My Study Saviours
This week's post is the second of a two-part series all about how to set good habits and intentions for the new school/college/work year. This final part is focused all on studying and learning and how you can better your performance efforts. I am absolutely no expert on productivity or studying but I hope that maybe some of the things that worked for me may also help you! I hope you remember that no matter what, you are not defined by your work, productivity and stress levels. You are whole and enough in all that you are and your worth could never ever be measured by your achievements or results. The definition of success is extremely different and unique to every person reading this, it is both ambiguous and personal. I hope this post may help you on your own personal journey towards success, whether that be to simply make someone smile or to become the president!
'I want "Elle Woods getting into Harvard Law" kinda determination.'
Eat The Frog
Mark Twain once said, 'If it's your job to eat a frog, it's best to do it first thing in the morning. And If it's your job to eat two frogs, it's best to eat the biggest one first'. What is it that you dread doing the most? In terms of studying, I personally found that I absolutely dreaded learning Irish and Geography, yet I could have spent hours engrossed in Accounting homework. Ever since hearing Mark Twain's wisdom and reading an extract from Brian Tracy's book 'Eat That Frog', I began to understand the importance and benefit of getting 'it' over and done with. Like a bandaid you just have to rip it off and suffer the intense sharp short pain rather than slowly prolonging the agony over time. To conquer this dread, no matter what, I began every study session or day with Irish followed by Geography. On Saturday mornings, knowing that I had those subjects out of the way before people were even getting out of bed gave me so much relief and satisfaction. Doing this can then help you relax and focus on other subjects and areas that you prefer! If you want to later in your study session go back to more of the subject you dread, you can now do it at your ease, knowing that you have what you needed to do over and done with!
Listen
Almost every single teacher and lecturer reiterates the need to listen in class, while it can be hard, it is actually probably the most effective and efficient learning skill. Actively listening to what is being taught will lighten your own personal workload so much. Not only could you pick up extra information and key points, but, through actively paying attention and scribbling notes you will also be able to make links between different topics and parts of each subject. I found this worked so well for me in subjects such as Business and Accounting, I never felt the need to have to sit down and study them as a result of just having the knowledge engrained through listening, yay!
Minimise
I once heard of a study conducted in Harvard in which students analysed the books in their library. They discovered that 80% of the actual words in each text were irrelevant to conveying the books desired subject message. Imagine how much of your notes and novels equate to that 80%? Minimising everything was my absolute saviour during the Leaving Cert. Find a method that works best for you, perhaps it is creating your own acronyms and sayings or maybe you prefer to draw mind maps and flowcharts. I had my whole Geography course on a set of cue cards. I threw out every single essay sheet (anyone who studied LC Geography will understand there are approx 7 billion essays lol) once I had broken it down into the key words and points on the cue cards just so I wouldn't be tempted to allow myself to focus on anything more than the most relevant important facts. I minimised my Maths course too through this method, each night adding any key information or examples to the cards. By the end of each topic, you have the whole section summarised down to its key components in just a few lines. This not only makes it way easier to learn and revise, it also saves so much time and wasted effort having to weed through your book/notes trying to seek out material.
Revise
I am in no way a study expert but from talking to people I realised that this one thing may be the trick that could help you so much! Learn your stuff...every single day. I know it's not fun and I know it's draining but I promise you that it will save you from prolonged heartache and stress. If you do three new geography essays in class today, go home tonight and learn them. You are going to have to do it someday and there's no other way around it but to just do it. The thought of learning three essays in one night may seem somewhat manageable but then add on the exact same workload from other subjects as well as revising your pre-set out revision from that night and I'm sorry but it's just impossible unless you want no sleep, no sanity and no life at all, which is why you have to work smart and not work hard!
Work Smart Not Hard
Perhaps sitting down and reading an essay for an hour may enable you to learn it but what if you have the work equivalent of ten essays in one night? I developed a way of coping with wrote learning, whether it was in the English, French or the Irish language. I don't really know how to explain this other than to use an example, so, pretend you are given a 6 page essay in Irish on the effects of global warming. On the day of receiving this essay I would read through the whole thing, having hopefully already read through it and recognised key words in class. (PS make sure you translate everything and anything you do not understand into your mother tongue. It makes learning off essays in other languages much easier when you know what it's actually about). The max I would usually take would be 3-4 pages a night and so I would start to work through each paragraph. This process usually only took max 30-40 minutes too! I would start to read it, taking it a couple of sentences at a time, then I would close my eyes and repeat them. I would highlight key words, spellings and phrases or anything that I kept forgetting and would say it through again without looking. Upon getting to the end of each page or section, I would try to repeat the whole thing without looking. Every time I messed up I usually went from the beginning again but never more than twice. I repeat this for each of the 4 pages until I reach the end and then I would go through it from start to finish with my hand covering the text. On the first day of this process it is so important to not try to get it all perfect...once you have it roughly in your mind and processed then that's all that matters! The following day, I would go through those exact four pages again (much faster and easier this time) before repeating the initial process for the rest of the essay and I would do the same the day after, by then it's almost engrained.
No Distractions
Distractions are so hard to deal with, they are everywhere! From phone notifications, to living with people, to simply even the weather...when you are studying and desperate for a break from the endless cycle, watching the rain fall can even seem exciting. Distraction is the enemy to productivity. But we are humans, we have been wired to react to different stimuli and we have been especially wired to avoid danger at all costs which makes sense seeing as anything can seem better than stuDYING heheh. Unless you have unbelievable willpower and self restraint, I don't really know how to overcome our wondering day-dreaming minds. You can however control the outside interruptions. Turn off your phone and leave it in another room. I use an app called 'Forest', in which you plant a tree and if you click on your phone while the tree is growing, it dies. The amazing thing about this app is that once you gain enough points, you can actually plant real trees in Africa. It was such a powerful motivator in helping me kick my phone addiction throughout final year and also I luckily planted three trees just from studying...win win! Ask your family to not disturb you between certain times or find a quieter environment such as a library and school study sessions. Take breaks at intervals that suit you. I used to take a break for twenty minutes between every two hour block of studying and in that period I would engage in every distraction possible which then made it a bit more difficult to be swayed while learning hehe.
Shake It Up
Endless reading, reciting, writing and learning would make any poor soul go insane. Midway through 6th year, I began to utilise alternate ways of learning such as daily French podcasts, reading news articles in Irish or watching Math tutorial videos on youtube. They make the drudgery of learning a little less painful and more fun. Type in a subject or topic on YouTube, Google, the App Store and the Podcast app..I promise you will find something!
P.S. Thank you to the amazing person who sent me this message last week. I was a little nervous and apprehensive to write further on this topic but your message gave me such a boost of joy and confidence, thank you!
I hope you enjoyed this post and that you were able to take something, everything or maybe even nothing from it! What helps you to work or study? Feel free to let me know in the comments below or anonymously in the ASK section of my blog (it makes my day getting such kind lovely messages from you, it means the world that these posts are helping people). I hope this post has helped you to understand the importance of caring for yourself while filling you with inspiration of how to too!
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I hope you enjoyed!
lots of love & peace & happinessLauren x
