Listing

I like lists.  I'm especially reminded of this when I try grocery shopping without one, and end up with a trolley full of impulse buys and forgetting the one thing I actually really needed.

I like them too when I'm studying.  Faced with a large assignment that seems too big, too imposing, too filled with "where do I start?" panic, I write a list.  I break the assignment down into as many small steps as I can, and list them all out:

1. Re-read chapter in textbook.
2. Write down main points from chapter.
3. Work out keywords for library database search.
4. Search library database for relevant articles.
5. Download or print out 5 most useful looking articles.
6. Read first article.
7. Write notes on first article.
8. ... and so on.

Suddenly, instead of one huge unmanageable task, I've got lots of little ones that I know I can handle, and the whole thing seems so much easier.  Now all I have to do is work my way through the list one step at a time, and I'll get the job done.

And I can use my list to plan out my time too, working out how long each step will take me and dividing them up between the days I've got until the assignment is due.  So I can be realistic right from the start about how much effort I'll need to put in, and not be tempted into thinking I can start working on a 5,000 word essay the weekend before it's due. 

But my favourite thing about lists?  Crossing stuff off.  There's just something so satisfying about finishing a step and getting to cross it off your list, knowing that part's done and you can move on to the next, seeing the list of things to do gradually shorten as the crossed-off part grows.  When you're tackling the sort of large project where a huge amount of work is needed before you can even start any writing, it's a nice way to see that you're actually making progress.  And for the boring or difficult bits, you can cross them out in your thickest, darkest pen, obliterating them from your life forever - and that's got to feel good!


Do you use lists to help you with your study? How do you cope when faced with a big assignment? Let me know in the comments below.

A Change of Environment

The new semester started this week, which means I'm back to juggling work and study after my year off.  And I'm feeling very much thrown in the deep end, with already a pile of reading to be done, and a couple of reports to write, and I'm desperately trying to remember how on earth I used to manage to fit all this in around full time work.

Part of the answer of course is about setting up good habits and routines (which I've talked about before).  And I will, over the next few weeks, get myself back into the rhythm of studying and of organising the rest of my life around fitting it in.  And as always, I'll resign myself to having no life until the semester is over.  I'll work it out.

But today, with all that work to be done, and very aware that this was my only free day for uninterrupted study, I just couldn't settle down to it.  I'd made sure the house was clean and tidy (I can't think straight when there's a mess around me), had a quiet and comfortable (but not too comfortable) spot to work in, removed all distractions, and otherwise made everything as conducive to study as possible, but despite all that, for some reason I just couldn't concentrate.  I'd read a sentence or two of a paper and then my mind would start to wander, or I'd suddenly want a glass of water, or to open the window because it was too warm, or to find a jumper to put on because now it was too cold, or to go to the toilet because of all those glasses of water, or... yeah, you get the idea.

So rather than waste my time struggling on unsuccessfully (and with no time to just give up and try again later), I completely changed my environment.  I packed up my books, walked over to a nearby cafe, ordered lunch, and settled back down to my reading.  And spent a very constructive three hours there, during which time I totally broke the back of the work I needed to get done.

Yes, it was noisier there than it would have been at home, but none of it was noise I needed to pay attention to, so it didn't distract me.  And yes, juggling reading material, notes, and my lunch on a small cafe table was a bit more awkward than using the wide expanse of desk I've got at home, but that just meant I had to focus more closely.  Or maybe it was just the fresh air and exercise I got walking over there that helped. Whatever, it worked for me.

Now I'm not saying you should do all your studying in cafes.  I'm not even saying that's where I'm going to be spending much time.  But on this particular day, in that particular mood, that was the right environment for me to be in, not my theoretically perfect study space at home.  And that's worth remembering - that on those days when it's just not clicking for you, sometimes a change of environment is all you need to get yourself back into the right mental space for study.  Give it a try sometime!

Memory and association

Many years ago I was living in a very small town on the West Coast, a long way from anywhere. To get my fill of city life (read: good bookshops) I’d catch a bus over to Christchurch for a weekend every few weeks. On the way home, the bus driver (and by extension, all his passengers) would listen to the radio for as far out into the countryside as the signal lasted, then would switch to the cassette player (I said it was many years ago!). She always put the same compilation tape on, and because the radio signal always ran out at the same spot, the songs on that tape became strongly associated in my mind with certain spots along the road.

The Bangles’ “Eternal Flame” always came on just as we left the plains and started up the first steep incline towards the pass, so when I heard that song on the radio the other day, my mind was immediately transported to that hill. Despite the fact I last caught that bus more than 20 years ago, and it’s probably at least 15 years since I’ve even been in that part of the country, I could remember every detail – the way the road curves, the types of trees that grow alongside, even what the road signs said. If you’d asked me to describe the road in normal circumstances, I’d have had no hope, but because of the strong association from the music, my memories were crystal clear.

