DECEMBER STUDY TIPS
Focus: Procrastination
Having trouble keeping focused on your final exam studying? There are many fun distractions this time of year! A few suggestion remedies for procrastination taken from Learning for Success: Skills and Strategies for Canadian Students are below:
- Set up a reward for finishing something; this can counteract lack of initiative (advisor suggestion: seasonal coffee shop beverage with extra whipping cream!)
- Begin to work on a study task that is not too demanding, as opposed to one where your mindset is "impossible"
- Subdivide a bigger task into several smaller chunks (e.g. 15-minute items); this can reduce the level of difficulty of the overall task
- Suspend your criticism of how well you are doing in order to complete a task for the first time
- Co-operate with a friend or classmate to share a task (without copying) and reduce isolation. (advisor suggestion: say random words of encouragement to your classmate during your study session)
- Substitute the mental message "I should" with "I'd like to"
Excerpt from Learning for Success: Skills and Strategies for Canadian Students by Joan Fleet, Fiona Goodchild & Richard Zajchowski. Harcourt Brace & Company Canada
