10 Steps To Organise Study & Increase Productivity - aifc

Optimise Your Study Time By Planning Ahead

Everything we do to streamline our studies helps improve our overall time management, enabling us to become more confident, engaged and connected.

The ability to stay on top of our studies largely depends on the preparation work we make, and on how much we value and prioritise our study time.

Learn how to eliminate unnecessary pressure from your studies by becoming organised. Organise study time and adopt good study habits for increased productivity to maximise your chances for success.

To avoid disappointment, commence your study journey confidently by using the 10 steps below. 

  1. Create A Study Planner & Use Visual Aids
    Make up a table of when assignments are due and add your study schedule as a list on that table above or beside each assignment.  Use visual aids – draw up charts to map out your studies. Calendars are useful for recording deadlines and important dates. Coloured bookmarks may be used for the added advantage of faster page searches.
  2. Pick A Quiet and Productive Study Space
    Prepare your study space and have everything you need at hand. Ensure you have a comfortable chair and quiet study area. If you’re studying online and tend to move around a lot, you may need a laptop to do your work on, from various locations using a fast internet connection. Parents usually pick a study time suited to when the children are asleep.
  3. Value Your Study Time
    Problem:
    Finding excuses to push study time aside or not feeling like it.
    Solution:
    Decide at the beginning to give yourself enough regular time to study. Pick a suitable time and location. Allow nothing else to be booked into that timeslot.  Unbreakable routines can make time management seem effortless.
    Things To Avoid: C
    ramming your work at the very last minute is not the best way to study nor is it the best way to achieve the best results when completing assignments. At the very worst-case scenario, students who get into bad habits can end up falling behind on their work.
    Solution: If this sounds like you, focus on the prize. Ask for an extension, catch up with your work, get organised and create a routine for yourself and commit to it. Own your study space – ban distractions that will keep you away from studying.  Be realistic, set achievable goals and practice good self-care for the duration of your courses.
  4. Take Notes and Highlight Important Paragraphs
    Write down keywords and phrases to memorise and note down any action you’re required to take. Highlight important paragraphs and make a list of any questions you may have to ask your support person. Making summary notes of what you have memorised works like a revision to maintain the newly acquired knowledge fresh in your mind.
  5. Break Down Assignments & Know What Is Expected Of You
    Understand objectives – Know what it is that do you need to demonstrate competency in. Understand the criteria on which you will be marked. Be prepared to read things over a few times to ensure you’re fully grasping it. Practice explaining the topic in your own words. Press in rather than avoiding difficulties, by pushing past difficult barriers with some grit.
  6. Use Online Tools & Technology
    Even though answers are often found in your study material, online tools can be very helpful.  Paraphrasing tools are very practical for writing assignments or for putting sentences into different and more comprehensible sentences. Online apps such as Wunderlist from Google Play can help you create to-do lists and time tables. A Thesaurus such as Thesaurus.com and online dictionary such as Dictionary.com can open up our vocabulary and understanding of words. An email calendar is useful for keeping records of when assignments are due. By setting up alerts we can stay constantly aware of our timeframes. Use your mobile phone camera to take images of notes on whiteboards or to record information.
  7. Have A Study Buddy
    Practice your skills with a fellow student, family member or a friend. A study buddy may even help keep you stay motivated and on remain on track. Brainstorming sessions with study buddies help open up the topics at hand by offering other perspectives.
  8. Self-Care and Short Breaks –Short breaks enable us to return to continue our work feeling refreshed. We perform better when we’ve had time to recharge our batteries. We can go for a walk, do some light exercise or do something different. As long as these short breaks don’t turn into long periods of procrastination. Stay focused on the end goal to avoid falling behind. Essentially, we need to take good care of ourselves.
  9. Communicate & Ask For Help
    Students may feel uncomfortable asking for help. However, we should feel encouraged to contact our support person when we need to discuss our studies or to communicate any hinderances to studies, well ahead of time if it can be helped.
  10. Edit and Proof Read Your Responses
    Consider your first answers as a draft. Gain clarity on what can be done better. Re-read everything to make sure it makes sense and that you’ve addressed all points correctly. Revisit textbooks to ensure you have met all the requirements with your responses.

Alternatively, without self-discipline, many capable students end up falling behind, blaming the workload, re-submitting their assignments many times over or quitting. Most of us enrol into courses with a can-do mentality. By implementing these 10 study hacks students can remain confident and positive, knowing they’ve done everything possible to reach their goals.

Sandra Ciminelli
Cred. Dip. Couns. (Christian)

Study the CHC51015 Diploma of Counselling.

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For those who would like to enrol in aifc’s accredited Christian counselling courses we have two intakes per year for courses commencing around the following months:

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