Finals season is at its peak and if you are like me, motivation is at an all-time low. The library seems like a waste of time, your desk has become a nap station and your laptop has become Netflix central. But it doesn’t have to be this way. From the laziest person, here are my tips to get your butt in gear for your tests.
1. Just go to the library
Get off your bed. Stop reading this article. Go to the library. At Virginia Commonwealth University, we have dozens of resources available at Cabell Library on the Monroe Park Campus. Don’t want to start that paper? Go to the writing center. Don’t want to study those flashcards? Print out a Quizlet from one of the many printers. It’s too loud in your dorm? Floors three and four are completely quiet. Maybe your computer is messing up and you are cleverly using that as an excuse to not finish your online quiz? IT support is downstairs in the Workshop. With resources like this, there is no excuse.
2. Organize what you need to do
Make a master list of what you need to get done/study and organize it by how long it will take you to finish said task. Always do the thing that will take the longest first so that you fly through the next assignments. Once it is organized, go through the list one-by-one and check them off. After each check, you’ll feel that heavy procrastination weight lift off of your lazy shoulders.
3. Make it a game
I learned this trick in third grade. If that doesn’t show how easy it is, I don’t know what does. If you have played any video game at all, then you know what checkpoints are (or maybe you run marathons). Use checkpoints in your work. Do half of a worksheet and if you mess up on your way down, take a five minute break to regather (AKA chug more coffee), then continue from the last checkpoint. It leads the studying to be goal-oriented which tends to work for most people. It’s OK if it doesn’t, I’ve got more tricks up my metaphorical sleeve.
4. Play focus music
There have been quite a few scientific studies that prove that certain types of music enhance brain power. The most popular of them being classical music. You can scourge YouTube and find hundreds of pre-made playlists that are a continual feed of study music, or you can use apps such as Spotify or Apple Music to make your own playlist. If you decide to not use classical music, try to not add songs that contain lyrics as these can be easily distracting and you’ll wind up studying the song and not your history textbook.
5. COMBINE ALL OF THE PREVIOUSLY MENTIONED
The very best way to force yourself to study is cram all of the aforementioned together to make yourself a Frankenstein of studying. Go to the library, organize your workload, make it a game with fun checkpoints and blast some gnarly Bach in your headphones. You are the master of your finals, not the other way around.
Anyways, I have to go study. Good luck!