4 Secrets To Study Organization That Never Get Talked About

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He was like a nerdy James Bond to me. I noticed him in class. He flipped out his binder like it was nothing. The binder was tabbed into sections related to the course work. All the sheets he got were neatly organized into his binder. Even his handwriting looked perfectly organized.

I looked down at my textbook with sheets randomly crushed into different sections of it. I suddenly felt the shame of my ugly organizational system. (If you'd dare call my system organizational.) I knew that I had to get to the bottom of it. That opportunity came a few classes later.

The class was organizing into groups for an activity and I was like a rocket guided missile ready to kiss whatever butts were necessary to get in his groups so I could ever so casually ask him a question. (Yes. That's a terribly mixed metaphor but I'm sticking with it.)

After asking him a few questions about how he kept so organized I learned about the work he put in. He told me he spent 5 or 10 minutes every night after class organizing his binder. I also learned this was his only class. I was suddenly I little less impressed. Then when he flipped through to the test section of his binder I casually noticed (okay, I stared inappropriately) his test scores. Then it hit me.

1. The Over-organization Virus

This nerdy James Bond of mine scored a grade lower than I had on the class's last test. Despite his awesome organizational skills and investment, he got a B when I got an A. My organizational system consisted of carrying random papers inbetween the pages of my textbooks. I couldn't put my finger on this at the time but it caused me to look closer at organized students.

There is this cliché that surrounds organized students. The more organized a student appears to be, the more we expect them to get better grades but that just doesn't hold true. There are plenty of organized students that get poor grades. There are plenty of disorganized students that get great grades. Of course, part of this comes down to intelligence but I believe it goes much farther.

Organization does not improve your grades (unless there is some kind of a binder check score.) Organization can help you improve your grades but those are two very different things. Having your binder perfectly laid out will not prepare you for your next test. It will only help you prepare for your next test. You need to still prepare for that test.

That raises a fundamental question. Would the time spent organizing be better spent studying?

In some cases it would, and before trying to implement any new organizational system you need to remember that. Time you spent tabbing stuff is time you don't spend learning stuff.

The sad truth is that most students use organization as a means to avoid productive activity. Organizing your binder can be kind of fun. Studying, on the other hand, (if you're doing it right) won't always be a fun experience. Organizing your stuff can be useful but it can just as easily be an excuse for you not to do the work you should be doing.

2. Organize Individually

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It is absolutely essential that you plan out your required level of organization for individual classes. Every class requires a certain amount of organization. If you organize every one of your classes as well as the nerdy James Bond I was discussing earlier then you'll spend way too much time organizing things you could have just as easily thrown away.

If you organize everyone of your classes with my classic, sheets randomly slipped between textbook pages, method then you'll be screwing yourself out of a good grade in many classes. With every class you need to figure out how much organization you're going to require. Doing that isn't always easy but just working on this problem will help everyone of your classes grades.

Some classes require organization because the teacher grades binders or other organization methods. I find this unbelievably irritating and as a matter of principle, if the binder is worth less than 10% of the grade, I'm not making a big effort. That being said, many people find this to be an easy way to get points. Academically speaking, it's often worth organizing a binder if it gets you points for it. (Unless the requirements for that binder are ridiculous or the points you get are really low.)

Another factor that you need to consider when deciding how to organize for a class is how difficult the course is. The simple method of dealing with this is organizing more for harder classes and less for your easy classes.

The more complicated way of dealing with this is a little more my style. There are many very difficult courses that don't require much organizing. The more the teacher lectures out of the textbook, the less you need to worry about organization. If a teacher virtually follows the textbook then almost no organization can usually get you by comfortably. If the teachers flies off on tangents all day, you may need to organize everything more carefully to keep up.

3. Put It On Paper

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There are a ton of different organizational methods but there is one trick that all of them use. It's one of the fundamental reasons organizational systems work at all.

Write stuff down.

Most organization is that simple.

While the biology of all this is way more complicated than I'm going to give it credit for. Think about your brain this way:

You only have so much space to hold information actively. By actively, I mean, in a useful way. I may know the capitol of Yugoslavia but until I hear someone say it, I might just feel like it's trapped on the tip of my tongue. That's not active information in my brain. It's just there. Ever forget to do something that you were supposed to do? It just wasn't in your active memory.

When you write stuff down, you take it out of your active storage memory and put it somewhere that you don't have to struggle to find it. That saves brain space for other stuff.

