Study Secrets: Stay Productive Much Longer. Part 2
Learn to Say NO
It is time to become assertive and learn to say “no”. It can be hard to say “no” to people that are asking you favors, but you should be mindful of how much time you have to get all of your stuff done and the fact that we have limited amounts of energy for every day as well. So, try not to spend all your time helping others, whether it is a friend with his or her homework or other peers and their assignments; do not overexert yourself. This way, even at night, you feel that your energy can be directed to more important tasks that require you to be fully focused. And you can recommend to your friends contact writers from paper4college.com, they will help with essays and other papers.
Make Your Study Sessions Shorter
When you are studying, you need to take a break every thirty minutes, even if this break is only five or ten minutes long. Taking breaks allows your body to re-energize itself and to sustain your focus for a longer time.
If you are finding out that your productivity seems to diminish, make sure you are allowing yourself a bit of time away from your desk just to make a snack, exercise, walk around the block, or make a cup of tea among other leisure activities. If you feel that you are getting tired, your focus is just not there, and you need some more clarity, then find a quiet place and do some deep breathing. It is a good way to oxygenate the brain again and re-energize the body.
Block It Out
By saying that, we mean making sure that you fix a work or a task that needs to be completed in your planner. Write down when you aim to complete different homework and assignments, and also mark when you accomplish all your tasks. By having everything written down, you are more likely to do it and feel more motivated, so your productivity increases. Also, it is going to make you feel much less stressed and overwhelmed because you will not rush looking at a really long to-do list.
Plan Extra Time
If you are working on assignments or homework, and you always do it over time and it harms your following studies, try to allocate about 30% more extra time. If you think that you will need about 60 minutes to do something, try to be a little more generous with your time and allocate around 80 minutes.
You can also try to allocate about 30 to 60 minutes daily to get all your tasks that take around 5 or 10 minutes done. Do them right away firstly, and get them out of your way. So, by doing that, you will not have those 10 or 15 little things that remind you that you have to do them later. They just make it much harder to focus on one task at a time and you also feel more overwhelmed. So, we suggest you block out all your tasks and allocate some extra time to get them done in the morning to have a whole day to focus on everything else.
Prepare Yourself After Lunch
That means you have to take a proper lunch break, try not to eat at your desk or give yourself only 15 minutes to have a lunch break. Food that boosts energy and helps you sustain it and focus throughout the day is very important. So, try to give yourself around 30 or even 60 minutes for a lunch, get away from a desk, get outside, get some fresh air, or chat with your friends. This time will help you. Once you get back from your lunch break, it is time to regroup – give yourself about 10 or 15 minutes to assess everything you have done during the day and where you are in your long list of priorities and wishes. This little exercise can help you get back on track and make sure you stay as productive as possible for the rest of the day.
Avoid Distractions
We must say that essay writing requires complete concentration and involvement in work. There should be no distractions.
As we get more tired, we are more prone to procrastination, scrolling social media, including Instagram or Facebook. Just make it your new rule not to use your phone in the middle of the day. In fact, it only seems to you that you will spend quite a bit of time with your phone. You will not even notice how half an hour will pass. In the worst case, it can last about an hour or more. This is a chain reaction, which can only be stopped by a huge effort of will, which will consist in preventing this reaction from the very beginning.
So, give yourself a certain time for distraction. Maybe it is better to check your phone on the way home from school on the bus, or maybe you can do it right after dinner by giving yourself 30 minutes just to be online, watch some YouTube videos, scroll through your Facebook etc.
But if you check your phone in the middle of the day, it is going to break your focus, and it takes a lot of time to get back on track once you reach your phone. You do not get back instantly, it takes around six minutes to get back into that study zone, so make sure that you are mindful of what distracts you. But do not overdo it. Do not forget to give yourself time for the phone and other things not related to work. Thus, every minute of your day will be spent efficiently.