15 LAZY Ways To Improve Your Grades

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The vast majority of study advice around for the last 100 years are based around “hard work.” They say that if you set your mind to it and invest all kinds a' time, someday, you, might, see some results. I've always found this advice to be a bit of a cop out.

First of all, most students that struggle with their grades put in a ton of time. On top of that, not all students that kick-ass at school invest much energy into studying. To say hard work is how you improve your grades is to overlook 90% of the discrepancies that take place.

Second, hard work can be defined as anything. I could build my home out of toothpicks. That's hard work. That doesn't mean it's not smarter to build it out of 2x4's. Hard work is not a virtue in itself. Without the right knowledge, hard work is just a major waste of time.

This is a list of ways you can take the hard work out of your study routine and see better results for it:

1. Sleep More

What's more lazy then sleeping more? The human brain needs a significant amount of sleep too work at it's peak. When your brain is not working at it's peak, there is virtually no way to objectively know. That means you have to be particularly careful you get enough sleep every night.

2. Mellow Out Through Class

Nooo... don't do illegal substances. Just relax through your classes. If you're writing notes like a mad man then you're not remembering the information as well as you could. Try to get relaxed during your classes to ensure you make the best of the class time.

3. Read The Syllabus

You know that paper that all your teachers hand you explaining how they do things in their course? Read it. After reading it you can focus the work you do on the things your teacher finds important. Sometimes you'll notice that there is virtually no reason to worry about homework, or tests, or some other specific aspect of the course because they're worth so little.

4. Study Less

Most students spend hours studying with absolutely no focus. It's much more effective to study a shorter period of time with complete focus. The fresher your mind is, the more information that it can remember.

5. Habitually Study

No... you don't need discipline to study. Just get in the habit of studying for a few minutes at the same time every day. When it's a habit, you'll find yourself studying and wonder how you got there. By that time, you've already got into the study material a bit.

6. Skip Studying The Last Night

There is no need to study the night before a test if you prepared right. If you know the information you need to know then don't you dare pick up that textbook. Instead of studying that class, be confident that you know all the material you need to know.

7. Forget About The Top 3 Points

It's easier to go from a 98 to a 99 than a 99 to a 100. The difference isn't linear because with the first one you only need to know 1 of 2 things and the second you need to know 1 of 1 thing. Is that last point worth an extra hour or two of studying? Probably not. Know that those last points are, by far, the most costly.

8. Find Pleasure

Do you like baseball but hate math? Instead of focusing on math, focus on how the math can be used with statistics. You can do similar things with any subject you have to learn but don't enjoy. Focus on the pleasurable parts of the information and you'll learn more faster.

9. Kill Procrastination

Procrastination is not lazy. It's just stupid. Every time you think “I'll study in 20 minutes,” you're adding to the time you have to think about the studying by a few seconds and interrupting the things you'd prefer to do. That's stressful and time consuming. Do the unpleasant stuff now.

10. Fun

You can be lazy and still invest a ton of energy into something. It's generally just something you want to do. Try to have some fun with the more painful work you have to do. The more fun you have, the less it's going to feel like work.

11. Study Less Information

Don't treat your whole textbook like it's a gospel of required information. Most teachers only focus on small pieces. If there is a chance you won't need to learn something then don't be afraid not to learn it. The less you need to learn, the better you're going to be able to learn everything else.

12. Make Friends With The Teacher

Don't worry. You're not a teachers pet unless you act like one. Being friendly with your teachers isn't pet like unless you rub up against them and kiss their bums. Try and treat them like an actual friend. If they respond well then keep it up. Being friends with a teacher is a quick way to guarantee a few points extra. (Sorry teachers. I've seen it too many times. Maybe you're the exception.)

13. Simplify Your Life

Forget about trying to use the most complex and effective strategies for school, studying, and memorization. The smartest thing you can do is usually just less. Instead of doing more and more. Eliminate what doesn't work and do less and less.

14. Don't Feel Guilty For Not Getting Perfect Grades

Once you start relaxing and getting really good grades, you may feel some guilt kicking in. Maybe you think you could score that final 5 points if you studied like the average person. It's true. Maybe you could. Ask yourself if you want to invest that extra time. It's okay if you don't. Grades (especially the last few when you're not competing for scholarships,) don't mean all that much.

