So many habits out there. But we’ll focus on the simple yet most effective ones that you can start applying right away as a student.
These habits will not only help you in college, they will also take you far after you graduation, and push you ahead in other areas of your life.
- The 2-minute rule is a must-have habit
- Learning to say no is a powerful habit.
- Learning how you study is a life-changing habit
- Build a habit of note taking.
- Form the habit of drinking more water.
- Having quality sleep is a must-have habit.
Let’s get to each of them.
The 2-minute rule is a must-have habit.
This one’s a life-saving habit to build.
I learned it from this book: Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (a little dry to read in some parts but has lots of good stuff packed in it).
It goes like this: if you think something’s going to take 2 minutes to do then you should do it right there and then. Not tomorrow.
Not later.
I’ll give you some examples:
- You know you have a homework deadline coming up soon but you don’t remember exactly when. You can decide to check it out
- You just had lunch and want to put your plate away as something to wash later. Will it take 2 minutes to wash it? Yep. What do you do? Wash it.
- You just woke up and your bed isn’t laid. Can you make the bed in 2 minutes? Do it.
- Your desk looks crazy, too many papers on it.
- You need to confirm the chapters to study for an upcoming exam…
You remembered something and think you’ll forget later but you can set an alarm for it…
Use this and I promise you that this habit will continue to pay off even after you graduate from college.
Learning to say no is a powerful habit.
Some people will try to take advantage of you.
Look closer and you’ll find a few in your so-called friend circle.
A major that you started as a student may end up as something you don’t want to continue. You probably went down that route because of pressure from family or friends.
Or because at some point you thought it was the coolest thing you didn’t want to miss out of.
And now you don’t like it anymore.
Say no.
Let’s be honest, anytime you try to say know you’ll feel social pressure from everywhere.
Friends.
Family.
School.
Or work if you’ve got a job.
But you have to build this ‘no’ muscle. If you ignore this skill, you’ll look back years from now and find yourself doing things that you deep down do not want to get into. Or can’t even stand.
This happens to a lot of people.
People taking on things they should say no to at school, at work, with friends, or family. People carrying out tasks they shouldn’t, accommodating terrible people endlessly.
And falling to a place where life just feels dead.
Why?
Because they’re afraid if they say no, no one will like them.
“Don’t be afraid of losing people. Be afraid of losing yourself by trying to please everyone around you.”
Say no and free yourself.
Even if it feels hard, practice saying no in a few areas until you’re rock solid. Your future self will thank you.
Discovering how you study is a life-changing habit.
Continuously discovering how you study is a mind-blowing habit that will give you incredible advantage in life.
Terrible students don’t care about learning.
Good students care about learning by just reading.
Great students dig deep to find out how they best learn.
If there’s only one habit you focus on to build for the rest of your college career, it’s learning how to study.
Some people are visual learners.
If they can’t see a picture or video, nothing makes sense.
Others are auditory learners. You say it and they’re good to go.
Some need to badly touch something and play with it before it clicks.
A lot of us are usually a mix but with one type of learning as the most preferred.
Which are you?
As a student, it’s not enough to think you’ll open a book and start reading through.
No, that’s passive studying. It’s like hearing someone say something but you’re not listening because it goes in one part of your ear and flies out of the other.
Instead, you have to know how you yourself can study efficiently.
For example, so Some quick gotchas:
- Highlighting is not studying.
- Studying with a friend is sometimes worse than alone.
- Studying with music you can sing along to is not studying.
There are lots of awesome tips everywhere, like the best way to study, study tips for math, how to cram for a test, and more.
Build a habit of note taking.
The better you take notes, the easier your studying will get.
In fact, the better your notes, the easier it is to:
- Remember things because you actively listened.
- Understand them deeper because you wrote it in your words.
- Do any last minute cramming for any studying you procrastinated on.
You can use Cornell Notes as one of the best methods for taking notes in college.
Form the habit of drinking more water.
This one’s so straightforward that you might roll your eyes and miss it.
But trust me, you need it.
A lot of things happening most times:
- Most times you feel stressed your body just lacks more water.
- Most times you think you’re hungry, you’re actually thirsty.
- Most times you feel distracted, you body clock is off because you’re just dehydrated.
You simply need to get more water in your system.
Get a bottle, fill it up, and carry it all day.
Set an alarm. Set a reminder. Do Something. Anything.
But just push yourself to drink more water everyday and you’ll discover feeling refreshed and more energetic.
Having quality sleep is a must-have habit.
The days when people feel proud for not sleeping well is far gone. If you pull all nighters all the time it’s not because you’re smart.
It’s because you procrastinate — A lot.
All nighters means you’re borrowing energy from your future self. The result? Constantly feeling exhausted.
Everything feels dead.
You can’t have motivation to do things when you lack sleep.
Sleep more, sleep well.
And life will suddenly feel better.
You’ve got the awesome habits lined up. Now it’s time to act on them.
You got this!
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