Inspired by my colleagues, me and chatGPT designed a simple five-step study ritual that helps you start with focus, stay mindful as you work, and finish each session a little wiser about how you learn best.
If I am honest, when it comes to getting my work done at the moment, I usually just sit down in the morning, with some kind of beverage (non-alcoholic, I promise) and get going.
I can do this because over time, I have built enough productivity systems and processes to get over the initial hump. For example, I use Outlook as my planning area. I use Workflowy as my project space, and I use AI to get my mental motors started if they seem cold and lifeless.
But there were definitely times in my working life where I didn’t have that kind of momentum. I’d sit down to work and faff about for quite a while before making any kind of meaningful progress. Looking back, it definitely hindered me getting the most out of the roles I was in.
As far as I can gather, from what students tell me and my colleagues, this difficulty in getting started is quite common.
If this is the case for you, it might be helpful to play around with a study-assisting routine or ritual to improve the quality of your study sessions. Even just a couple of minutes of structured reflection before you begin (and at the end) can reduce the number of study sessions that end in procrastination or avoidance.
So, what should such a ritual look like?
The truth is there’s no magical formula that works for everyone, every time.
But there are evidence-based principles — metacognition (thinking about how you learn), mindfulness (being aware of what’s happening right now), and self-compassion (being kind to yourself as you learn) — that you can weave into your study routine to make it more effective.
In pulling together this study-assisting routine, I was inspired by materials created by two colleagues: Helen Harrison and Grace Chipperfield. Please send them chocolates (actually, maybe not, that could be creepy). But certainly, give thanks to them in your head.
This routine blends ideas from body-doubling, metacognitive reflection, and mindful check-ins — all rolled into one easy process you can do before, during, and after a study session.
Oh yeah, you don’t need to follow this routine to the letter. If you just want to take a few ideas from it and create your own routine, that is absolutely fine 🙂
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🧘 Step 1: Mindful Check-In (Inner + Outer)
Before you open that tab or textbook, take a short scan of what’s happening both inside you and around you.
Inner check-in
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What thoughts, feelings, or sensations are here? (“I’m distracted.” “I’m calm. “I’m drawing a blank”).
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Can I make room for these, or do I need a short reset first? (e.g. a quick stretch, burst of exercise, few deep breaths). You might be surprised to find out that even if you are feeling like shit, you can still make mental room for that and get started on your tasks.
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Is there anything else genuinely more important right now that I need to attend to? If so, does that need to happen now?
Outer check-in
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Space: What’s my physical setup like — light, temperature, noise, comfort, clutter?
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Social atmosphere: Who or what’s nearby? Is this level of buzz or privacy helping or hindering?
If you notice small tweaks you can make straight away that won’t derail your session (e.g. move a chair, close a tab, put in earbuds, change outfit) do them now.
If bigger changes are needed, make a note for next time: “This task might work better in the library café / at home / with a study buddy.”
➡️ Why it helps: Awareness of both the inner and outer environment helps you tailor your study space to your state of mind. Some days you’ll crave solitude; others, a bit of background movement might keep you grounded. The key is noticing and adjusting with intention.
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🎯 Step 2: Set Your Intention
Now shift from awareness to action.
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What am I going to work on? Be specific (e.g. “Summarise Week 3 slides” or “Write 300 words of my essay”).
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How am I going to go about it? Choose your method (e.g. reading, free writing, flashcards) and necessary tools (e.g. Google Docs, CoPilot, FLO).
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What’s worked or not worked before with this kind of task? Have you done a task like this before? If yes, what worked or didn’t work last time?
➡️ Why it helps: You’re connecting today’s study to past learning experiences and slowly, over time, building out a set of study strategies that work for different tasks.
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⏱️ Step 3: Structure the Session
Plan your timing so you don’t drift or burn out.
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Focus blocks: How long will you study before a break? (Try 25–50 minutes). Use a Pomodoro timer if it helps.
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Breaks: How long and how often? If possible, step away from your desk/computer/books when you take a break.
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Body doubling: Will you study solo or alongside others (in person or online)?
➡️ Why it helps: Clear time boundaries protect your focus and give your brain space to rest and reset.
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🪞 Step 4: The Look-Back
When you finish, take two minutes to reflect before you rush off.
Ask:
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Did I meet my goal?
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What did I learn about the topic today?
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What did I learn about how to study?
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What was the emotional tone of the session?
➡️ Why it helps: Reflection turns each study session into an experiment. You start to spot what helps, what hinders, and what to adjust next time.
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🌿 Step 5: Review Your Environment and Social Fit
Learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
At the end of your session, take a quick environmental pulse:
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Was this a good space to study — lighting, comfort, distractions?
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Did I get the right amount of social connection? (Too isolated? Too chatty?) Need more social connection? Try body doubling.
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What will I keep the same next time, and what might I change?
➡️ Why it helps: Context shapes concentration. Over time, you’ll start to notice patterns — which spaces, times, and levels of social energy best match your study rhythm. This reflection loops back to Step 1, helping you choose better conditions next time.
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✍️ Optional Template: The Mindful Study Session
If you read this post and thought ‘some of that sounds helpful’, don’t stop at just reading it.
Use the templated items below to create your own routine and store it somewhere you can easily access it for your next study session.
You might print it out and stick it to your laptop. You might set it as a file on your desktop that you open at your next study session. You might record it in a small notebook or note on your phone. Whatever works to make this visible at your next study session.
Before you begin
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Space I’m in: ______
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Thoughts/feelings/sensations: ______
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Can I make room for these? Yes / No
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Anything more important right now? ______
Intention
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What I’ll work on: ______
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How I’ll go about it: ______
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What’s been helpful/unhelpful before: ______
During
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Focus block plan: ______
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Break plan: ______
After
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What I achieved / learned about the topic: ______
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What I noticed about how I study: ______
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Was this the right environment / level of connection? ______
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Next time I’ll try: ______
(Optional: print it, pin it, or keep it in your notes app.)
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💬 Final Thought
I mentioned Helen and Grace earlier in the post because it was content they’d created that inspired me to write this post.
Increasingly, topic coordinators and lecturers are building this kind of reflective material into topics, to help students in learning the material in the topic.
But it is useful to know this stuff for yourself as well.
And regardless of whether it appears in topics or not, if you become more reflective about your learning, you’ll improve your capacity to learn. The potential benefits here are faster learning, better grades, and less stress of study.
I do want to note however that there isn’t such a thing as the perfect study-assisting routine. Devoting too much mental bandwidth to trying to build one ends up paradoxically creating the opposite (avoidance of the work itself). So aim instead for regular and incremental improvements to how you study, using the reflection process itself to identify what those improvements might be.
Remember also that study/work routines that work well in one stage of your life (e.g. undergraduate) might be different to those that work in another stage (e.g. first job). Feel free to adapt and change them as your life changes.
If you’ve found strategies that help keep you focused and productive, let me know in the comments below.