Hello, I’m Alice Dartnell, a productivity expert who loves helping people craft the life that they really want to experience. My coaching provides students with a constructive mindset aiming for success, unlocking their potential. After creating my business Alice Dartnell Limited, I regularly address troubles like not having enough time to study, not being able to meet professors’ deadlines, and other difficulties. Today, I’m happy to share five essential tips that can take your studies to a new level and direct you towards what you truly enjoy doing. Here are my ideas.
1. Plan ahead, but spend your mornings and evenings thoughtfully
People say that youngsters are usually very lively, but they rarely explain how to manage the energy. If you jump to your to-do list right after you wake up, you might end up stressed, and the tension you will accumulate can keep you awake longer than your schedule allows. These troubles may cause sleep deprivation, directly affecting your productivity. Luckily, there’s a way to avoid these struggles if you make your mornings energizing and spend your evenings doing something peaceful. Sports or meditation that helps you remember the critical goals are some options to begin a good day.
It’s better to plan all your activities in advance and just review them before starting. This way you’ll feel calm and organized, minimizing stress. Moreover, you shouldn’t just collapse onto your bed and mindlessly scroll through Facebook before falling asleep. You will rest better if you lay aside all the gadgets and take a slow walk or read a good book. But don’t forget to map out the next day before doing it, to know exactly when you are going to study, rest, and cook your dinner.
2. Make short work “bursts” and do the big tasks gradually
Contrary to popular definitions, productivity is not “doing many things as fast as possible” or “in one go.” As you have probably guessed from the first tip, productivity is about doing the right things as much as possible, giving something insignificant, like watching Netflix, no more than an hour or two a day. So the people who say that one does not simply write a ten-page research paper in one night are actually right. You can easily avoid straining yourself with such tasks by dividing them into smaller ones.
Perhaps it’s not that easy to write two pages every day and finish the large assignment gradually, but making it your habit will definitely impress the professors. Thoughtfully dedicating time to coming up with ideas and creating good arguments pays off. You also need a small notepad to jot down sudden insights and bring them into your writing time. In contrast, if you leave the planning until last minute and write, feeling half asleep or angry, the results might not turn out as great. Being the best version of yourself means paying equal attention to your time and your skills, because you can only improve them step by step.
Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash
3. Set early deadlines whenever possible
Finishing your tasks early has more benefits than you might think. It’s a chance to rest more, but you can also get better results by using the remaining time to review everything without a rush. For example, if a large assignment is due in one week, take your planner and assign equal parts of this work to the first six days. Leave the seventh one to check everything once again. There are helpful questions, which the people who complete their tasks right before the deadline overlook.
- Did you meet all the rubric criteria?
- Do different sections come together seamlessly?
- Is your text easy to read?
You can be sure that you will get good results if the answers are positive. Try pursuing this working mode and remember what Henry Ford once said: “If you think you can or can’t, you are right.” There is no easy way to be productive, so the right mindset will definitely help you feel more confident, while developing useful habits.
4. Limit your sweets consumption
You might have heard that sweets boost your energy, and it’s partially correct. Those delightful chocolates most people adore give you a rush of blood sugar, causing your power to reach its highest level. However, very soon this strength collapses, slowing you down and threatening the usual schedule. There is a solution, and you can consider these facts to achieve a food balance.
- Creating a healthy diet that contains beneficial and tasty meals is a better idea, because wholesome products make you active for many hours ahead.
- It might seem that cooking and washing the dishes takes too long, but you can safely consider this precious time well-spent as it becomes an investment into your stable focus.
- Controlled attention and efficiency directly support productivity, allowing you to do what is truly important and minimizing distractions.
So, if you didn’t know about these factors before, considering them in the future will save you a lot of effort.
5. Avoid dehydration!
COVID-19 has forced people across the globe to work and study from home. Although this change has good outcomes like getting more time to sleep and not having to spend hours commuting, there are hidden dangers as well. Do you really notice how much water you drink? Feeling comfortable in a familiar environment, you can fill the glass any moment, but it might never get done, especially on a busy day.
Nonetheless, dehydration is very dangerous, because it causes headaches, slows down the thinking process, and generally decreases your productivity. Try tracking how much you usually drink during the day. Don’t count tea or coffee since they don’t have the necessary chemical elements. Make sure to drink at least 1.5 liters of water in 24 hours to know exactly that no external factors will prevent you from accomplishing everything you’ve planned.
The bottom line
These five tips are based on my perspective on productivity and what people need to boost it. The approach I use includes responsible planning, doing assignments in parts, and self-care. Thinking strategies and the way our body functions affect how many important things we can do.
Healthy habits extend to your overall wellbeing and can help you avoid many stress-related illnesses. Although changing behavior patterns is always a serious challenge, my experience proves it’s always worthwhile. Maybe you know and follow some of these hints, but try combining all five to use your full potential and become a truly accomplished and successful student.