When it comes to studying, habits can help you significantly or they can hinder your ability to understand. Several bad habits could be making you inefficient at studying and preventing you from fully grasping the material you need to know. These bad habits may be keeping you from doing your best.
- Highlighters
Highlighters are attractive. They come in bright colors and make you feel accomplished when you see pages and pages of highlighted notes and text. However, highlighting key points doesn’t help you actually learn them. Highlighting may give you a false sense of accomplishment and prevent you from internalizing the material you need to memorize and understand.
- Studying in the same spot
Studying in the same location seems like a great idea. When you have a regular routine, you may be more likely to invest focused time on the subjects you need. However, Lifehack points out that studying the same material in the same place may prevent you from recalling the material in a new place when you need it, such as exam day. You will make external associations with the place and without those associations, you brain may not be able to recall the information.
- Multitasking
We often multitask because we feel like we are accomplishing more in a shorter amount of time. However, studies show that we can’t actually multitask. our brains are just using energy to switch quickly between different subjects and activities. We use up our mental resources and make more errors when we multitask. You are likely to be more efficient and understand more of what you are learning when you study focused on a single topic for a specific period of time.
4) Interruptions
Every time we are interrupted it takes time to return to the task at hand. Lifehacker sites a study that found it can take up to 25 minutes to pick up where you left off. That means 25 minutes after each text or notification. 25 minutes every time you stop and talk to someone or get up to grab a snack. Breaks are important, but plan them out so you get a solid chunk of study time without wasting time getting back on task after every interruption.
Eliminating these bad habits will help you understand your material better and efficiently use your time. Enjoy productivity and thorough understanding when you cultivate good study habits.
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