Great story, Jen, you might be saying, but what’s your late 80s nostalgia got to do with studying in 2013? Actually, quite a lot. It’s been shown that this kind of sensory association can aid learning in all sorts of situations. By purposefully stimulating one of your senses in a particular way while learning material, your recall of it will be improved by replicating that same stimulation at a later date – in an exam, say. Of course, you can’t play The Bangles in an exam room, but you can set up other sensory associations.

At the simplest level, when you’re studying towards an exam where recalling facts is going to be important, try and replicate some of conditions you’re likely to encounter when in the exam room. So as far as possible, study in silence (sorry, no 80s music). Try and get your comfort levels to match, too - wear the same sort of clothes (including shoes) to study in as you’ll wear on the day, and sit in a chair of a similar type (it doesn’t have to be identical, but don’t study sitting in a comfy armchair if you’ll be on hard plastic seats for the exam). If you’re into essential oils you could even set up olfactory clues (which are often said to be the strongest form of sensory memory jogger) – perhaps a few drops of a particular oil on a handkerchief that you can sniff when the need arises?

Of course, none of this is a substitute for hard work, but it can give your memory a little boost just when you need it most. And let’s face it, when it comes to exams, every little bit helps!

Good habits

After taking such a prolonged break from writing this blog, I find I’ve fallen out of all my good habits around writing.  Even though I’ve had plenty of ideas for topics over the last few weeks, I’ve lacked the discipline to just sit down and start writing them down.  I need to redevelop good habits by setting myself a writing and posting schedule and sticking to it until it’s second nature.

Good habits are important in study, too.  It’s no good getting to exam week and suddenly realising in a panic that you need to start hitting the books – you need to be developing good study habits from the very beginning of term (if not earlier) so that when exam time comes around all you need is a slight stepping up of your usual study schedule.  But how do you develop good habits?

1. Develop one new good habit at a time

It’s tempting when you decide to improve your study habits to try and fix everything at once, but that’s a guarantee of failure.  After a few weeks of initial enthusiasm you’ll find yourself slipping in one area or another, and it’ll be all too easy to give up completely.  So pick just one area you’d like to improve and work on that.  Maybe it’s “I’ll revise and rewrite my lecture notes every evening after class”, or “I’ll read one chapter of the text a week”, or even just “I’ll block out one hour of every day as study time”.  Once that good habit is firmly entrenched, you can start working on another one.  That’s one advantage of being a part-time student, at least – we have a lot of semesters to practice our good habits in!

2. Start early

 

They say that it takes about 50 repetitions of a behaviour for it to become habitual, so, as there’s only about 13 weeks in a semester, it’s never too early to get your good habits in place.  Even in the first week, when you’re unlikely to have much real studying to do, you can start working on the habits by doing related tasks.  For example, if you’re trying to improve your lecture notes, then after the first lecture, even though it was probably mostly admin and not much actual course content, you could still spend some time making sure you’re clear on all the course requirements, writing due dates into your calendar and planning your reading schedule.

Some habits you might even be able to start during the vacation.  For example, if you want to read a chapter of the text every week, then why not get out a few related books from the library and read a chapter of them each week – you’ll not only get a head start on developing your good habit, but you’ll start the course pre-armed with a bit of knowledge.

3. Be strict but forgiving

 

Whatever your new habit is, stick to it.  Set yourself a schedule and be rigorous about following it.  If you’re going to read a chapter of your text every week, then decide when you’ll do that – say on Wednesday nights straight after dinner – and force yourself to sit down with your book at that time no matter what the temptation to do something else.  It’ll be tough at first, but as the weeks go on you’ll find yourself just naturally doing it, because that’s what you always do on Wednesday night after dinner.

But while you’re being strict on yourself, do forgive the occasional slip.  If you forget, or some crisis happens that means you can’t keep to your schedule, then don’t beat yourself up, just catch up if you can (maybe read that chapter on Thursday night instead?) and make doubly sure you get back on schedule the next week.  Whatever you do, don’t fall into the trap of thinking “I missed one week, so I might as well just give up now.”  Forgive yourself, move on, and do better next time.

4. Reward yourself

 

I find I develop habits best if I give myself an incentive to do so.  If my aim is to spend an hour a day studying, then I’ll keep a track of how many days I’ve managed to stick to my schedule, and when I reach a week I’ll reward myself by going to a movie or reading a book that’s purely for pleasure.  Or if you need something more immediate, how about promising yourself an hour of your favourite TV programme once you’ve finished writing up your lecture notes?  Or a bar of chocolate on the way home from the library?

