How to Succeed in Your Studies — Part 3
The Power of Focused Thought
I’m sitting at a desk, an open book in front of me, wondering what else “urgent” I still needed to do before today’s education. I wanted to start learning 3 hours ago, but now I’m finally done with all housekeeping, organizing and it’s the right time to start. I’m reading a text, but after a few minutes, I start considering what to have for dinner, even though I just had lunch. The evening begins, and I feel like I don’t remember almost anything from the materials I read.
Does that sound familiar?
How to Start?
It was always the hardest part for me to force myself to start. The first 10–15 minutes are critical, but once I was successfully concentrating during this period without any procrastination, then everything else went relatively smooth. If I was in a sluggish mood that day or I wasn’t too passionate about the topic, then I just prepared everything, and I was focusing on studies for only 5 minutes. After that, I took a short break, and I realized in most cases that it’s not so bad, and I can continue without any issues.
Have a Niche
Do you know the proverb, “Don’t crap where you eat?” It’s individual, but for someone it’s twice as true for studying. In my case, it’s problematic to be effective in an environment like the living room, where I’m stuck in my comfort zone. However, it’s also easy to start with some of my procrastination habits, such as cleaning at home. The situation can be similar in college, where there are friends, with whom I tend to leave my studies due to common conversation about life.
Personally, it suits me best to study in a library, which I feel like a study environment. I have always been motivated by other readers, who also longed for knowledge or at least force themself to absorb some knowledge mechanically. However, the library is not for everyone. For example, If I would prefer to read aloud, then I would travel to nature, to a cottage, or any other deserted place, where I would not have my time-wasting habits, and I could fully concentrate on my goal. (Covey, 2004)
Modern Adventures of Procrastination
One of the main problems I was facing was that technology, like our favorite Facebook or YouTube, was stealing my attention against my will. In order not to let these enticements take my time, I turned off my phone and all notifications. (Ludwig, 2018)
But my will was sometimes too weak against this. So I also added a Google Chrome extension Site blocker into my laptop browser to block social, viral, and multimedia web sites. Long story short, it’s essential for me to set up blocking tools and processes so that I was sufficiently deterring from all the thieves of time. In an extreme case, I would consider disconnecting fuses, network cables, or router resets, but fortunately, I was not in such a critical situation yet.
Small Goals
In the previous article How to Succeed in Your Studies — Part 2: There Are No Cakes Without Plan was mentioned, that I need to keep in mind on a given day only to learn a limited amount of studies instead of big goals like the whole exam. It’s the same with the concentration itself. Therefore, I’m setting myself a tiny goal for a given moment that wouldn’t scare me even discourage me from studies. To achieve this, I’m following a certain ratio between studies and breaks, and it makes me learn more effectively.
Don’t Forget to Take a Break
When I was trying to find my limits for the first time, I always studied only 20 minutes and then took a 10-minute break. In case that I started to get easily distracted while studying, I knew I exceeded my balance a few minutes ago.
Isn’t it a bit time-ineffective to spend so much time each day on breaks?
Because if I would study for 6 hours, then I would spend the whole 2 hours just on breaks, right? However, I will take as an example the first paragraph of this article. Let’s say that I would study without any rest and set aside the same amount of time to learn it. I would focus on learning by an hour less through procrastination. More importantly, I would probably have worse academic results.
Regarding a short break, I don’t mean watching TV shows, playing video games, or any other activities, by which I wouldn’t feel relaxed enough or even have a chance to decrease my ability to concentrate temporarily.
I need to free my entire mind.
I like sports, meditations, or their various combinations the most, but it’s individual preference. If I had trouble with focusing and even mentioned activities didn’t help, a few self-help books and walks approached me to collect my thoughts. (Toman, 2012)
Conclusion
Is’s so easy to get carried away by minor thoughts, but just like in the previous article, practice makes perfect, but be aware of not practicing bad habits. For me, reading always meant the most effective training. I developed this habit into my daily schedule by looking for a literature I enjoy. So it’s essential not to be afraid to expand literary diversity and try to read new genres and types of books. (Kump, 1998)
Thus, gradually, I achieved that I’m able to study effectively for up to about 2 hours in a row with a 10-minute break, but it depends on the situation. I was also tracking time at the beginning of this experimentation with my limits. But now I intuitively know much better when the time to take a rest is coming, thanks to the right learned habits.
Don’t stress and don’t evoke impulses leading to procrastination. When you want to start concentrating, take a deep breath, relax, and do it calmly step by step.
TL;DR
- Self improvements of concentration.
- How to initiate studies.
- Effective study environment.
- Solutions to procrastination.
If you enjoyed this article, then you may want to read How to Succeed in Your Studies — Part 4: Holistic learning.
I wish you success in your studies!
Resources
Thanks to Dan Vybiral, Dominik Tilp, Filip Ustohal, Nicole Gruberova, Martin Zaklasnik, Tomas Janik, Tomas Kohoutek, my family and all others who participated in this series of articles.
