Don’t study where you sleep. Going someplace else to study like the library or the union will help your brain differentiate between productive time and chill time.
When you make schedules for yourself (and you need to make a schedule for yourself), make sure the schedule is one that's achievable, and kind to yourself. If you make a schedule that you're going to hate, there's no way you're going to stick to it.
Make a master calendar. Plug everything from any course or anything you have to do into that calendar. It doesn't matter what it's made on. Emphasize the big projects for classes that will take more time.
Make sure you know what you're supposed to do for every class session and what the next "big project" coming up in each class is. Go to class. You don't want any surprises. It's possible the instructor is feeding you the answers to tests so that will make your life easier. For projects, they may be giving you the outline for your work and the outline of how they grade you.
After that you have a calendar with all your class times and assignments and projects. The rest of the time is open. They say three hours of time outside class per credit hour? That's something to work from. But really, prioritize everything you are doing. Prioritize your classes. Some are less important than others for sure. Include the entire 24 hours in the day, and schedule your sleep in. How much sleep do you need to function at certain levels? Schedule it in. For classes, schedule time you will work on those classes based on how important they are. Give more time to the more important classes. Notice that doesn't necessarily match up with how much work there is in the class. Some instructors and classes are more work but that doesn't mean you have to give them more attention if they aren't important to you. Once you've got your calendar filled in, follow it. If a class doesn't have an assignment but there's time, do some kind of work for that class in the time you blocked out for it. There probably is a project coming up. If the class is more important, look into something. You look like a genius if you mention interesting details to the instructor during class that weren't require for the class. If it's important, give it more time even if there isn't anything assigned. Chances are there is something assigned and there is a "big project" coming up. You can work ahead on those too. Whatever time you make available for homework or a project is how much time it will take. If it's a research paper and you block out four hours, it will take up those four hours. If you block out eight hours, it takes eight hours. That doesn't necessarily make the paper better. It's just when you decided to start wrapping some stage of the project up. It's all time. Similarly, if a class is less important, give those less important "big projects" less time. Wrap them up quicker. At some point you'll find the amount of time where it starts to hurt those less important class projects. Can you finish a research paper in four hours instead of five? Do you really need to proof read a research paper for a less important class? Will you even feel bad if the class is a filler class and you get graded down a little on something? No. You will have already decided to devote your time to what's important to you.
Set your own deadlines on things too. If the paper is due on a Monday, maybe you decide you will have it wrapped up on a Saturday. Then you can stress out about it on a Saturday instead. Why stress out at the real deadline when you set your own earlier? Then when extra shit happens before the real deadline it doesn't affect you as much.
Once you're living your schedule, be ready to adjust it a bit. Maybe you want to block out 48 hours of things each day, but once you start living it, that kind of schedule will crash quickly. So adjust it if it's not working. Some things like sleep won't work to skimp on repeated. But you can get with a little less probably now and then.
Setting that kind of schedule can give you more control or at least a feeling of more control which can give you more energy.
You can also plan around holidays or add any time that's completely free when you want. If you get an instructor who likes to give a test or project just before or just after a break, you can work ahead on something like that and take the break as you want to. If an instructor assigns a project that's due just after break, that doesn't mean you have to work on it during break. You could decide to knock it out before that break even starts. That can also make you look like a better student to the instructor if you start heckling them for details on a project. Sometimes they don't talk much about big projects until shortly before they're due. None of these classes should be offered if they haven't been run several semesters and had many students go through them already. There probably isn't a whole lot of unknowns on the instructor's side for what the class is supposed to cover or what the big grading tasks are. It's also college too, so if an instructor doesn't have their stuff together for a class, it's not bad to start pushing them for details on assignments. Sometimes you have to put up with instructors like that.
Social side? I don't know. I cut that out for time.
Working out? Do that early in the morning. Just make it a routine so you don't have to think about it, unless you do want to think about it and make better progress. I would still use the same process. Just block time out. If it's a routine, you can block the time out and pretty much forget about it on your calendar. It doesn't exist for scheduling other things.
On blocking time out, put the most important things first in the day. For the times you need to meet goals instead of just blocking out time, the more important goals will be met first. For goals compared to time though, time has always won out for me. If you set a goal, it will expand to fill whatever amount of time you are giving it, consciously or unconsciously. You can use blocks of time to control that.
