Studying can be a complete nuisance – even to the most academically inclined.
But it’s one of those things that must get done if you want a better life. There are a lot of hacks out there that will help you study better, but the following 7 study habits will lead to sustainable student success.
The 7 effective study habits that will help you succeed are: studying consistently to avoid cramming, actively recalling information, taking regular breaks, spacing out your study sessions, creating a study plan, testing yourself, and eliminating all distractions.
These habits improve your memory, reduce stress and anxiety, and motivate you to manage your time better. Now, before you say, “I already practice these good study habits,” – it’s not about what you’re doing; it’s about how you’re doing them. The rest of this article will explore these successful student habits in more detail, including how to make the most effective use of them.
Table of Contents
The 7 Effective Study Habits You Need to Master
1. Study consistently to avoid cramming
Cramming is a study technique that we’ve all used at some point. And we promise ourselves that we’ll never do it again. But we end up in the same place every time.
And while you most probably have heard about the benefits of studying consistently, something inside you probably shrivels up in fear at the thought of sitting for hours every single day studying.
However, you’re wrong. You don’t need to sit for hours every day to study consistently.
If you ask any successful student about the secret to their success, they will tell you that studying consistently – even if it’s just for a few minutes a day – made a significant difference to their university journey.
Unfortunately, I was not one of those students during my undergrad. I was a crammer (and I’m not ashamed to admit it because I didn’t know any better). However, I’ve turned a new page and have immense respect for myself when I try to revise for just 30 minutes a day.
So, what are the benefits of studying every day?
- It lowers your stress levels. Leaving studying for the last minute is all fun and games until you have one week for your exam. There’s no appropriate measure of student stress and anxiety during this week – it’s off the walls. Studying consistently helps you space out your work and lowers your anxiety.
- You’ll actually “learn” the information rather than just mindlessly memorizing. Numerous studies have shown that cramming just before a test may result in regurgitating the information instead of learning it. On the other hand, by giving yourself time to learn and absorb the information, you’ll understand it better, which further helps you improve your performance in tests and exams.
- You’ll retain more information in the long term. Studying consistently helps keep information fresh in your mind for longer, as you’re constantly reviewing it and solidifying your knowledge.
How to study consistently?
- Create a study schedule and stick to it.
- Have a balanced lifestyle. Focus on the other areas of your life and get enough rest. If you don’t, you won’t be able to sustain a long-term studying habit.
- Use effective methods of retaining information like active recall, spaced repetition, and testing yourself. You will get more studying done in less time, which will sustain your energy and focus.
Related Post: How to Study Consistently
2. Actively recall information to cement it in your memory
Active recall studying is a learning technique that forces you to retrieve information from your memory. This strengthens the neural connections in your brain that are associated with that information – which helps you understand and retain information for the long term.
On the other hand, the passive ways of learning, such as note-taking, highlighting, listening to a lecture, and re-reading, aren’t helpful because they don’t require cognitive effort, and thus the information doesn’t “stick” in your brain.
Active recall can be used for any subject matter, whether you’re trying to memorize vocabulary words, historical events, or formulas for math or science.
Because most students aren’t familiar with active recall, below is a summary of how it works:
- Active recall forces you to think about and retrieve information, which helps you learn and remember it better.
- Retrieving information is a difficult process that requires cognitive effort, which leads to a deeper level of understanding, and you store the information for longer in your brain.
- Active recall strengthens the neural connections responsible for storing a memory, making it easier to access the memory in the future.
- When you actively recall information, you are more likely to notice and correct gaps in your knowledge.
How to study using active recall?
Understanding that active recall is a powerful study technique isn’t enough to spur you into action. So, here are a few ways you can use active recall to study:
- Use flashcards. Flashcards are by far the most popular way to actively recall information. Write your questions on one side of a card and the answer on the other. However, the trick is to retrieve the answer from your memory and explain it in your own words before looking at the answer. Shuffle your cards and repeat with different questions. And if you’re not a fan of physical flashcards (like me), you can use ANKI.
- Doing practice questions. I dedicated an entire point in this post to the benefits of testing yourself. Testing yourself on the information you’ve learned is one way of actively recalling information. This study method allows you to get down to the bones of your strengths and weaknesses and solidifies knowledge in your brain.
- Use a spreadsheet. One of the ways I studied this year was actively recalling information via an Excel spreadsheet. This was a tip I picked up from Ali Abdaal, who used a Google Sheet instead. You write down your questions in one column and list the answer in the next column using white font. So, you never see the answer and are forced to remember the information.
3. Take regular breaks to prevent burnout
Studying for hours without taking breaks is like trying to run a 10km marathon without stopping – fun in theory, but not practical. You must break your study sessions – even if it’s for 5 minutes at a time. Taking regular breaks during studying can help prevent burnout and refresh focus.
