject you're not exactly fond of. I often get distracted by things around me and procrastinate. The Pomodoro technique, 4 x 25 min studying is a great method when you don't have a long attention span. If you plan on studying for 2 hours, you can break your study sessions into 25 minutes per session. You will end up having 4 sessions and a 5 minute break between them. There are a lot of different themed timers you can use that include deep focus music, click the link down below to checkout my playlist for cute themed timers.
Another way I keep myself motivated during a session is to use the reward method. After finishing a task, I reward myself with something I like. For example, when I'm reading or studying a textbook that I don't really enjoy. I slip some candy onto a certain page as a mark, once I read until page 50 (for example), I get to enjoy my little treat. You can use anything that motivates you.
Click here to see my playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4eZibIkSiztwUbB2PZtA2LioP0IbS0e4&feature=shares
Disclaimer: I did not make any of these videos, do not claim as mine and have no credit. However, all the pictures in this blogs are original.
Another way I keep myself motivated during a session is to use the reward method. After finishing a task, I reward myself with something I like. For example, when I'm reading or studying a textbook that I don't really enjoy. I slip some candy onto a certain page as a mark, once I read until page 50 (for example), I get to enjoy my little treat. You can use anything that motivates you.
Use the correct study tools to help you with your study session
You can actually study with a lot more things than a textbook. Textbooks may be important reference during a study sessions, but studying from different sources will actually help you gain extra knowledge and practice. Not only using online tools, you can actually use something familiar that is around you.
For example, if I am really stuck and cannot remember a Biology term or a graph that I was suppose to remember for a test, I use the point to point method. This method may sound a bit tedious, but trust me, it works. Pick something, anything that you are familiar with. It could be a book mark, stationary, stuff toy, pet... Put the graph or words you have to remember next to that object, then assign each word for each part of the object. As you can see on the left side, I have a tiny balloon dog statue, I would then assign a word (e.g. photosynthesis). I would assign and associate the word photosynthesis to the dog's nose, then every times I think of the balloon dog's nose I think of photosynthesis. When you are in an exam, picture the balloon dog in front of you, you will instantly remember photosynthesis.
Give your brain time to process and take care of it
I often try to cram everything in my head once and remember every single strategy that teachers have taught in class. I would make sure I was so prepared for everything that I could recite everything backwards which is not healthy for the brain. After studying for a long session/day, give credit to yourself and try to relax. According to scientist, studying before sleep will help you remember things. However if you think that revising till midnight and wake up the next morning feeling sleepy is the ideal way to revise, but actually it makes our performance level lower than expected.
Research says that 'No matter the preferred time to study, one must get ample sleep to give the brain enough time to rest and recover.' If you don't give enough time for your brain to recover what you have studied, over studying can cause mental distractions and make it difficult to remember information. Not only will your performance may not be as expected, but you will also produce more stress for your body. I'm not trying to scare you or make it sound even more daunting as it seems, but lots of stress are created unintentionally without us even knowing.
In conclusion...
We cannot totally prevent stress, but what we can do is reduce it. Here are the 4 different ways you can do it.
Create an suitable study environment either online or offline
Break long study sessions into small manageable chunks
Use the correct methods and tools while studying
Rest and take care of the brain
I hope you enjoyed this post and see you in the next one!
