Find what works for you. it’s very easy to be consumed by social media & what everyone is doing. Take a moment to realize what you think is good for you. When are you most focused? Can you multitask? Do you like studying alone/with friends? Will writing a to-do list help you or overwhelm you? Do you like taking notes or listening?
For example, a lot of my friends can only focus after taking a long nap and working an hour before the deadline. (Mashallah) They’re doing really good in terms of grades. That’s their method. I have other friends that like to study before they go to class. Works for them too. Some take messy class notes & rewrite it in beautiful colours at home. That’s how they study. Some stay up all night or function on 2 hours of sleep. Also works for their schedule.
That doesn’t work for me though. Personally, no matter how much I tried, I can only fully focus in the morning so that’s when I like to get the most done. I tried not sleeping as much, working at night, messy notes, colourful notes, none of that works for me. What works for me is different than my friends and so many times they disagree with me but that’s okay.
I had a part-time job while going to classes, for many, they couldn’t do it because it stressed them out and made them feel distracted. Some of my friends tried to force themselves to work while studying too, it didn’t work for them. To me it’s the exact opposite, it stressed me out having too much freetime. It made me feel worse to think I could do something more & I’m wasting my time. Another example would be learning pace. I’m a lot slower than a lot of my friends, I need to actually study because just ‘skimming’ through doesn’t work for me. No matter how simple a topic is, I can’t ‘wing it’ or put in half effort.
The sooner I realized this, it made everything easier for me. I started studying in the breaks because I realized that by the time I’m back from work, I’m too tired & I can’t focus on big tasks. I accepted that maybe I need to work harder than most because we move at different paces plus have different loads to carry. I also realized that organization is important to me, colours are not. As soon as I start losing papers & feeling like I’m all over the place, I lose myself & I fall back. Even motivation-wise, I lose motivation as soon as I start getting messy. My friends though, don’t need a to-do list or a calendar, they use their phones to set reminders or just remember by heart.
Doesn’t matter. Pick what works for you.
CHOOSE WHAT WORKS FOR YOU.
Elaf Trabulsi 