A dude called Random Patterson (amazing name) has put together a great list of study hacks/tips over on the College Info Geek website.

Some of them were familiar to me, but there were a few I hadn’t considered.

 

Keep a distraction log

When I am working on something important, there is nothing more annoying than my brain constantly interrupting me and reminding me of little things I need to do, or pay attention to, or take care of. Random recommends keeping a distraction log, somewhere you write these things down quickly before getting back to the task at hand. This frees up space in your working memory to focus on the task at hand. You also end up with a to-do list for other points in the day when you aren’t working on something pertinent.

 

High density fun

I frequently recommend that students designate time in the day to do ‘enjoyable’ activities, activities that are fun. One trap in this process is that we often pick activities that are ‘sorta fun’ but not really. An activity that is ‘sorta fun’ isn’t really refreshing and rejuvenating and is also unlikely to be something you can reward yourself with if you’ve worked hard. For example, I often reward myself for working with a YouTube session, but if I am honest I don’t find YouTube sessions anywhere near as fun as getting in the lunch room with my colleagues and having a laugh.

I like the term Random used to describe activities that are truly rewarding: ‘high density fun‘. These are the activities that you find truly engaging and rejuvenating. If you don’t think you have any of these activities in your life, it is time you went searching. These are the activities that put a big smile on your face.

 

Use project management tools to coordinate group projects

In my work life, I use a variety of project management tools to help manage projects I’m on. These include Microsoft Team, Basecamp and Trello. I didn’t really get familiar with these tools until I was called into projects in which those tools were being used.

Group work is an given in most university degrees. Many students dread group work because of the challenges of physically and psychologically herding people together to collaborate on a task. If you become familiar some of these project management tools, you might be able to help the group projects you are involved with go a little smoother. At a minimum you’ll build valuable knowledge of tools that are commonly used in the workforce.

Even something as simple as a shared Onedrive folder so you can all collaborate on working on a central set of documents might make life much easier.

 

Hit up the article if you are interested in the other 37 tips.

As with any ‘tips’ lists that are over 5 items, don’t try implementing all of them at the same time. That is a recipe for 😩