Being a student can be challenging sometimes. You may find yourself bogged down with work, trying really hard to get your grades up in order to reach your goals and ambitions for the future. You are not alone, as almost every student goes through this, and if you don’t structure your time right, it can become a real nightmare. To add to all this, you also want to keep a fit of a social life, maybe do some exercise and get enough sleep everyday so time really is of the essence to make sure you’re productive enough throughout the day.

Here are some tips that will help you become productive as a student.

1. Track your time

You will agree that it’s difficult to plan your personal time if you don’t know how you’re spending it. So, tracking your hours is an important step toward better time management. Start by breaking down a major project into manageable individual tasks.

To do this, allocate time blocks to each school activity and take note of the time you start and finish the tasks. You can use a time tracking app or simply the clock on the wall to make sure you stay on track. Every time you need a break, get a bite to eat or let your mind wander, clock off and note it down.

This will get you to the habit of accurately predicting how long a task is likely to take and can then plan your week around that accordingly. You’ll minimize time wastage and feel more confident about your study habits.

2. Take periodic breaks

According to Study International, taking breaks while studying is an important part of achieving your potential. They also help you stay focused and motivated and a productive break should leave you feeling refreshed and ready to return to your studies with a renewed focus. This is due to the fact that our brains can only handle a certain amount of information before we begin to tire and lose focus. By pushing our minds beyond their capability, we create stress and start becoming tired.

As a student, it’s important to break while studying to make sure your productivity, focus and energy stays at optimal levels as there is a lot of information that you need to consume each day. Remember to use your break time to do something totally different from your studies.

3. Set yourself deadlines

Set yourself competitive deadlines for your activities. This strategy will help to avoid leaving your study to the last minute, normalize deadlines and maximize student productivity. Just like effective time management, juggling deadlines is a common requirement for many senior jobs.

4. Quit social media for now

Quitting social media isn’t easy. The fear of missing out and the thought of being so ‘out of touch’ in this day and age is strange, even if you aren’t a social media addict. However, what it will do is help increase your productivity as you’ll have more time, and less ways to procrastinate as there’ll be no news feeds to aimlessly scroll through or grids to check out.

However, if you feel that this is too much to do in one go, start by limiting or blocking your access to the main platforms that take your focus away from your studies. And then set boundaries. For example, give yourself 10 minutes a day to check out one platform. It will be hard in the beginning but soon you’ll find yourself not checking them at all and your productivity will soar. From there, you can do a week, then two, then quit for good.

5. Plan ahead

Always use a calendar, diary or application to plan for the coming weeks and months ahead. This is part and parcel of life as a student. Know when events are coming and give yourself plenty of time to plan around them. Planning ahead will also help you when you return to the world of adult learning, because relying on the deadlines of your calendar is a more critical habit to maintain work/life balance. So, start practicing now.

6. Eat healthily and get plenty sleep

We put plenty of strain on our bodies as students, where a simple solution is to introduce more nutritious meals into your lifestyle. This will keep energy levels high and make studying more productive. Student productivity relies on a great immune system and optimum health. A healthy diet is your brain’s best friend.

Also, at least 8 hours of sleep is essential for healthy brain function. Studies suggest that students may need even more. To increase your productivity in the long term, be sure to wind down at the end of each day and go to bed calm.

In conclusion, as a student, it’s important to reward yourself for your hard work. A reward system will provide you with extra motivation and will help you to keep focused and spend your days being productive so that you can get your reward at the end. Therefore, every time you finish a challenging assignment, revision day or week or complete that essay – reward yourself. However big or small you see fit. This could be anything from listening to your favorite podcast or watching a movie.

Chigozie

My name is Chigozie Japhet. I am a content writer, and a brand strategist. I like  writing, reading, researching and watching football, especially my team, Man United. i believe in working hard, and also in relaxation as all work without play, makes Chigozie a dull boy.

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