Related Post: How to Deal With College Burnout
Research has shown that regular breaks increase productivity and focus and astronomically reduces stress. There’s only so much time that the brain can focus at one go. After which, it gets tired and is easily distracted. You’ll feel this when you sit for 2 hours to study. After about 45 minutes, you’ll find yourself staring out the window, playing with the water bottle, or worse, getting side-tracked by your phone.
Additionally, the Pomodoro Method has risen in popularity because it reminds you to take a break and shortens study sessions.
Related Post: How to Use the Pomodoro Technique for Studying
What to do during study breaks?
Breaks can help improve focus by providing a change of scenery and allowing the brain to rest. When you take a break, try to do something enjoyable that will re-energize you instead of draining your energy further (like scrolling through social media).
Here are a few energizing activities you can do during study breaks:
- Exercise. Light stretching or going for a 15-minute power walk will stimulate your endorphins and increase the blood flow to your brain. This helps “reboot” the brain, and you’ll be more productive in your next study session.
- Read for a few minutes. Reading is a great way to escape for a while. However, ensure you don’t get lost for too long. Set a timer to read for 10 minutes.
- Eat a healthy snack and drink water. Refuel your reserves by staying hydrated and snacking on something healthy like nuts and fruit.
- Take a power nap. Arguably the riskiest activity, however, taking a nap for a few minutes can boost your energy levels, leading to a highly productive study session.
- Take a nature breather. There’s nothing like fresh air to revive your senses. Take a cool walk outside or soak in the sun for a few minutes before returning to your studies.
4. Space out your study sessions to allow for proper absorption of information
When studying, most students default to the “cramming” method – trying to stuff as much information as possible into their brains in a short amount of time. While this may work in the short term, it’s not an effective long-term strategy. A better approach is to spread your study sessions over a longer period.
For our brains to properly learn and remember information, we need time for the newly acquired knowledge to “sink in” and become part of our existing body of knowledge. When you try to cram everything into one sitting, you overwhelm your brain and don’t allow it time to process all the new information.
Also, note that spacing out your study sessions is also linked to the practice of “spaced repetition.”
Spaced repetition is a technique where information is repeated at increasing intervals of time. This means you review information more frequently at first and then less frequently as time goes on. The benefits of spaced repetition include improved retention, a reduced forgetting curve, and better long-term recall.
For example, if you are studying a chapter on statistics, you can review the material tomorrow, 3 days later, and maybe 7 days later. The increasing intervals between the time you review the information give you time to forget the information. And you’re probably wondering, “Isn’t it useless if you forget the information?”
Numerous studies have shown that forgetting information and then learning it again later helps you retain the information better. It cements it in your brain.
So, as you can see, spacing out your studies doesn’t just help you become a better student, but it also makes you a happier one, as you don’t need to cram information ruthlessly and sit for hours studying.
5. Create a study plan to focus your efforts
It doesn’t matter what industry you’re in, whether you’re a writer, entrepreneur, doctor, or student – those who plan are far more efficient and successful than those who don’t.
Successful students have a strategy and plan for how, what, when, and where they study. Planning keeps them organized, accountable, stress-free, and they can achieve better grades because they easily remain consistent.
Related Post: 9 Realistic Time Management Tips for Students to Make Studying Easier
How to make a study plan?
- Analyze your lifestyle. Every student has a different lifestyle, and your study plan needs to be tailored to that. How much time do you realistically have per day to study?
- Assess your current level of knowledge in your subjects. By taking stock of what you know and what areas need improvement, you can create a study plan that makes the most efficient use of your time while also keeping yourself accountable.
- Create a list of goals you would like to achieve through your studying. Be specific and realistic when setting these goals. Without clear and realistic goals, measuring your progress and knowing whether your studying is paying off will be difficult. So, sit down and think about what you hope to achieve by studying consistently. Do you want to get better grades? Land a dream internship? Pass an important exam?
- Set aside specific blocks of time for studying each day or week. Be sure to create a schedule that realistically fits with the rest of your commitments and stick to it as much as possible!
6. Test yourself frequently to measure progress
Testing yourself or regularly doing practice questions might be this list’s most effective study habit. It doesn’t matter how well you know your subject matter if you can’t apply it to an exam scenario.
Unfortunately, practice testing is a method most students shy away from. We don’t want to know how much we know, right? Because what if we find out that we don’t know certain things? That means we must go back and relearn sections. I believe “blissful student ignorance” is the term.
But that’s the point, isn’t it? It’s better to find out before an exam that you’re struggling with certain aspects than after the exam – which is why testing yourself is so important.
However, another mistake students make is that they test themselves too close to their exams – when there isn’t much time to go back and improve.
A better way to use this study method is to periodically test yourself while learning each section.
How to use practice testing
- Actively recall using flashcards and spreadsheets.
- Do past year exams and mock papers.
- Check if your course has a practice exam question pack.
- Write your own questions!
7. Clear all distractions to maximize efficiency
It’s impossible to eliminate all distractions, especially today when there’s information galore everywhere you turn. However, successful students at least reduce the number of distractions that can potentially crop up during study sessions.
