How to study and still have a life
- Brandon Tong
- Aug 22, 2024
- 5 min read
Updated: Mar 11
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The methods and techniques mentioned are advanced, if you have not read the basics of self help, I suggest reading that first.
Studying was one of those things I had to figure out for myself because I was always told to work harder and do more practice problems, and for me, that did not work. I worked hours after school hours only to get very minimal change and results, whereas my colleagues would spend significantly less time, would understand the material so much better than me, get better grades, and actually have a life that they were happy with. I really wanted that for myself. Take it from me; you're going to fall behind, things are going to get stressful really fast, especially in post-secondary, and you just simply do not have time to prepare. Learn this now in high school because that is the time to fail and to experiment and to master the skills
What was I doing wrong?
Instead of actually being productive and learning the answer, all I did was do the practice question. This not only gave me, the illusion of understanding the material; but I mentally fatigued myself to the point I did not learn much in each session. As a result, I spent lots of hours doing low-quality learning.
This was taken from Thomas Frank's 10 Steps to Earning Awesome Grades (while studying less)
Improving the quality of learning is really important; we may have less time than others to study or, like me, just spend way too much time on meaningless tasks. Here are some things that have helped me to improve my study time.
Fail to plan or plan to fail.
The first two weeks of the year or semester may be the most important to stay on top of things. Sure, maybe your teacher or prof is really chill at the beginning, but it only gets harder from there.
In this time, identify all the topics, projects and tasks you will need to do on your classes syllabus. Knowing ahead of time will allow for seeing potential challenges and reduce surprises (I would say prevent but I have had crazy teachers before). Let's look at one example:
Hmm, okay, it looks like class-related, and assignments only contribute to 20% of your grade. This probably means I should focus more time on preparing for tests, good to know. If I spent days on an assignment that only contributes to 5% of my grade that could be considered be a waste of time especially when a single Midterm is 20%. I am not saying you should not bomb the 5%, but you need to remember to prioritize your time where it will be most effective. You will need to use nuance and adapt this idea to your situation.
Let's look at another part of a syllabus:
So here we have all the topics covered in a course. Some questions you should think about are:
How do these topics relate to each other?
Why are these important to what I am learning?
Are there formulas or equations that I should learn?
What is the big picture?
The simple way to figure these things out is to ask your prof or collaborate with other students to determine what is important. The more you can group topics that are relevant to each other the easier it can be to think and understand the concepts.
Remove Distractions
Something always talked about is the fact that your space needs to remove as many distractions as possible. I personally think you simply need to find an environment that works for you; the hustle and bustle of a cafe can be disruptive for one person but can be a productive place for another. If it's your room, remove toys and other gadgets that are not necessary to work or study.
Regardless of where you choose, some key things to remember are:
Find a spot where you won't be interrupted by people
Not too noisy
Good temperature, you don't want to fall asleep if its too warm
Keep the spot sacred; don't text friends or play games while you're there. The more you do, erodes that sacredness, causing you to slip into hours on Instagram.
the biggest distractions? our devices
What I use to eliminate them are app blockers. I personally have used app block and stay free on the phone, on the computer, I use cold turkey; they are robust app-blocking systems that help me to dramatically reduce the temptations because I use less willpower.
Clear the mind
But even when we remove things we can still have urges to go on the phone, we can fidget or have inner chatter that disrupts us from our task at hand. This is where meditation is super useful, it helps to calm the mind, improves clarity and cognition and also just to reduce stress in general. (include a link here for meditation)
I have used Headspace, their guided meditation is super useful. You can begin a simple session by:
Sit there and close your eyes for 5 min
Pay attention to your breath
Do a body scan, imagine scanning from your feet up to your head.
Don't worry if you get distracted. It happens, but once you do, just go back where you left off.
Preread as much as possible beforehand
When you have established a plan how you will prioritize the material you want to preread before the lectures and take light notes about the subject:
What does this mean?
Why is x being repeated so much, is it important?
How does this idea relate to the topic?
When you start prereading it becomes your studying and your lectures become review. This method also helps to prune the notes and focus on the important parts what the professor lectures about.
Rethink note-taking
Writing notes is such an overtalked about but underutilized skill because all you ever do is just copy what the teacher is telling you, and then you never read them again. So you wasted time writing them. People sometimes make flashcards to apply their knowledge, which definitely works. But that's also very time-consuming, and when you get to college, that might not be realistic to do. The strategy that works is to write notes with more intention one method that can help is to do mind mapping, it takes some time to learn. I urge you to experiment in summer school or at tutoring with mind mapping to try. It will sort of look something like this:
The sort of ideas to have the concepts:
Grouped so that they are relevant
Reflective to reflect your own thoughts and learning
Interconnected
Nonverbal
Directional to show flow of topics
Practice with intention
Okay, so at some point, you do need to apply the knowledge you have been learning. But mindlessly doing the questions will only take you so far. Here are some tips to improve your practice:
Do the hardest question you are capable of doing; this generally encompasses all the previous topics into one. When you make mistakes, you can go back to the easy questions to practice. You cut out lots of time doing the "easy" questions.
Write down why you made the mistake, then on a new piece of paper do the question again. Add this mistake and correction into your notes.
Take proper breaks
Seriously, working uses up lots of energy. It's important to recharge and unwind. Remember to enjoy life, after all, this is what you have been working so hard for. You earned it.
References
Justin Sung's Coaching may be something worthwhile to look at. He coaches students on how to study less with his cutting-edge method of learning
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