average person

intp-a;17;ger

[t8rshapes-blog]

[bcchnl]

How To Get Work Done When You’re 0.5 Seconds Away From Ending It All: A No-Nonsense Guide To School When You Feel Like Death

Please reblog so others can see!!! It didn’t make it into the studyblr tag!!!

Important points are bolded for my fellow exhausted students. I see you and I’m with you.

At Home:

1. I know people have said otherwise, but studying from your bed is okay. I know how it feels to not want to get up. Sometimes sitting up in bed is the most you can do. I’ve found that getting dressed helps me feel a little more into it, but don’t go out of your way to do it if it’ll kill your vibe or make you uncomfy.

2. Honestly, if you’re not going to school, you probably shouldn’t be getting up before 8 or 9. There’s a fuckton of studies that show that that’s around when your brain actually wakes the hell up and is ready to take on the day. Don’t force yourself to get up at the asscrack of dawn if you can avoid it.

3. I’m probably gonna get shit for this, but it’s okay to skip class sometimes. Just make sure that you know what you need to do make up for it, have someone that can send you the notes, whatever.

4. For the love of god, eat. I don’t care if you have a full breakfast, a bowl of cereal, or the junk food you have stashed in your room, or five saltines, just fucking eat so you can have something in your stomach. Just take my word for it.

5. You know what’s trying to get you to be productive at all times? Capitalism. You know what also sucks major ass? Capitalism. Don’t buy into it. Take breaks and take them often. If you need to tap out, do it, and anyone who disses you for it can suck it.

6. Fuck the “no zero days” mentality. If you need a day to recharge, or you’re just having a really shitty day, don’t feel pressured to be “productive”. If you feel like absolute hell, the most productive thing you can do is give yourself time to feel better. Please, please take my word for it.

7. I know you feel miserable. I do too. But if push comes to shove and you’ve got deadlines coming up and you’re not ready, sometimes it all comes down to just sucking it up and getting it over with. However! It doesn’t necessarily have to be top quality material. Why? Because a 50 or a 60 is still way fucking better than a zero.

At School:

1. Slader has answers for hundreds of textbooks across lots of subjects. Your book might not always be there, but if you’re lucky, it might save you a fuckton of time on that homework. It’s a blessing. Just make sure you actually read over the answers so that you at least kinda understand them.

2. SparkNotes and Shmoop. For the love of god, don’t just use one or the other. Use both. Shmoop gives easy, casual, quick-to-remember plot summaries, and SparkNotes gives good analysis so you look like you actually know what you’re talking about.

3. Try to have at least one person you can lean on in every class. Whether it’s to get help on homework or to vent about how much the class is killing you, I swear, it helps so much. If you can make a groupchat with people, the more the merrier.

4. There’s probably someone willing to just give you the homework answers, no questions asked. Most people get it. People understand when you’re tired and not into it. If there’s a class you’re good in and you can help them out as well, then it’s even better, because there’s a give-and-take.

5. If you have time during or in between classes, try to get a little homework done. I know the minute I get home, my motivation to do anything school-related drops 644747457%. Try to get a little done while you’re in the groove. Future you will fall to their knees in gratitude.

6. Find a comfort item you can bring to school with you. Doesn’t matter what it is. Bonus points if you can wear it or if it fits in your pocket. Pick something that makes you feel a little better whenever you look at it or hold it. I wear jewelry dedicated to my gods, but it can really be anything.

7. I know people say that grades are just a number, and they really are, but if you’re like me and still stress over them anyways, for whatever reason, it’s okay. Just remember that someday in the future, there will be a time when that shitty grade will not matter and will never matter again. You’ll get to move on with your life, and no one will care that you failed some class or some test or whatever.

8. If someone is giving you hell for not liking or not being good at a certain class, tell them to fuck off and move on with your life.

I hope this post can help people like me who are this close to rock bottom but still need to muddle through. Please know that this too shall pass. Please stay alive today. Know that if any of you ever need anyone to talk to, I’m right here.

