It’s December and finals week is fastly approaching! At Her Campus, we get it: as the assignments pile up, our motivation to do them is lost. How can you get the most out of your study time this finals season? Elevate your study game with these study tips and show those exams what a #girlboss you are!
1. Set Timers
Commit to studying for a set amount of time and set a timer to hold yourself accountable. Blocks off 30-45 minutes work the best! During this time, stay away from your phone and focus on the content. To keep motivated, reward yourself with a 15-minute break after the study timer goes off.
2. Study Alone, Review with Friends
Studying with friends can be distracting, especially when both of you aren’t motivated. *Cue procrastination* Here’s a pro tip: study alone, but review with friends. Start by making flashcards, rewriting notes or creating a study guide. Bonus points if you make them aesthetically pleasing! By going through lecture notes and rewriting key concepts, your brain decides what pieces are most important to know. After you’ve done the hard stuff, grab a friend to review. Make a competition out of running through flashcards by keeping score. Come up with fun examples to help you to remember important theories. Have fun, you’ve earned it!
3. Self-Motivate with Food
This works best when you have a long reading to get through. Take a piece of candy and place where you would like to read until. It could be until the end of the paragraph, page or the end of the reading itself! The candy acts as a little reward to motivate you to get through even the dullest of passages.
4. Get Away from your Phone
Sadly, this means studying without music in the background. Your brain can only focus on one task at a time. When we say we are “multitasking,” our brain is actually rapidly switching between two activities. Each time we switch tasks, we lose focus as a whole. There are lots of great apps available to keep you off your phone.
Forest – each time you set a timer on Forest, a tree starts to grow in your garden. If you exit the app while the timer is running, the tree will die. Although the tree is only online, the death of a tree is very effective!
Cold Turkey – cold turkey temporarily blocks apps until the timer runs out. There is no way to disable the block until the timer runs out. This is for when you have serious business to focus on, like studying for finals!
Siempo – this app allows you to control when your phone receives notifications. You can set it up so that you get notifications every 30 minutes or only at set times.
Now, take these tips and put them to use! Make your finals fantastic, Hawkeyes. You can do it!