We all start the semester with the best intentions (new year, new me, right?) to be the most productive, that-girl academic weapon there ever was. But as the spring semester midterms season approaches, my schedule has suddenly become a whirlwind of assignments, exams, and endless deadlines and keeping track of every deadline and assignment that will pop up is an exhausting task. If you’re feeling burnt out, unmotivated, or like you’re swimming in jello every time you open up your laptop, trust me, you’re not alone. Though not all of these tips may work for you, here are some of my tried (and true) study hacks that *actually* work!
- Romanticize Your Study Sessions!
The first step to being properly ~motivated~ to do your work is doing it in a space that is not your dorm room. Whether you’re answering emails under the RISD Fleet Library’s golden coffered roof or grinding an essay in the Joukowsky’s second-floor student library (trust me, its gorgeous up there!), Brown is full of so many beautiful spaces to study! If you dare to walk down the hill to downtown PVD, try grabbing an Italian Ciabatta sandwich and a pistachio frappe latte from Caffè Nero or an avocado toast from Small Point Cafe. Studying feels way less painful when you turn it into an aesthetic experience. While this may involve some (a lot) of walking, creating a good vibe around your study session makes it something to look forward to rather than something you’re dreading and want to procrastinate.
- Trick Your Brain into Starting with the 5-Minute Rule
The hardest part of doing anything is starting. Instead of staring into the pits of despair when you have a 10-page paper due (been there, done that), tell yourself that you’re just going to study or do a task for five minutes. Then, grab your phone and set a 5-minute timer. More often than not, you’ll find that once those 5 minutes are over, you actually want to keep going, and that 5 minutes is not nearly enough to do what you said you were going to do. And bingo! Now, you’ve removed that mental block of tackling a huge task at once and are more motivated to do it than before.
- The Pomodoro Technique
We all remember that era when study influencers swore by the classic Pomodoro Method: 25 minutes of work, then a 5-minute break, and after 4 Pomodoro sessions, you can take a longer 20- to 30-minute break. This technique hasn’t really worked for me because I feel that 25 minutes is too short of a time interval to break down my work. So, I’ve customized this study hack to fit my preferences—I do a 50-minute focus interval with a 10-minute break—and you can too! Maybe you try working in a 30-minute session with a 6-minute break or go for the 90-minute deep work session with an 18-minute break. Regardless of what you do, the goal is to maximize your efficiency and reduce distractions, so experiment and find what keeps you engaged.
- Get Rid of Your Phone
You know how the old adage goes: out of sight, out of mind. Whenever I study, I like to put my phone someplace (like behind my computer or even zipped up in my bag) where I can’t see it to minimize my want to open Instagram and doomscroll for hours. If you don’t want to physically put your phone away, whether for safety reasons or other reasons, invest in a screen-time app like Forest! Through the Forest app, which is available as a Chrome Extension, and on the App and Google Play Stores, you plant a tree (cedar or oak) and watch it grow as you do your work. Forest has many different modes to track your productivity, including one where if you click out of the app, your tree dies.
- Set Clear Goals and Break Those Tasks Down
We all have sticky notes filled with tasks like “Write English essay” or “Finish math p-set,” but these goals all seem so daunting when you lay them out like that. Instead, I like to break down my tasks into manageable parts like “Research sources for English essay” or “Skim math p-set,” and, bit by bit, I find myself zipping through my tasks without wondering how I’m going to get it all done. Extra points if you color-code your to-do lists (science is always green, duh) to make it a bit more aesthetic.
- Change Up Your Study Spot
Studying in the same spot all day leads to fatigue. Other than the productivity boost that switching study spots can give you, think of each place that you study as a new cram sesh or essay grind. For example, you could make your study session a Providence cafe-hopping excursion! Maybe in the morning you stop by the Coffee Exchange, then have lunch across the street at Amy’s, then take advantage of the lo-fi music at Ceremony, and end the day celebrating your success and sipping on a hot chocolate from Madrid in Wayland. If you don’t have enough time to run around Providence, try switching it up around Brown—start at your desk in your dorm, then move to the common room, go to the Hay or the Rock, and finish up the day in the Student Center.