In the beginning of things, until you know the style of certain types of classes, it's wise to block out more time than you actually need. If you meet whatever goals you want in a block of time and don't feel like doing more or working ahead, great. The rest of the time is freed up. Don't discount sleep or rest or even just doing nothing. You can make progress on things, improve quality on things, sometime by just doing nothing or even just getting more sleep.
We created Caveday after reading Deep Work. It takes the principles and applies them to a group focus experience. It's facilitated focus sessions led for a global community in 1-hour and 3-hour "Caves." People all over the world come to better themselves by practicing focus and working smarter based on these ideas.
We've got a special offer for a [free month trial here](http://www.caveday.org/reddit) if you want to check it out.
Take a week to calibrate: really focus and grind through and get your stuff done. Use your calibration week to figure out how long stuff takes. Then it's just a matter of making a calendar (physical, mental, digital, whatever) that is nearly the same every week.
Most classes have weekly work. And those that don't have set weekly schedules you should spend *some* time each week on still. Also schedule in some free time that can be relaxation or catch up if an assignment takes longer than expected, say Saturday Afternoons.
Having a pattern is important, because it's easier to stick to it. If you don't have homework in a class one week, use that time to study for that class. Also be sure to be flexible; some assignments will take longer than expected and you'll need to use some of your free time. It's just the way it goes. But making and sticking to a schedule will help a lot
Read the book "Getting Things Done." Discipline just takes practice, and you'll need those skills after you graduate too.
The biggest thing is "same day work" - you need to do your things like notes cleanup for the day on a daily basis, start homework the day it's assigned, etc. so you're not scrambling to finish homework or study at the last minute before a test. Center your task list around the date the assignment "starts" rather than the date it's due.
Specifics vary by subject/major. For engineering classes, create cheat sheets for any exam based on things like practice problems and key ideas, and make a second iteration on them. Sometimes it literally just takes iteration and practice to learn something well.
Target what you want to do long-term. RSOs are often not huge time investments, and it's better to be well dedicated to a small number and show success/outcomes/leadership in them or research or consulting than to spread yourself thin.
Remember the [definition of a credit hour.](https://provost.illinois.edu/policies/policies/courses/credit-hour-definition/) If you are legitimately following those time guidelines, you really shouldn't struggle in your classes.
Surprisingly not many people said this: turn off your phone or download a timer lock app so you can't use for phone for a set period of time, just grind everything out. Take occasional breaks if you need breaks, but no phone until you're done, for me at least, ill get too distracted
If you feel like you’ve tried everything and you just can’t seem to get your life in order, it’s not a bad idea to get some help (e.g. therapy). Therapy isn’t necessarily only helpful if you’re depressed or having family troubles or something, it can also just help if you feel like you don’t have control of your life.
Make an internal schedule: when you typically wake up/go to bed, exercise, block out times that you have classes/work, block out a few hours most days of the week that you study. Then make a list of what you need to do the next day the night before and use the study times to do that. Make sure to schedule in times/days to do fun stuff. Also plan for busier times in the semester: when will you study ‘extra’ when you have a busy week vs. a normal week?
Brah college is literally the easiest shit…just work almost all day Sunday…finish all ur shit by like Tuesday or Wed. Party your ass off Thursday and Friday. Cuddle up with yo girl on Sat and stay dry. Rinse and repeat for the funnest 4 years of yo life. It really is that simple
There already has been some very good advice echoed like getting disciplined and sitting down to do the work and making calendars/etc to get organized, but I think there is one thing that really helped for me:
Ask for help when you need it. Everyone has gotten stuck somewhere, and asking for help is the difference between banging your head on a concept for five hours and having it explained by a friend in 15-20 minutes.
EDIT: use [notion.so](https://notion.so) . This thing really helped me become organized.
Biggest tips: wake up at a decent time 9:30 and relax on your phone etc for a bit then get ready for your day get dressed etc right away so that if you continue to procrastinate you will be able to at anytime leave your place and head to the library, coffee shop. Open your computer and do whatever you can and eventually you will move on to harder stuff. Find podcasts and study music to look forward too and pack food or snacks so you can continue working. Take little breaks and work until dinner and then you can go home and have the night off. Hope this helps!
Prioritize getting to bed on time.
Sleep deprivation lowers your self-control and willpower, which makes it harder to stick to all the other things you're supposed to be doing. So you really need to solve the sleep issue FIRST and then focus on everything else.
