For many students, university will be their first taste of real independence.
Other than lectures and seminars, your schedule will largely be your own.
With so much free time and so many exciting social opportunities, keeping motivated on the academic side of your university life can be challenging, but here, we detail our top 5 tips to keep you on track.
The Tips
Establish a routine
For a student, having a routine you stick to as closely as possible is essential for university life.
By planning ahead and building specific study sessions into your calendar, you’ll be able to strike that balance between your social and academic life and keep you motivated on your studies.
Figure out your study style
What is the best way that you study? You may have a process you adopted throughout your educational career, but university is a great time to analyse it to see if it’s the best way for you.
Some people study best in shorter, more intense sessions. Some can take a while to get settled, so need a larger chunk of time to really get into the meat of their study.
Some students find a visual medium is best, so create a lot of mind maps, others draft flash cards and quiz themselves.
How you study will also largely depend on your subject, as some methods will suit certain subjects better than others.
Embrace the struggle
There will be days where you don’t want to study, days where you find it incredibly difficult to sit down and start, or where it feels like nothing is sticking.
These days are inevitable, but don’t shy away from them, embrace them.
If you’re struggling, there are some workarounds. Try writing a to-do list. Prioritise the most important parts of your aims for the session and work on those.
Alternatively, start with some smaller chunks to get yourself in the right frame of mind.
Ultimately, if it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen, don’t force it and don’t be hard on yourself.
Look at your schedule and see if you can re-arrange something to fit it in another time. Also don’t be afraid to ask for help. If you have a friend on the course, see if they’re available for a joint session to help.
Change your environment
They say variety is the spice of life, and the same can be said for studying.
Changing up where you study is a great way to kick start your motivation.
If you tend to study in your room, why not try the library?
If you’re bored of the library, a café is always a good option.
Grabbing a blanket and heading to the park on a sunny day is also a good choice.
Mixing up your study environment is a great way to stimulate your mind and break out of any monotony.
Reward yourself
Possibly the most important tip, don’t be afraid to reward yourself!
Studying can be difficult, especially if there are things you might want to be doing otherwise.
Setting yourself rewards for reaching certain targets, whether it’s getting through a chapter in a book, studying for a certain amount of time, or writing a certain amount of words, is a great way to keep your motivation hard.
You may want to add in smaller treats dispersed throughout your study time, or save it until the end of your session so you can really enjoy it.
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