Staying consistent with your studies is one of the most important factors in success, and creating study habits that work best for you can go a long way towards making sure you keep at it every day.
So, if you’re struggling to find time to study, or if you feel like it’s impossible to get into the habit of studying regularly, then these 4 fantastic ways of creating a study habit are for you!
These tips will help you turn your study resolution into an everyday reality while making sure you have the best academic year.
1. Map out your time
If you’re trying to study more and need help making it happen, get started by mapping out your daily schedule. Decide how many hours in a day or week you will dedicate to studying.
Once you’ve set aside time for that—no matter how little it is—it becomes easier to incorporate new habits into your routine. It also helps to keep things accountable because you'll always know when it's time to stick to your routine.
Plus, if other people, such as family and friends are aware of your study schedule, there's often less room for disturbances around those times.
2. Surround yourself with reminders
Asides from setting out time for study, it's also important to surround yourself with a daily study reminder, as remembering to study during your allotted time can sometimes be difficult thanks to the rush of everyday life.
So, put sticky notes everywhere (like your computer monitor and inside your textbook), or create alerts on your phone that pop up every day at a certain time.
You can use free reminder apps like Google Keep, Microsoft To-Do, Apple Reminders (for ios), and Pi Reminder (for Andriod users) to create these reminders.
The more you remind yourself of your study time, the easier it will be to keep studying.
3. Don't completely rule out the weekends
You may probably want to take it easy during the weekends and relax; after all, you've just spent all week at school or work. But if you’re trying to build a study habit that sticks, it might be worthwhile not turning away from studying altogether during the weekends.
Sure, there are better ways of spending your time (playing games, partying, or even hanging out with friends), but dedicating a few hours of your weekend to studying will help you build a study habit that sticks faster.
To slowly build a weekend study plan, you can block off 30 minutes to 1 hour of your time every weekend to study. That way, you don't get too discouraged or feel like you're missing out on a lot.
4. Reward yourself
Learning how to study effectively is a skill, and like any other skill, it takes time and patience. To make sure you have time for study as well as fun, include some small rewards at set intervals (at least weekly) while studying.
These could be anything from watching an episode of your favorite TV show to indulging in a guilty pleasure food. It’s important that these are within reason though – because if you’re rewarding yourself with junk food every week, chances are you won’t stick with your study plan.
On top of giving you a little boost when needed, these small rewards also help keep long-term goals closer to mind, making them more likely to happen.
So, always try to reward yourself when progress has been made each week because you deserve it!
Remember:
Be patient with yourself because building a study habit isn't always easy. Take things slow and set expectations you can keep.
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