[studynostalgic]

these tips are super helpful!!!! this whole being productive all the fucking time is taking it’s toll on me too, so thank u for putting this post together

[aidashakur]

Is anyone else in a weird state of mind right now ? Like everything is fine but everything’s not fine

[ryanmatthewcohn-deactivated2016]

A Section of a Human Brain Preserved in Lucite. Ryan Matthew’s Collection. Photo by Sergio Royzen.

[ourunknowncoffee]

You’re unstoppable

Go study for your finals. Write that paper and finish that presentation. Study those flash cards. Stop procrastinating, have more trust in you and get off your phone. 

[determinationandcaffeine]

Hi ^^ For years now I’ve been really bothered by all the misinformation on the internet about skincare. So let’s put an end to that so that you can all have amazing skin for back to school! Here’s everything you ever wanted to know about skincare. Enjoy!

The very basics

READ THE INGREDIENT LIST: I don’t care if your moisturizer is $60, it most likely has the same awful ingredients as a drugstore one but with a fancier packaging and smell. Ingredients are what makes or breaks a product and not just the ‘miracle x ingredient’ advertised on the packaging, every other ingredient is just as important.

Ingredients are all the same, if it says grapeseed oil, you’re getting grapeseed oil, it’s not higher quality because the product is more expensive.

I know you’re going ‘ain’t nobody got time for that’ but PLEASE, make time for that. Just quickly scanning the ingredient list, you’ll be able to spot harmful ingredients and save your money.

The more towards the bottom an ingredient is, the less of that ingredient the product contains. Meaning if the product claims to have x ingredient but it’s towards the bottom, it’s as good as nothing.

USE SUNSCREEN. Yes, every day. Even if it’s cloudy. Even if you’re staying inside. @educatier made a wonderful post about it, but here are the main reasons why you should:

UVA rays go through windows and are present as long as the sun is out. They cause AGING and SKIN CANCER. UVB causes burning and tanning.

Acne is an inflammatory disease (discussed below). The sun causes inflammation. The sun WILL make your acne worse.

Acne scars are mostly inflammation and melanin. Sun rays will basically etch them onto your skin.

Any products you put on your face will be basically wasted. At the rate the sun damages your skin, no anti-oxidant, retinol, whatever can work fast enough to help your skin repair itself. If you want a visual annalogy, your skin cells are like construction workers, any products you put on are like machinery that helps them build. Sun rays are wrecking balls.

If you’re using retinoid, benzoyl peroxide or salycilic acid (discussed below), and not using sunscreen, you’re basically ageing yourself twice as fast.

The acid mantle

The acid mantle is a lipid layer that keeps your skin’s pH slightly acidic (around 4.5). Products that have a much higher/lower pH will compromise it. This will cause dehydration, slower repair rate (read: acne scars for longer) and make a general mess out of your skin.

Why irritation is so harmful

When a product irritates your skin, it stimulates the nerve endings under your skin. One of the consequences of this is that they send a signal to your oil glands to produce more oil (more acne, yay!). It’s also been shown to cause collagen breakdown

Weiterlesen

[determinationandcaffeine]

How To Stop Procrastinating

For all the procrastinators out there, here’s a list of tips that a fellow procrastinator has found very useful through the years to get her actually doing stuff.

Start studying from day one

I know you’ve heard this a million times, but seriously, before the panic of “I can’t possibly catch up with all of this’ kicks in. Once this happens, you won’t even want to try so you’ll just procrastinate even more. I know it seems overkill to study on the first day, but think of it this way, you’ve covered almost no material and it will take you no time. Also, it only takes 30 days to form a habit, I promise you revising every day becomes second nature after a while.

But I’m already in the middle of my academic year and I can’t possibly catch up!

I’ve heard that excuse a thousand times, from myself that is. So you can’t catch up? Well, don’t. If it’s a class where you don’t need to know the previous material to understand what you’re learning about right now, take it from that point and keep up with it. You can catch up on the previous stuff little by little when you have free time.

But it’s a cumulative class and I need to know the previous material to understand what the heck my profesor is talking about! 