15. Relax

One of the biggest problems that most students have is stress. Stress shuts down the most important areas in the brain for learning. Learning to relax during the tough times is one of the most effective ways to change your final grade.

You don't have to be a workaholic to get good grades. In fact, I highly recommend you learn early that working too much is downright depressing. It's better to work logically and find the most efficient way for you to get the grades that you're looking for.

Using these 15 lazy study strategies, you can see more results with less time.

Be sure to follow this blog and it's twitter to learn more tips for studying.

7 Terrible Study Distractions

To study effectively, you can't be multitasking. Multitasking is one of the biggest study problems for students today. When you're studying effectively, your brain has to be in a certain state. Whenever you leave that state to do something else, you will struggle to get back into the state required to study effectively. The vast majority of students don't even know how it actually feels to study effectively because they've allowed themselves to get distracted too much.

Here are 7 of the most common study distractions and a few tricks to get rid of them.

1. Music In The Background

Yes. Most people hate to hear this one. Most people wildly disagree with it too. This might sound unpleasant but most of that disagreement comes from the an embeded problem with music playing while you study.

The average student listens to music while they're studying to make studying more enjoyable. I completely understand that sitting down with a textbook can get a little bit boring but the fact that turning music on changes that, proves that you're being distracted from studying.

When you're enjoying listening to a song while trying to study, which activity do you think your brain is going to focus on more; the boring one or the enjoyable one?

If you have music in the background then you're not studying as effectively as you could be. It's a major distraction that must be managed carefully.

At the very least, make sure that the music you listen to isn't a style that you particularly enjoy. Also, make sure it does not have a human voice. Words are always distracting. When it's a style you don't particularly enjoy you won't get caught up as much in your favorite parts. While it's best not to listen to any music, this can be a short term solution.

2. Cell Phones

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“But what if there is an emergency?”

That's the most common response to me when I tell people to shut off their phone while they study. My response is pretty simple. “If it's not still an emergency in 30 minutes then it's not much of an emergency. That is, assuming you're not a doctor, firefighter, or member of a bomb squad.” The point is, do you really have any way you could help much in a real emergency?

99.999% of the time you're not going to have an emergency while you're studying. If you're that cautious about long shots then you probably should never even ride in a car, go to the beach, or eat anything you didn't make yourself.

Too many students text through there study session. When you're studying, you can't let little distractions break your thought patterns. Developing clear patterns while studying is one of the most important and unconscious steps. When you hear that buzz of a new message, even if you don't pick it up in the moment, you've lost your train of thought.

Turn off your phone while you're trying to study. The world can wait 30 minutes.

3. Television

NOO!!!! Really... some students still study with the television on. This is absolutely insane. You're getting auditory distractions. You're getting visual distractions. You're getting kinesthetic distractions (with the remote control.) Every time I think about this I just want to drive off a bridge. NO! You're not studying.

The only exception may be... may be... if you're muting and studying during commercials or something like that. Even with that, you're studying badly. You will not be able to focus as well as you should be. Put down the textbook. Watch the show. Shut off the TV after. Then study with focus.

4. People

Studying around people can be rough.

Many people, no matter how focused you try to act, will still interrupt your studying for some friendly conversation. You've got to try and avoid this. Every time they interrupt you, it costs you serious leverage. By the time a conversation is over you may not even remember where you were.

You need to study in a place where people won't distract you. If you have a roommate that bothers you then you need to talk to them about it. If you make it about you needing to not have distractions instead of them being completely rude then they'll probably react well.

If people are distracting you less obviously by picking their nose or listening to music or something, you should still try to find a way to get away from the distraction. Move to a new location if needed.

5. Your Computer...

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Oh... how computers haunt me... They're one of the most useful and dangerous tools for studying. I can spend thirty seconds and learn facts that would have taken months to find out without the internet. At the same time, I can spend two hours looking at pictures of cats when I meant to be looking up something important.

Computers are one of the biggest distractions around because they could just as easily be used as a tool to help your studying. If you're not careful then you'll end up thinking you were studying when you were really just playing on the computer.

