thehappynerd19

[thehappynerd19]

Focusing on your studies

If you want to maximize concentration, you need to focus on the quality of your concentration.

Telling yourself, “I’m going to study for the next 5 hours,” is virtually meaningless.

Why dedicate such an arbitrary amount of time to studying? Just so you can say that you studied for 5 hours straight?

Of course, in the long-term the more time you spend “studying” or “concentrating” on something, the more you’ll improve. BUT, sitting at your desk skimming through your textbook and highlighting random words for 5 hours does not equate to 5 hours of quality studying.

The old cliché, “It takes 10,000 hours to master something,” is true, but, those 10,000 hours have to be fully-focused, undistracted, quality hours.

You can’t go to the basketball court everyday and just sit on the floor for 10,000 hours and expect to make buckets like Michael Jordan. Those hours need to be full of undivided, quality concentration.

Same goes for studying.

The time spent studying—or doing anything for that matter—needs to be concentrated, quality and fully focused. Simply studying for 5 hours because 5 hours seems like a lot of time will get you nowhere fast.

Without further ado, here are my 3 best tips to stay fully concentrated while studying:

1. Turn your freaking phone off.

My boss/friend/mentor Nicolas Cole stresses this more than anyone.

We live in the age of consumption. Whether it’s a text, email, snapchat, social notification—whatever—those notifications are literally killing your concentration.

Every second you take to stop and look at your phone isn’t just lost time—it’s lost train-of-thought.

2. Breaks are vital to your study success.

Trying to power through an obvious lull hurts more than it helps.

No one can sit and study for 10 hours straight. To be honest, it’s hard for most people to spend a full 60 minutes fully concentrated.

What you need to do, is take calculated breaks. Study for 10 minutes, then take a 5 minute break. Even if that break is just getting up to stretch or drink a glass of water, it will help you to relax and recharge.

It’s much more beneficial to spend short bursts of time fully concentrated than hours on end of half-concentrated, half-distracted studying.

3. Listen to your body.

This is the most important tip I can give you.

If you’re sick, be sick—don’t study. If you’re hungry, eat something (healthy, to avoid lethargy later on)—then, study after you eat. If you’re truly exhausted, nap—study later.

And if you feel great, well, study!

This point relates to point #2 in a lot of ways. If you’re really feeling unmotivated or can’t seem to concentrate, don’t force yourself to keep on pushing. If you try pushing though exhaustion or an illness, you’re likely going to forget what you’re trying to focus on anyway. Plus, you’ll be even more exhausted or feel even more under the weather. It’s a lose/lose.

Let me be clear: this is NOT an excuse to be lazy or procrastinate.

There is a fine line between ‘not feelin’ it’ and true exhaustion. If you choose not to study because you’re not in the mood—tough shit. No one ‘likes’ studying.

But if you’re really truly exhausted and can’t concentrate, don’t force feed your brain information—it’s not going to retain any of it.

If you like this , check out more on https://moinulkarim.com/how-to-focus-on-studying-for-exams/

[thehappynerd19]

How to build better brain connections!

Building better connections in brain!

There’s a time for absorbing and analyzing new material throughout the day, just like there’s a time to let the brain sort all that new material out. The key is in understanding the importance of downtime to help the brain retain what it needs.

Why is this important? You need downtime in order to process all the inputs you’re exposed to throughout the day. Give yourself plenty of time to pause, reflect, and let your brain classify the information, make connections, and store the new inputs so they’re easier to memorize and recall at a later time.

What can you do? Go out for some exercise. It doesn’t have to be anything intense; it can be a 20–30 minute walk later in the afternoon, or a short bike ride, or a run. Getting your body active will give your brain a chance to take a back seat, unplug, and process what you’ve covered during the day.

What else helps? Plenty of sleep. Ideally for students this means 7–8 hours if possible. But if you sleep only 5-6 hours, learn a tip from people like Einstein and Churchill and take a power nap to boost brain performance. It doesn’t have to be long — 20 minutes is optimal. Make sure to nap before 3 p.m. so you don’t disrupt your sleep schedule.

[thehappynerd19]

5 Skills you need to build right now!

5 Skill you need to build for a better life

Meditation: It only takes 5–10 mins a day to improve your practice. Everyone should have more control over their thoughts and feelings.

Communication skills: It only takes talking to one new person a day to improve your social skills. It’s terrifying to start but worth it.

Cooking: It only takes watching one 10 min tutorial to cook something new. You should have more control over the food you eat.

Time management: Take 5 mins to plan your day and you saved yourself a ton of time. Who knew you had so much time?

Goal setting: Write down your goals. Get into the space of “how it would feel to achieve those goals”. It’s a magical feeling if you do it daily.

