Studying in college and performing at the top of your abilities is not as easy as ABC. The key to success, despite a common belief, is not to study harder but to do it smarter. It may seem surprising for some students out there, but a few hours of long study sessions can actually be more effective than a whole day of learning. It all depends on how well you can organize the process.
Being a successful and productive student is not much about the knowledge or skills you have. It is more about your study habits and the way you can manage the work.
Want to know how to study better with the help of simple daily habits? In this article, we have collected some of the most significant habits you need to acquire to succeed. Let’s dive in!
Top Students’ Habits to Acquire
1. No Procrastination
Procrastination is probably the biggest burden for college students. Many will agree with this statement. Indeed, putting off your sessions due to lack of motivation, tiredness, simple laziness, or other things can play a bad joke with you, pulling into a vicious circle of expired deadlines and piles of accumulated work.
If you are wondering how some students manage to keep up with everything, their secret is simple – they’ve defeated procrastination and made it a habit to address their assignments as soon as possible.
2. Setting Goals
Another habit everyone should practice is setting goals for every session. When you have a clear idea of what you need to accomplish during each session, this will give you the right direction for your studies and help keep motivation.
However, when setting goals, make sure they are manageable and clear. Otherwise, it may not be too effective.
3. Avoiding Distractions
Let’s face it – it is barely possible to stay tuned in during a study session if you are being constantly distracted by a TV, smartphone, social networks, or anything else. Thus, another vital habit to acquire is avoiding distractions. Turn everything that distracts you off or use special software that blocks off distractions for a set period of time. As soon as you will start avoiding distractions, you will see how getting your tasks done becomes faster and easier.
4. Taking Advantage of All Available Resources
If you want to perform well academically, you have to make it a habit to make use of all available tools and resources. Be it your professor’s office hours, dedicated study groups, online plagiarism checker free for students, library, or whatever else tools you have at hand – use them to your benefit! The sooner you will learn to take advantage of all kinds of help you have available, the sooner your grades will boost and your study sessions will become more effective!
5. Starting with the Hardest Tasks
When you have multiple assignments that have to be done, where would you start? Most students would start with the easiest one, gradually moving to the hardest task. However, this is the wrong approach. Although it may sound tempting to take care of the easiest assignments first, this won’t really contribute to the effectiveness of your session. Remember, successful students always start with the most complicated subject. Make it a habit too!
6. Planning
Planning is a great habit for everyone. It helps you get organized, prioritize tasks, and be effective at all times. No wonder why planning is one of the essential study tips every student should practice!
What does planning involve? Pretty much everything! Start with planning your study sessions. As you get used to this habit, level up your game and start planning your whole days.
7. Scheduling Sessions for the Same Time
One more handy habit that will help you stay on track and keep up with everything is to study at the same time. It may feel hard to accomplish at first. However, stay your ground and make no excuses to skip your sessions. After some time, you will develop a consistent, daily routine that will make you even more productive!
8. Taking Notes
Many young people find taking notes to be an unnecessary waste of time. Why do I have to bother taking notes if I have everything in a textbook by default, you may wonder? Well, that’s the wrong approach! Often, during lectures, your teacher will somehow distance from the textbook materials and it is important to take notes of everything he says. Besides, reviewing notes takes less time than reading a whole chapter of a textbook.
9. Studying on Weekends and Holidays
Although it feels tempting to forget about your studies for a weekend or during holidays. However, we recommend studying during those days as well. It won’t hurt you if you take an hour to review your study materials on a weekend, but it will have a positive influence on your overall success.
10. Taking Breaks
The last, but not least effective habit is taking breaks. As a rule, trying to cram everything in a single study session is the opposite of productivity. Instead, successful students try to divide their session into several blocks and take short breaks in between them to relax and refresh their minds.
The Bottom Line
Although most young people think of studying as something tedious and extremely difficult, it doesn’t have to be that way! Just a few simple tricks can give you an edge in your education and enable you to study smarter.
The habits of highly effective students we mentioned in this article can help you make it through college with ease, meanwhile ensuring outstanding academic performance. Use these 10 tips to take your study to an entirely new level and soon your efforts will pay off!
