7 Habits of Highly Effective Student
College students are known for being busy, stressed, and often distracted. The key to being successful in college is to distinguish between the important things in life, and the trivial things.
College students are always busy juggling classes, studying, social life, extracurricular activities and much more. It’s hard to find time to get everything done – even if you’re a student.
But did you know there are certain habits of highly effective college students, that can help you achieve your goals faster?
Habits are the keys to success. They are the habits that keep us out of trouble. They are the habits we use every day to get through life without thinking.
So if you want to be an effective student, then below are the seven habits of highly effective students you should focus on.
1. Be proactive about learning:
Learning is a lifelong process. You don’t stop learning after graduation from high school or university. There will always be new subjects to learn and skills to develop.
Therefore, it’s crucial to make sure you have identified what areas need improvement before they become problems. This way, you’ll avoid starting down the wrong path by accident.
2. Take responsibility:
When faced with something difficult, take ownership of the situation, rather than blaming others. If you blame someone else for failing at something, you won’t learn anything. Instead, figure out how you could do better next time.
For example, instead of saying “I didn’t understand”, say “Next time I’d like to work harder so that I understand”.
3. Ask questions when necessary:
Being able to ask questions shows respect towards other people. By asking questions, you give them the opportunity to explain their point of view.
In turn, this helps build trust within relationships. Additionally, it makes people feel valued and appreciated. Asking questions also encourages communication which leads to understanding.
4. Have positive attitudes:
Having negative thoughts doesn’t mean you actually believe those words. Negative thoughts only exist because we’ve told ourselves these beliefs repeatedly.
So change your attitude by replacing any negative statements with positive ones. Remember that nobody likes negativity.
5. Focus on one thing at a time:
To succeed in studies, sports, hobbies, etc., try focusing all your energy on one task at once. Focusing too many tasks simultaneously causes distractions.
Distractions lead to errors and mistakes. This ultimately results in poor grades. Hence, it’s best to put effort into just one area at a time.
6. Set short-term goals:
Goals set long term may not seem realistic since you might think they’re going to take years to accomplish. However, setting small achievable steps along the way keeps motivation levels up.
Also, it allows you to see progress as soon as possible. Seeing immediate results motivates you to continue working toward achieving your goal.
7. Believe you deserve great things:
Whether you realise it or not, everyone has good qualities. Some people consider themselves average, but deep inside they know they’re capable of much more. Don’t underestimate yourself. Think positively.
Know that you can excel in everything you attempt whether it be academically successful and well-adjusted student. Just remember, you shouldn’t compare yourself to anyone else; comparing two different aspects of life would cause unfair comparisons.
Rather, look at your own strengths and weaknesses, and decide where you want to improve. Once you identify what needs improving, you can work hard to reach your full potential.
Tips on Becoming Effective Students
If you follow these successful students tips consistently, you’ll notice you are performing well in each aspect of your life. Your education will go smoothly, you’ll enjoy studying more, and your personal life will flourish.
1. Make a To-Do List
List all your assignments, projects and other tasks before you work or study. This way, you’ll know what needs doing first.
You won’t waste valuable study hours trying to figure it out when you could be spending them focused on something productive, like reading about a topic you’ve studied thoroughly.
2. Set up your study space
Most people spend their entire lives living under someone else’s rules. But as soon as they step into university, they realise how much control over their own environment they actually do possess.
So make sure you choose a comfortable place where you will feel relaxed and at home while studying. If possible, try not to work too close from bed because this may cause problems with sleeping later.
Also, don’t pick a room in which others might disturb you unless you plan to study alone.
3. Create structure for yourself
Once again, structure comes down to preference, but some successful students prefer having a set schedule while others just need to follow their natural cycle of sleep/wake.
Majority of students also enjoy staying up late at night and waking up early in the morning. Others would rather stay awake until midnight instead.
Whatever works best for you, create a routine that helps you relax and prepare yourself mentally for the next few weeks.
4. Be organised
When organising your material, put your textbooks away neatly so you’ll see them quickly. Keep track of any notes you take during lectures by writing them directly onto pages within those books.
Use sticky note pads or highlighters to mark specific sections of text. These simple tools will save your countless hours spent searching for information that was already right in front of you.
5. Have fun with organization
If you have fun with organization, you’ll lose nothing. Take pride in keeping your materials organised and easy to access.
In fact, once you master using filing systems, you’ll probably find yourself looking forward to creating new folders and sorting files whenever you go shopping for supplies.
6. Write everything before sleeping
Once you fall asleep, you enter a state of semi-consciousness, making it difficult to recall details. However, many student transformation often forget important facts, dates, names or even phone numbers after falling asleep.
By writing things down immediately, you’ll avoid forgetting important events or conversations that happened earlier in the evening.
And since most memory loss occurs during deep sleep, you’ll ensure that your brain is still alert enough to remember what you wrote the following afternoon.
7. Don’t procrastinate
Procrastination is bad for both your physical health and mental well being. It also makes you less efficient; studies show that procrastinators complete around half the amount of work compared to non-procrastinators.
Procrastinating means putting off starting a project till the last minute. Instead, tackle small chunks of time throughout the week.
When you hit deadlines, you’ll feel good knowing that you completed several smaller jobs ahead of time.
These tips give you a head start in becoming an effective college student. There’s nothing more frustrating than finding yourself struggling against the clock only to discover that you didn’t really learn anything after all.
A Wife, a mum and a Tutor! I am the Lead Editor at TheTutor.Link & also the Head Tutor there. I love teaching seeing young minds flourish. I also love blogging and sharing my experience on the world wide web.