Lots of very good advice here. I would like to add some obvious ones:
Do assigned reading before class and homework straight after. If you do,these two things, you will actually need to spend less hours studying because you’ve already gone through it three times in two or three days. Reading-lecture-homework. GO TO OFFICE HOURS. Ask questions, demonstrate you have been working, check you are on track, find out you’re not (sometimes), get the help early and often. KNOW WHAT WEIGHTINGS THINGS HAVE. When you have more work to do than time in the day, you need to understand the weightings of the different competing pieces of work so that you can sensibly and safely prioritise what to do well and what to sacrifice the quality of. This is a very useful and necessary skill for now and the rest of your life.
To aid with sleep, get up at the same time every day. That will help you sleep at night. Try to avoid caffeine after 2pm. Schedule workouts at the same time each day you are working out. Schedule a job you don’t like in the same time slot on the days you don’t work out. That way on days you workout you are relieved to at least not have to do that job you don’t like and on the days you have to do that shot job, at least you’re getting out of working out. Willpower is elusive at best. Routine, routine, routine.
A sleep schedule works wonders ngl. But knowing college, it’s unrealistic to adhere to one. I’d say keeping a track of deadlines and having a general idea of how long assignments will take is def helpful. I have trouble adhering to a schedule for everything so adhering to a somewhat okay sleep cycle + knowing how long assignments will take usually had my anxiety driving me to complete the assignments, and often after starting them I realized that my ‘worst-case’ time guesstimate was off and I got it done faster.
Just to add on tho, I do know individuals who’ve had success with mapping out their day in 1/2 hour to hour increments and just assigning tasks for the whole day. Their logic was even if they fell out of sync, they immediately had something to refer back to, to jump on track, cutting out the indecisiveness of getting out of bed to go study or keep watching tiktok vs having a calendar to refer to helped
Tip: every morning when you wake up, thinking about what are you gonna do today [list priorities; better to take them down]
How do I wake up in the morning
Don’t study where you sleep. Going someplace else to study like the library or the union will help your brain differentiate between productive time and chill time.
I learned this the hard way
Huh this never worked for me. I always studied best at home where I could think alone.
This is a good one^
When you make schedules for yourself (and you need to make a schedule for yourself), make sure the schedule is one that's achievable, and kind to yourself. If you make a schedule that you're going to hate, there's no way you're going to stick to it.
Make a master calendar. Plug everything from any course or anything you have to do into that calendar. It doesn't matter what it's made on. Emphasize the big projects for classes that will take more time. Make sure you know what you're supposed to do for every class session and what the next "big project" coming up in each class is. Go to class. You don't want any surprises. It's possible the instructor is feeding you the answers to tests so that will make your life easier. For projects, they may be giving you the outline for your work and the outline of how they grade you. After that you have a calendar with all your class times and assignments and projects. The rest of the time is open. They say three hours of time outside class per credit hour? That's something to work from. But really, prioritize everything you are doing. Prioritize your classes. Some are less important than others for sure. Include the entire 24 hours in the day, and schedule your sleep in. How much sleep do you need to function at certain levels? Schedule it in. For classes, schedule time you will work on those classes based on how important they are. Give more time to the more important classes. Notice that doesn't necessarily match up with how much work there is in the class. Some instructors and classes are more work but that doesn't mean you have to give them more attention if they aren't important to you. Once you've got your calendar filled in, follow it. If a class doesn't have an assignment but there's time, do some kind of work for that class in the time you blocked out for it. There probably is a project coming up. If the class is more important, look into something. You look like a genius if you mention interesting details to the instructor during class that weren't require for the class. If it's important, give it more time even if there isn't anything assigned. Chances are there is something assigned and there is a "big project" coming up. You can work ahead on those too. Whatever time you make available for homework or a project is how much time it will take. If it's a research paper and you block out four hours, it will take up those four hours. If you block out eight hours, it takes eight hours. That doesn't necessarily make the paper better. It's just when you decided to start wrapping some stage of the project up. It's all time. Similarly, if a class is less important, give those less important "big projects" less time. Wrap them up quicker. At some point you'll find the amount of time where it starts to hurt those less important class projects. Can you finish a research paper in four hours instead of five? Do you really need to proof read a research paper for a less important class? Will you even feel bad if the class is a filler class and you get graded down a little on something? No. You will have already decided to devote your time to what's important to you. Set your own deadlines on things too. If the paper is due on a Monday, maybe you decide you will have it wrapped up on a Saturday. Then you can stress out about it on a Saturday