A less tangible but often just as satisfying reward can just be recording the progress of your habit and watching it grow.  One useful technique is to make a mark on the calendar every night you successfully carry out your new habit.  As the row of ticks (or smiley faces, or whatever symbol you want to use) grows, so does the urge to not break your streak, and to beat your own record for number of days without a break.


Good luck with developing your new good habits!   And I promise I’ll try and make updating my blog more of a habit this semester...

Getting to it

Sorry this post is a little late, but after that lovely lazy long Easter weekend, I just couldn't get myself motivated last week.  So what better topic to write about than motivation?

How do you get yourself motivated to do coursework?  What gets you hitting the books when you'd much rather be hitting the couch?  There's the big picture stuff, of course, the long-term goals and dreams you'll be able to realise when you finally get that degree, but I find they're a bit too vague and distant to really get me inspired when I'm tired and just can't be bothered working.

What works in those situations is different for everyone, of course, but for me I've found three things are key: the time, the place, and a plan.  Once I've got those in place, just getting on with it becomes easy.

First, the time.  I work best with a regular schedule, so I work out a study timetable around my other commitments and try to stick to it.  I also really like to keep my weekends free of study when I can.  So last year I wrote two two-hour study blocks into my diary for straight after work on Wednesday and Thursday evenings.  I knew I didn't normally have anything planned those nights, and that straight after work I'd still be in productive mode so it would be easy for me to switch from work-work to study-work.  After a couple of weeks of always getting into study at the same time on the same days it became my regular routine, so instead of sitting there saying "I really should get on with that essay", I'd just say "Right, Wednesday 5 pm, time to get started."

The key things in finding a study time are to find a regular time that works for you (Are you a morning or an evening person? What regular commitments do you have? When are you least likely to be disrupted?), and then stick to it.  Be realistic about how much time you need to block out.  For me last year I found 4 hours a week was about right (with the occasional extra evening or weekend session when a deadline loomed) - I could almost always get everything done I needed to, while still leaving myself enough free time for home and friends - but, as they say, your mileage may vary.  In other years when I was taking easier lower-level papers I found two hours a week more than enough.  When I was taking a language paper, I needed more like 5 hours.

Next, the place.  To work well, I need to have no distractions around me.  So I always spend the first 5 minutes of my study time cleaning my desk and arranging the books and papers I need.  I find that physical clearing of the decks also works as a mental clearing of the decks - once my desk is ready to work, so am I.  It also helps to get rid of distractions of the human kind - much as you love your family, you might find it easier to work when they're out the way, so designate a room as your "office" (even if it's just a temporary designation for a room that has another name like "kitchen" or "bedroom" for the rest of the week) and ban everyone else from it while you're working. Or take yourself out of the house and work at the library or in a cafe - anywhere you can get a good uninterrupted couple of hours.

The other thing I find helps make a location good for study is the associations I have with it.  My favourite place to study is actually my office at work (I'm lucky enough to have building access outside office hours), because not only is it quiet and distraction free in the evenings, but it's a place I associate only with working, so when I'm in there my mental state is immediately productive.  If I sit in my lounge at home, on the other hand, I'm tempted by the TV and the books and the cats and getting a snack from the kitchen.  And if I'm actually so foolish as to sit on the sofa, all is lost - I'll end up falling asleep with a cat on my lap.

The last key to my motivation is a plan.  I like lists, and especially lists I can tick items off of, so the first thing I do when I get an assignment is to break it down into tasks and subtasks.  For example, writing an essay might be broken down into four main tasks: finding sources, reading, planning, drafting, and polishing. Each of those is then broken down further - for example, planning might break down into decide main thesis statement, list supporting arguments, structure sequence of arguments.  Once I've got my list of tasks, I work out roughly how long each task will take me (adding in a little wiggle room for unforeseen problems), how long I've got until the assignment is due, and divide up the tasks accordingly, so that I've got a complete to-do list that tells me what I need to have achieved by the end of each study session to stay on track.

Of course, I'll keep updating and changing my plan as I go along, according to how the work is going.  I might find more useful sources than I expected, so need to add in extra reading time.  Or I might have a particularly productive night and be able to start on some of next week's tasks early.  But having a plan in place means that as soon as I sit down I know exactly what I need to get done and can get on with it, without having to try and remember where I'm up to or what I'd been thinking about.

So that's my technique for motivation.  I have a regular time I always study, a place that's conducive to working, and a plan so that I know what I need to be doing.  That removes any excuse I have not to just get on with it, so that's what I do.

And if all else fails, there's bribery.  I keep a bar of really good chocolate in my desk, and promise myself a piece once I finish a significant task - reading a research paper, writing an essay draft, digging up x number of good references.  Of course, you have to have enough willpower to keep yourself to the original terms of the deal - no suddenly deciding you're allowed chocolate after every page :-)

What motivational tricks work for you?  Are you able to find time and space in your life to optimise your work habits?  Let us know in the comments.