That's why I recommend getting away from your computer to study. While I have had some good results studying with a computer, the risk of distraction ruined all of the advantages. If you don't absolutely need your computer to study then don't study with it.

6. Food

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The kind of student that typically eats while there studying usually claims the same problem everytime. They say, “I don't have the time to eat and study separately.” In most cases, I think they're full of it but assuming it is true then the solution is obvious. Study after you eat. Even if it only gives you five minutes of focused study, it's better than ruining your meal and your studying. Food is essential for survival. It should come first.

Eating is usually just another distraction for studying. While you're salivating over all the delicious food you have to eat, you aren't thinking about the study material. Every few seconds you have to get distracted to take another bite or sip. While it's not the worst distraction in the world, it's still just a distraction.

Find a different time to eat. Eat during class if you have to. Study less if you have to. Studying and eating doesn't work well together.

7. Your Brain

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The worst distraction you have during studying can't be controlled, it can only be tamed. While you're studying, you need to actively change what you're thinking about. It can be difficult but you need to learn how to stop your brain whenever it gets off track. I'm sure you've had that problem at least once in your life.

One second you're studying diligently, suddenly, a sentence reminds you of a personal problem you've been having. Then you spend the next five minutes thinking about it. Your brain has officially ruined your study time. You were trying so hard but it screwed you up.

Let face it. Your brain likes interesting things. Your losing focus because you thought of something more interesting. Whenever this happens, you need to discipline yourself to find a real reason to be studying. Tell yourself why the information you're studying is important. Or, at the very least, convince your brain that you need to be studying this information harder.

There are a lot of potential distractions while studying. It can be difficult but with a little practice you can reduce those distractions significantly. That being said, you'll never be able to eliminate all distractions. Don't freak out if you forget to shut off your phone one time or someone breaks down your door to tell you about their day. It certainly doesn't help but with each one you can learn a lesson to focus better.

The better you focus during your study time, the better your grades are going to be.

Do you want to know the secrets about studying that teachers don't tell you? Be sure to follow this blog and our “Study Tips Daily” Twitter.

By the way, have you checked out any of the books I've written?

How To Stop Study Procrastination (And Cause House Fires)

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Any good student has been there at least one time in their life. At first they're thinking, “I have to start studying,” until their stubborn brain kicks in and gives them a list of potential excuses to pick from.

Some people procrastinate by thinking they have something significantly more important to do. While they should be studying, they realize there is a show they want to watch on television or a party that they can't afford to miss. Don't have this excuse? Don't worry there is a whole list of others you can pick from.

If you don't have anything better to do then one of your best options for procrastinating is pretending that you're trying to study better by procrastinating. Instead of saying there is something more important to do, say that studying is too important to try to do in the moment. Maybe you're not in the mindset for studying. Maybe your roommates are making noise. Anything works. Now you can't study as good as you could later. Congratulations, you have your excuse.

Bare in mind, these are just wild excuses your brain uses to try and convince you to avoid the pain of studying. Studying can be difficult. If you're studying right then there is a very good chance your brain wont want to do it (unless you happen to be curious.) There are a few simple things you can do to stop study procrastination. That being said, if you're getting to the point that you have these thoughts, you've probably already lost the battle...

There are ways that you can stop study procrastination from ever rearing its ugly head.

Habitual Study

Getting yourself to study is tough. It requires a ton of discipline if you're not already in the habit. Every time you try and force yourself to study you're going to need to muscle down all those excuses that will be popping up. The best way to ease the pain of getting into studying is to make it a habit.

When you're in the habit of studying, your brain doesn't have time to make up excuses for not studying. If, after class, everyday, the first thing you do is pick up your textbook to study, within a few weeks, you're going to be buried in study material by the time you come up with excuses. When you're already studying, you're bound to knock back those excuses like they're nothing.

Sure, habitual study has its challenges. You're going to need to maintain that habit through the busy times and the slow times but it's advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. In fact, after learning habitual studying, most student get to cut their study time in half.

Habitual studying means less cramming is required. Using smaller lengths of time for studying, you're able to remember more of the information faster. Now, you won't always have the luxury of a habit to pull yourself out of procrastination. When you don't have the habit, there are a few things you can do to make your life easier.