When I say to write stuff down, I'm talking about just about anything you need to remember in whatever way you want. Some people like to write stuff down in complex organizers. Others prefer random notes to themselves. Even if there is no chance you'll forget something write it down. That allows your active memory to clear it out and be used to store other important information. (And there will always be more important information to remember.)

4. Cool-ness Matters

Yes, despite noticing how ineffectively the nerdy James Bond's system worked, I still learned something from it. I started to emulate some of the things I noticed he did. As I learned to emulate those things (in only the necessary courses), my grades got a tiny boost. While I liked that boost, there was something that was significantly more important to me.

I felt way cooler (yes, I know. I'm a nerd.) when I didn't feel like a disorganized mess for my classes. If I just got that tiny boost in grades then I probably wouldn't have followed through completely. A couple points isn't particularly motivating but, honestly, I would probably have been willing to lose a couple points to feel cool.

Sure, you may be some superhero of not-care-what-they-think-itism but it helps.

If you like some organizational method for whatever stupid immature reason it is, this is probably the organizational system you should be using. Some people do this by keeping everything on there iPhone. Maybe you want a trapper keeper (Hipsters are bringing everything back. Please not these...) However you want to organize is probably the right way to do it.

Organization can be a beautiful thing but beauty is often subjective and useless in improving your grades. (Yes. I'm avoiding an obvious prostitution joke here.) Focus on using organization right. Don't focus on organization. With the right balance, it can be the key to taking a good student up to great student status but it needs to be done with the end in mind.

Do you want to learn how to study in 15 minutes a night while getting the grades of someone who studies for hours? Check out my books and other articles for more information.

How To Balance Sports And School

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You don't! Done. Have a nice day...

Okay... That probably doesn't satisfy you very much. I get it. You want to know how you can manage playing the sport you love while not sucking your way through class. It is possible. Any student can have amazing grades while competing in sports. (Or any student can be amazing at sports and still have good grades.) The problem is not with students not having enough time (usually.) I'll tell you how you can do it but there is an important point I have to hint at first. The problem is the attempt to balance them at all. Trying to balance sports and school leads most students down the wrong path.

Give Up The Balance

This is going to sound completely unrelated but I think it will help make my point.

In the last few decades mothers (and fathers to some extent) have been bombarded with bull about being perfect at everything. A hundred years ago, most woman aimed to be a good wife and mother. Today, it's wildly different. Most women are expected to be great mothers, amazing wives, absolutely gorgeous, fantastic employees, and make it look easy the whole time. Naturally though, that's completely impossible.

Mothers often work to try and balance all these aspects of their life to meet that cliche. The sad fact that they're humans and only have so much time in the day means they usually fail. Instead of being great at everything they end up being okay and barely passable at everything. Instead of kicking ass they spend their time trying to keep their head barely above acceptable.

Do you get how this relates to you yet?

You can't be an amazing student in every subject, a great athlete, a good friend, the slightest bit happy, and do everything else in the world too. Most students drag themselves into the ground trying to perfect everything. Instead of actually succeeding they just lead themselves into being completely depressed about their life. That, of course, just makes everything worse.

Stop trying to be perfect.

You will fail.

You can be damn good at everything but don't lose sight of reality. You only have so much time in a day. Once you accept that you can learn to use that time right.

Balancing is not your goal. Your goal needs to be prioritizing.

Priorities Beat Balance

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So, what are you looking to do with your schooling and sports experience?

You need to understand your goals with school and sports. If you're looking to become a professional athlete then unless you're naturally gifted, you'll never be good enough to compete while maintaining perfect grades. If you want to play sports professionally, you need to prioritize sports over school.

Of course, most students have the opposite problem. If you're not planning on making a career out of sports then make school a priority over sports. Lets face it. This is what most students should be doing. Unless you're in the tiny minority of amazing athletes, you shouldn't be planning a professional sports career. Don't fight against genetics. It's no fun. (Then again, it's your life.)

Well... If you're like most students you're thinking, “well... I'd like to keep my options open. I shouldn't set one priority over the other....” NOOOOOOOOOOO!! STOP! I'm serious. Give up that balance thought.

Priorities are way more effective than attempts balance. Balance is like making up a pretend equation to solve your problems. There is no effective way to measure whether you're putting enough time into anything. Your decisions will usually come down to your emotional state.

Priorities are tiebreakers. Lets say you're doing good in school and in sports but tomorrow you have a big game and a big test. You have one night to prepare for them both. The average student will prepare for each one of them about half the time. There are major problems with that strategy.