Watch some youtube videos on the material or go to Khanacademy. You just need to grasp the basics, you can perfect your knowledge on those topics later on, if you have time.

I just can’t get myself to open the book 

First, what is it you need to do TODAY? Let’s say you need to study a unit that has x pages and you have three days ro study it. Today you will study x/3 pages. You get it, don’t just study aimlessly, give yourself a finish point. Then write down what you want to accomplish (it’s incredibly satisfying to cross things out) but don’t write more than 5 tasks (unless they’re really small ones) per day.

Now is when you find that you don’t actually want to do any of the things on that list, so what do you want to do NOW? Do you want to watch a youtube video? Read a book? Pee? What were you planning to do to procrastinate? Well you can still do it. That is, once you study a page (or x pages, whatever you feel up to). This can be repeated until you hit that finish point you stablished earlier. You can also add extra weekly rewards like ‘If I do all my studying this week, I can do x or I can buy y’ (think small stuff, x can be calling a friend to hang out and y can be a color pen). But remember, just as important as getting that reward if you do your work is NOT getting the reward if you DON’T do the work. I don’t mean like don’t indulge if you haven’t finished one or two tasks, but, if you’ve been slacking all week yet you get the reward anyway, what your brain understands “It’s ok, I don’t actually need to work”.

I just want to lie on my bed for a bit

Yes, studying on your bed is awful and you should avoid it. But you know what’s worse than studying on your bed? Not studying at all. If you’re like me and sometimes you just randomly get these urges in the middle of the afternoom to lie on your bed ‘for a bit’ and then you fall asleep, bring your study materials to your bed. DON’T lie down, just get into a slightly reclined sitting possition. I find that this kind of tricks your brain into thinking that you’re resting but you can still get work done.

I have to write a paper, not study

I was planning on telling you that I have literally no tips for writing papers and lab reports (these in particular are the bane of my existence, I literally feel such hostility towards them that I will refuse to even look at the document I’m sure it has nothing to do with being a failed writer) BUT luckily I’ve found something that kind of works. So, forget about your paper for a minute, open a text document, and just WRITE. You can literally write about whatever - your day, how adorable your pet is, or a random story that makes no sense whatsoever. Force yourself to write for about three minutes. Now look back at your paper. I find that once I’ve started writing, I am a lot more willing to keep doing it, even if it’s not about the same topic. This may not work for some people though. Also, write a SUPER rough outline or just bullet points of what you want to say like “Then we add HCl. Later decantation. Test for acid pH. Finally filter and evaporate”. Expanding on something is much easier than writing it from scratch.

Clean you desk the night before

I promise having a clean space to put your books on will motivate you the next day.

And finally, a little tip from a recent experience - YOU’RE GOING TO WISH YOU HAD DONE MORE 

Personally, every time “I can just cram for this” even crosses my mind, I remind myself of how stupid I felt last semester when it came to finals and how badly I wanted to go back in time and beat past me to a pulp. But also, I remind myself of how thankful I was to past me for every little thing that she HAD studied because it was one less thing to worry about. So, when you want to slack off, think of your future self thanking you for not doing so.

So, with this advice in mind, go hit your books right now and start becoming a better version of yourself!

Other masterposts

Memorization Tips

Skincare 101

Tips on Organic Chemitry

Taking Notes in College

[gomedorgohome]

[gomedorgohome]

Dealing with and managing your stress is not only important for performing well in school but it is also crucial for both your mental and physical health. You often ask us how to never get stressed, but unfortunately, we have yet to find a foolproof solution that works every time, as it is a thing one always works out themselves. Still, in hopes you might find something useful here, we decided to share a couple of things we try do do, which help us to keep our stress levels on on a manageable and as-low-as-possible level- here they are

1. Have a detailed schedule (or at least a daily to-do-list of some sort).  Calendars are your friends! Having a list of tasks you need to complete each day actually makes you feel much more on top of things and it is not a secret that nothing is more rewarding than crossing something off your to-do-list.

