Busy day to day, with countless commitments, who doesn’t go through this? Faced with so many daily tasks, establishing a study routine can be a problem. If this is your case, don’t despair! You can organize your activities, improve your performance and even find time to rest.
Want to know how? There is no magic formula. Time management, planning and discipline are the ingredients of this recipe. Keep following the post and see some essential practices that cannot be missed in the routine of a committed student. Come on?
What are the advantages of establishing a study routine?
If you have a busy daily life, with multiple tasks to handle, you know how difficult it is to balance work, studies and personal life. Either some appointments are in the background, or you manage to fulfill all activities without a minimum amount of time to relax.
The problem with living with a completely filled routine, running out of time, is that it causes intense physical and mental exhaustion. You may not even notice it right away, but gradually your body begins to emit signs of exhaustion. This is the gateway to stress and anxiety, among others.
But you can avoid much of that fatigue and balance your schedules and commitments, even if you have a double or triple shift. Positive results will be seen in all areas of your life. Not to mention that, when organizing your routine, you can spare a few minutes to do something pleasant, like take a longer shower, watch an episode of your favorite series or take a walk to unwind.
Regarding the study routine, carrying out an effective planning leads to several gains, such as: learning to manage time; prepare in advance and keep up with academic activities; assimilate the different contents more easily; reinforce autonomous learning , among other advantages.
How to organize yourself daily to study?
In theory everything seems easy, do you agree? But, in practice, is it possible to establish a study routine efficiently? Of course yes! This is not an impossible mission. It just takes a little management and discipline. For that, here are some points that cannot be ignored.
make a good plan
The central point of a productive study routine is planning. You need to assess priorities, organize your activities and set up a schedule. Without this prior management, you run the risk of dedicating yourself only to the subjects that most arouse your interest, to the detriment of others.
When planning your studies, it is also important to consider what is urgent and what can be postponed. A schedule with defined dates and cycles is essential to achieve good results. That way, you can cover all the content and prepare within the deadline for each activity — assessments, research projects, presentation of work, etc.
Delimit schedules
Separating an exclusive time to study is a dilemma for those who have a busy routine. Most university students already have jobs, family, homework and other commitments. Of course, lack of time is an obstacle in people’s daily lives, but this can be solved.
If you know how to manage your schedules well, it is possible to reconcile all activities – academic, professional and personal. In the same way as creating a specific schedule for studies, it is advisable that you make a plan for all other daily commitments.
Delimiting times to start and finish each task, especially the period reserved for studies, is a fundamental point of time management. Once this is done, it becomes much easier to program and evaluate how many hours you spend on each activity, as well as observe what can be adjusted in your routine.
Make the environment conducive
An indispensable factor to be efficient in your study routine is the place where you carry out your activities. The environment must be suitable and prepared to facilitate their concentration. You can choose any space in the house – bedroom, living room, office – as long as it is organized, with good lighting and without distracting stimuli.
But does the environment really interfere with the results? Yea! You may even be able to study in a crowded place, with the television on or people talking. But your attention will be easily diverted, hampering productivity and content memorization.
Avoid distractions
As you just read in the previous topic, it is important that the study place is quiet and without interference. It turns out that just running away from other people’s circulation might not be enough. Many of the sources of distraction are with us all the time, such as the cell phone or the computer you use to study.
So, during study time, put your smartphone on silent or airplane mode and don’t even think about logging into social networks on your computer. Keep the focus only on the subjects you need to assimilate. Also remember that any distraction causes procrastination, which is totally unproductive for your tasks.
Review the contents
Develop effective review strategies. It’s not enough to reread stories on autopilot without really absorbing the information. You can test different methods to pin the learned content. Questionnaires, keywords, summaries and annotations in your own words are some examples of practices that reinforce learning in a simple way.
Another option to gain understanding of the topics studied is to look for different sources. Don’t be limited to traditional books and handouts. Look for more dynamic options such as movies, YouTube channels, apps, documentaries, and more. This can make your study routine more interesting and fruitful.
Cherish the breaks
Remember that you are not a machine and you cannot program your brain to maintain uninterrupted concentration. The body needs a break, and so does the mind. Respect your limits and make periodic breaks during your studies.
Spending three hours studying without rest, for example, tends to reduce attention and memory capacity. The result of this? Mental fatigue, low productivity and wasted time. The best thing to do is to intersperse cycles of activity with brief periods of pause, to restore energy and regain focus.
