If you have come this far it is because surely sometimes it is difficult for you to study, either because in your house there is a lot of noise or interruptions, because you can not concentrate or because you can not find the motivation. Homework piles up and you end up the night before the exam studying at dawn without being able to rest what you need before an exam.
On many occasions, you will spend hours in front of books or notes and, nevertheless, you will hardly get learn nothing in those hours so you are demotivated by feeling that you are wasting time and being little effective. Would you like to know how to study fast and well at home? In this Psychology-Online article, we offer you 11 tips for studying at home.
Index
- Take care of the environment
- Planning
- read
- Try to make summaries and diagrams
- Interprets
- Elaboration and organization
- Self-evaluate
- Avoid temptations
- Habits
- Watch your thoughts
- Do relaxations
Take care of the environment.
To study from home it is important to take care of the study environment. If the place you live is noisy or you have no privacy, maybe you should try going to a library. It is important that the place where we study have as few distractions as possible. For example, if there is noise we get distracted by listening to that noise, if it is too cold or too hot we end up focusing on how uncomfortable we are, etc.
On the other hand, it is also important to have good lighting to avoid visual fatigue and a good body posture so as not to cause us any pain in the back or neck.
Planning.
How to organize to study at home? Good planning is important. This must be realistic and flexible, since it is normal for unforeseen events to appear. When planning your studies, the following factors must be taken into account:
- The subjects: have the most difficult at the beginning. Also, avoid studying two subjects in a row that interfere with each other, such as two languages.
- Weather: set a minimum and maximum time. It's about studying as much as possible in the least amount of time possible.
- Breaks: every hour rest for about five minutes, no more, no less.
In this article, you will see different study techniques to improve learning ability.
Read.
How to study at home? Read what you have to study yourself. When you start, make a general reading of what you have to learn. This will help you to get a general idea of what the agenda consists of and see it globally to understand how the different sections are connected to each other.
Take your time to do it. Even if it is not an in-depth reading, you must concentrate and understand the main concepts well. Also, as a complement, you can write down next to each section what, for example, the "definition of X" consists of.
Try outlines and summaries.
Another recommendation to study at home is to make summaries and diagrams to synthesize the information. Also, the moment you do it, you are not memorizing the information, but you are understanding it and, therefore, learning.
Once done, it will be much faster to study. Schemas serve as review source of the information. When you see them, the knowledge that you had stored is activated. Therefore, they are ideal for the moments before the exam.
Interpret.
If we talk about tips for studying at home, it is important that when you study you do not simply dedicate yourself to memorizing. Try to understand what you are studying, relate concepts to each other and look for a meaning. In this way the information will not only be stored more easily, but also will remain in your brain for longer than if you had simply stored it.
Within this interpretation we could also take into account that you compare elements with each other in order to obtain their similarities and differences.
Elaboration and organization.
We continue with more tips for studying at home. If you feel that a specific subject is becoming very expensive, you can divide the task into simpler parts. First, separate the simple tasks from the complex ones. For example, learning English vocabulary is a simple task while complex ones are those in which you need to reflect, make summaries, diagrams, etc.
Second, set steps on your study day. A first step would be to underline the important concepts. Once that step is finished, you should go to the next step, which could be to develop an outline with these underlined concepts. It is not necessary to do all the steps in one day.
Evaluate yourself.
It is very good to do self-exams to verify what information we have managed to understand and withhold and what information not. In addition, it is a way to make sure that you spell each word well without making any spelling mistakes. One way to self-evaluate, for example, is to ask someone to ask you random questions about the lesson. This way you don't have to waste a lot of time writing on subjects with a lot of theory.
Avoid temptations.
One of the rules for studying at home is to try not having the mobile at hand nor the television on. Allow yourself to check your phone every hour so that you make sure you don't do it all the time. On the other hand, it can be very useful to use plugs to avoid being distracted by external noises.
As we have seen, there are different advantages and disadvantages to studying at home. Temptations can be a problem if left unchecked. If you feel that your source of distraction is a problem you have, try to solve it before studying. If it is not possible, remind yourself that you can solve it later.
Habits
How to focus to study at home? Logically, if you have not slept well or have a full and heavy stomach from having eaten too much, it will cost you more to concentrate. In addition, it is important perform a physical activity so you can move your body after many hours sitting / a.
The best way to study quickly and well is set a schedule to study at home. Do not forget that you have to clear your mind and give it a break. Make sure that each day there is a time of disconnection and leisure, whether it is watching a series or seeing some friends. There comes a time when the mind is fatigued so you better have time to recharge. In addition, resting helps motivation in the study. Discover the Maslow's theory of human motivation.
Watch your thoughts.
One of the tips for studying at home that you cannot miss is to take care of your thoughts. It will cost you much more to concentrate to study if you constantly repeat that you are going to fail, that you do not have time, that what you study is very difficult or that you are lazy. Try repeating motivational and positive messages to yourself yourself.
One way to do this may be to post it in your study area with motivating messages such as "you can" or "there is less to go". The idea is that you do it thinking about what you would say to someone important in your life if that person were studying at home.
Do relaxations.
If your nerves get the better of you as the exam approaches, try relaxation techniques. In this article, we show you 9 relaxation techniques for stress. These can help you increase your ability to concentrate. An example of relaxations is take slow, deep breaths and focus your attention on how those breaths are, how your stomach stretches, how is the temperature of the air that enters, etc.
In addition, if you wonder how to help children study at home, relaxation techniques are a tool that will help you when it comes to doing the most difficult tasks with them.
This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Tips for studying at home, we recommend that you enter our category of Personal growth and self-help.
Bibliography
- Villota, M. F. E., Escobar, M. F., & Velásquez, F. G. (2015). A general review of study habits and techniques in the university environment. Psychogent, 18(33), 166-187.
