30 Effective Productivity Tips for Students

I have been a student for more than half of my life and the journey continues to this day. I completely understand all the stress, anxiety and overthinking that comes as a bi-product of being a student. I have compiled a list of 30 tips and techniques to help you make your journey much easier by boosting your productivity. These tips will help you find the best study techniques for you and much more, to help you enhance productivity, focus, relieve stress and happiness. Once you get the balance right, you could enjoy this life and get things done!

1. Set Clear Goals

Setting goals is important, it give you a sense of direction. Start by setting achievable goals. It could work on your college assignment or reading a chapter of your book. This will keep you motivated which is very important for productivity.

2. Create a Study Schedule

When I was in college, I would have specific “focus days” where my main focus would be revising or getting my assignments done. This played an important role in helping me avoid procrastination as I had things planned. For example, have Mon, Wed and Fri as study days, and allocate a set time for specific subjects. Being organised is your best friend through school, college or university.

3. Use the Pomodoro Technique

I knew many people who followed this technique, it involves studying for up to 30 minutes followed by 5-minute break. This helps in maintaining focus using short refreshing breaks. You could set the times to an hour of study and 10 minutes break, experiment and find out what works for you.

4. Eliminate Distractions

Phone can be your best friend and the biggest enemy when it comes to being organised. Turn your phone on “do not disturb” mode when you study to avoid distractions, you could also download “study” apps which are designed to help you concentrate.

5. Prioritize Tasks with a To-Do List

Keep a priority list which has all the important tasks in order of urgency, such as assignments with earlier deadlines at the top and the ones with later deadlines at the bottom. Work on the important tasks during your study days. This helped me a lot and I’m sure you will benefit from it too.

6. Take Effective Notes

Create mind maps and labelled images if you’re a visual learner or write in-depth notes if that is how you like to learn. Knowing which technique helps you learn will save you a lot of time.

7. Get Enough Sleep

It is very easy to stay up late at nights working on your assignments, however, it can have opposite effects on your brains ability to learn and retain information. To boost your productivity and concentration during study hours you must get 7-9 hours of sleep every night.

8. Use Active Learning Techniques

I want to share some of my own study techniques with you guys, and hopefully it helps you too. Discussing concepts with my friends after lectures, making flashcards and doing past paper questions significantly helped my learning and understanding.

9. Stay Hydrated and Eat Brain-Boosting Foods

As students we use a significant amount of energy studying, make sure you’re getting that back by eating nutrition-rich healthy food. Such as nuts, fish, vegetables and staying hydrated. This will help you maintain good health in the long term.

10. Declutter Your Study Space

A tidy and organised space encourages you to be productive and do something. Keep your surroundings clean, particularly your study areas.

11. Take Regular Breaks

While it is important to study and work towards your future, it is as important to give yourself a break and relax. Take regular breaks during your study sessions, it helps to boost productivity.

12. Avoid Multitasking

Focus on task at a time to be efficient and productive, undertaking many tasks at once will affect your performance in a negative way.

13. Use Digital Tools

Use technology to help you out. Apps like google notes, google reminders and Evernote will enhance your productivity.

14. Join a Study Group

If discussing concepts re-enforces your learning, then this tip might change your life. Have sessions where you and your mates get together and discuss concepts as a study group.

15. Reward Yourself

After hitting a goal, such as getting an assignment out of the way or completing a long-scheduled study session reward yourself with a treat, a snack or something you like.

16. Manage Stress with Exercise

Student life is very stressful, and it is crucial to do activities to help with stress levels. I understand that we might not have hours of free time to go gym every day, but there are things we can still do such as, walks after studying, quick self-workout sessions using yoga or stretching. These activities will help you keep stress levels low.

 

17. Listen to Productivity Music

Listening to rain sounds, or music designed to help you focus can help a lot during revision. I would go on Spotify and listen to rain drop sounds which made a huge difference.

18. Limit Social Media Use

Social media use is like a rabbit hole, open Instagram once and you end up scrolling for 2 hours. Avoid it as much as possible particularly during your productive hours to avoid wasting your precious time.

19. Use Past Papers for Exam Prep

Especially around exam times I would focus on past paper questions as some of them would repeat in the coming exams. And it also gives you the opportunity to improve time taken per question so you can finish the entire exam within the set time limit.

20. Develop a Morning Routine

Have a productive start to the day by having a structured morning routine, this will keep the rest of your day productive. Eat a healthy breakfast and do something you enjoy to start your day on a good note.

21. Study at Your Peak Productivity Hours

I personally feel most productive and energetic in the evenings and that is when I get most of my tasks done. Schedule your sessions according to your most productive times of the day.

22. Ask for Help When Needed

If you are finding a topic difficult, the best thing to do is ask for friends or teacher for help instead of wasting hours stuck on the same thing. This will save you a lot of your precious time.

23. Reduce Procrastination with the Two-Minute Rule

I tackle procrastination with planning, it always works for me. You could also use a technique known as the 2-minute rule, if a task takes up to 2 minutes just do it immediately. Overthinking whether you should start the task or not wastes a lot of time, and it could also lead to things piling up for you.

24. Stay Consistent

Doing something consistently turns into a habit after a period and becomes easier to perform, whether it is studying every day or other habits. The habit of studying everyday will benefit you significantly especially during exams.

25. Use Mnemonics and Memory Tricks

Complex concepts can be effectively retained by breaking them down into mnemonics and linking with memories. Try this technique if you are thinking other study methods are not working for you.

26. Reflect on Your Progress

Refine your methods as you go along. If something is not working for you there is no point in doing it repeatedly, that would be against productivity and time wasting.

27. Practice Self-Care

Nothing matters more than your own health and mental well-being, make it a priority. Take breaks, have days off to relax and fulfil your hobbies.

28. Experiment with Different Study Methods

Experiment, it is very important to figure out what works and doesn’t work. Try out different study methods and find which one is most productive for you.

29. Stay Positive and Motivated

Remind yourself of your goals every now then, why did you start studying? what do you want to achieve over the next 5 years?

This will keep you motivated.

30. Never Stop Learning

Learning is not just passing exams. Learn things aside from your academics, explore and try to find answers to the things which make you curious.

Apply these 30 productivity tips for students to maximise your focus, organisation, efficiency, productivity and happiness. You will soon achieve that balance! Goodluck and let me know in the comments what more can I do for you guys.