Many students are stuck in their studies – they just don’t know it. To give you a little more clarity, I have prepared a test. Take a moment and answer the following questions as intuitively and honestly as possible:
- Do you often feel overwhelmed during your studies?
- At the end of the day, do you often feel like you haven’t accomplished enough?
- Is your to-do list rarely completely finished?
- Do you find it difficult to distinguish important from unimportant tasks?
- Do you often have trouble concentrating?
- Do you sometimes wonder about the purpose of your studies?
- Do you sometimes lack a concrete goal to work towards?
- Do you think your fellow students are better students than you?
- Would you describe yourself as a perfectionist?
- Do you feel like you haven’t progressed in a while?
Just between us: How many of the ten questions can you answer with a “yes”?
If you can answer yes to more than half of the questions, you risk getting stuck in your studies. This is not a problem in the short term, but it is in the long term. That’s why you shouldn’t take a possible dry spell lightly but question it seriously and look for solutions.
Before I help you with that, however, let’s first address the actual problem.
The Biggest Problem
Imagine the following scenario: You are in the middle of your exam preparation. In less than a week, there is an important exam that you want to pass with a passable grade. Yesterday you laid out a solid study plan, today the work begins. After a brief low in motivation, you have overcome yourself and are now finally in learning mode.
Your to-do list is set, and you fight your way from task to task. You have to push yourself a little bit every time, but you tackle things now and force yourself to keep going. But just being busy is not enough. Many students are busy: they are diligently sorting their documents, summarizing an incredible amount of information, and researching as much as they can. They do something – but in the end, it doesn’t do them any good!
The Problem Is: You’re Busy But Not Productive
And I bet you are too.
Not always, but often.
So, if you’re wondering why, you always fall short of your potential while studying and don’t get much done otherwise, then maybe it’s because you fill your time with unnecessary things that don’t get you any closer to your goals. For example, if you want to pass a module with an A before the comma, but it takes you three hours to update your folder labels and Google five little definitions, you’ll be inducted into the Hall of Fame for the most unproductive student of all time. This has little to do with efficiency.
Something unimportant does not become important even if you do it very well. But the productive study can be learned. And now I’m going to show you how to get started. Of course, using a paper writing service will boost your efficiency, however, it’s not the full answer.
Getting Ahead Made Easy – A 5-Point Plan
Productive studying is not difficult. However, if you want to study efficiently in the long term, you need to practice it regularly and establish productive habits in your student life. However, a few small changes in the way you work are enough to get you started. To do this, I suggest the following five steps:
Step 1: Set a Specific Goal!
Set a specific goal for every task you engage in from the start. Only an exact goal will help you to work in a focused manner and to complete your task in such a way that your result will help you progress. Without a goal, you waste your energy on small things and get distracted; a precise goal, on the other hand, gives you clarity.
Step 2: Set Smart Priorities!
Before you sit down at your desk to study and begin an assignment, the first thing to ask yourself is, “What’s important?” And right after that, “What’s most important?” Many students only ask the first question and then give up overwhelmed by the multitude of answers. Result: A full to-do list that can never be completely done. If you want to study productively, you have to set priorities and that means you only take care of the most important things that ensure your progress. The rest can go.
Step 3: Make a Written Plan!
Once you know what really matters (“What’s most important?”), you can’t just get to work. You’re still missing something: a plan. Many students underestimate the value of a good plan. A plan is your personal instruction manual for a productive learning session. Without a plan, you can only guess what your next actions will be – and as a result, you become tangled, unproductive, and slipping into old patterns. Therefore, create a short-written plan for each task, in which you record each individual work step. This is exactly how professionals deal with tons of workload at https://us.masterpapers.com/.
Step 4: Think and Act in Steps!
Most of the tasks in your studies are complex: summarizing the lecture, studying for an exam, writing a bachelor thesis. These are all huge tasks – and overcoming to start with such a task is also huge. Therefore, you should get in the habit of breaking big tasks down into small, manageable steps. You have to break up large, daunting work packages into small, appetizing slices so that your personal activation energy for completion remains low. This also makes it easier for you to keep track of things and reduces the risk of losing orientation or motivation.
Step 5: Work Fast and Imperfectly!
Perfectionism is common among students. By that, I don’t mean the group in football jerseys that has breakfast at 2 p.m. and goes to lectures twice a semester, but rather those who spend the nights at their desks to ensure their academic success. The problem with perfectionism is that it slows you down and gives you no adequate benefit in return. It is often enough for a very good grade if you have mastered 90 percent of a topic (100 percent is never possible anyway). So instead of using your valuable time for small learning advances, you should rather step up a gear and set smart priorities.
Conclusion
Then continue as before and stay below your potential while studying. Waste your time and waste your potential. Keep busy and sacrifice productivity. Don’t be surprised if your grades don’t improve. It could also be that at some point your studies will no longer be fun and you will find yourself in a real crisis of meaning.
If you want to avoid that, stop getting in your own way and step up your studies. Don’t settle for being a good student when you could be a very good one. You just need a good plan and more time, which you can get with help from a professional writing service.
The five steps I have shown you in this article are enough to get you started.