But on a more serious note, even though keeping a super-detailed calendar might sound a little over the top, it’s actually very helpful when it comes to dealing with anxiety, as it gives you a super clear view of your current situation. We actually write down every single task we have to remember about (no matter how small or trivial it might seem), but if to you it seems too excessive, try to at least create a daily list of things that you need to take care of, as it is enough to make you feel much more in control

2. Stop procrastinating and try to focus more Of course it’s much easier to say this than to do this and we are no strangers to wasting precious time, but procrastination is really an awful thing and you should avoid it at all costs. We wrote how you can study more productively here and here- maybe you can find something that’ll help you beat this habit there

3. Asses your abilities honestly Be honest with yourself about what is and what isn’t manageable to do. It is impossible to read and learn 200 pages of textbook in an hour, but you can also do more in an 2 hours than read 10 pages. Always push yourself a little- just don’t do it too much, because you’ll end up resigned and stressed even more

4. Prioritize- part 1 Sometimes, even though you planned everything, and you’re super focused and as effective as possible, there are simply too many things to do. That’s when you prioritize. Always start with the most important thing (be honest with yourself), next are the most difficult things, then the things which take the most time. Decide which tasks you can wing- those are the last ones to even think about. If you have very limited time, skim through topics and try to remember the general ideas and concepts, avoid making detailed notes and devoting too much time to one subject.

5. Focus on you on thing Comparing what you do, and how you do it is generally not a great idea when it comes to studying. Some people need to study for 8 hours, some will remember everything after reading it twice. It might not be fair, but it is what it is, and getting fixated on a fact that someone was up all night studying, while you were asleep, or you were in a library for a whole weekend, while your friends were partying and relaxing will do you no good- people are different and they study differently. Focus on your progress and improving your study techniques, but do it for yourself, and not for your friends.

6. Self-care is important Avoid all-nighters. Eat your veggies (seriously, try to eat healthy). Have some time for yourself each day- browse tumblr, watch an episode of your favorite TVshow, take a nice bath or read a chapter of your new book. Try to meet your friends once a week. Talk to your family, cuddle your pet. School shouldn’t be your whole world- you’ll simply go crazy. Of course there are times when your school-life balance isn’t exactly a balance (#exams) but even then, try to have some time for yourself, even if it’s just 30 minutes. Also, try to move at least once a week- to quote a classic “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy”

7. Prioritize- part 2  School and getting your education are undoubtedly important but you know whats even more important? Your health. Overworking yourself isn’t fun and it most definitely isn’t a “natural part of university experience”, so when you feel overwhelmed to the point when you feel it start to affect your health (either mental or physical) you need to stop. Believe us when we say it- it’s actually much easier to retake a failed exam than to recover from a sudden health decline caused by stressing too much over school. Also, please, please seek help if you think you need it- remember that not your grades, but you are the most important thing in your life!

Hope you’ll find something here useful! And don’t forget to check out our other master posts!

                                                                                     ~gomedorgohome

[gomedorgohome]

Let’s face it- even the most motivated and disciplined students can’t study for a couple of hours straight- we all need to rest. Taking a break  from studying every now and then will improve your focus and attention. Below are some of our ideas what to do during study breaks. We divided them into categories depending on the length of  your break. Feel free to try them out to later get back to your books refreshed and motivated!

5-10 minutes

Get some fresh air (either go outside, or simply stand up and go to the nearest window- don’t focus on anything and just breathe)

Leave your room/desk and go for a little walk

Throw yourself a little dance party (Cristina and Meredith did it and trust us, it works- put on some energising music and dace for a song or two)

Stand up and stretch!

10-20 minutes

Make yourself a proper, healthy snack (cut an apple into slices and put peanut butter on every slice or make yourself a healthy smoothie)

Watch a TedTalk on a completely unrelated topic (it will both relax you and still keep your brain working)

Do a little yoga (there are multiple mini-routines on youtube)

Browse the #studyblr tag (or maybe post your own photo with it!)

Take a quick shower (if you have a real study marathon ahead of you, a shower break can be a great way to get energised)

20-40 minutes

Call a friend

Clean your room (sounds pretty boring, but you’ll feel refreshed and super-productive once you’re done- and you won’t have to do this later!)

