First and foremost we need to practice self-control. From my personal observations, self-control or self-discipline is a better way to get things done rather than relying on motivation. The time you spend looking for motivation to study you could have been studying already. Also, motivation wears off because we are humans and we experience different emotions at various point in time. What do we do then? Do we wait to feel motivated again? Self-discipline says I am going to study no matter my mood, it does not matter whether or not I feel motivated I am going to learn these number of topics today. Pick up the book and begin preparing for exams.
Now you have the determination to study and you have begun. The second step is to remove distractions. Simply avoiding distractions is not enough, you will be tempted to succumb because it is easily accessible. I find my phone to be a major distraction, I'm always tempted to reply to a message or open an application that will have me scrolling for hours. I will not go to the extreme and lock my phone away in a safe until I do some studying. I have found a way to remove the distractions of my phone while having it right next to me. This is as a result of a productivity application I installed on my phone called the Forrest app. It uses the Pomodoro technique; I set the amount of time that I wish to study for and during that time a tree is growing in the app, if I leave the Forest app and go on a social app it will warn you that you should return to the Forest or my tree will die. That warning reminds me that I should remain focused, so I go back to studying and save my tree, it's a win-win. When the time for studying has ended I am notified and rewarded. I can now set a timer in the app to take a short break. To find out about the other features of the Forrest app that will keep you focused, download it to your phone and try it out; you won't be disappointed.
This one is optional but you can try and listen to calming music while you study. A lot of us would rather listen to our favourite songs but it is best to listen to music with little to no words. It is like having company without the disadvantages and I also find that it gets me in the groove, making studying feel like less of an obligation but something I actually enjoy doing. This also makes studying easier for me and I am able to keep focused for longer.
Reward yourself for staying focused. During the time allotted for a break, take a nap or watch a short video. Something I like doing is watching The Office in halves since each episode is 20 minutes, I watch 10 minutes of the Office after studying for 50 minutes. I really enjoy watching The Office, so because I want to see how it ends I do another 50 minutes of studying. Rewarding myself allows me not to be stressed and bored during studying as there is something to look forward.
The last thing is to keep it up. Be consistent, don't give up. It's never too late to begin and the more you practice or study the better you will be.
"All these methods have been tried and tested"
Sincerely,
Queen of Procrastination.
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