Beginning Steps to Productivity

Being productive can be very hard because of all of life's daily distractions whether it's your dog, your annoyingly loud sibling, or your phone because let's be real, we're addicted. So when trying to study or do work, it's harder to focus so I have a couple of tricks and tips in order to start the New Year and a new semester off with a bang! As the old saying goes "New Year, New Me"!

1.  Locations: Where do you study has a big impact on how you study, so wherever you are studying at a coffee shop, friends house, library, or your room. Try to stay far away from a bed if you're truly trying to retain and comprehend information. If you study in groups, make sure your group is small, personally, I'd say no bigger than 5 people depending on the topic such as if there's an English essay, you and your friends can discuss what to write about and review each other's essay, so 5 people are okay for that type of environment. For math and science, I'd recommend 3 and 4 people in order to help teach each other anything that you might have not caught in class. 
2. Your Desk And Area: The area that you are working is very important to how well you'll work. Keeping a clean desk can really allow you to spread your work, so you're not working in a corner and then after you have finished one task, you can clean up your area a bit and switch to the next task. A quiet area is key in order for you to be able to focus and really understand anything that you may be reading or working on, which leads into my next point of removing distractions.
3. Remove Distractions: If you want to get any work done, I would suggest removing any and all distractions, your phone, your dog, your family! Personally, my dog and phone are my biggest distractions, so whenever I'm in my room studying. I plug in my headphones and play some lofi music where it's not distracting to the point where I can't hear my dog come in and out of my room and usually I through my phone on my bed because I'm too lazy to get it if it's far away. Or if you have one of the noise canceling headphones, which is just the best type in order to really focus, those can help so much
4. Pomodoro Method: This method is used for many centuries, where you do some intense focus work for a certain period of 25-30 minutes and then take a short break of 5 minutes and repeat 4 times then after it you take a longer break for 15-20 minutes. This is actually how I prefer to study during the school days, but I tend to extend my time because I want to make this method fit my schedule. And it's totally okay to extend the time because sometimes certain tasks take longer than 25 minutes. But this method is used to make sure the tasks that you're doing, you're allowing yourself a certain amount of time to do those tasks efficiently. 
5. Set Small Goals: When you have a lot on your plate, make sure to break them down into smaller goals, so it's not a daunting task that you most likely won't get done. Like if you have an essay, break it into brainstorm, find quotes, write your introduction and conclusion, rough draft your body paragraphs, using the Pomodoro method for longer tasks such as an essay is a good idea so you're using your time efficiently. Using a planner or some type of formatting for what you need to get done, is another way that you can format these tasks into smaller goals. 
6. Don't Use To Do Lists: Honestly, if you go and ask different billionaires or successful people such as Elon Musk, he will tell you that he doesn't do to do lists, now I will use to do lists from time to time but what you're supposed to do, is that arrange them from recently due to due farther away. Which is why I use a planner with a monthly calendar where I will write when everything is due, and if you're in school or at work. What is due tomorrow at 9 am, then Monday at 1 pm: using this really helps me understand what is more urgent and helps to prioritize my life in a first due first done. 
7. Hunger and Thirst: Keep hydrated throughout your study session because for me when I get stressed, I will eat or excessively drink water. Might just be me, but keeping water or a small healthy snack nearby is so you don't get distracted by your hunger or thirst and go downstairs or to the kitchen and get distracted there. Plus whenever I'm tired I'll take a sip of my ice cold water which is quite refreshing as it's a booster. Your brain is highly motivated by water as when you're dehydrated and studying your brain is less likely to truly absorb the information and dulling your brains performance in general.  If you want to learn more about waters effect on your body, click the word link. 
8. Study Reasonably: Your brain can only honestly give its full attention for short periods of time, so studying for 8 hours for a test is actually counterproductive. If you play a sport, you have practices, you don't continuously practice at a game level the entire time, I do my best reg sprints, take a short break, and then I get back to my erg sprints. It's just like studying, by giving your brain a small break, you're going to be able to continue at the same rate for a longer time. If you would also like to read up on how studying for long frames of time is counterproductive to your studying, click this link

Studying is something that you have to build your life and school around because of how critical it is to truly understand and comprehend the material that you're being taught. Using these few steps are the stepping stones to being able to truly be productive, and there are so many other ways that you can learn to be productive, I'm still figuring out my way in fact, so if you feel like there was anything I missed. Feel free to leave it down in the comment section down below!