No Think Start Up

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This is a study strategy that's based on the advantages of habits. It can work like a charm for some people but it tends to be a bit of a hit and a miss for others. Instead of the regular back and forth your brain has between studying and excuses, with the no think start up, you're going to want to stop the back and forth completely.

When you first realize that it's a time you planned on studying, focus on not thinking until you're into the study material. At that point, ignore everything else in the world and pick up a textbook. (The house fire can wait till later to be put out... For legal purposes: That is a joke.) The point is not to perfectly blank your mind. The point is to not give any credence to doubts you have.

You don't just realize there is something more important to do when you procrastinate. When you come up with some excuse, you need to back it up with a list of good reasons in your brain. The goal of the no think start up is to prevent that list from building. Your brain will be fighting for excuses, give those excuses no chance to become real in your mind.

Your studying has been set and treat it like stone. You can't change it. Anything important that comes up must wait. The faster you're able to get into studying, the better off you'll be.

This can be one of the most effective ways to build a habit. That's mostly what this should be used for. There is another trick that works better for those that can't quite clear their head.

The Honest Approach

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This approach to studying isn't as effective for developing strong habits but it can get you to study when you need it most. Whenever you start to hear your excuses to procrastinate studying, you need to stop yourself and ask a simple question. Do I want to study?

Forget about all the excuses you have. You don't need them. You don't have to study if you don't want to study. Tell yourself that and follow through with it. Just force yourself not to lie with pointless procrastination.

What happens then?

Most people lie at first. I know... You probably don't... but most people do.

Most people say, “I want to study... but...”

That's probably a lie. Look at whatever excuse you're making carefully and either prove it to be a lie or accept that you shouldn't be studying. You might think, “I could study better if I did it later.” That's probably a lie. You might also think, “I left the stove on...” that might be a legitimate excuse. (That explains the house fire I mentioned earlier.)

If you admit that you don't want to study then you're probably being honest. At that point, don't study until you want to study. The funny thing about this is, most students end up studying 5 minutes after they decide not to study. You don't have to do anything you don't want to but most students quickly realize they want to pass the test, they want to learn some of it, and they want to have the habits of studying.

If you want to study and don't have any excuses then doing it just comes naturally.

There is an old joke about procrastination that tend to ring true for the way many people deal with procrastinating. It's the last piece of advice I'll provide because in most cases, this can end up being all that you need to break the pattern of procrastination.

Every time you're thinking of procrastinating, just put it off. Procrastinate your procrastination. You'll have plenty of time to slack off tomorrow but today you're going to study.

While this holds very little weight, thinking it can help your brain get back into a positive pattern of thinking. Try it out sometime.

To get the grades you're looking for, you can't afford to have procrastination getting in your way. Until you're able to stop study procrastination and keep it out of your mind, you're not going to be doing as well as you could be. While you can probably get by, if you're the type student that reads this, that's definitely not enough.

Do you want to learn more ways to study faster and more effectively? Be sure to follow this blog.

What I Learned Writing College Essays For Cash

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My roommate burst through the front door of the apartment we were sharing for college and virtually yelled, “DUDE!” I was staring at my computer screen drifting off into space. I looked up at him and raised my eyebrow. He had a massive smile on his face and looked like he was about to pop. “You're not going to believe this...” He pulled out a college paper from his backpack and threw it to me.

I looked down. I was confused until I saw the mark on the top. He was handing me an essay that I wrote for him. He paid me $20 to write up this two page paper for him. I was slightly desperate for money at the time, so I accepted the offer. Now I was looking down at the paper I wrote for him that was now fully graded. It was a perfect 100.

I wasn't used to getting 100's for myself. I was more of a low A student. That ended up leaving me pretty excited about writing essays for other people. That's when I got started in the business of writing college essays for cash. That's also where I started to learn my first lesson.

Teacher Expectations Matter

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Teachers change their expectations based on the student. When a C student hands in the same paper as an A student, the C student will typically get a much higher grade for it. In my experience, the difference can be staggering.

