10 Controversial study habits
- Tara Hodgson
- Apr 23, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 26, 2021
So, I’ve seen a load of posts lately online about the best ways to study. Don’t listen to music with lyrics, be around friends but be focused, don’t be around friends at all, etc. Because I’ve seen all of those and I rarely follow them or do other things entirely that they advise against I thought I’d share some of them.
I listen to music with lyrics in them all the time
I study on the couch in the front room with whatever I’m writing on / in balanced on the arm of it
I study in bed sometimes when my joints aren’t too great / my back is sore
I have Facebook / Discord open when I’m studying – mostly so I can easily message friends when I’m stuck on something or need advice
I snack when I study
I’ll sometimes put a TV show on in the background (or watch a series like Critical Role on YouTube)
I do most of my studying at home, not at the library this year thanks to the way my schedule worked out
I don’t use the pomodoro method. I tried it for a bit but then found I could work better if I worked by chunks and worked until when I got sick of a thing.
I’ll either study early on a morning through until early afternoon (like 6am start until maybe 1 or 2 with breaks in between) or later at night (like 8 until 10)
I take all my notes on the computer while I’m in class, and spend more of that time on Google / writing other notes than what’s on the lecture slides but make notes about what the lecturer says
And somehow I still manage to remember enough and be able to write enough to pass my classes.
No, but seriously, this is my post to show you that you’re not a bad student if you do these things. You don’t have to be the perfect studyblr aesthetic type to actually succeed; we each find our own places that we’re comfortable in and that work for us.
I find my mind wanders in class and I get curious about things relating to the lecture topics, so, I look them up to make relevant points and make notes on what to check out later in more depth. I study early on a morning because I’m used to that before I went to Sixth Form. I wouldn’t be in the mood to study after class when I came home because I would be exhausted (I would be falling asleep on the bus on the way home), so it was easier to wake up half an hour earlier to do a bit more studying before I would go in to school. It gave me some good time to prepare before my commute (when all I would want to do was chill out). I study where I’m comfortable because I need to, if I’m not comfy then I’ll spend less time actually doing work and more time putting stuff off until it’s pointless me going there. As much as I love having a desk I don’t like to use it right now because the chair doesn’t have a back and is solid, so I use the couch.
Tl;dr of that text up there is that I’ve made adjustments based on what I needed and you should do that too. There’s no sense in forcing yourself to study when you’ll be miserable, in pain or exhausted.
Hey! Tara here and thanks for checking out my blog. I update every Tuesday with posts about studying tips, advice and talk about productivity and organisation too. If you want to keep up to date with my latest blog posts I’d love it if you subscribed to this blog.
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