How to study effectively and have a great school year
A few weeks ago I uploaded an evaluation of my study habits during the first semester of 2015 and, since then, I have received a few messages from people that have the same or similar struggles.
The purpose of this post is to help those people with the mistakes that are not easily fixed. I will approach other common mistakes and bad habits, too.
So… How to study effectively and have a great school year?
1. Have a progress journal, not a planner.
I have spent way too much time trying to keep up with a planner. One hour every Sunday trying to figure out what to do during the week, only to have my entire schedule messed up by a single event.
Instead, try to create a more effective system:
For homework, projects and other things that you have to present to the teacher: try to do everything on the day you are given it; if you can’t, write it on a post-it note, stick it somewhere in your room where you’ll see it and make sure to finish it within a week. Sounds extreme, but it’s actually the best way to get things done.
For personal goals, things that require constant effort or that need to be done on a daily basis (self-studying a language and exercising, for example): literally graph your progress. Every week, write down what you need to do on a piece of paper and draw seven squares next to it. Colour a square whenever you finish the task.
2. Stop obsessing over perfection.
Getting your perfectionism under control doesn’t mean you have to start bs-ing your academic life. It means your notes have to be neat, not pretty. It means you have to give your best, but not freak out when irrelevant things go wrong.
I get we all want our notes to look like the ones we see on tumblr, but we need to understand that spending three hours summarizing a 50 minute lecture is not reasonable. Your blog aesthetic is not more important than your education.
Don’t be so hard on yourself. I used to think this was a quality, but being so anxious you puke and crying for a whole afternoon because you messed up a little bit is counterproductive and unhealthy.
3. For real, don’t be so hard on yourself. Have some self-esteem.
I have lost count of how many times I cried/felt bad because I wasn’t as smart as others or because I didn’t do well on a test. I’ll not even go into why this is unhealthy.
Don’t waist time you could be using to improve yourself to depreciate yourself.
4. Be reasonable and have control over your life.
Sure, we’re young, but this doesn’t mean we have to be immature. A lot of mistakes I made were due me not taking action and waiting for others to notice wrong things and fix them for me.
If you are mentally unstable, go to a doctor asap. Have daily moments of introspection and seek help when something feels wrong. You have to take care of yourself, this is nobody else’s job.
Same for your physical health.
You shouldn’t be drinking so much coffee and you know that. Stop.
You should be eating healthier and you know that.
You should be sleeping more and earlier and you know that too.
Don’t wait a small problem become a big one to take action. Fix things as fast as you can, always.
Stop neglecting yourself.
5. Some final tips
Don’t hate any of your teachers. Do your best to like all of them, pretend for a while if you have to.
Don’t skip class just because you think it’s not important. I lost a lot of important classes because I thought I would be able to study the subjects by myself.
Exercise often.
Don’t ignore your doubts, you’ll probably have to deal with them later.
ASAP is your new goal. Do everything as soon as possible.
That’s it. If you are too lazy to read the entire thing, I can sum it up for you: quit being a baby, grow up and fuck off.
