By: Jesse Alcontin
Every day, you have two choices. It’s either you continue sleeping with your dreams, or you wake up and chase them. So, choose your study habits wisely; because believe it or not, it will help decide on what your future will be. Nothing is ever too late not unless you’ve given up right from the start. We all know that the student life is hard. But who says you can’t make it easy? Well, you actually can! In this article, you can find comparisons between the good study habits and the bad ones. Let’s see what’s gonna be your choice after reading the whole of it!
BAD STUDY HABIT # 1: PROCRASTINATING
Many students are well aware of our number 1 bad habit, do you know this one too? Well, maybe this is the right time to finally forget about it! When a person procrastinates, it doesn’t necessarily mean that he or she is lazy. But procrastinators often set aside all the things they have to do until the very last moment and then crams to finish all of it. Here are some things that can possibly happen to you when you do this bad habit:
1. Wasted Time
How many hours did you spend sleeping, watching television, and surfing the internet before doing your homework or project? Yes, you haven’t missed the deadline yet if that’s your reason. But if you see it from another perspective, you will realize that time is indeed gold. If you have all the time to sleep, binge watch, and browse the internet, then that definitely means that you also have a lot of time to study for a different subject, to research more about a paper you need to do for your other professors, and organize your schedule.
2. Missed Opportunities
If you think that there’s not really a great harm in being a procrastinator, then you’re wrong. If anything, YOU are harming yourself. By doing so, you deny yourself the chance to become better. Education plays an important role once you start working. So, while you’re still given an opportunity to improve, explore all the possibilities you can do. Spend more time doing extra-curricular activities instead of slacking.
3. Rushed Outputs
Because you have little to no time at all to prepare for your homework or project, you can’t give your hundred percent effort into it. You may have all the great ideas in mind, but once you decide to do it last minute, you are faced with a great pressure to finish it. That’s why the quality of your work will only come second. You now only care about the importance of submitting it. At least you submitted it, right? But always remember, by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
GOOD STUDY HABIT # 1: FOLLOW YOUR SCHEDULE
Good students know the importance of following their own schedules. When you have a habit of following your own time to finish all your tasks, then you will notice how much of a breeze it would be! Plus, you might even have more time to do some self-care and hobbies, just because you’ve been following your schedule! When the time is not after you, you can see how unworrying it is to give some time for yourself. When you procrastinate, you do all things before the deadline. But when you follow your own timeline, you can do all things guilt-free after finishing your to-do’s! See the big difference? If not, then here are some perks you can get when you do this good habit:
1. More Time for Yourself
Like what I said earlier, you can do things guilt-free when you follow your own time. It would be such a relief to do all the things you want to do without a voice in your head saying, “You have some homework to finish.” Following a schedule does not only mean you can assign time for your school stuff, but that is also an opportunity to plot some time to do your personal interests without sacrificing a deadline!
2. Large Room for Improvement
When you’re on point in tracking your tasks, you can overlook everything. You can always improve more and adjust some miscalculated schedules when you’re committed into following your timeline. If previously, the schedule you made had still placed you in a tight spot, then for the following tasks, you can revise it into an improved timetable. As the saying goes, an hour of planning can help you save ten hours of doing.
3. High-Quality Outputs
This is the best perk on the list! You can never go wrong with a project that you’ve given much time and effort. Intelligent labor is always evident in anything that you do. This is the best thing you can have when time is your friend. You are prepared, efficient, and systematic. No one can ever bring a hardworking student down.
BAD STUDY HABIT # 2: SURVIVING ON JUNK FOOD
You are what you eat. You may not control some things, but you can ALWAYS choose the food that you eat. Most students opt to just eat processed, easy-to-heat food like cup noodles, canned goods, and fast-food meals. For some college students who live alone or are renting a dorm, I understand that your time is constraint, and it is much easier to just eat the easiest and fastest meals you can prepare. But here are some effects of eating junk food that affects the brain:
- It makes you impulsive.
- It shrinks the brain’s learning capabilities.
- It reduces the generation of new neurons.
- It can negatively affect your memory.
These are things you have to keep in mind whenever you choose junk food over healthy meals. If you have no time for healthy eating, then this may be your sign to finally start doing so.
GOOD STUDY HABIT # 2: EATING HEALTHY
Good food choices are good investments – even for your grades. Students with good grades and a healthy lifestyle know that there are quite easy to prepare meals that are still packed with the nutrients that their mind and body needs. So, whatever you are doing, no matter how busy you get, never ignore the importance of choosing healthy food. Because it is a huge edge you can use to make your brain healthier and readier to study. Here are the advantages of students who eat healthy food:
- It can help improve your memory and alertness.
- It is key to good sleep.
- It improves your mood, contributes to lower stress levels, and decrease anxiety.
- It can help your brain in faster information processing.
BAD STUDY HABIT # 3: STUDYING AT THE WRONG PLACE
This habit depends on every individual. Some people find it hard to study on a crowded place, while some don’t. Some students like to study in the library, while some do not. So, when you are aware of the places that you have a hard time studying in, don’t even think about spending your time there. Want to know if a place is a wrong place for you to study?
- If you’re sleepy or have fallen asleep while reading in that place, then it’s not for you.
- If you find yourself distracted of the things around you, then it’s not for you.
- If the place is too noisy or too quiet for you, then it’s not for you.
Anything that may cause you distractions, annoyance, and lack of interest in studying, is a bad place for you. You just have to know where your mind is at best, then you’re one step closer in ending this bad habit.
GOOD STUDY HABIT # 3: FOCUSED LEARNING
It’s an experiment when finding the right atmosphere or ambiance to help you concentrate. Great students do not sacrifice their attention over distracting things. Remaining focused and on top of their game is what they do best. You get what you focus on, so focus on what you want. Want to know how to do it too? Read these:
- Pick a right place for you to study in. A place that avoids all the distractions may be what’s best for you.
- If you don’t feel like starting to study, take one minute to breath and prepare yourself mentally. It’s hard to focus when you are not mentally present in the things that you’re doing.
- Write down exactly the things you must study. Keeping a list with you will lessen the chances of you getting diverted over other matters. Plus, you won’t be skipping anything important.
- Stay away from using your gadgets as much as possible. A simple click on a cute video you found on the internet can fuel a much longer time of you being preoccupied. If you don’t need it, don’t use it, then you’ll find yourself very focused on what’s in front of you.
THE BOTTOMLINE
We are what we repeatedly do. Therefore, excellence is not an act, but a habit. So, when you have already started doing good study habits, it will become your daily routine until you find yourself naturally disciplined at the things you do. The bad side of it is when you’re so used to slacking while studying, to the point of not realizing it anymore. When you continuously choose the easy way instead of the long and worth it road, you are inevitably choosing a future not as bright as the others. But the good news is, you still have time, you still have hope. Once you start realizing your bad habits, then you can start motivating yourself. Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what will keep you going.