First of all, it takes time to “get in the zone” with your studying or practice. You need to grab your sports equipment. Go to the field. Practice. Go home. Take a shower. You need to pull out your textbook. You need to try and focus. You need to study. Then you go to bed. Notice how only two of those things listed are productive (studying and practicing.) Prep is unproductive. Picking both tasks in the same night makes you double the prep and reduce the productive time.

Second, most of your improvements won't come from study and practice time. It will come from the time you spend thinking about it afterwards. If after practicing, you study, your brain won't get to think about practice. Most of this is not conscious. (Ever lay in bed at night mindlessly thinking about the sport you were playing. That's productive, even if you're not trying to make it productive.)

If you give up balance and use priorities it all simplifies. The priority will win every time. That will allow you to excel at the priority.

But I'll Fail At The Non-Priority!

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Setting a priority doesn't mean you have to completely give up your non-priority. If you choose to try and become a professional athlete, you don't have to put grades too far below your sport. If you spend 10 hours a week practicing your sport, you can spend 9 hours a week studying (theoretically that is. In reality, that much studying is usually idiotic. Be sure to read my blog for a while if you doubt that.)

Priorities aren't about ignoring your non-priorities. They're about simplifying your decisions when your decisions become difficult. Most decisions don't have to be difficult.

Even if you put full effort into becoming an athlete, you'd still have plenty of time that you couldn't spend working at that goal. During those times, you can study. You'll injure yourself if you play your sport too often. You'll just hinder you studying if you study too long. (Studies show students learn less effectively as they study more.)

Notice how both activities have their own limiting factors. You don't need to balance them. You just need to let them balance themselves after setting your priorities.

There may be times you need to change your priority. That's alright. Change it regularly if you emotionally need to (or if you need to make the grade for sports qualifications.) Just remember to let one relax every time you feel the need to tighten up with the other. Without this mentality you'll constantly be trying to drive yourself into the ground with balance.

Don't try to balance school and sports. You'll usually get much farther in both areas of your life if you make one of them a priority over the other. You only have so much time in the day. You need to make sure you're using it on what's important to you as much as practically possible.

Do you want to know how you can cut your studying down to 15 minutes or less a day? Then be sure to follow this blog, our twitter, and check out the archives of this blog.

7 ACTUAL Reasons You Should Be Getting Good Grades (And 1 Reason You Shouldn't!)

Okay. I get it. So you haven't necessarily put in 100% effort into your grades so far. I've spent plenty of years slacking through school myself but eventually the slow kick in the butt the world gave knocked some sense into me. For years, I struggled to care even the slightest bit about my grades.

I did have one reason that I kept trying to use to force myself to study with but it never worked. Since I've started working with students on how to improve their grades, I've learned that it's actually one of the most common mistakes students make.

Do not get good grades to make someone else happy.

Despite all the whining of your parents or teachers, you cannot give in. Any attempt to study to make someone else happy is an almost completely wasted effort. You have only one life to live. Right now it might not seem like a big deal but you will regret the time you waste studying for this reason. Studying to make other people happy is a completely inefficient and painful way to spend your time. If you're going to find a reason to get good grades then take the time to find a good one. That will speed up your studying and make sure you can actually enjoy the process.

What are the reasons you should be getting good grades.

1. The Pursuit Of Knowledge

Yes. This is the noble and blatantly obvious first answer. Of course, 99% of you will glance over this like a crack in a sidewalk but this crack happens to be wide enough to break your ankle if you're not looking out.

Your grades can be thought of as a sign of the knowledge you're gaining. While it's never as simple as that cliché, it holds some truth. If you're looking to gain knowledge that they teach in school, focus on getting good grades as proof that you're actually learning it.

That being said, this should not apply for most students. Don't feel bad if you really don't care about the subjects taught in school.

2. Personal Training

I may have never enjoyed many subjects in school but after I started focusing on scoring high, this was one of my fundamental reasons.

You only have so much time in your day. If you want to be a better person, you need to use that time to improve. Considering you spend hours of your day cramped up into a dim classroom, you might as well use it as a way to improve yourself.

Your grades improving is usually a sign that you're improving your ability to learn information in school. These improvements will be helpful well past your school years.

3. To Get People Off Your Back (Yea. It's different.)

I know what you're thinking. Isn't this the same as making other people happy? Not exactly.

