How To Form Habits That Last

How to form habits that last

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Greetings! 💚 Here’s a little something I’ve been working on, which I hope you’ll find useful. :)

All text and graphics are created by me, Sal @blueplaidstudies.

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I decided to share my notes taken from this amazing 1 hour Youtube lecture by Marty Lobdell. i really liked him and his tips, i think they are super effective and cover a lot of situations! i highly recommend it!!!!! wow

but here are the tips and examples Marty mentions, so if you don’t have the time to go through the full hour, you can just scroll down. hope this helps somebody!

Break your study time in chunks with breaks

most students lose focus at 25 minutes

it’s a mistake to keep going once you do, since you won’t actually learn anything and you’ll hate every minute of it

so when you start losing focus take a 5 minute break

do something nice like talking to someone or listening to music

it’s something you practice so with time you’ll be able to work for more time without losing focus

in the end of the study session have a big reward you look forward to

Create a study area

environment highly affects the way you act. Bedrooms are for sleeping, kitchens for eating: you’ll feel sleepy in your bedroom and hungry in the kitchen. So if you have a study area, it’ll be easier to start studying and staying focused.

study in a specific room like an office or school library if you can

if you have to study in your bedroom use a specific object you only use for studying: a lamp/desk. Make it a no-distraction, away from your bed, blank walls area.

 The more active the learning, the better

80% active learning 20% passive

ask yourself: is it a concept or a fact?

learning a concept: understand/grasp/know it

put it into your own words

really think about the meaning of it

relate it with something you already know

teach somebody else. Recapitulate what you’ve learned. Talk out loud even if you don’t have anyone to teach - talk alone. Or at anyone that listens.

learning a fact: memorize it

use mnemonics

Acronyms (e.g. colours of the rainbow RoyGBiv – red orange yellow green blue indigo violet)

 Coined sayings - anything popular or sayings you’ve heard since you were a child.

Interacting images – work even better if they’re weird. Creative associations make you never forget specific details. (e.g. 1 gram of fat has 9 calories: picture a fat cat – each cat has 9 lives)

any time 2 things are highly similar but not the same you will get maximal interference!! USE mnemonics!! (e.g. afferent vs efferent neurons: SAME - Sensory Afferent Motor Efferent)

Be a part of  study groups

others can help you in ways you never thought before

Recognizing VS remembering

never confuse the two

while reviewing a chapter you may recognize concepts but not actually know them

and when you get to the test you won’t be able to remember any of it

so quiz yourself without looking at it

or stop in a page of your notes/textbook and ask yourself what is the concept immediately after and before it

Get your REM Sleep 

get ~8 hours so you don’t undo your studying

this is how your brain stores permanent memories

without it you’re ability to remember seriously decreases

most people don’t even begin to take the advice but it’s simple: sleep better. Do better.

There’s 162 hours in a week. There is time.

reflect on what you are doing with your time and what activities you have to prioritize to succed as a student

Taking notes is vital.

right after the class take 5 minutes to expand everything you’ve jotted down, give it depth.

NOT hours later. You won’t remember half the things you wrote down.

Ask your questions to class mates and teachers.

teachers want you to succeed and it’s more than ok to ask your question in the teacher’s office or in the next class

How to use a textbook: SQ3R technique

Survey Question Read Recite Review

Survey: skim through the entire chapter in a couple of minutes.

Raise questions: e.g. what is osmosis? What is this graphic about? What is a prototype?

it causes you to look for answers and you’ll find the information better once you actually study it after. If you intend to find something you learn it better.

Start studying for tests early.

don’t undo yourself. You should only be reviewing the days before the test. don’t leave it till the last minute!

(don’t just scroll through this!!!! really think about these methods and how you can actually implement them so you can benefit from them!!! these actually work but only if you put them into practice boo good luck!)

University Tips:

Keep a calendar and stay on top of your schedule!

Make a timetable of your classes/seminars

Check emails often

Don’t skip lectures!

Sit in the front row. This will make you focus and help your lecturers remember you - which is actually more important than people think

Build a good relationship with your lecturers AND peers

Visit your professors’ office hours regularly and have catch ups

Go to the library to study! You’ll be more distracted trying to study at home/in your room. If you have to study in your room- turn your phone off

It’s okay to not want to party like everyone else :)

Write down your notes in lectures and type them up after

Join a society/club! This will make sure you have a great work-social life balance, and give you the opportunity to learn something new at least once a week

Colour code notes

It’s just as important not to overwork yourself as it is not to procrastinate (too much)

Keep your desk clean and organised! 