For example, not peeing before a study session might seem trivial, but a heavy bladder can completely blow your focus to smithereens.
Here are a few ways to avoid distractions while studying:
- Pee before you start a study session.
- Clear your desk of all inessential things.
- Switch your phone off or place it in another room.
- Get your coffee or water before the session.
- Eat a snack before you study so you aren’t distracted by your noisy stomach.
Benefits of Good Study Habits
The benefits of good study habits might seem pretty obvious – isn’t getting incredible grades the biggest benefit?
In fact, there are many students whose only purpose is to score well on their exams. So, they only learn how to learn effectively till that point, and then they stop.
I’ll share my example.
In high school, my sole purpose was to get good grades, so I only focused on those habits that would get me there. I was crossing off a to-do list rather than building discipline and consistency. So, when I went to University, I didn’t have a good foundation because I hadn’t learned the “right study skills.”
So, you see, there are better benefits to developing effective study habits than getting good grades. Let’s explore them below:
- You have better mental health.
- You become better at goal setting and have a greater chance of achieving said goals.
- You develop discipline, which can help you in other areas of your life.
- You become organized and more productive.
- You develop greater confidence and self-esteem.
- You cultivate a growth mindset.
- You become resilient and adept at dealing with change.
Bad Habits that Students Should Avoid
We’ve discussed the 7 effective study habits that all students should strive for. However, sometimes it also helps to learn “what not to do” to help us understand “what we should do.” So here are 9 bad habits that students should avoid:
Studying passively
As mentioned in the second tip, active methods of studying such as using flashcards and testing yourself have been proven to work more efficiently for students. On the other hand, passive methods of studying like taking notes, re-reading, and highlighting information do nothing to force us to remember information.
Forgetting that you have mental and physical health to worry about too
It’s too easy to forget that you have a body and brain to worry about when you’re in the passionate throes of studying. However, if you aren’t in a good place mentally and neglect your body’s needs for exercise, good nutrition, adequate sleep, etc., you will be miserable, tired, and burned out.
Related Post: 15 Top Tips to Stay Mentally and Physically Healthy in College
Taking too long breaks between study sessions
Yes, breaks between study sessions are necessary to revive energy and focus. However, too many students forget all measure of time, and their break lasts four days to two weeks. To be a disciplined student, even your breaks need to be taken with discipline.
Letting their dopamine fix get ahead of them
Dopamine is a “feel good” hormone we crave most when doing something uncomfortable. That’s why distractions like your phone, a snack, or a movie sound amazing when studying.
While dopamine isn’t necessarily bad, letting your breaks last too long or scrolling through Instagram for 3 hours isn’t going to help your study strategy.
Relying on their knowledge and never testing themselves
There’s an inherent fear of testing yourself after you’ve studied. Nobody wants to be wrong and feel like everything they’ve studied went in vain.
But practice questions are a must if you want a shot at passing or acing that exam.
Studying with no plan in place
The best students never wing their studies. They always have a plan and study even when they don’t feel like it. Your exam performance always comes down to your level of discipline.
Studying only to memorize and achieve a good grade and not to “learn”
We’ve all been guilty of this. At some point, our need to perform exceptionally well and get the best marks outweighed the true meaning of getting an education – to learn. But successful students understand that if you enjoy learning new information, then good marks will come as a result.
Isolating yourself and never asking for help
As an introvert, asking anyone for anything doesn’t come naturally to me. During my undergrad, I would sit and scratch my head until I eventually figured something out – 3 years later. Obviously, if I had asked one of my many lecturers, tutors, or friends for help, I could’ve figured it out sooner.
Focusing on too many things at once
To retain high energy and learn information in the fastest amount of time, you have to focus on one thing at a time. Finish one chapter before moving on to the next. Properly study one module before moving on to the next, and so on. Stop trying to multitask.
How to Reward Yourself for Studying?
An essential, bonus effective study habit is to reward yourself for studying. I know most of us tend to do this unconsciously; however, when you consciously set a reward for yourself after you study a particular chapter or after studying for the week, you can keep your motivation high.
Studying is stressful – and we sometimes underestimate how much of a toll it takes on us. Studying continuously without a light at the end of the tunnel can burn you out and make you lose motivation.
Furthermore, the rewards you receive from studying aren’t instantaneous as a student. Nobody pays you a salary after you study a module or write a test. Therefore, you need to create your own reward system to keep your motivation high.
Here are a few ways you can reward yourself for studying:
- Go out with your friends.
- Watch a movie or a show on Netflix.
- Take a long, much-needed nap.
- Have a zero-studying day.
- Work on your passion project.
- Go on a date with yourself.
Final Thoughts
Every student wants to finish their degree on time and get the best possible grades. And sometimes, it can feel out of reach. However, if you practice these 7 effective study habits, you will achieve success in your studies.
Remember to be patient, as developing any habit takes time.