Effective Habits for Effective Study

Study is like the heavens'glorious sun
Wm ShakespeareEnglish

You can prepare yourself to succeed in your studies.
T ry to develop and appreciate the following habits:

• Take responsibility for yourself
  Responsibility is recognition that in order to succeedyou can make decisions about your priorities, your time, and your resources

• Center yourself around your values and principles
  Don't let friends and acquaintances dictate what you consider important

• Put first things first
  Follow up on the priorities you have set for yourself, and don't let others, or other interests, distract you from your goals

• Discover your key productivity periods and places
  Morning, afternoon, evening; study spaces where you can be the most focused and productive. Prioritize these for your most difficult study challenges

• Consider yourself in a win-win situation
  You win by doing your best and contributing your best to a class, whether for yourself, your fellow students, and even for your teachers and instructors. If you are content with your performance, a grade becomes an external check on your performance, which may not coincide with your internally arrived at benefits

• First understand others, then attempt to be understood
  When you have an issue with an instructor, for example a questionable grade, an assignment deadline extension, put yourself in the instructor's place. Now ask yourself how you can best make your argument given his/her situation

• Look for better solutions to problems
  For example, if you don't understand the course material, don't just re-read the material. Try something else! Consult with the professor, a tutor, an academic advisor, a classmate, a study group, or your school's study skills center

• Look to continually challenge yourself
  Partially adapted from the audio cassette by Steven Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People