- Don’t Study Alone
My biggest hack to feel motivated when you study is to not study alone. If you’re studying alone, not only are you more prone to distractions, but it also feels like you’re holding the weight of the world on your shoulders. Instead, try studying with a friend or with a group of friends or even your classmates! Some of my most productive study sessions have happened when I got together with my STEM-concentrator friends (BMEs, my heart goes out to you) and we worked on our separate tasks, of course, saving time to yap and try the new latte flavors at our favorite coffee shop.
- Done is Better than Perfect
Remember, done is always better than perfect. Once I started realizing that perfect things don’t necessarily get done, it changed my productivity and motivation for the better. Don’t get caught up on making every little thing perfect—remind yourself that something is always better than nothing. A productive mindset is so much better than a perfection mindset because it tricks our brains into thinking that we can achieve those tasks if the end goal isn’t to be perfect. What’s more, if you start early enough, you can always go back and revise your essay drafts or spend more time figuring out that tricky chem problem.
- Celebrate Your Study Goals (Remember to Take Breaks!)
Remember to take breaks! You can always grind out a productive, no-distraction 12-hour study session and then brag to your friends that you got kicked out of the Rock’s Absolute Quiet Room at 2 am, but you have to take time for yourself in order to regroup mentally and physically. In fact, Breaks do not mean you’re being unproductive or that you’re wasting time, but that you are recharging your body and your mind before your next task. According to Cornell Health, “taking purposeful breaks (anywhere from 5–60 minutes) from studying to refresh your brain and body increases your energy, productivity, and ability to focus.” Switch up your location (get off your bed and go to your couch), strike up a conversation with your roommate, go out and eat at the restaurant you’ve been wanting to try, take a walk along Blackstone Boulevard, or even make the trek across campus to the Nelson for an evening Barre Class.
- Romanticize the End Goal
And for my 10th and final hack, romanticize, romanticize, romanticize! If you’re particularly stuck, think about just how good it will feel to get your tasks done. Maybe you’ll celebrate by cooking a new recipe or watching the latest episode of The Bachelor with your roommates. If you’re really in a rut, plan something fun to do the evening after your essay is due or you take your exam (like trying the seasonal menu at Persimmon) or even go on a day trip to Boston if your deadlines fall on a Friday evening. At the end of the day, it’s about how we celebrate the small wins in life and make sure we have something to look forward to.
Remember, however, that motivation is not about being inspired 24/7/365. There will be some days when you have no desire to tackle the 20-item to-do list waiting for you on your desk. There are days when an aesthetic environment and a cute coffee just don’t do the trick.
But if there is one thing you take away from this article, let it be this: we can consult all the award-winning blogs, watch all the videos by famous studytubers, and take all the tips from online articles that we want, but the only way that we will truly be motivated is if we find our why. Maybe its something small like I want to pass my class or something bigger like I want to change the world. “Motivation is the fuel that ignites the engine,” writes Forbes Council Member Ryan McGrath in his article “The Power Of Drive: Why It Matters More Than Motivation And How To Cultivate It.” If motivation ignites, then drive and purpose sustain. We need to find our raison d’être and our drive to do—it’s a choice that we have to make every single day!
Sure, I’ll have some off days and weekends where all I’d rather do is rot in bed and scroll to my heart’s content. don’t we all? But when all is said and done, I want to look back at the 4 years (the 1000+ days) I spent at Brown and confidently say that I took advantage of every opportunity I had access to when I was a student at Brown. It’s such a privilege to study at a place like Brown, so why not make the most of it?
In the spirit of the impending midterms season, it is imperative that we find ways to keep ourselves moving forward, staying positive, and celebrating our wins, no matter how big or small. Above all, you’re not alone in this. College midterms are tough as is—be sure to lean on your friends and family for extra support and motivation during this time. You so got this girl, we’re all rooting for you!