Improving studying Habits as a personal goal
To begin with, a goal can be defined as any result one is attempting to achieve. Goals can be long term or short
term. Improving my studying habits as a personal goal can be classified as a short term goal. A short term goal is any goal that can be achieved within a short period of time maybe weeks or months. Short term goals are always smaller parts of bigger and long term goals. A long term goal is any goal that is set to be achieved after a long period of time, for example a after some few years. One can set a goal of getting a first class after his/her graduation, for this goal to be achieved; one has to work hard towards achieving this goal. It means, for this long term goals to be achieved, one has to work hard on the short term goals. Long term goals will always be determined by the short term goals.
Goal settings is an ideal process for motivating yourself and help you accomplish your visions and turn them into reality. By setting goals, one is able to identify what he/she has to do in life, where to put more effort in and identify all kinds of distractions that can hinder you from achieving your goals and establish a way to avoid them .Why do we set goals? By setting goals, it helps one organize him/her in terms of time and resources. Once you’ve identified the time and resources you have, you will maximize them to achieve these set of goals. Setting goals helps an individual develops self-confidence. By working hard towards achieving the set goals and avoiding all kinds of distractions, the self-confidence is achieved. For one to succeed in life, He/ She must develop own goal, whether long term or short term.
Also Study: 7 Habits of Highly Successful People Overview
As per this paper, the selected goal is to change my studying habits. This is a short term goal that will help achieve the long term goal of finishing school and getting a good job, not just finishing school but passing with good grades. For this to be achieved, theirs need to work on the studying habits and improve the method of studying to help achieve the set goal. For one to succeed in Education He/ She has to work hard and the effort of hard work has to be realized, Education is always a major key to a lifetime success.
To improve study habits, one has to identify the strength and weaknesses from the previous methods used in studying. Abandon the negative habits that dragged you back and carry forward the positive studying habits to the current identified ways to improve your methods of studying. For example poor studying habits that always hinder one from achieving His / Her goals is distractions. The main source of distraction in the current generation is the mobile phones. One can set out to study but at the same time using his mobile phone to text or surf the internet. Other sources of distraction from studying is the music, loud music doesn’t create a friendly studying environment since it interferes with the understanding of what one is studying. I agree some study best when music is on, if it’s a must to study with the music on , then I will prefer soft music.
How can I improve my studying habits? Specific positive behaviors should be put in place to ensure theirs an improvement on how one study currently from the previous ways. One need to identify him/ herself, at what time do you study and absorb what you’ve studied? Is it at dawn, at night or midday?. If the previous time you used to study at midday but there was no change in your academic success, then try dawn vise-versa. I prefer dawn to studying at night or midday. At dawn someone is always attentive and have a fresh mind, theirs always less noise and one can absorb almost all of what is studied. The kind of environment we study in will determine the percentage we will absorb from the topic of study; every individual has their own environment in which they study best. Some prefer studying in places where they are alone, some prefer studying where there’s not even a single noise. A good environment to study in should be a quiet and cool place such as the library with the minimal distractions. This will help the individual successfully absorb what is studied. Noisy and crowded environments should always be avoided to ensure success in the study.
To improve the studying habits, one should always have a positive thinking during the study, identify his skills and abilities. One should always avoid comparing himself to other people, since every individual has his/ her on way of studying and understanding things. Catastrophic and absolute thinking should be things of the past if one is in dire need to improve studying skills. To ensure the studying skills is achieved, the following studying methods should always be taken into considerations; take notes while studying, if previously you used to study and not taking notes, you find the level of understanding is minimal. Studying and taking notes of the key points will improve the rate of one’s understanding. Studying and not asking questions where you don’t understand is a poor studying habit, no one can always understand everything that He or She has studied, one should always feel free to ask question on areas that are not well understood after the study, not asking questions will always limit an individual from learning new things. To improve understanding after every study, one should always brainstorm. Brainstorming helps you memorize all what you’ve studied and improve the mastering ability. After every study, a practice test should be taken to gauge yourself whether what is studied is understood. After the practice test, correction should follow to maximize what you’ve understood. One should not always study without breaks, short 5 minutes breaks should always be taken in between the study. Majority always start their studying goals with a high morale but later it declines. When studying, you should have your goal in mind, it will help maintain your focus and work even harder. Studying should always be everyday to ensure the goal is achieved.
To ensure success in improving the studying skills, theirs a number of negative studying habits that needs to be avoided ; to start with, studying at home, your room or apartment is always not a good idea, at home theirs lots of distractions ranging from Television, noisy roommates and many other things that need to be attended to. Studying while listening to music has been debated over and over. According to research, it was assumed that classical music improves spatial abilities and learning. Music should be avoided at all cost during the time of study, especially the earphones. Close friends should always be avoided during time of a serious study. However how much we pretend that studying with friends will help, it won’t do any good because you will always take breaks to cross chat on non- studying related things. I can say studying in places such as beds is like a pretense because there’s a possibility of falling asleep, one who is serious with what he’s studying should never study on bed, it’s a behavior that need to be avoided to ensure the set goal is achieved. Some might think that reading textbooks and coloring specific parts of the pages with highlighter is the best way of studying, I assure you it’s one of the less effective studying methods. Instead of marking the entire page with the highlighter, one should always make highlights or rather take short notes of what is being studied. Once all these mentioned behaviors are avoided, then the studying will always be successful.
To ensure the goal of improving studying habits is improved, a means of monitoring ones behavior should be developed. For instance, a study chart can be used or even a diary. For this case, I will prefer a diary. Once the ways of improving studying habits have been suggested, the person studying should always record each and every activity in a diary and the respective dates when the activities were taken. Besides the diary, you should have an individual to monitor whether you’re really following your study guidelines and avoiding your previous poor studying habits. In conclusion, poor studying habits will always lead to failure but good studying habits will always be followed by success.
References;
- Kiriko, P. O. (2013). The successful student: How to develop good study habits. St. Albans, UK: Panoma Press.
- Muchnick, C. C., Muchnick, J. R., & Muchnick, C. C. (2013). Straight-A study skills: More than 200 essential strategies to ace your exams, boost your grades, and achieve lasting academic success. Avon, Mass: Adams Media.
- Dottin, E. S., Miller, L. D., & O’Brien, G. E. (2013). Structuring learning environments in teacher education to elicit dispositions as habits of mind: Strategies and approaches used and lessons learned.