personal development

Organize your life as a student

June 6, 2020Rabea

Have you ever wondered how those study accounts on Instagram and Youtube have it all together? Well, firstly, they are all just human and probably don’t have it all together. But here are some tips to organize your life as a student and come a little bit closer to that goal.

Write down your goals

This should be a given, but tons of people put it off until it’s too late into the year. Write down what you want to concentrate on, where you want to improve and maybe which grades you ideally want to get in each class. This will be the guide for all the actions you take throughout the school year or semester. I often write down a list of more rough goals and then one that goes a little more in-depth on how I want to get to each of the goals.

Set priorities

Having a set order of priorities will help you immensely in daily life. Determine which things are more important than studying and which things can wait in favor of studying. In case you struggle with mental illnesses you can make a “good day” priorities list and a “bad day” priorities list. The difference would mainly be that socializing might be more important than studying on a bad day, while it can wait on good days. Find your own flow with these lists. Just always put Health as your number one, there is nothing that could take that number one spot. And yes, sleep also is part of the number one spot!

Have a study plan & review it

Have a plan on what to study on which day of the week, so you don’t overload your brain with the same two classes over and over again. It’s a little bit like working out. You don’t really wanna do a leg day after another leg day. Studying math for 3-4 hours a day before and then on the following day might be a bad idea too. This plan will take a little bit of trial and error and definitely a little bit of discipline. The most important thing that will prevent it from failing is 30 minutes on a Saturday or Sunday to review the last week. What should be improved the following week that didn’t work in the past week?

Figure out how much you can study per week

Some people can study 18 hours a week, others just 10 hours. Find out if you can do three hours a day or only one to two hours. And then prioritize how to use that time in your study plan. You definitely want to take more time learning material for classes you are already shaky in, instead of spending two hours learning things you already like learning. And again, if you have a mental illness, the amount you can study might vary immensely, so calculate that in too.

Plan in self care

I think this is my numer one tip to organize your life as a student. Never learn more than an hour at a time without a break. I think you’ve heard that before. Have a little timer for that or use a “study with me” video for this. Besides the time management you should also plan in self care activities that balance you after studying. That could be meditating, journaling, bathing, skin care, painting or socializing. Charge up your energy with something. You can’t pour from an empty cup if you want to actually improve your life.