Self Study Saviours
Hi everyone <3 I hope you are all as well and ok as could possibly be in this scary, worrying time. The whole world has come to a standstill due to the Corona virus and I think we are all very nervous and frightened of the unknown and uncertainty. I was going to write a little about how scary and worrying this time is for us all but I think it can just be so consuming and overwhelming and perhaps a more positive optimistic change is the more appropriate thing to do! With all this uncertainty and unknown it can be confusing and difficult to know what the next step to take is on our own winding paths but I think the most important thing we can do is to stay hopeful and optimistic; to look after and care for our loved ones and those must vulnerable in our community but also to focus on our goals and future hopes. Perhaps we can take advantage of this time of self isolation to slow down, work on ourselves and just focus on the little things we can do for each other, this world and our own beating hearts. I am so lucky and grateful to have a big majority of my readers in their late teens and twenties; the years of which are so often consumed by studying and learning. I know, even the midst of all this uncertainty, many people have exams coming up...at some stage in the hopefully not too distant future! Whether you are in college or school, being suddenly thrown out of your comfort zone and thrusted into a suddenly drastically different routine can be so tough and scary. Perhaps you thrive learning alone, can motivate yourself to wake up and sit hours on end at a desk and can muster the self discipline to keep on going day after day. Even if you can do all of those things, not having a definite goal pr date in sight and such uncertain change is really unnerving! But, if you are like almost every other human on earth and perhaps face some difficulties in trying to remain disciplined, calm, focused, motivated, hopeful and positive in your work life when the world seems to be falling apart around you, then I promise you you are not alone! I have written this blogpost (really just an accumulation of past writings) in the hope that it may help you a little bit if you are at home now and struggling to get into the zone of working towards your study goals and schooling needs. I hope this post may help you even muster a tiny bit of motivation, enable you to discover a new way of working or aid you in boosting your brain productivity. I wrote about mindsets and habits but also specific techniques and methods for learning. If there is anything that I can do to help you in anyway please please please message me. I am so lucky that I have no exams or work commitments so if there is anything I can do help lighten your load or aid you in anyway please ask <3
I hope you enjoy this post; 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!
Imagine having notes as pretty as these!
Organisation Is Key
Being organised can come very natural for some, while for others it may be an extreme struggle. Perhaps you find yourself at the beginning of September, motivated and excited with your new pens and colour co-ordinated folders yet two weeks later everything becomes a muddled mess. I have always liked to be extremely organised and in control so I am lucky in certain ways but I think it is a habit that is really important for achieving your goals, especially if you are in an exam year. Being organised doesn't mean you have to have every single thing perfect and of course you can never be prepared for the unknown but it definitely helps a lot. To help keep you organised I would recommend keeping a journal in which you write down all work and study due. Dedicate a space to remind yourself of any upcoming tests or work that needs to be handed up. Create some sort of organisation system that works for you and your work...whether it be a folder for each subject or a cue card for each topic. At the beginning of every week I would write down certain things that I wanted to have revised or accomplished by the following Monday in a separate little notebook and would then assign those things to certain days of the week! Therefor sitting down each evening to my study I could also clearly see what I had preplanned out to revise for that day.
Motivate
I would have in no way gotten through the leaving cert if it wasn't for the outside motivational factors! When you are stuck in a seemingly endless rut of constant work and exhaustion it can be hard to remember that it is all for a greater purpose. While of course there is an end goal, I personally found it more beneficial to break the overwhelming future into smaller more realistic chunks, these then seemed easier to grasp! In my study room at home I had a countdown blackboard to any future event of which I was looking forward to. These included simple tea dates out with friends, holidays away or in college we would plan a night out at least once a week which made everything better (hungover studying is not too fun though lol)! Honestly I lived for seeing the number of days get closer to zero...heheh sad but anything that helps!
I hung this board right in front of me through all of last year. It helped keep me motivated, organised and sane!
Make It Bearable
I am hand on heart, the biggest stationary and organisation freak! I could honestly spend hours in a Tupperware or stationary shop, preferably buying everything in pink lol! Entering into my study after school with the heating on, candles lit, a warm big cup of tea and writing down three things I am grateful for makes the studying process a billion times more bearable for me. I used certain apps, techniques and rewards that further made learning more enjoyable for me. What is something you can do, create or add to your work life that will make it more bearable?
Get Into A Routine
Routine is essential to get you through such a demanding time. My morning yoga, nighttime meditation, after school walks and 4 pm cups of tea became my saviours last year. No matter how good or bad the day was going, once I accomplished those tasks and lived through my outline for that day, I knew I would be ok. Try asking yourself what habits are essential to your daily life, happiness and health, while also figuring out what works best for you. Some people create a study routine of an hour per subject at random points during the day, others attend supervised study sessions, some students get up early or work during the night. I used to prefer ensuring I was sitting at desk at 4:45 pm and in bed by 9:30 pm, with the in-between filled with consistent hard work and ticking off my to-do lists. I have written a post already about my Morning Routine which may help you to define your own personal schedule, you can read it here.
My morning yoga and hot lemon water always set my day off right.
