r/GetStudying

i've been trying to set aside time every day to actually learn something new, not just scroll through articles and forget them an hour later.

tried pomodoro for a bit and it helped with focus but i still struggled to stay consistent long term. feels like i either go too hard for a week then burn out or just lose the habit completely.

what actually worked for you to make learning a daily thing that stuck?

Regardless of what I decide to study (because I can still afford to be undecided since I have a few months left), what habits do you think would make studying easier that I can start implementing right now?

Hello,

I'm trying to self-study pre-calculus, computer science, and German. I would like to one day return to a university to either take courses or by some miracle, earn my bachelor's degree in the subject. I have ADD and was severly depressed and bullied in middle and high school and frankly my grades were very poor. Fast forward to 32-35 and I have slowly but surely unlearned the self-loathing and idea that I am "born dumb" or have a "low IQ" and cannot achieve if I work hard.

I am studying nightly after work and hope to enroll in classes someday soon. I just have a sinking feeling that I missed my opportunity to achieve. I feel out of place trying to learn. Are there more senior studiers here struggling with similar emotions? I just cannot stop feeling angry at myself for not being more serious in high school.

Thanks for reading my vent.

I swear it used to feel easier to focus for long periods.

Now even sitting down for 30 minutes without checking something feels difficult sometimes.

Feels like constant stimulation has completely changed attention spans.

Has anyone found a way to actually improve focus again?

I’ve been struggling a lot in starting to study and other goals that I want to do. I would have everything set up — my laptop, the school pdf, my notebook, but my brain isn’t ready. I think that the reason for it is that I’ve scrolled too much in TikTok or YT Shorts before studying. My brain is fried at that point and I just stare at my desk.

What helped me is starting a timer when I’m going to study. I tried setting the timer at 30 minutes but I can’t even focus. So I reset the timer and set it to 5 minutes. Even then, I was having a hard time but I pushed through. I rested and scrolled again. 

I keep on using a timer when I’m studying and I try to beat the time that I’ve had before. 5 minutes became easier and I went to study for 15 minutes. Then it felt so fast to even learn something so I made it 30 minutes. I find that 60 - 120 minutes is a good range of studying. 90 minutes is the sweet spot.I also tried it with my other goals like reading, working out, writing, and it really helps me focus. 

I think that it's effective because I knew what to do within that time. I have a specific task to simply study within those minutes. I’m also free to just stop the timer if I don’t want to focus anymore. It’s more of the awareness of what I’m doing within those minutes. Unlike when I’m just scrolling through reels, I’m not even aware of the time passing. 

I just got this realization right now. A timer is effective because you’re aware of what you're doing within those times. Given that you actually do what you’re supposed to do within the time period. You’re aware when you’re not studying (not starting the time) and studying (starting the time). Things become binary and it's easier to digest this information.

i noticed i do this stupid thing where i spend more time setting up to study than actually studying

like i’ll fix my desk, make a list, choose what subject to start with, check the time, rewrite the list, then suddenly i’ve wasted 40 minutes and feel tired already

i don’t even think i’m being lazy on purpose. it feels more like i’m trying to make studying feel easier before starting, but then the setup becomes the task

does anyone else do this? how do you actually start without making it a whole event?

What’s the best beverage to drink if I wanna pull all nighter studying , and I can’t go and buy energy drinks and sometimes coffee lowkey makes me sleepy idk how but it does

Hello. I'm a student whose executive dysfunction has always been bad because of my depression. I'm just wondering if there's anyone here that struggles with their mental health that have some tricks that work for them?

Extra information on my situation:

To be clear, electronics and such have something to do with this. I'm pretty good about not being on my phone, especially not while I'm working, except that being depressed eventually gets me on my phone because I just don't have the energy to do anything but sit on my phone and read (I try very, very hard not to scroll). I know it's unhealthy and that I should probably put my phone in another room, which I do and it usually works but only when I'm not feeling 'super depressed,' in which case I end up going on random stuff on my computer instead. Also, part of why I end up on such electronics is because I seriously don't want to focus on any of the Bad Thoughts that go through my brain. (For the record, I've tried apps, too, such as Focus Town, which I love, but I'd still like to have tips that don't require apps like that.)

So, if anyone in here has had similar experiences that have tips that might help with my depression/executive dysfunction I'd be forever grateful!!

Firstly, none of this is AI. I just thought I'd rant about what has helped me with my memory, since I see a lot of people talking about it on this sub.

