How to Keep up Your Studies Under Lockdown

Before the pandemic, studying seemed much easier. Come home after school or college and get right to it! However, after being locked up for months already, it’s very hard to keep up the same pace of studying.

No matter whether its academic studies or you’re self-educating, it’s undoubtedly harder, because you’re at home, and home isn’t exactly a learning-stimulating environment. You can’t escape to the library or to your local coffee shop to get a couple of hours of studying in: it’s just not an option anymore.

What’s even worse is that nobody knows for how long this situation will last. So, to keep up with your studying goals, here are 3 main tips to get you motivated and going in the right direction:

Keep Your Working Space Clean

First and foremost, you need a desk. No, you can’t study while lying at your bed, you will just be so unproductive that you’ll be wasting hours upon hours of valuable studying time. It’s much better to study intensively for two or three hours and then relax, then to spend the whole day “studying” in your bed.

Also, you will need to keep that desk clean and clutter-free! Cluttered desks kill productivity, which has been proven by numerous research pieces and case studies. The dedicated area for studying will keep you busy. As soon as you finish, clean all from the desk of all the studying items. By unpacking and packing up your studying items, you will immediately get in and get out of the studying mindset – this is a small psychological trick for motivation.

Don’t Let Anyone or Anything Bother You While You’re Studying           

If you live with other people, you have to explicitly tell them that you’re going to study and that they shouldn’t bother you at all during this time. This may seem kind of harsh, but you really have to be really serious and strict about this.

Over the course of evolution, our minds developed to specifically pay attention to other people, so, whenever other people start talking to you, you will immediately switch your attention to them. It doesn’t matter

Set Reasonable Objectives and Stay Stress-Free

Quarantine may seem like the best time to do all of the things that you’ve wanted to do for so long. Nonetheless, you have to be realistic with yourself. Quarantine doesn’t add another 24 hours to your days – it’s only a measure against the global raging pandemic. Day after day, you’ll still have to perform your usual activities, so the amount of additional time that you got as a result of the pandemic isn’t that big at all.

If you’re working at home full-time and trying to learn a new skill dedicating 4 hours a day to the studies, you will inevitably fail. Be gentler with yourself and read up on some study time management. Also, don’t forget about online resources to help with your studies: you can find pretty much everything from an academic theses’ aggregator to an essay writing service. Such resources will help you alleviate the stress of studying.

How good of a studying flow you had before someone bugs you – all of that will be lost in an instant.

Say No to Distractions

Non-human distractions need to be kept at a minimum too. Our mind usually takes time to start up all of its concentration capabilities. It’s a gradual process that you need to power through. Of course, if you’re checking your phone or social media every other minute, then you’re going to be constantly taking yourself out of the studying flow without reaching peak concentration levels.

If you have a problem with controlling your social media habits, then there are tons of applications available online that will block your access to sites and other applications for a specified amount of time by you. This way, you’ll be completely in control when and how much you’re studying.

Also, the sound is a big factor. If you live in a loud environment, then you have to drown out the sounds with some white noise. You can search up online background sounds to drown your loud relatives. If you decide that you want to study while listening to music, you have to be careful, because you can’t be actively listening to it, only passively. Pop music is actually bad for studying because the lyrics in it will eventually distract you. You can search for some ambient music or elevator music to keep your mind focused on studying.

Lastly, after you’re done with studying, don’t forget to treat yourself with some pleasant activity after your studies. This way, you’ll reinforce your studying habit more and more over time. These 3 tips are a great recipe for studying success, no matter whether you’re studying at school, college, or self-educating.