These few best practices will help you to study more effectively, faster, and, most importantly, with pleasure and benefit to yourself.
1. Look for effective ways to remember new information.
Our brains remember visual information very strongly and for a long time. Try to diversify your notes instead of the usual linear note-taking. Use diagrams, drawings, mind mapping, – anything that comes to mind. Use different markers to highlight different categories in your notes: important dates, names, key concepts, definitions, and any additional information.
Use the Internet to find infographics on different topics, such as English grammar, mathematical formulas, or historical dates. Don’t stop there and use flashcards, colored stickers, colored notepaper, and anything else that will help you make learning more fun and remember new information.
Another trick is to start each new topic with a new worksheet. This will put your outline in order and help your brain switch better and faster.
2. Be realistic
As the school year begins, most of your time will be taken up by school or university. To be equally effective at school and have time to devote to extracurricular activities, yourself, your interests, friends, and family, you will have to plan your time. If you’re not a fan of paper planners, use any handy app on your phone or the built-in calendar and mark events, appointments, or times for extracurriculars.
When you get home, plan out your homework milestones and, as you gradually cross the completed tasks off your list, enjoy the progress you’ve made.
Don’t forget to make time for your hobbies to relax and unwind.
Most importantly, don’t worry about having to devote most of your time to studying, set yourself up, and work quietly on learning new skills and learning how to solve new problems.
3. Don’t get distracted
Another truth of effective study is that our minds need total concentration during a task. And constant calls, messages, extraneous noise, and any other irritants significantly slow this process down. To get through a pile of paperwork faster, create an appropriate work environment. Put all gadgets to sleep, put them aside, and focus.
4. Teach others
The learning process does take a lot of time, but that doesn’t mean you need to give up a cup of coffee with your girlfriends. All the more reason to get together now will be very useful because it’s much more fun to study together.
Retell to each other the material you’ve learned, discuss the latest book you’ve read, and ask and write down questions that arise as you discuss. This approach to learning has two significant advantages.
First, you’re not just repeating what you’ve learned, but explaining it, making sure that you have securely consolidated what you’ve learned, filled in the gaps, and can now freely retell everything in your own words. Secondly, the look of a friend will help you look at the topic from a slightly different angle and pay attention to what you may have missed.
5. Get enough sleep
This is perhaps the most important, but the most difficult to follow advice for the learning process. Nevertheless, the truth remains the same. Sleep is directly related to our ability to remember and analyze information, as well as our decision-making.
Your brain needs proper rest because the process of remembering and transforming what you learn happens during a sound, healthy sleep. So lack of sleep is leading to stress. You can think: ‘I need someone to do my homework cheap’. Well, there are a lot of services to help you with that.
By the way, you can repeat new material in the evening and adjust your sleep time according to when you have to wake up in the morning.
6. Exercise
At first glance, it may seem like this point only applies to people with an athletic build, or at least those who like to exercise in the morning. But that’s not the case. Allocate 20-30 minutes a day for physical exercise to increase the efficiency of doing homework and memorizing new material.
It is not for nothing that the connection between exercise and our ability to learn is now very actively researched by psychologists and neuroscientists. The conclusions are that different kinds of physical activity prepare your brain to perceive new information, tune your body to a favorable condition, and charge the necessary amount of energy and motivation.
And there is nothing to talk about the bonus of a sporty figure!
7. Leave room for ideas
During the day, we have a limited resource of energy that we spend to make decisions. Very often we begin to squander our precious reserve of creativity on mundane decisions: what to wear, what to make for breakfast, what hairstyle to do, and what to take to lunch. As a result, by the middle of the school day, our ability to think broadly and pay attention to detail is drastically reduced.
To avoid this, try to think through from the evening what you will wear in the morning, for example. The most successful images that you have created can be photographed on your phone, and if you will be late, you can choose from the already prepared options. And then the question “what should I wear?” will no longer disturb your perfect morning.
The same approach can be applied to your lunch. Write down simple recipes and you’ll always know what you can quickly and easily make for an energizing snack between classes.
And when your bag is packed from the evening, all you have to do in the morning is pick it up without distraction or hovering in a world of high ideas.
8. Stay motivated!
Right now your enthusiasm is probably at its peak of your desire to learn have you counting down the hours until the next school day begins. But to keep your body and your spirits on the same alert, you’ll have to keep looking for sources of motivation throughout the school year.
The spark of your enthusiasm will not go out if you look at blogs devoted to self-development, read books with new techniques for memorizing information, watch movies or TV series on school subjects. In general, use all available resources that will help you to maintain your interest in studies and not let the fire of energy that you had at the end of August go out.