I've always had an issue with memory, inside and out of school. I found it difficult to retain any information for longer than the first day I'd learn it. It became so natural to just forget everything I learned, that I started ignoring that it was an issue, and just let my life be negatively affected by it, in any situation. Only recently I've noticed how powerful of a tool memory can be; memory literally allows us to recall anything, on the spot, and apply it to whatever situation requires it. Its fascinating really. Myself and many others I've talked to seem to really undervalue the importance of a strong memory, not just for school, but beyond, and even into our health. I struggled with memory issues for a while, and I just wanted to share some things I researched in case there is anyone else with similar issues that could find some use out of this.

A couple months back, I finally started to realize how bad my memory was cooking me in school. I'd study for what seemed to be enough time, but it amounted to nothing come the test. I was naive to think that, as long as I sat there for hours, reading notes and doing practice questions, I'd magically do good on the test. After my midterms in the second semester, I was disappointed to say the least, and all that time felt like a complete waste, which in turn, demotivated me for the rest of my semester. Then finals were coming up. Something had to change. A couple of my classes discussed the concept of spaced repetition in learning, but I decided to finally look into it more, and see if this could maybe have been my solution (spoiler: it was).

Simply stated, spaced repetition is the process of recalling your memory on a specific topic over increase intervals of time. Simple, but that alone doesn't mean much. Let's say you learned an important topic on Monday. You would first break down that topic into simpler understandable terms for yourself, then do something active with that material, such as speaking it out loud, re-writing it, or turning it into something like flashcards. Then you want to space out the time until you look back to this topic and recall it again. So let's say you wait a day, it's Tuesday now, and you review whatever active material you did with that topic. Briefly jog your memory from this, and do it again, be active with it, then take a break. Now you space it out, skipping Wednesday, and recalling the information just before you forget it on Thursday. Then simply do it again, recall, review, and do something active with the material. Then just continue this process, each time, extending the length between recall and doing more and more active work with it. Now, this only works if you actually care, and start memorizing on the day that you learned it. Cramming will never out preform this process.

There's more to it than just spaced repetition however. The most important thing, which I kinda already covered, is active learning. It's one thing to review at these intervals consistently, but by adding something super simple that engages you with the content each time will help significantly more. Another important thing you can add to it is something called spontaneous recovery. The problem with spontaneous recovery, is that its, well, spontaneous. The gist of it, is that at some random point from the day you learned a topic, you either randomly recall it, or randomly get forced to recall that topic during a period that you wouldn't usually be thinking of it. So, back to the example, in a smaller scale, if something caused you to remember that concept on Wednesday, before you actually wanted to recall it on Thursday. This random recovery is huge for indicating to your brain that this concept isn't something it should be forgetting about, because it's actually applying to your daily life. Once again, this is hard to incorporate without the help of a tool. When I was trying to utilize these techniques cohesively, I just made my own tool to help, and I used it through the second half of my semester, if you're interested I'd be happy to explain it to whoever might find it useful.

After researching how all these concepts work together, I finally tried utilizing it when I was the most demotivated after my midterms. The motivation was still hard to find which is when I was introduced to social accountability, but this post is already getting too long to explain that here. Essentially majority of the new topics I learned, I just organized and allowed myself to actively learn them with very low volume spacing them apart. It becomes very easy once you are 3 or 4 cycles into retaining a piece of information and it's not exhausting at all because I just stress about it less, knowing I get more benefit from spacing it out, rather than cramming it the week before tests, or day after day. By the time my finals came around I felt more confident than ever before, because the topics I learned post-midterm seemed almost second nature, and kind of a joke how simple they really were. In the grand scheme of it, spacing out the information and keeping the amount of work low leading into finals made it much easier to comprehend the topics, retain them better, and actually understand what they mean.

Of course this isn't going to be a magic solution to anything, but for me it seriously changed the way I look at school, and now, after about 2 months, I've noticed significant boosts in my day to day memory. The way I think about important topics in my daily life seems to be easier to retain, and it almost feels like I've just organized a bundle of thoughts that's been stuck for years. I know this is kind of a rant, but there may be some people out there that find this useful. There is plenty of articles and great research on all these topics you can find out there if you want to look deeper. I believe that organizing my memory like this has seriously changed my outlook towards school and now everything feels much more reachable and doable for upcoming tests with this in mind.

TL:DR:
Stop cramming and just start seriously valuing your memory because it's a very powerful tool. No amount of hard work will outperform the power that your brain has when it comes to memory. Incorporate active learning over increasing intervals of time FROM THE DAY YOU LEARN IT, and you'll start noticing how simple and easy to retain topics actually are.

