During exam periods studying can become very overwhelming. This means it is important to look after yourself and get your mindset in a good space. A great way to do this is to create a set of evening study habits that you adhere to! The evening is your spare time where you can decide what you do with this, using your time productively to make sure you have time to study as well as time to take a break from all the studying in the day can be a challenge.
Why creating evening study habits is good
Creating and maintaining habits is the first step towards success in any walk of life. Many people consider that sticking to good habits when it comes to studying or work will double your chances of success. But still people need convincing to create and maintain a habit. The unfortunate thing is habits take a lot longer to develop than they do to stop. Nevertheless, habits will encourage an increased productivity which ultimately allows for you to wider understand different topics and gain deeper meaning into your studying.
Set aside time each day and stick to it
The first habit to have a go at following is allocating time each day to studying. Even if this is only a short amount of time to begin with. Each day it will mount up to be a considerable amount of time towards the end of the week. When you start university, you might find that you don’t need to do as much studying. It won’t be until you have learned a proportion of the content that you will need to add this step into your schedule. However, if you like to get ahead then try this out. If you have time each day to study and recap the topics, you have been taught that day or previous day then go ahead! It will mean that you won’t need to allocate as much time to that topic when it comes to your revision (hopefully!).
It may take you a few weeks to figure when is the best time of the day to allocate some time to studying. Fortunately though this time at the start isn’t as critical as the time at the end because a lot of it may be induction work. So, you have plenty of time to figure out where and when you can do your studying each day. I can honestly say even doing as little as 30 minutes a day will massively help when it comes to your exams. Try using something like a diary or a study plan to schedule this time into your day.
Have a set location you will study in each day
Once you have found when the best time is in the evening to do a little bit of studying, you should create a habit for where you will be each day to action that studying. Create a bit of a routine for yourself. The chances are if you study in your student accommodation you might get distracted. So why not try and pop to the library after class and do a little half an hour? Being in a work environment with other students working will be the best place to work for most. Once you have installed this into your daily habits it will really enable you to have a focused study session. If you prefer to study in your room then that’s great! The main thing is that having this habit will ensure that the first habit of having time each day to study is done effectively.
Writing notes after your lectures
I must admit this was something I didn’t do all the time but looking back on it I should have done more of it. My friend did this after every lecture, and it wasn’t a big task at all. Once you have completed a day of lectures and made your lecture notes it can be very helpful if you take a notes summary. What’s great about all these habits is that they all contribute to one another. This habit can be used to fill the time to allow each day to study. It just consolidates everything you have learned. It also shows you when you might struggle in revision. Find your focus areas!
There is never nothing to do which will only help engrain these habits into your daily ritual. Don’t let this habit overwhelm you, your notes after each lecture don’t need to be a big, long essay. It can just be bullet points simply summarising what was said in the lecture. It can also be an effective activity to read through all your summary notes at the end of each week just to further install the information in your brain. Alternatively, if you use Jamworks then you can rewatch snippets that you saved during your lectures and have a read over the transcript. Instead of having to write it all out!
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Have evenings off
What is just as important as creating habits to study is having habits to not study. It can be a worthwhile task of deciding which day of the week you take a break. For example, on Monday Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday you may do 1 hour of studying. However on Friday you only do 30 minutes. It is very important to take a break from regular habits, scientists suggest not to take longer than 48 hours from a regular habit as this can lead to breaking the habit. Nevertheless, if you allow a break from habits, it can encourage you to press on each day with your usual habit. With not break it can lead to feeling overwhelmed and ultimately being ineffective when it comes to your studying time. A small tip would be to have your break on the day after you go out.
Remove the phone
Removing your phone when studying can be a very effective habit to get into when studying. Trust me it will remove all the distractions and allow you to solely focus on your studying. Let’s face it we all fall into the trap of scrolling for hours on end on our phones, so it is probably a good thing to take a break from it. There are a few apps that can help you with this including Forest. This is an app you can use on your phone which helps you stay focused. Great for those of you who pick up your phone every time there’s a notification!
Final thoughts
Lots of people will have their own evening study habits that help them when studying and not every recommendation for a habit will suit you. However, one thing is for sure, repetition of one activity will lead to success. Therefore, it is widely recommended that you try to install these habits early at university. It will definitely make life easier when it comes to the backend of you course and you have exams fast approaching.
Start studying more productively with your friends with Jamworks today – Click here to get started.
