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The vast majority of people will never
learn to study consistently. The reasons they'll give are usually
pointed at some external factor that they can blame. They might say
that they don't have time. Another common excuse is that they got
distracted by something more important. Take note that most of these
excuses completely attribute their own personal failure to study onto
someone or something else.
Thankfully though, you are not like the
vast majority of people. If you're actually taking the time to read
this article, you're admitting that you have a problem with studying.
(That's the first step.) While most people spend their whole lives
carefully avoiding their problem, you're willing to step up and face
it. You're stepping up to learn how to study effectively.
I fought this battle with myself. I had
the horrible habit of distracting myself from studying with
absolutely anything I could find. Right before the test, I'd sit
there wondering, “What the hell did I do?” Now, by that time, I
was pretty good at studying. I could study for most tests in no time
but I still didn't end up doing the little studying I had to do.
Using the advice I'd always been told, I spent months and months
trying to hammer myself down using discipline.
The Failure Of Discipline
This surprises many people but
discipline is the art of punishing yourself into compliance. It is
not about doing positive behavior consistently. It's just about
making yourself do stuff despite the short term desire not to. This
can be a good thing and this can be a bad thing. Ultimately, it comes
down to how you use it.
Most people would admit that it would
take a whole lot of discipline to eat a grasshopper (or a more
refined palette than our own.) That being said, that doesn't prove
there is anything intelligent about doing it. Disciplining yourself
to study is only valuable when you're studying effectively.
Unfortunately, the act of having to discipline yourself is instantly
counter-productive for studying.
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Discipline can help you get up and go
for a run in the morning because running is a solely physical
activity. Disciplining yourself is not as effective at getting
yourself to study because it's a mental activity. It's the equivalent
of breaking your ankles to try to force yourself to go for a run in
the morning. It just doesn't help.
To study effectively, your brain can't
be in a stressed out state. The more stressed you are, the worse
you're going to focus, and the less you're going to remember. When
you have to use discipline to study, you activate the stress that you
need to avoid.
If disciplining yourself to study isn't
an option, how else do you get yourself to study for exams?
Make It A Habit
Your goal should be to eliminate as
much discipline from your study life as possible. Instead of focusing
you should focus on falling into the habit of studying. That's using
your body's natural tendencies to encourage your mind to be in the
right place to study.
Make studying something you get into
without even thinking about it. Studying should become so ingrained
in your life that, by the time you consciously think about studying,
you're already doing it. There are a number of reasons this is so
helpful.
First of all, your body has a natural
clock. When you do certain things on a particular schedule, your body
prepares for it by releasing the right chemicals in advance. If you
want to release the chemicals that are good for studying, do it at
the same time everyday.
Another reason is the natural tendency
people have to being stagnate. If you're sitting on your computer and
realize you need to study, it's going to take tons of energy just to
force yourself off the computer and into the textbook. Once you're in
the habit of picking up the textbook without thinking about it, this
problem switches around a bit. Instead you'll be studying, if you
want to stop studying you'll have to close your books, put them away,
make sure everything's ready for class, and on and on. It's easier to
make the right decision when it's also the lazy one.
Bear in mind, building a habit may
require short term discipline. The first few days of getting into a
habit can be very difficult. When you're developing that habit,
you're not going to see any major results from your studying. That
won't be particularly motivating but a week later, the difference
becomes obvious.
Better Than A Habit
Habits are the typical way you can plan
on studying. They're the most applicable way to get studying done in
most cases. It's not the best possible way though.
The best studying doesn't require
habits or discipline, it requires curiosity. When you're genuinely
interested in a subject, you don't need habits or discipline, you
just do it because you want to do it. I'm sure you've experience that
feeling at least a few times in your life.
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When it comes to the educational system
that most students are stuck in, there are usually only one or two
interests that cultivate curiosity. There is absolutely no shame in
no giving a damn about the information learned vast majority of your
classes. You're a human being. Just know that when you have the
curiosity, the typical rules of studying need not apply.
Cultivating curiosity in a subject is
possible. So, before you go and try to force yourself to study, ask
yourself if there is anything you actually want to know in the
course? At times, you will be able to find a reason for studying that
actually interests you immensely. Of course, there are also times
when having the habit is your safest bet.
Despite the cries for discipline you
hear. Discipline is actually one of the least common means of getting
good studying done. The vast majority of effective studiers just have
habits that look like discipline to the observer. You don't have to
have piles and piles of discipline to get it done. All you need is a
little bit of curiosity or just enough discipline to make it a habit.
Are you tired of all the antiquated
cliches that most people call study advice? How To Study Faster is a
blog that explores how to get the best results from studying without
sacrificing all your time for it. Be sure to follow the blog using
any of the methods in the sidebar for more. Oh, and please repost
this article if you enjoyed it.
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