I am a 19M.I was a good student till 10th grade when I lost my left eye vision due to Eales disease and retinal scarring and knowing that there is a 90% chance of it occurring in my right eye. It ended up making me overall anxious. I have been taking psychiatric medication and it has been a help overall but when my exams are near I can’t study considering the fact I was able to study for 12 hours a day consistently because I love to study but I can’t fuck up my grades. I am just unable to study because there is an immense fear within me which I am not able to recognise and it’s just there. I particularly don’t have much to do and I am not tired but I still can’t study because I am feeling anxious and afraid without any reason

I can't study. I don't have... the ability, I think. Currently sitting for some of my last exams of my uni life and I can't help but realise how little I studied the entire last four years. I had five days to prep before an exam that is tomorrow (in 12 hours) and I barely focused for 200 minutes as per my focus timer thing on my phone. I feel this sense of utter hopelessness that I often have every night before an exam, but I always end up doing nothing about it and eventually return to this same spot feeling like garbage.

It feels like there is a mental barrier between me and studying, I can't focus for long periods of time, I get distracted easily, even deactivating my socials doesn't help because then I find more creative ways to procastinate (workout, cooking, reading stuff unrelated to my exams, applying to jobs).

My grades aren't the worst, but nothing that would help me achieve meaningful things that I dream about later in life. I wasted four good years of my life behind a degree that in the end I only vaguely understand. I wish I had done more, but knowing me, even if I had a time machine to go back four years, I'd probably end up wasting, being distracted and getting the same, if not worse, grades.

It's over for me after tomorrow, no amount of locking in would ever save me or my grades, no more next semesters. I had all the chances I needed to salvage myself, many times in the last 4 years, but I didn't. I don't know why. I hope no one ever feels the way I do now. I wouldn't wish this despair on my enemy, knowing that I had everything in my hands to secure a more certain future for myself, but I ended up choosing distractions and instant gratification over my future.

Thanks for listening, just needed to vent in front of strangers. Have a great rest of the day!

I am so embarrassed to be writing this, but I have my exams in just about 35 days… I’m so addicted to YouTube, Reddit, and playing games that I’m not able to focus on studies.. whenever, I stay at the desk to read, like, I cannot really grasp anything I write one sentence and I’m off to bed again rotting.. how do I make myself study?? A year ago, I used to read for a very long time with excellent results… I’m so scared and screwed… if anyone has been in this exact rotting hole and climbed out, please tell me what worked.. I want to stop being lazy.. I mean ik what to do but I am so lazy that I don’t do anything productive.. I feel so powerless like it’s out of my control but ik it is in my control.. any advice would mean a lot right now.. please help

I’m cooked bro😭🙏

hi,im 17

honestly i feel I'm just doing nothing and just destroying my future because of my habits ,i honestly want to do so much, i want to learn a language ,i want to draw, i want to exercise ,i want to start studying consistently and not a day before exam,i want to eat healthy, i want to sleep on time,i want to learn sign language,i want to crocheting, i want to learn THIS,THAT,THIS THAT...

yea so i want to do everything but guess what?

i end up doing nothing,all i think is how i would be after learning,and my future and stuff without even trying?

i say ill start tomorrow but that tomorrow doesnt even come,i wait for the "right time"but it never comes,and its been 6 years(since covid) that i had never studied regularly for more than 4 days...my max regularilty was ONLY FOUR DAYS,

i want to do so much,earn well but ik it wont be possible if i dont start,i just feel i have no purpose,im in a loop of neverending procastination and doomscrolling...

the thing is HOW DO I START?how do i start the things i want to do,especially when i want to do so much?how do make myself study consistently?

because i feel im already too late to restart,too late to even fix it,too late for everything...

I can't maintain a consistent study routine, if im productive for 5 days, I will then spend the next 5 days being unproductive its an annoying cycle that i can't seem to break for some reason, and don't get me started on my sleep schedule...

What's pissing me off even more is I could do this before, I studied consistently everyday for months and had a good sleep schedule when i was preparing for my SAT and the exams I'm preparing for now are even more important than my SAT so i don't understand why I can't lock in now.

I keep trying and failing, trying and failing again and again. Giving up is never an option in my mind, but man I don't wanna try again knowing I'm invetiable gonna fail and be back to where I am now. I'm just tired of being dissapointed with myself, I need to be better.

The only good thing about my current situation is instead of procrastinating all the time, I'm now procrastinating half the time.

Hoping I can find someone here who can relate to me and can give some practical advice.

actually i easily get distracted and in exams u gotta sit 3 hrs straight so i wanted to get used to it