You should not be getting good grades to satisfy someone else but, for most students, getting poor grades would be absolutely miserable. Not because there is some major life consequence (well... probably) but mostly because parents and teachers would be poking you with annoying comments all day about your lack of effort.

If you're in a non-voluntary school situation like high school or earlier, satisfying people to the point that they shut up is a reasonable motivation to get good grades. If you're getting C's and your parents are complaining that you should be getting A's, try only getting B's and see if they stop whining. If they do, maybe it's worth sticking with the B effort. If they still keep complaining then either get the grades they want solely to shut them up (and don't put in an extra ounce of effort over that,) or forget trying to please them.

The difference between this and to make other people happy is this. Do the minimum to get people to let you live your own life. (Sometimes no amount will do this. If not, this reason is not for you. Deal with the people in your life. Not your grades.)

4. Prepare For A Career

So, you've decided you want to be a doctor (or maybe a professional basket weaver?) Getting good grades now, particularly in related subjects can be a great way to start prepping for a job. Notice the word start. It's definitely a small step for most careers but some career fields this is particularly useful.

If you want to be a math teacher (or engineer or card counter etc.) then focus on getting good grades in math. These lessons will definitely help you in your future career. Your history grade might be a complete waste of time though.

5. Create A Buffer

Okay. Maybe you're not so motivated by any of these other reasons. Despite that, you might still want to pass the class (how odd of you, right?)

Good grades can be created as a buffer for more slacking in the future. With some courses, the early lessons are significantly easier than the later lessons. For those courses (and certain other situations) you may want to get great grades early on so you can slack off a little later in the year without worrying about your grades failing.

Imagine how great it will feel having a final coming up that you could completely fail and still get a good grade in the course. Yea. Studying isn't all that hard in those cases.

6. Top School Or A Scholarship

Notice the word top school. I did not use the word good school. Good colleges do very little to help your career in the future versus the average college. They generally charge more to give you a slightly better education. That better education, usually doesn't pay off with a better career.

Imagine you're an employer reading an application that shows a person went to Joanasburg University? That may be the greatest college in the country educationally but if your potential employer hasn't heard of it, it means nothing. Top schools include MIT, Harvard, and other recognizably named colleges. On top of that, they can usually get you significantly better connections for your future.

If you're close to qualifying for one of those top colleges then you should consider keeping those grades up to make sure you have the chance to get in. At the very least, you may be able to get an academic scholarship. That can also be a great reason to keep fighting for great grades.

7. Cause You Wanna

Don't let me tell you not to score high if you have some personal reason you want to get good grades. Maybe you want to impress the girl sitting next to you in class? Maybe you're hot for teacher? Maybe you're a time traveler planning to learn information to take back to your society where you'll use it to defeat the evil ninja monkeys on mars? Whatever really floats your boat it a good motivation. As long as it really gets you excited, it can be a good reason to get a good grade.

Just please... don't do it to try and make other people happy. If they need your grades to be happy then they have bigger problems they should be worrying about.

Do you want to know how to get better grades than ever without putting more time than ever into studying? Be sure to follow this blog and our twitter to get all the updates.

5 Lies Your Teachers Told You About College

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Yes. You know it just as well as I do. Your teachers lied to you. No... Don't start lighting your torches and grabbing your pitchforks yet. Most of the teachers lie about the prospects of college with good intentions but even if they didn't have good intentions, consider this:

A high school teacher CANNOT speak negatively about college and keep their job safe. Imagine the uproar of parents if a teacher told you all the information I'm about to tell you. That's not to say college is a negative but knowing what a teacher is not allowed to say can help you figure out where the whole story isn't being told and where you need to look out.

1. You Need College To Get A Good Job

This is one of the most egregious lies being told to high school students today. You do not need a college degree to get a good job. In fact, there are many jobs without a college degree that are easier to get and pay way more than some jobs that require college. They're just a different category of jobs.

Most teachers don't even realize how much they're lying when they say this. That's because they chose to go down the college path themselves and, of course, there are some major statistics that, on the surface, suggest they're right.

You might hear the statistics like, “people that go to college make an extra million dollars in their lifetime,” and assume that's because college gets you a better job. That's misguided though. College does not necessarily increase a persons salary just because there is a correlation. It's just as likely to say, people that will become successful are more likely to go to college.

To rephrase that, it's not necessarily that college makes people smart enough to get more money. It can also mean that people smart enough to make more money tend to go to college. That's a major difference. People are told the benefits of college their whole life. People with a good head on their shoulders are waay more likely to consider it. These people may be just as successful without it.