Take a nap (but really, try not to make it longer than 40 minutes)

Watch ONE episode of Friends (nothing better than a good laugh, right?)

 40-60 minutes

Workout (go for a 30-minute run or find a workout video on youtube- you’ll end up energised and full of endorphins, which will help you to keep going)

Try a new recipe and make yourself dinner for later

Read a chapter of a book you’re currently reading (if you’re not reading any- start a book)

~gomedorgohome

[ohbutwebestmakepeacewithit]

[anamorphosis-and-isolate]

― Carrie Pilby (2016) Carrie: Just because you want something, doesn’t make it right.

[onlinecounsellingcollege]

Tips for Improving your Concentration

1. Eliminate noise and other distractions from your environment. It takes approximately 15 minutes to reach a place of focused concentration. Thus, constant interruptions will stop you reaching that place.

2. Deliberately structure your environment so that the focus is clearly on studying - and not on doing, and seeing, other things. That may mean changing the room you work in, moving your desk, and so on.

3. Clarify your goals for each piece of work. If you don’t know what you’re doing, or you’re hoping to achieve, you’ll likely go in circles, and simply waste your time.

4. Break large areas of study down into smaller sections, and then plan how you’re going to work through each of these.

5. Set reasonable time limits for each portion of the task – and also for completing the final project. That should help to stop you wasting time on needless details, from wandering down blind alleys, and from procrastinating.

6. Be clear about the requirements for each task. For example, what are the guidelines you have to follow? What standard or quality of work is expected? How detailed does your knowledge have to be? If you’re writing as assignment, how long should it be, and what style and format is required?

7. Isolate yourself. Often, it is best if we lock ourselves away, and avoid other people, when we really need to work. Find a place to hide away, or put a sign or your door – but refuse to talk to anyone until the work is done!

[lvliita]

8.take edibles

[studiouses]

The Curve of Forgetting (originally called The Ebbinghuas Curve after the German philosopher Hermann Ebbinghaus who developed it in 1885) demonstrates how quickly we forget new information we don’t work with repeatedly.  It shows just how important it is to revise everyday - even for a few minutes!

Sources: (x) (x)

[studyally]

A Masterpost on Masterposts

Studying

A Masterpost on Masterposts (what a way to start this masterpost lol)

The Ultimate Masterpost (SAT, AP and general subjects’ resources, websites, textbooks, stress relief, etc.)

A Complete Guide to Studying Well

A Study Plan + Time Management, Motivation, Study Methods, Note-taking, and Tips

Back-to-school

Everything You Need To Succeed In School

School Masterpost

Study Tips

College: A Survival Guide

College + Being an Adult

Succeed in College

Note-taking

Note-taking

Another huge note-taking masterpost

Annotations

Productivity/Motivation

Motivation

Productivity

Anti-procrastination

Guide to Time Management

Planning Apps

Productivity Resources

Resources

Educational YouTube Channels

Free SAT and AP Materials

Self-study Resources

Studying Online

Physics

Chemistry

Writing

And Some Side Dishes

Staying Healthy While Studying 

Study BG Music and Playlists

Stress Reduction

DIY School Supplies

How To Grow The F*ck Up (get to know the adult life up ahead)

Journal and Planner Masterpost

Studyblr Resources

Useful Printables for 2016

Feel free to add more stuff here!

[anonymousintp]

10 Things I’d Tell My Teenage INTP Self

1. You’ll be interested in many things, want to be many things, and that’s good!

Always go for what interests you. You will always be motivated and inspired that way. Learn many skills, read up on many things. All of them will become useful later, for sure. You will have the advantage of combining skills that people don’t usually learn together, and might be able to find your own niche that didn’t exist before. You like programming and making music? Maybe you can combine those things and create something new.

