Want to know how to make the best study routine for you? Read these tips! In my college years, I’ve taken anywhere from 12 to 17 credits a semester (19 is the max at my school for perspective). Some semesters I was working 20+ hours a week, and one semester I was planning my wedding, working part time, student full time, plus volunteering at a local non-for profit. That was crazy. BUT, with self discipline and a whole lot of coffee it’s possible to still do well. I’ve talked briefly about some of my procrastination battling strategies in another post, but wanted to give you a more comprehensive view of how I study. Here are some simple strategies to create the best study routine for you!
Plan Ahead For Each Study Session
At the beginning of the week, I look at the course syllabus, and the college online learning platform for all the assignments I have due that week. I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I use Trello, a free task tracking website and app to input all of those tasks, and get an overview of what my week will look like. You can use your planner or notebook, but make sure you have all your assignments in one place. Next, I write down which assignments I want to work on each day of the week. The more specific you can be, the better! There are a couple of different ways to do this:
One is by subject. A sample week could look like:
- Monday- Biology
- Tuesday- English Composition
- Wednesday- Health 101 and Speech
- Thursday- Statistics
- Friday- Review for quizzes
This system works so that each day, you only have to work on one subject, and is great for people who get laser focused on one task and need to continue doing that until it is finished.
Personally, I like to work on several subjects in one study session because I cannot focus on one topic for too long. So, I break up my study time into specific assignments rather than subjects. Example:
- Monday- Outline English paper, do statistics assignment
- Tuesday- Research for health presentation, finish essay for COMP 301.
- Wednesday- Read pages 1-20 for Nutrition. Draft English paper
- etc. etc.
Again, be as specific as possible. This will help you stay focused for your entire study session, and also help you feel accomplished, knowing that you have completed your necessary assignments.
Timing is Everything
Some of us are night owls. Some like to get up with the sunrise. Others have this super specific time of day like 10am to 3pm that they are SO PRODUCTIVE but don’t even try to make them study outside of that time frame.
Part of creating the best study routine for you, is knowing when your peak hours are, and scheduling your study session in that time frame if possible. I get it, some of us have jobs and other commitments that might interfere with those hours, but trying your best to study in your optimal time frame will help you so much in having a productive study session.
Once you know your optimal time of day to study, schedule specific hours in the day when you are going to sit down and get work done. Again, you may have to focus more on what works for your schedule more than what your optimal hours are, and that can still work. You can have one long study session, or several short ones throughout the day. Maybe you have a couple of hours between classes, so you hunker down in the library and get through some assignments. If you work in the evenings, schedule a couple of hours in the morning to do homework. Write those times down in your planner along with your specific assignments, and you are well on your way to a great study session.
Limit Your Distractions
Sometimes my study session looks like this: I’m reading my text book and trying to absorb all the infor–OH LOOK MY FRIEND JUST SENT ME THIS MEME LOL. Before I know it, I’ve wasted half an hour scrolling through my feed, laughing at videos and having a hard time getting back to what I was doing.
To remedy this, I (try) to do a couple of things to prevent a distraction cascade:
- Turn off phone notifications. If it’s not lighting up every few minutes, I am less likely to mindlessly pick it up
- Give myself a phone break. Choose a time increment like every 30 or 50 minutes that you get to pause, maybe move around, and check your phone for 10 minutes or so. Check the gram, respond to texts, send the snap, then get back to work.
- Work somewhere you know you can focus. I study in one of four places: The coffee shop where all my friends go/work, my house, the coffee shop where I probably won’t run into as many people I know (small town probs), and my college library. These are ranked in order of how focused I know I will be in each location, and how much I can afford to be distracted on a given day. I know that at my house I will likely fall asleep, and at the coffee shop my friends frequent, I will probably end up chatting with someone for awhile. Some days that’s ok! But if I really just want to get in, get out, and finish my work, or I have an exam to study for, I will opt for one of the latter options.
Find what sucks up your time, and do your best to accommodate those distractions.
Make it Happen!
Now, you have everything you need to make the best study routine! You have your plan, you know what, when, and where you’re going to study, plus, you have strategies to make sure you stay focused the whole time. For an even more effective study session, make sure you read my tips on how to beat procrastination. Comment below if you have your own study strategies I should know about!