[thehappynerd19]

Learn to approach procrastination!

Approaching procrastination

Think about what’s hiding behind procrastination. Maybe it is fear of not being able to do something successfully, or not being better at it than someone else. In many cases, it can be your pride or ego that gets in the way.

Ask yourself where the resistance is coming from. Get to the root of the matter. Maybe you’re not sure how to solve a problem and worry it will take forever to do. One solution is to break it down into smaller chunks that don’t feel overwhelming to complete.

Consider how asking the question, “How about I try?” will benefit you. You have the opportunity to defeat your fear. There is something powerful when we encourage ourselves to stay positive. This mindset will help you identify more situations that will allow you to thrive.

Still having problems with procrastination > https://moinulkarim.com/tips-for-overcoming-procrastination/

[thehappynerd19]

How to deal with distractions!

Dealing with distractions

Use applications that lock your phone for set number of hours. Make sure you use apps like Routine, Cue and Reward that make it impossible for you to check your phone while studying.

Set targets and reward yourself once you have achieved them. If you are scared of setting targets for yourself, keep small goals. This system of rewards will help you complete more in less time.

Make a to-do list. A to-do list for each day will motivate you to complete your tasks. This is because to-do lists are psychological cues for your brain to complete something which if not achieved will give rise to mental and physical discomfort. Use this to your advantage and study topics that you find most boring.

Use headphones. In order to cancel our noise, make sure you use devices that keep noise out such as headphones. If you are too distracted by your surroundings, using eye-blinds is NOT going too far to achieve your targets.

[thehappynerd19]

#5. Give your brain time to rest and make connections

There’s a time for absorbing and analyzing new material throughout the day, just like there’s a time to let the brain sort all that new material out. The key is in understanding the importance of downtime to help the brain retain what it needs.

Why is this important? You need downtime in order to process all the inputs you’re exposed to throughout the day. Give yourself plenty of time to pause, reflect, and let your brain classify the information, make connections, and store the new inputs so they’re easier to memorize and recall at a later time.

What can you do? Go out for some exercise. It doesn’t have to be anything intense; it can be a 20–30 minute walk later in the afternoon, or a short bike ride, or a run. Getting your body active will give your brain a chance to take a back seat, unplug, and process what you’ve covered during the day.

What else helps? Plenty of sleep. Ideally for students this means 7–8 hours if possible. But if you sleep only 5-6 hours, learn a tip from people like Einstein and Churchill and take a power nap to boost brain performance. It doesn’t have to be long — 20 minutes is optimal. Make sure to nap before 3 p.m. so you don’t disrupt your sleep schedule.

[thehappynerd19]

If you are looking for a person to write an e-book for you, here is the man . you will get the best piece of creation in your hands. !

[thehappynerd19]

Managing time as a student

To use your time effectively -

Measure how you spend your time.

Create an activity table and note down for the next one week the following

Activities that you perform during the day,

how much time you spend on each activity

what do you gain from the activity (pleasure, knowledge etc)

does the activity help you improve yourself

Add more columns as you feel fit

Do this for a whole week and then analyse where you spend most of your unproductive time. I would define unproductive time as time that you spend on enjoyment activities, activities which do not help you in improving yourself in anyway.

Your table should look something like this:

This activity will also help you time-box your productive activities. Remember that “work expands to fill the time allocated to do the work”. So, no point in saying “i will study the whole day”. Say “i will study for xx hours and my aim is to learn the topic fully”

3. Don’t get me wrong - activities which you enjoy doing are also important. But if you spend half your waking time in activities which do not have any benefit - you are not using your time effectively.

4. Based on which stage of life you are at, what your goals are, identify activities which are taking a lot of your time but which do not give any benefit. Manage these activities. A few tips on managing unproductive activities could be -

Reduce the time you spend on unproductive activities. reward yourself if you manage to stay away from unproductive activities for a full week Create consequences (eg i will not watch TV till i have completed 40 hours of study this week) Most people create a “to-do” list. I recommend that you create a “don’t do” list.

A “stop doing” list can look something like this -

sample stop doing list

5. Multiply your time to use your time effectively. Though “how to multiply time” demands a separate post (and is on my to do things list), i list below a few things you could do to multiply your time and thereby use your time more effectively -

Delegate stuff which is highly process driven and does not require much thinking to less qualified and less skilled people and free up your time for other productive activities

Automate tasks - auto reply standard emails, make online payments, set up recurring payments, direct debits for monthly utility payments etc

Use technology to speed up things

Learn smarter ways to study so that you improve your academic performance which studying lesser number of hours.

Hope this helps. Check out my studygram for more tips like this. > https://www.instagram.com/the.happynerd

[thehappynerd19]

Staying focused and disciplined

Step 1: Make up your mind what self-discipline means to you.