2. Everyone will be unsure in life. Expect to change your path in life and to be able to adapt.

You can’t choose your major or decide on your future career? Don’t worry. Everyone is on the same boat, even your xNTJ friends who seem ultra confident with their 10 year plans. I changed my major 4 times and worked in completely different fields each year for 5 years after I graduated (psych research, fundraiser/social media organizer, musical theatre performer, animator in a game studio, now freelancing many things and creating my own app). My INTJ best friend switched jobs 3 times in 4 years (on his own initiatives) after he’s finished his master’s. The ENTJ left his civil engineering job (he’s been recruited by this engineering firm since first year uni) to open his own fashion company.

3. You can totally make a comfortable living off being a freelancer in many areas.

Right now my main focus is working on my own app. I’m also freelancing in animation, illustration, graphic design, UI/UX, acting (mostly ads and musical theatre), singing gigs at various events, video editing and color grading, and occasionally translating books. All of these were skills I picked up as hobbies. I didn’t go to an art school. These were my passion, and I decided to make them all my jobs. This path is possible, despite being unconventional. A bonus point is that I can get clients online, which means I can work from anywhere in the world. You do have to be good at what you do, however.

4. Go out to meet people and find opportunities.

Surprisingly, in the working world, everyone wants to help one another. I haven’t really experienced jealousy or petty competition. People are more than willing to help with your career or connect you with someone else that could help. They will also tell you about opportunities that you wouldn’t be able to find on your own. Go out and find these people and do the same for them. (Read: How to meet new people, How to make any conversation interesting).

5. Find friends you actually like and can connect with as soon as possible.

They exist, and they will totally understand your mind. You just have to be proactive in finding them. It makes a world of difference to be surrounded by people who bring value to your life, to help your grow (as a person and in your career), to encourage creativity and critical thinking, to always stimulate your brain.

6. Be your true, quirky, controversial self when you’re making friends.

You might be slow to warm up and really be who you are around other people. This is a mistake. You’d want to know as quickly as possible if these people can connect with who you truly are. You might scare off some people, and that’s good. They will be scared eventually anyway, and you don’t want to waste time with them. The people who stay are the ones who appreciate you for being you, and those are the ones you want to keep. (Read: How happy can an INTP really get?)

7. Learn to be confident, assertive, and a little selfish with your own needs.

No one has time to play passive-aggressive, or to repress negative feelings only to explode later. If something annoys you, voice it as soon as possible. If you want to do something that’s different from the group, tell them. If you need some alone time, decline your friend’s invitation tactfully. (Read: Developing inferior Fe, What is “Victim Mode” & how to get out of it?, How to say no with no strings attached)

8. Time is your only limit (not society or money or your own mentality).

If you truly want to do what you love and be who you want to be, there’s always a way. People who failed or give up before they started are the ones who placed limits on themselves. Don’t believe people who tell you certain things are not possible because it didn’t work for them. Be smart about it.

9. Get life experiences. Travel. Join clubs and activities.

There’s so much more to see and learn than you could imagined. The more you experience things that are very different from your comfort zone, the more you grow as a well-rounded person. It’s easy to take cheap backpacking trips or staying at cheap dorms these days (or even couch surfing). There are also many clubs that you could gain very important skills from. I recommend Toastmasters and Model UN.

10. Read eilamona’s blog and her glorious INDEX.

-eilamona

Note: Again, this post was inspired by the intriguing conversations with awesome people on my live chat widget (right on my blog). It’s become so much more than I expected. Thanks for the brain food!

[eintsein]

Staying Focused: Tips for Maintaining Focus while Studying

You’ve sat down at your desk. You have everything you need on your table or somewhere around you. You start to work. You think, “this is going well,” until a notification pops up on your laptop screen. And then another notification pops up on your phone. And during that period when your eyes were off of your study material, you also noticed a bag of chips, a magazine, your unfinished journal spread, your roommate bobbing their leg up and down and up and down, the pattern of the wood on your bookshelf, a text message, your bed … suddenly you can’t remember what you were supposed to be doing but instead think about how much you want to sleep. Or how hungry you are. Or how much you want to go hang out with your friends. Or your entire life choices.

