THIS STUDY TECHNIQUE HAS MADE ME MORE PRODUCTIVE ⌛

 

 

 

 

 

You all want to complete your study for exams, but somehow you get caught in procrastination of delaying your tasks till the last moment. Don't worry, you are not the only one who goes through this "never-ending" situation of procrastination. 

Few years back, I would delay my studies till the last moment and I had nothing in my bucket during the exam days. But, I did improve and got rid of this habit of delaying tasks, especially academic tasks, and now I'ma "straight A" student in my class. 

So, how can you be productive? Let's take an example that you want to study for your finals and there is do-or-die situation.

YOU SHOULD:

 

1) FIND A PLACE:

Choose a place that is quiet and free of distractions. This means do not sit in your living room or bedroom because you become too comfy and it's hard to get yourself in the studying mode. 

Also, do not place your studying table next to a window. That's because it's not is just a window. It's a pathway to your distractions. When you are studying, you look at a window and through it you can SEE, maybe,  road being blocked or pigeons flying, etc. It's breaks your well-built studying momentum for a while.

2) GET YOUR MATERIALS:  

Gather all notes you've taken during lectures, relevant reading material from books or articles, any handouts from your professor.

3) SET A ONE-HOUR TIMER:

Use pomodoro app or just set a normal timer. Now, most of the guys out there just PLAN to sit for 3 hours of undisputed studying session and mentally find hard to concentrate for 3 straight hours. 

They feel like they won't be able to concentrate for that long and they end up studying nothing at all. Setting up a timer for 1 hour physiologically prepares you like "okay you gotta study for just 1 hour". It helps to get started.

4) START STUDYING:

This is the main beef. Ignore any distractions, and get to work straight away. I prefer you to go through a particular chapter or topic in this session

5) TAKE A SHORT BREAK:

After 1 hour, go for a ten-minute break. Grab a coffee, check Facebook, or just relax. But remember, 10 minutes mean 10 minutes, not a single second above it. Otherwise, you would trap in procrastination again. 

6) ONE MORE HOUR TO STUDY:

Come back to study again and take another 1-hour session. This time, try to PRACTICE the content, which you studied in the first session. Do some past paper questions ( with a timer ), strictly evaluate yourself, and note down your mistakes. 

7) TAKE A LONG BREAK:

After two sessions (2 hours of study), take a longer break, maybe thirty minutes. Don't forget to stretch a bit and get a glass of water because a healthy body supports a healthy mind and studying is all mind-game.

8) REVISE:

Now, go back to your content and revise those points, where you lost marks during Practice in the second session. This may take around 35 minutes.

9) REPEAT STEPS 1 TO 8:

Your one cycle of studying is STUDY-BREAK-PRACTICE-BREAK-REVISE. This cycle of studying is called "POMODORO TECHNIQUE"

YOU SHOULD NOT :

 

1) DO NOT WAIT FOR THE LAST MOMENT:

Never Leave your syllabus till the last moment. Try to complete your syllabus at least 2 months before the exam schedule. If you don't do anything and just wait for the last moment to complete your course, you would earn nothing but anxiety. The earlier, the better!

2) DO NOT RELAY ENTIRELY ON OTHERS:

Do not depend hundred percent on your teachers because you have to put in efforts from your end as well with the guidance of the teacher to get good grades. You should not expect your teacher to spoon-feed you with the content. 

3) DO NOT ACT OVERCONFIDENT:

Telling your close ones that your exams will be just a piece of cake. Don't do that because if somehow you don't meet the expectations, it will eventually take you down in the dumps.

4) DO NOT WASTE TIME SEARCHING FOR BETTER RESOURCES:

I have seen a lot of students who waste tons of hours on internet searching for irrelevant studying materials; thinking the more content they have the better it is. However, you got to trust your text-book and only reliable educational sources which your teachers have provided or told you about. 

If you are an IGCSE student check out my this blog where I discussed about all the resources needed by IGCSE students. Anyhow, some peers also try to find so called "guess papers or leaked papers" on the internet. They need to make it clear that there is nothing like this. So, don't loose your precious time searching for such stuff online. Believe me, you would gain nothing doing that. 

 

VERDICT: 

You should stick to your long-term plan such as; scoring all A*s (A-stars) or getting distinctions and to achieve your long-term plan, you have to divide them into smaller series of tasks that you'd perform on daily basis. I followed the study technique mentioned in this blog (POMODORO TECHNIQUE) and aced my exams as I achieved all A*s (A-stars) in my International General Certificate of Secondary Education conducted by the University of Cambridge, UK.

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