Nowadays, the internet and accessibility to knowledge have given almost everyone the awareness to be highly effective in their professional as well as personal lives.
Students can also achieve success if they adapt to and introduce some effective study habits in their lives. Those who are successful in their academics have good study habits. Students possessing smart study habits are more inclined to develop their perceptual abilities and to broaden their knowledge.
It is never too late to inculcate these highly effective habits, so start working on it!
What are these study habits?
Let’s delve into each habit and enlighten ourselves with the knowledge of what these effective habits are:
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Goals must be set
The first and foremost thing to be done is to identify your goals. It means you must be aware of the outcomes you want and how you are going to pursue them.
Be conscious of your own thoughts, it can be used as a very effective tool to develop good study habits.
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Make study plans
Planning is imperative!
Students need to have a comprehensive approach towards their studies, this means that you need to figure out your study time and different study techniques you will be implementing during your studies.
Be calculative when deciding about how much time is needed for every subject and then make a smart timetable, allotting time to different subjects. Schedule your time specifically throughout the week and try to follow it religiously.
Also, note down what will be your strategies to overcome the issues and difficulties with any particular subject or all. And accordingly, what study techniques you will refer to.
Importantly, be consistent to establish a routine that becomes an integral part of your life.
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Notes
One of the salient habits of a successful student is taking notes.
Taking notes or jotting down notes will keep you on track and the benefits are numerous to count, such as keeping you engaged with the topic, helps you in revising what you learned, develops your critical thinking as new ideas come to mind, and to narrow down vast topics into points which is easy to go through.
You can also take help from websites like https://www.paperhelp.org/ which will help provide you with notes for your assignments.
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Avoid procrastination
Successful students never procrastinate studying. Students procrastinating always end up rushing and completing assignments in haste within a short time before the set deadline.
This often causes students to panic and anxious and this leads to making mistakes and wrong judgments in the context of their studies.
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Avoid distraction
Studying intelligently requires students to be focused. Nowadays, with social media and technology in everyone’s reach, distraction is something very difficult to avoid.
Don’t give in to the temptations of Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp attractions. Eliminate anything that makes your mind go astray.
And don’t forget to silent your phone or any message alerts before you open your book.
Successful students know how to manage distraction. Distraction can cause you to lose your stream of thoughts and to stay focused sharply and hence leads you to ineffective study.
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Teamwork or Group study
Group studying entails numerous benefits. It is said that “two heads are better than one”, which is quite literally true when we talk about group study.
Group study helps students to learn faster, new study skills or techniques are introduced through each other.
Assignments are completed on time, students stay motivated by looking up to each other. Concepts get easy to grasp, new perspectives are formed.
Students who hesitate in group discussions begin to feel confident and develop their communication skills.
Hence, many good habits are inculcated through group study.
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Take breaks
It is a very important practice during your study time to take breaks in order for your brain to absorb information.
The human brain needs rest, otherwise, it starts to slow down.
It is proven that when the brain gets more downtime, critical thinking gets better, performance is boosted, and the attention time span of the brain is increased. Hence we can say that intelligent cognitive rest is imperative for an effective study.
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Sleep
Eight or nine hours of night sleep is the key to achieve the best result in studies. It helps to restore and consolidate memories so they can be easily retrieved later.
Depriving yourself of sleep (which is one of the most common issues of students prevalent nowadays) causes brain fog and hurdles decision-making ability.
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Reward yourself
To keep your motivation level high, offer yourself with incentives such as rewards or treats, this will help you achieve your goals faster without burning out.
At each breakthrough or achievement you have set as a goal in your schedule, give rewards to yourself in order to appreciate the hard work and effort you are making to become successful.
Rewards can be taking breaks and doing some of your favorite activities such as watching a movie, or listening to a song, or going out with friends, or even indulging in a cup of coffee or for some delicious treats; it will make you feel happy and relaxed.
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Create your own learning style
Even with ample knowledge of how we can study effectively, most of the students don’t implement that information to make things really happen.
Make a conscious effort to create your own methods that suit your learning style.
Work on the four important learning styles, i.e, visual, auditory, reading/writing, and kinesthetic.
You can draw mind maps, use colors while making notes, and follow some learning techniques like the Feynman technique, to develop your understanding and critical thinking. To remember facts or dates, try to create rhymes.
Build up your reading habits because, for avid readers, learning becomes easy.
Change your study location, as research has shown that changing location helps your mind to build new and fast associations related to what you are learning.
This technique you will create will help you stay ahead of the curve.
In short, success can be crafted, it all depends on your habits, mindset, and how disciplined you are in your life.
And always take some time out to reflect on how well you are doing and what else there is you can do to increase the chances of getting closer to your goals.