Tips for Studying

Written by : Elleen Leblanc & Camilla Carboni At the beginning of the year it may be hard to keep on track and organize, which is why you may be thinking, “I have too much homework!”, or “How am I going to study for all of this?”. Well, this article is going to be full of tricks and tips for the upcoming year.

Find a Quiet Environment to Study

Having an environment without distractions allows you to be more concentrated (National Geographic). Once you have that environment, you will be able to focus on your homework. This technique gives you the opportunity to spend your time in a good manner and not get distracted by the objects and sounds around you. As National Geographic states, “Exposure to loud noise can also cause high blood pressure, heart disease, sleep disturbances, and stress. These health problems can affect all age groups, especially children”(Society). When proceeding with this tip, you may find that you can remember facts more easily and pay attention better. To create a quiet environment, a few tips from Zerocater.com is to have “carpets, rugs, tapestries, wall hangings or canvas art in your study room.” This allows sound to absorb noise and convert its energy to heat, allowing you to concentrate and finish your homework in time to enjoy sports, art, or social activities.

To-Do Lists “Having a to-do list makes it easier to organize everything that you want to accomplish in the day so that you can start fresh the next.” (Team). This also allows you to divide your time among different tasks. Having a to-do list divises your time into more attainable goals. This will affect the way you organize your homework and let you know when to study for one category before following it with the next. Having a feeling of accomplishment when finishing your goals also unconsciously makes you write more goals and be encouraged to finish them. “Physically crossing items off a list can also increase motivation.” (Team). If you don’t have a to-do list, you have a higher percentage to forget some tasks. When this occurs, you may have to rush to finish it when remembering it, or you don’t do it completely. With a to-do list, you can mark the deadline and the details to never have to be stressed if you forgot something.

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Take Pauses Every 20-30 Minutes productivity without breaks. To avoid this, one should take a break in between studying, allowing one to come back with a more ready brain than before. If you continue, it is most likely that you won’t memorize the work or understand it properly because of the lack of attentiveness.

Be Energized If you’re tired you most likely won’t want to do work which will affect how you study or do your homework. The more tired you are the more you will think about other things and want to relax. If you’re energetic you most likely will want to study and do your homework so you can do other things.

Avoid Having Distractions If you have your phone next you you’ll probably want to open it especially if it has ring tone on. Many people experience that it is especially hard when their 7

phone is next to them and then they get easily distracted by their friend’s message. This then leads to them being carried away being “mind controlled” by technology instead of focusing on school. Any other distractions such as people talking to you or eating also won’t help. All of these also will permit you to not be fully focused on doing your homework and will more than likely stop you from doing other things and get carried away. Multi tasking, for example, calling someone or activities also isn’t good since it may distract you, giving the possibility that you won’t study/do your homework well or it at all.

More Tricks and Tips To force yourself to achieve a task, you can message your family/friend and both tell each other what you would like to achieve by the end of the day. Every hour or so you can check on each other and push each other to reach your goals. For example, if your goal/homework is to read at least 20 pages a day, then you tell your family/friend your goal. In this technique, they will check on you every hour and if you haven’t read, then your friends will start pushing you to read. This solution helps to feel more obligated to do it. It also may give you the chance to make you feel better when finishing the goal.

Another way is to think about consequences. This pushes yourself to be “afraid” of what would happen if you didn’t study. For example if you don’t study then you won’t get a good grade. For homework, you could have a punishment or have a feeling of guilt without completing it, without exercise, you might not understand the next lessons, etc... • Organize Your Time • Make Sure You Take Notes In Class

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