That being said, this lie could actually hold some truth if you rephrase it:

You need training to get a good job.

Training can come from college. It can also come from years of experience. There are tons of different ways to get the training required for a job. Don't narrow down your focus to exclude everything except college.

2. College Is An Investment

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Not understanding this point can cost you years of your life.

More of my friends than I like to think about are now suffering from the consequences of this mistake. College is not an investment by nature. It's just not. Education means very little economically and can cost you a fortune if you don't plan it out like an investment. It's only an investment if you treat it like an investment.

An investment is something that has a clear way to pay you a return on your investment in the future. School is not always that clear cut. You are not guaranteed a job just because you graduate college. You're not even guaranteed an interview. You need to look at the job market you're investing in before you actually spend tens of thousands of dollars on college.

This might be painful but it will be a whole lot less painful than paying down your student loans on a job you could have gotten without your degree. College is only an investment if you make it one. Otherwise, it's just a luxury.

3. It's Harder Than High School

Many high school teachers like to scare students into focusing on their work. Instead of actually providing their students a reason to learn the material, they tell their students that they're going to fail out of college if they don't learn to work hard now. That's the most common reason I've heard teachers make this lie but there are a few other reasons I've noticed.

Most people that graduate from college and spend time talking about it are just the kind of person to brag. While it's not every case, many people like to make a big deal out of things that aren't all that much of a challenge to make themselves feel better about it. Instead of trusting volunteered opinions about the challenges of college.

Ask people that have graduated and don't brag about it. Sometimes they'll tell you it's a little harder but you won't get the average scare story you get from most people that bring the subject up themselves.

Don't expect college to be much harder than high school unless you're heading into a super challenging degree (medical, etc.) or a super challenging college (MIT, etc.)

4. Go To School For What You Love!

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Yes. This is another unbelievably dangerous lie.

The average teacher that tells you this one is so confident in it that they're easy believe. Don't. Imagine how you'll feel 4 years after college when you need to pay off $30,000 worth of student loans with $10 an hour. My friends are doing it now. It's not fun.

College is not the time to learn what you love unless you have the money lying around to pay for it. As mentioned before, you need to treat it like an investment. That means you should be going for a degree that has a clear market for a job after graduation. By market, I do not mean a few teaching jobs. I mean jobs in just about anyplace you look.

You cannot count on being in the small minority of women's studies majors that get a teaching job after college. You might as well be going to the library and buying lottery tickets because the odds are stacked up against you.

Oftentimes, you can make a reasonable compromise with this kind of thing. If you want to go for some of those more fun sounding classes then do it while getting a degree with real potential for a job.

5. You Won't Go If You Don't Go Now

This is close to true. Most people that don't go to college right after high school, don't end up going to college ever. That is mostly related to the kind of person that usually doesn't go to college. Responsible people are more likely to go to college. The irresponsible people don't go to college. They end up living paycheck to paycheck, and maybe accidentally having a few kids. Eventually, they can't change their might.

Don't ignore another group though. What happens to the responsible people that don't go to college? Well... they don't limit their options in the future. Personally, I went to college 2 years after I graduated. Working for a few years was one of the best things I could have done. I learned more in those two years of working than I did in school. All around me at my minimum wage job, I saw people that I didn't want to be like. I saw them partying and doing drugs and I stayed responsible because I knew I didn't want to end up where they were.

If you're responsible then you don't have to go to college now. The only thing that can keep you from going back in the future is yourself.

Don't just take everything your teachers tell you as fact. They're just as human as anyone else with an opinion. Look at yourself logically and trust that you're capable of making the right decision for yourself.

Do you want to learn the secrets to studying faster than ever? Follow this blog and check out my books to learn more.

How To Find Time To Study

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If I had a homicidal thought for every person that told me they don't have enough time to study then... Wait... Never mind.

It's the most common excuse for not studying around. I know... I know you happen to be the one person that isn't full of crap but I was that person too. I once thought I was way too busy to get any studying done too. I'd tell myself, “I've got this and that and this, and at some point I've got to find time to sleep.” It wasn't until I forced myself into a double workload in college that I realized how full of crap I really was.

After setting myself up with a double course load in college I learned how to make sure I always had enough time to study. Here are the steps you need to follow:

1. Get Honest

This is a point I was not so subtly hinting at in the introduction. Most people are completely wrong when they say that they don't have enough time to study. Look at what you spend your time doing and try to be as judgmental as possible. Try pretending you're a third party looking at your life, would this person agree that you really have no time to study?