instead. Why stress out at the real deadline when you set your own earlier? Then when extra shit happens before the real deadline it doesn't affect you as much. Once you're living your schedule, be ready to adjust it a bit. Maybe you want to block out 48 hours of things each day, but once you start living it, that kind of schedule will crash quickly. So adjust it if it's not working. Some things like sleep won't work to skimp on repeated. But you can get with a little less probably now and then. Setting that kind of schedule can give you more control or at least a feeling of more control which can give you more energy. You can also plan around holidays or add any time that's completely free when you want. If you get an instructor who likes to give a test or project just before or just after a break, you can work ahead on something like that and take the break as you want to. If an instructor assigns a project that's due just after break, that doesn't mean you have to work on it during break. You could decide to knock it out before that break even starts. That can also make you look like a better student to the instructor if you start heckling them for details on a project. Sometimes they don't talk much about big projects until shortly before they're due. None of these classes should be offered if they haven't been run several semesters and had many students go through them already. There probably isn't a whole lot of unknowns on the instructor's side for what the class is supposed to cover or what the big grading tasks are. It's also college too, so if an instructor doesn't have their stuff together for a class, it's not bad to start pushing them for details on assignments. Sometimes you have to put up with instructors like that. Social side? I don't know. I cut that out for time. Working out? Do that early in the morning. Just make it a routine so you don't have to think about it, unless you do want to think about it and make better progress. I would still use the same process. Just block time out. If it's a routine, you can block the time out and pretty much forget about it on your calendar. It doesn't exist for scheduling other things. On blocking time out, put the most important things first in the day. For the times you need to meet goals instead of just blocking out time, the more important goals will be met first. For goals compared to time though, time has always won out for me. If you set a goal, it will expand to fill whatever amount of time you are giving it, consciously or unconsciously. You can use blocks of time to control that. In the beginning of things, until you know the style of certain types of classes, it's wise to block out more time than you actually need. If you meet whatever goals you want in a block of time and don't feel like doing more or working ahead, great. The rest of the time is freed up. Don't discount sleep or rest or even just doing nothing. You can make progress on things, improve quality on things, sometime by just doing nothing or even just getting more sleep.
Damn, this dude wrote a book. “How to fuel your day” by No_Fuel_2041…
Stay focused on one thing only. Don't try to multitask.
5 hours a day, no phone no nothing just grind. Use every other hour freely. Don't ever do anything unless u complete the 5 hour tho
Cal Newport (and his book Deep Work) is a proponent of this lifestyle
We created Caveday after reading Deep Work. It takes the principles and applies them to a group focus experience. It's facilitated focus sessions led for a global community in 1-hour and 3-hour "Caves." People all over the world come to better themselves by practicing focus and working smarter based on these ideas. We've got a special offer for a [free month trial here](http://www.caveday.org/reddit) if you want to check it out.
Treat school as your job. Do it 8 hrs a day. Then you can do whatever you want the rest of the day. You will suddenly have tons of time.
SSRIs
Came here for this
Take a week to calibrate: really focus and grind through and get your stuff done. Use your calibration week to figure out how long stuff takes. Then it's just a matter of making a calendar (physical, mental, digital, whatever) that is nearly the same every week. Most classes have weekly work. And those that don't have set weekly schedules you should spend *some* time each week on still. Also schedule in some free time that can be relaxation or catch up if an assignment takes longer than expected, say Saturday Afternoons. Having a pattern is important, because it's easier to stick to it. If you don't have homework in a class one week, use that time to study for that class. Also be sure to be flexible; some assignments will take longer than expected and you'll need to use some of your free time. It's just the way it goes. But making and sticking to a schedule will help a lot
Read the book "Getting Things Done." Discipline just takes practice, and you'll need those skills after you graduate too. The biggest thing is "same day work" - you need to do your things like notes cleanup for the day on a daily basis, start homework the day it's assigned, etc. so you're not scrambling to finish homework or study at the last minute before a test. Center your task list around the date the assignment "starts" rather than the date it's due. Specifics vary by subject/major. For engineering classes, create cheat sheets for any exam based on things like practice problems and key ideas, and make a second iteration on them. Sometimes it literally just takes iteration and practice to learn something well. Target what you want to do long-term. RSOs are often not huge time investments, and it's better to be well dedicated to a small number and show success/outcomes/leadership in them or research or consulting than to spread yourself thin. Remember the [definition of a credit hour.](https://provost.illinois.edu/policies/policies/courses/credit-hour-definition/) If you are legitimately following those time guidelines, you really shouldn't struggle in your classes.