Why is this important? Because your mindset about self-discipline will determine whether you’ll stick to new habits or not. Because your attitude about it will either push you forward or hold you back. Because self-discipline is not — and never should be — a way to punish yourself.

Instead, think of self-discipline as a skill, a habit change, even a lifestyle. It can be something real to practice in any way you want, in any area of life you choose (personal or professional). It can be the freedom to design the life you want for yourself instead of going aimlessly from day to day, month to month, year to year, without an idea of what you’re supposed to be doing and why.

What are some effective ways to learn self-discipline?

➡️ Make it easier to focus.

Like any other kind of lifestyle, leading a self-discipline life starts when you start the day — in the morning. You can choose to be reactive, which can mean you wake up, get your phone, and start checking emails, Twitter, or Instagram. Or, you can train your brain to be focused as soon as you wake up by asking this question: “What is the one thing I am committed to completing today?” Write it in large letters on a sheet of paper and hang it on your bedroom or bathroom wall. Read it out loud as you start your day, for example as you’re brushing your teeth. Come up with an answer on the spot and answer it out loud. Then follow up by taking action — focus your energy throughout the day to completing your one thing.

➡️ Maximize your morning time.

Being self-disciplined means you do your hard work first before you do anything for pleasure. Make the most of your mornings by getting into the habit of doing your hard work early. This means taking full advantage of your circadian rhythm. For most people, the early morning hours are optimal for doing deep work—work that requires a lot of concentration. Specifically, the brain’s peak performance is 2-4 hours after we wake up. So if you wake up at 6, then your peak time is until 10 a.m. Working early allows your brain to focus fully on the problem with fewer distractions.

➡️ Delay what feels good.

What’s the point of doing something difficult first in order to reward yourself later? In a study performed by Stanford University scientists called the Marshmallow experiment, results showed that delayed gratification can increase your chance at succeeding in many areas of your life — education, career, short and long term goals, even personal life choices. To try it yourself, start by observing the things you’d like to indulge in: food, drink, binge-watching TV shows, etc. Resist the temptation to immediately treat yourself by thinking of one reason why not to indulge: maybe you’re working on new fitness goals or better eating habits. And follow up — take your attention away from the distractions and focus on your priorities — completing homework, going out for a run, listening to a podcast, or preparing dinner.

➡️ Eliminate distractions.

Leading a self-disciplined life means that you learn to say no to many different things: giving in to temptations, curbing your desire to procrastinate on daily priorities, and not letting distractions take over your day. They may seem harmless to begin with, but distractions can easily make you slip from your work. To avoid them successfully, set your phone to Airplane mode when you need to focus on your work — try it for 2 hours. Let family members, friends, and roommates know you won't be available in the next few hours. Check your email and social media apps at certain intervals only 2–3 times a day. Avoid browsing the Internet or reading news on the hour, and close all tabs in your browser so you’re not tempted to do yet another Google search on something you’ll forget in the next five minutes.

➡️ Find three things to be grateful for.

There’s a lot of negativity people bring into their life when they compare themselves to others. Why can’t I accomplish what he did? How am I not that successful? This way of thinking is disempowering and limiting. Practicing gratitude can rewire our brain to think about the things that we have going for us instead of obsessing about everything we don’t have which can make us feel frustrated and unhappy. To try this, take a few minutes when you wake up and before you start getting ready for work or school. Focus on three things you are grateful for today — having a warm bed to sleep in, working on a job that pays the bills, making a delicious cup of coffee, having a friend or a partner to talk to. Be specific. If it’s one person you’re grateful for having in your life, emphasize which of their qualities you are grateful for: they’re honest, trustworthy, warm, smart, funny.

If this helps, check out more tips on > https://www.instagram.com/the.happynerd/

[thehappynerd19]

How to focus for longer hours

Here are some tips you can use for focusing long hours

Make a study schedule. Having a study schedule is going to help you to be clear about what you need to study each day and you will not get confused or disoriented on what to study. Learn more about study schedules here

Divide the classes and schedule them on different times of the day. 3 classes in the morning, 2 in the afternoon and 3 at night. (Or anyway you please it is upto you )

Do not study same subject for a long time, try to switch it up.

Try to find video lectures which will help you to get the gist of the topics fast .

Discuss with your friends so that you can share important insights and avoid reading the whole text.

Study the most important thing. Use the 80/20 rule. Studying the 20% of the most important stuff is going to help you to score 80% of the mark

Check out more about studying long hours > How to Study for a long time: 9 Useful Tips (Research-backed) | Moinul - The Happy Nerd

Hope this helps. Best of luck.

[thehappynerd19]

There are no good or bad students , just students with good or bad habits.

