How To Encourage Good Study Habits And Overcome Procrastination

You know you need to start studying today since you have a test in a week. But despite your repeated promises to yourself to begin revising, you find it difficult to even open your textbook. Instead, you make excuses like “I’ll do it after one more TV episode” or, worse yet, “tomorrow.” You don’t even have time to start studying, so you find yourself having to stay up late for a cram session when before you know it, the exam is the following day.

Sounds recognisable? It’s not just you. More than 50% of students admit to procrastinating frequently and waiting until the last minute. It also happens to be one of the largest productivity killers and can cause a great deal of needless stress during exam times.

Fortunately, it is possible to break the habit of procrastinating. Continue reading to understand how to push yourself to study and our top 7 tips against procrastination.

1. Set rewards and prizes

Setting small prizes for yourself if you meet your goals is one of the best ways to inspire yourself to study. So maybe after two hours of English study, you’ll treat yourself to 15 minutes of that new video game, a walk, or some guitar playing.

You’d be surprised at how motivated you’ll feel to study if you know it’ll soon lead to doing something you like!

2. Make it a game

When you should be studying, do you ever find yourself wanting to play games or watch videos? To resist temptation, make studying a game. Take for example a novel, treat the chapters in your textbooks as ‘levels’, which will divide the overall body of work you need to study into smaller, more easily ‘defeated challenges’. Creating your own game rules or using a programme like Habitica, which transforms your daily study duties into a game, are both effective ways to do this. You might even invite some of your friends and make it into an enjoyable contest!

3. Make your study notes interesting

Let’s face it, no one finds reading endless paragraphs of text printed on plain, white paper especially inspiring. Because of this, the hashtag #studygram has become quite popular on Instagram, with thousands of users posting pictures of their visually appealing study notes.

While you don’t have to create works of art out of your study notes, adding some colour coding, graphs, and charts can make them much more visually appealing and intriguing.

Additionally, studies have shown that knowledge that is visually portrayed is easier to recall. Online study note templates are available, or you can make your own at home with textas and highlighters.

4. Start small

There will be days when you truly just don’t feel like studying for whatever reason. Perhaps you had a quarrel with a friend, are exhausted, or had a difficult day at school. If you tell yourself you have to spend hours studying at these times, you’ll probably feel too overwhelmed and end up doing nothing.

It is therefore preferable to limit your study time to smaller time sections, perhaps a series of only 15-20 minutes lots. You might become so engaged in what you’re studying that you want to keep the momentum going, but at the very least, you would have completed 15 minutes of revision, which is better than nothing.

5. Be aware of your learning goals

When you feel as though you are caught in a bubble of books and papers, it might be difficult to stay motivated to study. Keep in mind the big picture and ask yourself why you want to perform well on your examinations.

Maybe you want good grades so you may study to be a veterinarian and save animals, or maybe you want a profession that lets you travel the world. Though it’s not the sole path to fulfilment, attending college is a prerequisite for many jobs. Additionally, the work ethic you cultivate now will be crucial to your future success. To help you remember why you need to study, write out your future goals or make a vision board, then post it somewhere you’ll see it every day.

6. Find a study partner.

Even learning is much more pleasurable when done with friends. So why not study together with a friend in a pair rather than on your own? Even better, gather a small group of friends who are taking the same courses to form a study group.

Studying may become more enjoyable because of the social side, and you can also test each other’s knowledge or offer assistance when you run into ideas you don’t fully grasp.

You might study in a library or park to make it even more pleasant, or you could do something nice afterwards, like going bowling, to the movies, or out to a picnic to set out some rewards after the study sessions.

7. Think about Tutoring

If despite trying these procrastination strategies, you still find it difficult to stay motivated to study, you might want to think about hiring a tutor.

At Masterclass English College, our experienced English tutors help students not only progress through the curriculum and build your skills and knowledge, but we also help hold you accountable, impart time management skills, and educate you how to study effectively.