I’m sure we’ve all been there. Sometimes it’s really difficult to stay focused while studying, and with all the distractions that surround us, it really isn’t surprising. However, there are ways that you can minimize the chances that you’ll give in to those distractions and focus on your work instead. Here are some that have worked for me:

Prepare for the session

The first thing you should do is clear your space. Don’t have things lying around that could make you distracted - put all your food where you can’t see them, your phone inside your bag, etc. However, there also comes a time when you have a thought that’s super important, but you can’t extend that thought or you’ll get sucked into a chain of other distracting thoughts. I like to have a notebook or piece of paper nearby where I can jot down these compulsive thoughts that I’ll get back to later - this is usually my bullet journal.

You could also find a study space where you’re the least prone to distraction. For me it’d be a cafe, since I would only have the things I brought with me. My dorm is where a lot of the distractions are: my books, all my journals and stationery, and my bed. Some people like studying in the library, but personally I find it distracting when other people around me are studying as well (especially when it’s super quiet and you can hear every pen click and page turn).

In addition, you might also want to do things like have a snack, go to the bathroom, and check your phone before you start your study session, so you won’t have the urge to do those things during your study session.

Block out your time and assign specific tasks

I’ve found that whenever I have a very vague schedule - like “I’ll study [ subject ] from 3 to 5 or something” or “I’ll complete these 5 tasks in 4 hours” or even worse “I’ll learn the whole syllabus in the next 2 months” - I don’t get as much done as I could. It’s hard to focus when you don’t really have a specific thing to focus on. You know how on the weekends especially, you have a whole list of things to do but every time you do one thing you get distracted by the thought of another? That can be solved by time blocking. Set aside a specific period of time to do a specific task, and eventually, those will accumulate into more productive hours.

It’s even more efficient to block smaller periods of time - 5 or 10 minutes or so. For example, even though I use the pomodoro technique of doing a task for 25 minutes then taking a 5-minute break, I break up those 25 minutes. If I were studying my flashcards, I might set a goal of finishing one stack - usually one topic - in 10 minutes (depending on the thickness of the stack). If I simply assigned 4 pomodoro sessions to review all my cards, this would make me prone to stretching out the amount of time I spend on a single stack, and in that stretching of time comes a loss of focus. It is a lot easier to focus for 10 minutes on one thing than 25 minutes on 3 things.

Note: What has helped me study for exams is scheduling out my time in months, and then weeks, then days, then hours, then minutes, so I’ll know the direction I’m going in, but I also won’t be overwhelmed by the amount of tasks I have to complete since I can do one small task at a time.

Practice, practice, practice

Like everything else in life, in order to be good at something, you have to practice. Learning to maintain focus is the same. At first, focusing for 25 minutes might feel hard and maybe even painful, but as you complete more pomodoro sessions, you’ll find that focusing for 25 minutes is effortless (or whatever period of time you usually work/study for).

Another way to practice focusing is by meditating. Meditating is part of my morning routine, and it’s definitely helped me stay focused in other activities, so you might wanna give that a try. 

Work alone

I can tell you that of all the group study sessions I’ve had with my friends, most of them are much less efficient than if I had chosen to work alone. (The exception was when I was stuck with a bug in my code and my friend helped me figure it out.) Friends are very distracting, and even when you promise yourselves you’ll work on assignment or that you’ll only discuss the topic you’re studying, your conversation will inevitably stray from that.

Take breaks

When you’re tired, you’re sure to be distracted, so one way of combating that is to take breaks. It refreshes you so that you have more energy to focus during your next study session.

Aside from that, you should schedule your distractions during your breaks - go to the bathroom, grab a snack, go on your phone, or during longer breaks you can talk to your friends, take a nap, etc - so that you won’t give into those compulsions during your study sessions. Because you’ve already done those distracting things, when you’re studying, you’ll end up thinking something along the lines of, “Oh, I’ve already checked Instagram five minutes ago; my phone can wait,” or “I just had a snack, I can go get another one once I’m finished.”

That’s all the tips I have for you right now about how to maintain focus while studying. I hope this has been helpful, but as usual, if you have any questions, or some of your problems aren’t covered in this post, feel free to reach out to me by dropping an ask or sending me a message. Also, linked below are several of my posts that you mind find helpful. Have an awesome day!

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