Some of the problems are obvious. If you just watch a ton of television, or play on the internet for hours a day then you do have time to study, you're just choosing to use it to entertain yourself instead.

Your problem is probably not that you can't find time to study. That makes it a problem that's completely impossible to solve by finding more time. I could give most people a 25 hour day and they still wouldn't find the time required to study. Finding the real problem can make sure that the problem can get solved.

This, of course, applies to most people. I do know of mother's and fathers, and professionals going to college while maintaining their responsibilities. They usually aren't the ones asking for help finding time because they're too busy getting everything done and prioritizing to have time to complain.

2. Prioritize Studying

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If not studying would cause you to die then you would find time to do it. Think about it. If your life was on the line, you'd study. You'd skip your workout. You'd call out at work. You'd beat up the dragon sitting on your textbook (or try.) You might even wake up early to study if your life was on the line (short chance but still.) My point is, you need to consider how much of a priority studying is to you.

Is studying less important than watching tv? Then you better not expect good results. There are unfortunate rules we all have to live through. (Damn gravity always keeping me down.)

Find out where studying belongs on your priority list consciously. Most people just let their mind decide priorities in the moment. This isn't a productive way to solve the problem. Think about it and decide what studying is more important than (and what it's not more important than.) Then follow through with those priorities.

3. Reduce Your Need

Okay... Most students dramatically overestimate their need for studying. If you're not in one of the most intensive programs or schools in the world, you don't need to study for hours a day. Most students can get by studying only 15 minutes a day.

If you go through your day looking for a free hour to study then you are going to struggle but anyone can find 15 minutes that they're not being particularly productive. You probably spend at least 15 minutes a day waiting for other people to do things or during commercials.

The fastest way to find time to study is to start thinking about studying in a more reasonable way. Unless your goal is to ace everything, you don't need to waste excessive amounts of time studying. Until you accept that you're always going to struggle to find time. Focus on efficiency over quantity.

4. Attack Unproductive Time

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There are two main areas that you can always find more time to study.

The first area where you can find unproductive time is in the times I mentioned earlier. Do you ever just hang out waiting? Maybe on laundry day? Maybe you get to class five minutes early? As long as you have small sections of time available to study you can use it. Most people have better options but never forget that quick bursts of studying a few times a day can be highly effective.

If you carry a few flashcards in your pocket through the day then whenever you have 60 seconds in line or waiting for something, you can start studying. Pull the flashcards out of your pocket and finish a few of them. That will not only help you study for more time but it will help your brain integrate that information as important. (If you think about it randomly throughout your day your brain will prioritize it.)

The second area where you can find unproductive time is with what many people call “NET” time or “No Extra Time.” While you may need to fold your laundry, you can always listen to an mp3 of a lecture while you're doing it. Your laundry folding will barely suffer but you'll be learning significantly more than just mindlessly folding. By using net time you should always be able to find a few minutes to learn something.

5. Stop Making Excuses

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Once you start finding the time to study, naturally, your body is going to fight to find another excuse not to study. Don't worry, it's completely normal. Everyone's mind does it. After eliminating not having enough time as a reason you're going to start thinking, “Well... I'm not in the mood.” Or maybe your brain will start saying, “I'm too tired to study.” Or maybe it will say, “I won't need to learn this.” Any of these excuses may be true but based on your previous excuse you have to look at them with caution.

When you catch yourself in one excuse like not having enough time, you can't trust your future excuses without serious thought. In most cases, it's better to just assume your excuse is crap.

Getting better grades is not as difficult as most people make it sound. You don't need to be gifted and you don't need to invest your whole life into it. That's what this whole blog is about. If you want to learn more about how to cut down your study time while increasing your grades then be sure to follow this blog (and maybe check out one of my books.)

3 Life-Changing Memorization Secrets

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Memorizing is easy. Yes. I know you probably find that pretty hard to believe (that is, if you haven't been reading my blog regularly. Shame on you.) While most students find memorization painful and difficult, it doesn't have to be. In fact, the fact that you find memorization painful and difficult is a probably just a sign that you're not doing it right.

Memorizing in the way that most students have learned to memorize is like doing a workout with poor form. You're not going to see the results you want and you might just injure your future attempts to study. Keeping the following 3 life-changing memorization secrets in mind you should be able to turn your poor flopping around study routine into the easy process that it should be.