One of the things that I always kept track of was the student I was writing an essay for. I would write all of my essays to be 100% original. That means, I could adjust whatever writing I do to match certain ideas for the student. For example, if I was writing a personal essay for a football player. I would likely include a football reference. (It looks more natural that way.)

Another thing that I would always keep track of is the student I'm writing for's average grade. After that first essay, I realized how lucky we were the teacher didn't notice the higher than usual quality essay. From that day forward, I asked people what their average grade was and I tried to not beat it by much more than 10 points. So, I would add spelling and grammar errors to a C student's paper. At one point, I even asked for a sample piece of writing. At that point, I copied mistakes the student previously made. (I wanted to make sure they couldn't get caught for anything. I was pretty good at it.)

A funny thing happened though. I would be adding spelling and grammar mistakes to the C student's papers but I would still be getting a much higher grade than expected. While a teacher would latch onto the A students mistakes, the teacher would regularly overlook the C student's mistakes. Managing that strange difference was one of the hardest things I had to do.

Teachers don't judge every student on the same scale. An A student will have to provide a much higher level paper to get the same grade as a C student. Throughout my writing essays career, I found only one teacher that was a possible exception to the rule.

This can be awfully depressing for a student looking to get their grade from A to A+ material. There isn't all that much you can do to change it either. Managing your expectations is all you can really do to guarantee you're satisfied.

The teachers weren't the only ones that made it a challenge though.

How To Be “Smart”

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One of the most obvious observations in my time writing essays was the typical essay buying student. First of all, virtually no traditionally “good” students bought essays. By good students, I'm referring to the kind that doesn't skip class. If a student makes the time to get to class, they seem to be dedicated enough to write their own essays. That, however, did not make much of a difference in the grade averages I saw. Some students coming for essays were getting A averages despite traditionally lazy approaches.

The difference between these A students and the failing students was usually pretty obvious by after one question, “When do you need the essay?”

The failing students would virtually always need the paper completed by the next day. The lower the grade average, the more likely a student is to come buying an essay at the last second. The A averaging student's would often give me 1 or 2 weeks notice in advance. In reality, I wrote them in a single night anyway but it was odd to watch how their priorities affected their grades.

Take note of that major difference in strategies and results. The higher scoring students appeared to be just about as lazy as the low scoring students. The major difference was how well they planned their laziness.

You Sell The Sizzle

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After writing a few hundred papers, I started to see when the teachers loved an essay, and when they didn't. The results were pretty obvious but it took me a while to completely understand them. Great essays are not necessarily normal. The majority of my best grades came from the times I took a leap of faith and did something horribly unusual with an essay.

For example, one time, I was supposed to interpret a poem for a student's class. I was given a list of poems that I could choose from. I, naturally, decided to take the poem that was only 4 lines long. With that poem I ended up writing 4 pages of interpretation. (Not only that, but I did it well.)

Writing essays for teacher's is basically just marketing to the teacher. If you don't differentiate your essay from the piles of other essays on their desk, you're not going to be able to get a top notch grade. Boring doesn't sell. In fact, the only reason the teacher even reads boring is because they have to.

Don't go into writing an essay without making something notable happen. You can read more about this in my article about how to write a good essay.

Writing a great paper is not about following the prompt more strictly. It's about taking an idea and running with it.

My college essay writing career only lasted a couple of years. Eventually, I realized that the money wasn't quite worth the hassle. I had plenty of other opportunities I had to pass up on if I wanted to keep paying my way through college with essay writing.

The most common questions people ask when I talk about these days come down to ethics. Was writing those papers for those students ethical? Ultimately, I don't know. Fooling the college never really bothered me. The only part that really got to me was having to regularly deal with the same desperate students never learning their lesson. It seems like some of the same students would “want” to do their paper but end up desperate and needy the night before it was due. They would have the time to complete the work but they'd be scared of their own score.

Don't be one of those students.

It doesn't matter how poorly (or great) you've done in the past. You need to be willing to take the risks to learn. The school will punish you with red marks and a low grade but forget about that. Grades only matter to the school. What matters is how you take those red marks. Some students get upset and lose hope. Others ignore them and pretend they never happened. The students that do well in life, not just school, are the ones that take those red marks and do everything they can to never let them happen again.

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