Try to get a good night’s sleep the night before lectures and have a good breakfast in the morning. You will be more focused for it

Keep a journal of your experiences and ambitions

Go to counseling services. UK Universities will have counselling services that can tackle anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem. Your well-being is as important as your grades

Your degree doesn’t define you. You still have time to explore your options. You don’t have to know what you want to be right now. University is about developing yourself as it is finding a career.

Don’t burn bridges with your friends/loved ones at home. They will be there for you should you need to go home

Live on or near campus. This will save money and give you a sense of belonging

Eat well!

How to Get Your (School) Life Back in Order

1. Assess. How far behind are you? Email, or even better, talk to all your professors about any missed assignments, tests, quizzes, etc. that you can make up. I’m not sure how it works on all college campuses but I believe you may be able to get extensions on missed stuff if you go through your disability resource/mental health center. Of course, they’ll have to let your professors know what’s been going on so I would take that into consideration.

2. Organize. Lay out your make-up work by class, with the things most overdue on at the back of the stack and the things newest/least overdue at the front.

3.. Prioritize. You can either choose to tackle the class that’s easiest/hardest for you first or the class that has the most/least for you to do or the class where your grade has been affected the most. It’s up to you.

4. List. For the next week or two, depending on how much make-up work you have, you may want to live on a strict day-to-day schedule. Waking up at a certain time, getting started on assignments at a certain time, finishing at a certain time, scheduling meals and breaks for a certain time. If you don’t think that’s something you want to deal with or maybe just aren’t ready for yet, maybe do it just by day. So if you’re going strict you would do something like “Wake up at 7, breakfast by 7:15, start math by 7:30, finish by 10 with breaks at 8:15 and 9:15″ or if you’re doing the day-to-day, “finish math and science by Tuesday, finish english and history by Thursday.” No matter how you choose to go about it, you need to be not like hard on yourself but motivated and get it done.

5. Reward. You totally need to reward yourself for all the hard-work and effort you’re putting into not only your schoolwork but your mental health. It can be rewards at the end of work session, each day, or each week, however often you need it.

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Other advice posts that may be of interest:

How To Stop Procrastinating

How To Study When You Really Don’t Want To

Active Revision Techniques

How to remain productive with online classes:

A few tips from a broke neuro-divergent academic

Try and wake up early, and go to bed early too. I’m not saying get up at 5 (unless that’s you’re thing) but sleeping into noon is a productivity blackhole. I go for 8 or 8:30, generally, but that’s just what works for me.

Get dressed for the day. I’m not talking like, jeans and a business casual outfit, but a clean pair of sweatpants, fresh underwear, and a new shirt can really put you in the mood for a new morning.

Have a workspace. Whether it be the kitchen table, a desk, a spot on the floor with a lap desk, have a place that’s dedicated to your work. Have items that signify that workspace too, like your book, planner, laptop, lamp, whatever. It can help you get into the zone, being in that space.

Have a morning drink. I choose earl grey tea with honey and cream, but black coffee, herbal tea, lemon water, whatever works for you is awesome, as long as itll wake you up and start your day.

To do lists. To do lists and to do lists and more to do lists. I have three. One is a post it weekly planner deal (3.99 at a local grocery store). it’s a weekly spread already set up, and if you’re anything like me, its really hard to set up a weekly spread. Then I have an app called Ike. I have a daily to do list I write on that app, and then I have four more to-do lists of what I have to for each specific class.

Spread out your assignments. Don’t overwhelm yourself. If you’re professors are like mine, and have the due date for each module as Sunday at midnight. What I do is spread out all my assignments from Monday to Saturday, and I leave Sunday blank, so anything I didn’t do that week, I finish on Sunday. It works for me, it might work for you.

Have a folder for each class, and a notebook for each class. I hate spending money, I’m broke as hell, sono al verde as the Italians say, but a 0.99 cent folder and a 0.25 cent notebook can do wonders for motivating one to fill them up.

Study with a drink. Tea, water, coffee, whatever, but my go to is generally a warm drink. I cannot study if I’m cold, I get tired and groggy, so warm socks, a robe, and a hot drink really keep me going.

Take breaks. Make time for your hobbies, for something fun. Working without stopping absolutely destroys my motivation, and let me tell you, when I feel like that, an episode of Avatar and a snack gets me right back on the wagon.

Do self check ins. Does your back hurt? Are you sad? Stressed? Do you have to pee? Are you hungry? Never put your homework over your health. You won’t be able to get anything done well anyway if you’ve got those blocks.

Most importantly, get enough sleep. I beg of you. Sleep is so important, and it’s the game changer, at least to me. We as students have such an amazing opportunity to get more sleep than we ever have before during the year. Take advantage of that.