"A little organization goes a long way". Becoming a straight-a student is not so much about
study hacks or brutal cramming sessions. The path towards academic success has a lot to
do with disciplined time management, organization and smart study techniques that focus more
on comprehension than straightforward memorisation. In today's video we will be discussing some
of the strategies that real-time top-scoring students use to get the best possible grades
and which can be found in a book written by Cal Newport titled "How to Become a Straight-A
Student".
Today we will be covering only some of the initial concepts of the book, the so-called
study basics. In order to keep this video relatively short, I kept out part 2 and 3,
which cover the methods to excel in quizzes and exams and papers and essays, respectively.
Since the book is rich in advice for college and studying I highly recommended you to explore
the rest of the book, and if you want to do it for free, stay tuned for the end of this
episode.
The first thing you need to consider is a simple equation. Work accomplished equals
time spent multiplied by the intensity of focus. If you watched last week's video on
how to build the perfect study routine, then you've already been acquainted with the concept
that studying in short bursts of time in a regular pattern is more important to your
information retention than trying to compensate long periods procrastinating, with study sessions
that last hours.
Effective time management can be achieved in five minutes a day, in a system comprised
of a calendar, where you should schedule specific-time events, and a list which you should carry
with you at all times. The idea is using five minutes each morning to write down the list
of tasks you have to complete that day and go through the reminders of yesterday to update
your calendar each morning. In that way, you create a self-sustaining time management system
that relies on simple tools. Basically, as you plan your day, your page or piece of paper
should be divided into two columns - a list for your "today's" schedule" and a list for
"things to remember". Today's schedule should be filled with dedicated time slots assigned
for specific classes or tasks. "Things to remember" should be a place where you write
down new assignments and tasks that are created during that day and which you need to migrate
into your calendar the following morning during your daily five minutes of time management.
The type of tools you use to achieve this system should take into account your preferences
and lifestyle; you can either go digital or analogue, opt for a more complex planner or
a simple piece of paper folded in your pocket. While scheduling tasks during the day you
should take into account its priority in your overall list. Most important tasks should
be tackled first, in case they're not time-specific, and less important tasks should be tackled
last. If something goes wrong for those less important tasks, you can always migrate them
to a later time. Besides that simple hierarchy of importance, it's also crucial to leave
enough buffer time in each one of your time slots to anticipate mistakes or delays.
Even if you excel at time management habits, beating procrastination is still key to allow
you to actually *do the stuff.*The book discusses five main strategies that can help you with
this:
- 1 - keeping a work progress journal, where you record what you worked on or whether you
were able to complete all the required tasks. It's basically a habit tracker for your work
that relies on a streak method to keep you motivated.
- 2 - eating the right food and correct amount of water to boost your levels of energy and
focus - 3 - making an event out of worst tasks,
which means that you can go to a different place to study, breaking your routine and
creating a sense of novelty. It also allows you to block some time in your calendar, since
you're going to a different, probably more distant place.
- 4 - building a routine for daily studying by deciding in which days you will work on
specific subjects or topics, at what times and for how long. As work starts transforming
into a habit, it will be easier to convince yourself to start studying.
- 5 - choosing the hard days. This means that when all hell breaks loose, designating a
couple of days as "hard days" will isolate time of high intensity work from other regular
work. A couple of tips for scheduling hard days is informing your close friends that
you will be going through a hard study period as well as scheduling entertaining or relaxing
activities right after you finish all of your work.
Furthermore, straight A students know when, where and how long they should be studying.
Giving a solid answer to these three questions and sticking with them for a long period of
time will improve your study routine, and the more consistent your study routine is,
the better your results will be. While Cal Newport uses many top scoring students' feedback
to say that early morning is the best time to study, I prefer to recommend you whatever
schedule your energy levels are at the highest point, be at night, morning or afternoon.
Regarding the space where you should study, the overall recommendation is to study in
isolation, somewhere that improves your focus, eliminates distractions and separates leisure
from work. Regarding the question about "how long you should study", we've answered that
already in last week's video — no more than one hour at a time, depending on your level
of motivation and energy. Even when you are on a roll, it's important to take regular
breaks and remember to keep your study sessions short overall.
If you are interested in these concepts, you can actually listen to the entirety of "How
to Become a Straight-A student" for free in Audible, which is the sponsor of today's episode
and is basically better than ever: besides getting one free audiobook per month, which
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Also, if you start listening to How to Become a Straight-A Student in your car, at the gym,
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You can start listening to How to Become a Straight-A Student with your 30-day Audible
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If you are interested in these topics, I do a lot of videos on productivity, motivation and organization,
so for all the latest content you can join our community and start your learning journey
here by subscribing to the channel. I hope you've enjoyed today's episode and I will
see you next week. Bye guys!