Balance It Out
All work and no play is a recipe for disaster. Honestly, 6th year for me was probably the most balanced year of my education so far! If you are working and studying non stop, not only will you burn out but you will also just drive yourself insane! Go out with your friends at the weekend, finish studying early for a yummy cup of tea on a Monday night, have a movie evening with your boyfriend/girlfriend on a Friday, go to Zumba class on a Wednesday...you get the drift! I went away a few times during the school year at which at the thought of I felt so guilty and nervous for, but, I realise now just how beneficial such breaks were...plus learning Sraith's in the sunshine is a million times easier heheh. Once you have worked hard, you can then relax and enjoy such time out of the books, guilt and stress free.
Know Your Limits
I think everyone hits an extreme wave of overwhelm, exhaustion and stress at one point or another during a stressful work year. This tsunami may overhaul your efforts and objectives at the beginning, middle or end of the term yet no matter when, the feeling of sheer burn out is terrifying. I almost drowned in such exhaustion in March of the Leaving Cert year and it was so scary, I thought that that was it, no matter how hard I tried I could not find the energy, motivation or will to study. My body and mind had me convinced that I would feel like that forever and my only option was to fail the Leaving Cert. Thankfully I listened to my rational family, friends in similar situations and also trusted google to realise that the only solution was to actually listen to my body and mind and to rest. Did you know that our brains enter a saturation point at which no more information can be processed? Struggling through the ache of exhaustion and pushing yourself to continue to study and work and learn is not only dangerous for your health, it is also counterproductive. I know it can be so hard if you are perhaps a perfectionist to just say, 'No, I'm not going to open a book tonight!' and to see all of your friends working hard or to feel lazy or unambitious, but I promise you, if there is one thing I took away from this final year in school, it is the benefit of rest and recovery. After about two weeks of taking half days, sleeping and studying only until I hit my safe limit (even if that meant just five minutes), I felt so rejuvenated, refreshed and ready to study, work and try again!
'The perfect is the enemy of the good'
Be Strict
'The most effective way to do it, is to just do it'. No great achievements are amounted or dreams are reached without self discipline, determination, hard work and maybe even at times, a lot of stressful tears. I don't think there is a soul out there who enjoys sitting down for hours on end reading and writing...yet more often than not we must do the things we have to do until we can do what we want to do. You have to be strict with yourself and question how much you really want to commit to working towards your own definition of success in any aspect of your life. You will have to be the one who ensures you get up at 6am or who forces yourself to turn off your phone. Yet you will also be the one who shall reap the rewards of your efforts and hard work!
Find Your Groove
I once heard a teacher say that we must study for ten hours over the weekend, never revise on weekdays and work until 10:30 pm at least...if I personally followed that advice I honestly think I would have broken in half by now! You are unique and so the way in which you best work will be unique to you too. For me, I could start studying at 7 am on a Saturday but I would never ever open a book on a Sunday or Friday until about a month before the Leaving Cert. I found working at home and early mornings worked best for me while midnight sessions and library settings may work better for others! Against all advice, I never sat any mock exams as deep down I knew they would be a bigger worry and burden for me than they would ever be of help. I was in bed every weeknight no matter what for 9:30 pm, I savoured that time to myself watching youtube videos or reading blogposts. Find out what works best for you and adapt your study life around that!
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 in college, I personally found that I absolutely dreaded BIS and MIS yet I could have spent hours engrossed in Accounting work and Economic graphs. 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 during my Leaving Cert with Irish followed by Geography. Come 10 am during college library sessions, knowing that I had the modules I hated 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!
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 book's 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 and my college exams. 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.
I used to detest mind maps but I found these helped a lot in the law basics. I started using them for certain law topics after we were made to create some in an assignment for another module. I used this website to create mine!
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 LC 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!
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!
Spitting..?!
Another form of minimising but with a more direct focus is something called spitting...I think. Oh it definitely isn't called spitting but it was something like that where you basically just get out everything in your mind lol! I began this in college, I have no idea what it is called but I am sure there is some technical word for it hehe, is basically just writing down every single thing I know about a topic, I guess like brain storming! I would type and type and type until I had pages and pages filled with information. I would then compare them with all of my proper notes I had already taken and anything I had forgotten or left out, I would highlight in my notes or add into the messy notes in bold. It s a time consuming method but honestly amazing especially if you have a memory that can see things really easily and can recall the words on the page and the part you added in or highlighted. If you're using a laptop I would absolutely advise to turn off spell check for this because when you start to type really fast and are just trying to get everything out, the squiggly red lines under everything become a little embarrassing heheh. Below are some of my spits (ok I really need to know the technical name for these, the word spit is awful, please let me know if you know it because I can't find anything..or else I've just invented something and called it spitting and I am horrified if I have heheh) and as you can see they are so messy and make no sense to any one else reading them but to me they became my everything for learning and revising! They just contained the most important points and details and those highlighted in bold pink were things I had left out when I compared them to my actual notes.
Macroeconomics 'spit'...please help me find a new word!!
Actually can't deal with the spelling and grammar mistakes...ahhh I'm so sorry!!!
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!
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? What are you finding is helping you during this time in isolation? Feel free to let me know in the comments below (it makes my day getting such kind lovely messages from you, it means the world that these posts are helping people). May you be safe, happy, healthy and well in this scary time. Love always to you <3
Click here to subscribe to my newsletter for updates on new blog posts.
I hope you enjoyed!
lots of love & peace & happinessLauren x