Learn good habits here

[thehappynerd19]

Learn to create the ideal schedule !!

[thehappynerd19]

How to study with more motivation

Here are some motivational tips for studying 24/7:

Know your goals. What is your goal? What do you really want to do in the future? If you want to get good marks, there is no alternative to good studying. Knowing your goals will give you clarity.

Talk about your goals wiht your friends. When you will talk about your goals with your friends you will have a duty to fulfil it.

Make studying your habit , not your work. Make it easy to study and hard to slack off. Sit down at your desk with your book even if you do not study.

Use sticky notes, phone wallpapers to keep you motivated by inspirational quotes.

Join a community where people talk about studying and learning. You will be motivated when your friends are motivated

Want to learn more about being motivated for studying > How to get the motivation to study: 10 Super Useful Tips | Moinul - The Happy Nerd

Study tips, tricks and strategies for students!

[thehappynerd19]

Studying for a long time

Here are some tips of studying long hours:

Make a study schedule. Having a study schedule is going to help you to be clear about what you need to study each day and you will not get confused or disoriented on what to study.

Divide the classes and schedule them on different times of the day. 3 classes in the morning, 2 in the afternoon and 3 at night. (Or anyway you please it is upto you )

Do not study same subject for a long time, try to switch it up.

Try to find video lectures which will help you to get the gist of the topics fast .

Discuss with your friends so that you can share important insights and avoid reading the whole text.

Study the most important thing. Use the 80/20 rule. Studying the 20% of the most important stuff is going to help you to score 80% of the marks

[thehappynerd19]

How to use Active Recall for good!

Cramming or rote memorization is not a good technique for exams. Cramming without any context is not going to help you retain information for the long term. But if your exam is near and you want to cram your answers , the best way to do it is using Flashcards. You should also consider using Anki which is the best active recall app to date (Learn how to use Anki here)

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Other techniques you should use before exams:

Explaining. Explain what you have learned to your friends and get some good insights from them too. (Going to help you in broad question answers)

Try to make mindmaps. These will be easy to make and help you to learn any paragraph very fast. (Don’t waste too much time on aesthetics). Learn more about mindmaps here

Take model tests, this is going to be significantly important while you are preparing for a test.

[thehappynerd19]

Best study time

There is no single perfect time for studying. It depends on person to person. But ofcourse there are things that science says that is also proven in most people. Your brain remains completely fresh during the morning , that is the best time to absorb information. Also, remember that our brain consolidates information from short-time memory to long term while sleeping. Learning information just before sleep might also be helpful for retention.

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Reasons you should study in the morning:

The brain is charged with fresh energy and enthusiasm for a new day. It is not bombarded with information from social media and other sources.

It is calm and quiet in the morning.

Few people are online so there is also not much activity going on for scrolling

A serene environment is just what you need for studying well and being focused.

STudying in the morning also gives you a lot of time to do other things rest of the day.

Waking up and studying early morning is going to make you feel better for yourself.

Hope this helps. I think studying in the morning /dawn is best for all, you should try it too

Study tips, tricks and strategies for students!

[thehappynerd19]

How to focus on your studies

Our mind cannot concentrate due to many reasons. There are so many distractions of the modern world that is hampers our overall attention span.

Here are some tips for focusing on studies:

Remember that being bombarded with information from the social media is one of the reasons we lack focus. Try to limit your screen time.

Forest is an amazing app that will help you to focus by blocking certain apps and websites while you study (Learn more about forest here)

Try to study at dawn when there is no one to disturb you much. Your brain also remains fresh as ever.

Besides these one of the techniques that really works for me is the THOUGHT DUMP technique. I have started using the thought dump technique for the last few weeks and it has really improved my concentration. Before every study session I am starting to feel more concentrated and less stressed. My mind also wanders off less.

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How to use the Thought dump technique

First before starting a study session, sit down with a pen and a paper (you can do it digitally but I prefer Hand written)

Start writing the things that comes to your mind, anything and everything.

It could be irrelevant, urgent , important anything. Just note it down.

After writing all your thoughts, find out what you are going to do about it. Some irrelevant and weird thoughts will not require an action but most will.

If something is too urgent and doable right now, do it immediately.

Keep the other “next actions” written.

Then start studying. In case anything pops up in your mind apart from studying write it down too. (You don’t have to think about the next action just keep it noted)

Reasons I found why it works:

Although nothing really changes physically, it really relieves the burden off your shoulder about things that are stuck in your brain. Also,As you have everything sorted out you can focus much better. None of your thoughts gets suppressed and they can all be completed at a later time after studying or within breaks.

Want to learn more about focusing on studies: https://moinulkarim.com/how-to-focus-on-studying-for-exams/

Hope this helps. Best of luck