One point is absolutely essential to note though: Memorization is not the same thing as studying. Memorization is remembering specific information. Studying is attempting to use the information and be able to apply it for more than just a test.

1. Memorization Requires Testing

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The majority of students try to memorize by picking up their textbooks and reading. That is studying but it's definitely not memorizing. Reading information does not help you memorize anything. Your brain doesn't memorize any information that it doesn't feel the need to memorize. When you're reading it out of a textbook, you give your brain absolutely no reason to actually remember the information. The key is to take the information off of the page and find connections.

Reading is good for getting information to stick in your short term memory but that doesn't help you in most test situations. That information you read will be forgotten completely in a couple of hours. What you need to do is transfer that information from your short term memory to your long term memory.

Transferring information from your short term memory to your long term memory can be a little unpredictable but there is one basic concept that you need to focus on. To remember anything, you need to make connections in your brain. Those connections link all the information you're learning together in some way. The way you can make those connections naturally is through quizzing yourself.

You need to quiz yourself (while you can't just look at the answers.) The easiest way to think about it is with flashcards. You need to ask the question (on one side of the card) and find the answer only using your memory. If you can't do that then you're not actually learning the information. Every time you follow through with the question and find the answer, your brain lays the framework for remembering it long term.

Many students wait until the test to find out if the information they tried to study stuck. That usually leaves them disappointed.

2. Understand Short Term Memory

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Notice how I mentioned your short term memory storing the information while reading? That's important because it introduces one of the most overlooked tricks of memorization.

Most people's short term memory is absolutely amazing. (Despite that, most people think they're slightly deficient in memory anyway.) Short term memory can remember information significantly quicker than your long term memory. If the information has even the slightest bit of importance to your day then you can remember it in the short term fast. The problem is that it only lasts a little while before getting forgotten.

Despite that disadvantage, you can use your short term memory to prepare for a test. If you need to memorize a lot of information for a test then one way to significantly improve your grade is to perform your memorization within 20 minutes of starting the test.

Studying right before the test is one of the most simple ways you can see a huge improvement in your grades with almost no studying. While it's not a magical way to get a perfect grade, with the right combination of preparation and last minute studying, you can do amazing things.

That being said, it comes with some disadvantages for some students. If you tend to get stressed before a test then it might be in your best interest to save this study trick for the least stressful of your tests.

3. Meaningful Memorization

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The worst problem students can suffer from with their memorization goals is a lack of motivation. If you're not absolutely committed to memorizing something then you're going to be fighting against your own nature to memorize it. That's not good.

When you study something that you care about, absolutely every ounce of focus in your body can be used to make the connections. When you study something you're not too fond of, the opposite takes place. Almost every ounce of your body is looking for an excuse to get distracted. You can sometimes recognize this when you're studying something like Abraham Lincoln and somehow start thinking about your favorite television show.

When you have to memorize something, don't memorize it. Yes. You read that right but I probably don't mean what you think. Having to memorize something is trying to force yourself to study. Guess what... you don't have to memorize anything. Every time you pick up the textbook it's your choice. Every distraction you let get in the way is your choice. Sometimes it's a good choice. Sometimes it's not. You are responsible.

Do you not want to study? Don't study.

That being said, never forget to think about the things you miss out on when you choose not to study. When you don't study, you are sacrificing your grades. With that, you may be sacrificing more. Does sacrificing them help or hurt what you'd like to achieve in life?

Really, don't force yourself to memorize. If you can't find a meaningful or interesting reason to be memorizing something then you're doing something wrong. Try to find meaning in anything that you are going to study. Without it, you'll be fighting against your own nature and just hoping something sticks.

Do what means something to you and you'll consistently be able to amaze yourself with the results.

Notes On The Elusive “Photographic Memory” (Improve your visual memory)

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If there were one intellectual pursuit I considered worth pursuing at a young age it was developing a photographic memory.

Imagine just how awesome it would be to look at a textbook page for a minute, and then remember the image of the textbook page like you could still see it. That means, you wouldn't even have to read the page. You could read the textbook page by looking at the image in your memory and reading it then. It would be amazing. That's the dream of a photographic memory.

A photographic memory is not just a good visual memory. It's a virtual reference folder of perfectly remembered pictures in your brain. Despite the salesman trying to tell you otherwise, this kind of memory has not been scientifically proven to exist.

