Productive - Yielding results, benefits or profits
When studying, there’s often a feeling of anxiety from not doing enough. Whether that’s enough studying, exam prep, sleep or cups of water drunk, thinking about how best we can complete the tasks ahead of us isn’t always as simple as just doing it. Some of the things I state may seem fairly obvious, but it’s important to stay rounded; even the minutest changes can help lift someone out of a slump.
Whatever tasks you have ahead of you for the next week or fortnight, it’s important to prioritise tasks so that the most burdensome can be dealt with strategically, and in a manageable way. A great way of improving time management is through using a planner. Personally, I use a Kikki.K planner and a Filofax though there’s plenty of great ways to get started, and get organised. Some popular ones include:
Kikki.K - Slightly more pricey but if you look around you can get them quite cheap. Really durable and high quality, though the A5 planner can be quite cumbersome.
Filofax - A classic planner, great if you wan’t something that is low-effort to maintain and has lots of super helpful sheets inside.
Bullet Journal - Bullet journals are more customisable and personal to you. However, they are more work to maintain than pre-made planners, so this may not be for you if you just want somewhere to keep track of assignments.
Academic Year Diary - These can be super useful as they have school holidays and term dates written inside in most cases, and are tailored to suit the school year as opposed to a regular journal/diary.
One way of sorting priorities, especially in a busy time of year is with the Eisenhower matrix. Though this may not work for everyone, it’s a useful template to decide which tasks should be completed first:
The basis of the Eisenhower matrix, is to prioritise based on urgency, and importance. For example, if your tasks for the week include studying for a test, walking the dog, meeting up with your friends, and visiting your grandma, you can use the Eisenhower matrix to assess what order you should do them in. Perhaps the most urgent and important would be the test, so dedicate the most time to that. However, visiting your grandma and seeing your friends is also important to you.
You can plan a time to do this in, so you can still get your studying done. Walking the dog is non-urgent and (personally) unimportant (making sure pets get exercise is important for their health), you could delegate this task to someone else i.e ask a sibling/parent to do it for you. Additionally, if the task at hand is important but not urgent, you could delegate it to another week for you to work on to help manage the workload. Last but not least, tasks that are neither important nor urgent should be eliminated from your top priorities, and engaged in when the work of the week is completed. This means you spend less time on trivial things, and can reward yourself for the hard work already done.
How you use the Eisenhower matrix (if at all), is entirely up to you, as what’s important and urgent is different for everyone.
Productivity can help us achieve both short-term and long-term goals. It’s not uncommon, however, to aim to achieve long-term goals in a short amount of time. There’s a saying in the UK ‘take care of the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves’. If you take care of the smaller tasks, personal and academic, then the less work there is to do in the big picture. Remember, no matter how little or how much work gets done, it is still that much less work you have to do compared to when you started. By studying every week and making notes throughout the year, the resources that suit your best way of learning are already there to help you with end of year exams and assignments. Here’s some productive things you can do to help contribute towards your personal and academic long-term goals:
Email your teachers/tutors questions about things you don’t understand when they come up, it’s better to address an issue as it comes up as opposed to when you’re in your last week of exams.
Make notes as you go along - maybe I’m preaching to the choir here, but if you make your notes as you go along, such as mind-maps or flashcards for end of modules/topics, then when it comes to sitting an exam you’ll have all the relevant information already summarised for you, from when it was still fresh in your mind. End of module tests are also great to hang onto so that you can spot weaknesses in your knowledge.
Take the time to do something nice for yourself and for others. It’s easy to get swamped in the workload of life, but it’s important to take a break and look back at what you’ve accomplished. Take regular breaks when you’re studying, and hydrate yourself. Have a Kitkat, or a cup of tea and remind yourself you’ve done a good job. If you see a friend on the grind, make sure they take a break so they don’t burn themselves out. Studying can be a lot to manage alone.
Take care of your hygiene! This may seem obvious, but having clean sheets and fresh hair can turn a day around. Getting up at a reasonable time, getting into the shower, putting on makeup (if that’s what you like to do) and getting fully dressed can help energise you and make you feel good about the day. These things can be a struggle when you’re feeling depressive, stressed or anxious, but it’s key to maintaining a good base level of productivity.
Cook a meal for yourself/friends & family. This isn’t viable for everyone I am entirely aware, but making your own food can often be cheaper, and learning to cook is a rewarding skill. There’s nothing quite like sitting down and enjoying food you made yourself with good people around you. Eating breakfast with someone can help uplift your mood.
That’s just about all that I can think of today in regards to productivity! If you have any more suggestions, feel free to add them to this list, send them as an ask or even make a post of your own! There’s lots to gain and nothing to lose from sharing advice and help. Special thanks to @juliebunny-study