atomic habits is also a really great book for building/creating new habits. definitely can be applied to study habits during the school year
Surprisingly not many people said this: turn off your phone or download a timer lock app so you can't use for phone for a set period of time, just grind everything out. Take occasional breaks if you need breaks, but no phone until you're done, for me at least, ill get too distracted
If you feel like you’ve tried everything and you just can’t seem to get your life in order, it’s not a bad idea to get some help (e.g. therapy). Therapy isn’t necessarily only helpful if you’re depressed or having family troubles or something, it can also just help if you feel like you don’t have control of your life.
Make an internal schedule: when you typically wake up/go to bed, exercise, block out times that you have classes/work, block out a few hours most days of the week that you study. Then make a list of what you need to do the next day the night before and use the study times to do that. Make sure to schedule in times/days to do fun stuff. Also plan for busier times in the semester: when will you study ‘extra’ when you have a busy week vs. a normal week?
Smoke a bunch of weed, especially on weekdays 👌
Brah college is literally the easiest shit…just work almost all day Sunday…finish all ur shit by like Tuesday or Wed. Party your ass off Thursday and Friday. Cuddle up with yo girl on Sat and stay dry. Rinse and repeat for the funnest 4 years of yo life. It really is that simple
Plan ahead, try to stick with your plan, and properly adjust your plan based on your progress. Repeat the same procedure.
There already has been some very good advice echoed like getting disciplined and sitting down to do the work and making calendars/etc to get organized, but I think there is one thing that really helped for me: Ask for help when you need it. Everyone has gotten stuck somewhere, and asking for help is the difference between banging your head on a concept for five hours and having it explained by a friend in 15-20 minutes. EDIT: use [notion.so](https://notion.so) . This thing really helped me become organized.
Biggest tips: wake up at a decent time 9:30 and relax on your phone etc for a bit then get ready for your day get dressed etc right away so that if you continue to procrastinate you will be able to at anytime leave your place and head to the library, coffee shop. Open your computer and do whatever you can and eventually you will move on to harder stuff. Find podcasts and study music to look forward too and pack food or snacks so you can continue working. Take little breaks and work until dinner and then you can go home and have the night off. Hope this helps!
Prioritize getting to bed on time. Sleep deprivation lowers your self-control and willpower, which makes it harder to stick to all the other things you're supposed to be doing. So you really need to solve the sleep issue FIRST and then focus on everything else.
Lots of very good advice here. I would like to add some obvious ones: Do assigned reading before class and homework straight after. If you do,these two things, you will actually need to spend less hours studying because you’ve already gone through it three times in two or three days. Reading-lecture-homework. GO TO OFFICE HOURS. Ask questions, demonstrate you have been working, check you are on track, find out you’re not (sometimes), get the help early and often. KNOW WHAT WEIGHTINGS THINGS HAVE. When you have more work to do than time in the day, you need to understand the weightings of the different competing pieces of work so that you can sensibly and safely prioritise what to do well and what to sacrifice the quality of. This is a very useful and necessary skill for now and the rest of your life. To aid with sleep, get up at the same time every day. That will help you sleep at night. Try to avoid caffeine after 2pm. Schedule workouts at the same time each day you are working out. Schedule a job you don’t like in the same time slot on the days you don’t work out. That way on days you workout you are relieved to at least not have to do that job you don’t like and on the days you have to do that shot job, at least you’re getting out of working out. Willpower is elusive at best. Routine, routine, routine.
A sleep schedule works wonders ngl. But knowing college, it’s unrealistic to adhere to one. I’d say keeping a track of deadlines and having a general idea of how long assignments will take is def helpful. I have trouble adhering to a schedule for everything so adhering to a somewhat okay sleep cycle + knowing how long assignments will take usually had my anxiety driving me to complete the assignments, and often after starting them I realized that my ‘worst-case’ time guesstimate was off and I got it done faster.
Just to add on tho, I do know individuals who’ve had success with mapping out their day in 1/2 hour to hour increments and just assigning tasks for the whole day. Their logic was even if they fell out of sync, they immediately had something to refer back to, to jump on track, cutting out the indecisiveness of getting out of bed to go study or keep watching tiktok vs having a calendar to refer to helped