The Science on Photographic Memory

There have been hundreds of studies looking for people with photographic memories as described above. The vast majority of those studies (particularly the more scientifically rigorous ones) have shown the traditional view of a photographic memory being almost complete bunk. That being said, the traditional view of photographic memory is very narrow.

Most people, do, in fact, have an amazing ability to remember certain images. Those images just aren't as beautifully accurate and accessible as the traditional view of a photographic memory would require.

For example, have you ever seen the face of a person you recognize but you still can't remember their name? That face is an image that's been stored in your brain. Despite that facial image being stored in your brain, you can't figure out when you stored the face and why it's being stored. You need to ask yourself question after question like, “Where do I know this person from?” Oftentimes, you still won't be able to figure the name out. That's our photographic memory's poor ability to archive the information. You can figure out the face is important but you don't know why.

On top of that, most people that recognize that face, still couldn't use that image of the person's face to draw the person without the real face for reference. Photographic memory seems to be more powerful on a subconscious level than a conscious one.

Faces aren't the only thing that brains are good at photographically memorizing though. Think biological requirements to narrow it down farther.

Ever been riding around somewhere out of town and realize you've been there before? You recognize a sign or something and it just clicks. Landmarks are also an example of the visual memory doing it's magic while not inviting you in to watch.

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The Magic Of Childhood

The closest thing to a photographic memory that science has actually proven is an eidetic memory. While a photographic memory is thought to be almost perfect, an eidetic memory is just a very good visual memory. The person may be able to remember an image with ~90% accuracy depending on the complexity.

Some people do have an eidetic memory. By some, I'm talking about a tiny minority of the population. Oftentimes, people with an eidetic memory don't even know they have it because it's that unimpressive. To them, it feels like they can just see things in their brain clearly. That might not even be noticeable because they never get the chance to compare their amazing visual memory to the average persons' blurry and narrow images.

An eidetic memory is something that nearly 10% of the population has while they're children but as they grow up, that eidetic memory starts to fade away. Many theorists suggest that's because the use of language eliminates the need for such precise images in the brain.

If we were to take that as a fact, it could be interesting to consider this possibility. Visual memory may actually be much less useful than the ability to memorize words. For example, let's say you see a guy kick someone. You have two ways of trying to remember the situation. One; you remember the image of the guy kicking someone. That memory includes tons of colors, streaming video, and provides very little context to the situation. Or two; you remember “That guy is a jerk,” or “That guy fights back.” Those are four words each and they can provide significantly more context than photo in that situation. 

Perhaps a visual memory isn't the most awesome thing in the world? You're regular memory just might be more useful.

How To Improve Your Visual Memory

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Spending years trying to figure out how to develop a photographic memory is awfully disappointing but it did come with a few perks. I was absolutely miserable with my visual memory before starting. I could barely get an image in my brain. I'm definitely not gifted in this respect but I was able to learn a few tricks for developing a more powerful visual memory.

First of all, focus on colors. The hardest point of memorizing an image for most people, is not understanding this basic formula. Colors are your vision. There is absolutely nothing else that you take in. Most people try to memorize an image through just closing their eyes and hoping. Instead of that, focus on getting the colors into the right spot. As soon as you can do that, you're on track to improve.

Developing the details over that color is where you're likely going to plateau many times. That is painfully difficult even  for people with an eidetic memory. Don't feel bad.

The next thing you need to worry about is conscious awareness. To remember an image, you need to consciously try and remember it. It seems pretty obvious but it's overlooked by a ton of people, usually, after they missed their chance to become consciously aware of it. For example, test day comes and they think, “Why didn't my visual memory store this?!?” while they never actually consciously tried. They just kind of hoped. That can kill the motivation for any practice in the future.

You can't expect to memorize pages of textbooks using your visual memory but you can do some useful things with it. While a full page might be overkill, it's very practical to visually remember diagrams that are important. Instead of thinking through a problem logically you can imagine the diagram in your head accurately and get 90% of the way there. That 90% still, usually, requires traditional study to get the precision. The visual memory is more of a honing mechanism than memory system in this case.

So, I'm sorry to disappoint you but don't expect to develop a magical photographic memory anytime soon. While you can improve your visual memory, don't let it get in the way of using the rest of your memory.

Do you want to know how you can get grades like you have a photographic memory? You know what I''m talking about: spending 10 minutes studying and still scoring high on the test. It's possible. It's not magic but with the right tools it can look like magic to an outsider.
 

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