Evaluation of my studying habits during the first semester of 2015
My classes end next week and, before setting goals and planning for the next semester, I thought evaluating my current studying habits would be a great way to avoid making old mistakes over and over.
If anyone actually ends up reading this, I strongly encourage them to evaluate their current habits and look for little things that could be improved. Also, this post can be used as reference for things students should not do.
Staying up late. Things were super productive at first, but eventually I started having trouble paying attention to classes, felt sleepy all day and developed an addiction to coffee. Studying until midnight not only was harmful to my health, it was counterproductive – apparently, sleep facilitates memory retention (more info: x & x).
Overlooking health issues. If I had taken care of my health when my body started doing weird things, I would probably not have lost a lot of money and several hours with doctor appointments. Studying is never productive if I am not feeling well and I can guarantee that going to a doctor a couple times is less time-consuming than going to several doctors and doing hundreds of blood tests.
Overlooking mental health. Let’s just say that crying at the thought of leaving your house is problematic. It is impossible to be productive without being on a serene mental state. Not even happy, just stable and calm. There are hundreds of posts explaining why you shouldn’t overlook your mental health, so I am not going into detail here.
Having no goals/not planning how to actually accomplish them. At the beggining of the semester I had no idea about what to do with my life. Studying served no purpuse, but I still had to do it. Not having goals destroyed my motivation to do anything. Also, when I actually got a grasp of what I wanted, I didn’t plan how to get there.
Drinking too much coffee. Not sleeping made me start drinking coffee, which has lead me to an addiction. Having a cup once in a while should be OK, but having headaches when you miss your morning coffee is a red flag. Coffee is kind of romanticized in this website, but shaking, fainting or having palpitations is not cute.
Not exercising and eating poorly. I am not going to explain why this is bad because it’s quite obvious, but here are some interesting links: x & x.
Not socializing. Humans are social beings and some interaction from time to time is fundamental. I am an introvert (which means I can’t stand being around others for a long time) and I am also shy, which made me think that cutting almost all my friends from my life would be a good idea, because I would have more time to study (why???). Getting back to socializing will be quite a challenge, but hopefully I’ll learn to be around others and not be anxious.
Spending too much time on tumblr. This site took procrastination to a whole new level. Five minutes taking photos of what I am going to study, ten choosing the best photo and three editing it. Five more to write a caption. Also, the amount of stuff to be seen on the dashboard is overwhelming. I don’t need motivation (basic excuse for using tumblr), I need discipline.
Making studying your life. Studying should not be a burden, but it often becomes one when all you do is drawing flashcards and mindmaps. Balance is very important to lead a healthy life and a healthy life leads to good grades and happiness. To be honest, all of the problems I’ve had this semester wouldn’t exist if I learned how to live a balanced life.
Setting unrealistic deadlines. Demotivating, nerve-wraking and overall not a good idea. Quality beats quantity and doing two things everyday is better than wanting to do nine, getting anxious and doing none at the end.
This sums up all of my failures. I am still thinking about ways to solve most of them, but it is very difficult because those are problems I have carried for years. Hopefully I will be able to figure it out, but if anyone actually reads this and has good advice about one of the topics, I’d be glad if you sent me a message.
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