having an effective daily routine is one of the  most important things you need to study smart  

i really can't emphasize enough how important  this is and by studying smart it's this idea  

that you don't need to be studying for 12 hours  a day to achieve phenomenal grades if you study  

just six hours a day but you study smart so you  study efficiently you use the right memorization  

techniques you study the right material for the  exam and you use your time efficiently then you  

can study far few hours than your classmates  while at the same time achieving higher grades  

and i go into far more detail on studying smart  rather than studying hard in my 30-day study  

course where i work with you one-on-one to turn  your grades around and pull you up to that next  

level of studying you can check the description  for a link because honestly there's just far too  

much to talk about in this one video but i spent  three years of my bachelor's degree really homing  

in my daily routine from the moment i woke up to  the moment i went to bed it was all planned and  

strategized to make my studying as smart and as  efficient as possible the idea being and i think  

this is the case for all of us to study smart so  we don't have to study as hard right so i made  

a lot of mistakes with my daily routine but in my  third year of university they were all ironed out  

and in this video i'm gonna go through my perfect  daily routine that was 100 optimized to encourage  

me to study smarts not necessarily study hard so  i'd wake up at 4 45 a.m seven days a week for the  

first few weeks this was really difficult but  after i'd say one month of doing it every day  

it just became a habit and most mornings i  actually ended up waking up naturally at like  

4 30 a.m so about 15 minutes before my alarm clock  went off so i have a whole video on how i managed  

to train myself to wake up at 4 45 a.m every  morning and click on the pop-up banner to watch it  

but having this daily routine building up a habit  of waking up at 4 45 every morning it made things  

so much easier you train your body to know that  it's time to wake up so it does it automatically  

and this is what i mean when i say learning to  study smart will make your life so much easier  

the alternative is having your sleeping schedule  all over the place so it's difficult to wake up  

in the morning you have to drag your half dead  body out of bed and you just feel terrible that's  

not working smart if there's another option  that is easier significantly more effective  

healthier and would make you happier long term  then why wouldn't you choose that option right  

so when my alarm clock goes off i'd spend 15  minutes reading the news on the bbc news app  

because it just keeps me up to date with what's  going on around the world and it was particularly  

beneficial to me as someone who was studying  economics and finance because i would read  

up on economic events the trade was going on  around the world economic problems particularly  

countries are having and really just applying  the theory of what i learned at university  

to the real world so what's actually happening in  real life so at 5 00 am i'd get out of bed i brush  

my teeth and get a shower and i'd make a point of  leaving the house before 6 am so in one hour that  

really was my goal because i didn't want to spend  ages getting ready but my aim was to be out of the  

door as soon as possible what i've noticed is for  me it's really important that i live my life with  

intention so when i'm getting ready to leave  the house i move fast i get things done fast  

and i leave the house fast i could spend double or  even triple the time choosing what clothes to wear  

watching netflix checking my social media  watching tv and just keep getting distracted so  

that's why my aim every morning was to be out  of the door by 6 am by 6 30 i'd be arriving at  

the gym so go to the gym at this time has a few  benefits for me firstly the gyms are almost always  

empty because not many people want to exercise  at that time right and secondly if i was feeling  

tired or low on energy after going to the gym  and exercising by the end of it i'd be feeling  

far more alert and energized finally in my first  year university i made the mistake of going to  

the gym in the evening but there were a couple of  problems with that firstly i would often just feel  

tired so i would just skip it so that's obviously  not good and secondly it's super crowded in the  

evening because that's when most people go and  thirdly it would be on my mind the whole day if  

i get it over and done with in the morning then at  least for me i just would feel better throughout  

the day obviously that's just how i do it if you  go to the gym in the evening and it works for you  

then that's awesome keep doing that but you need  to be constantly reviewing your daily routine  

because it's these small tweaks that you need to  just keep making that will really optimize it and  

allow you to make your day super productive at 7  45 a.m i'd arrive at the library ready to study  

and i've realized that i'm the most awake in the  morning i get my best work done in the morning  

it's when i'm the most productive so i try to get  as much studying done in the morning so by 8 a.m  

seven days a week so from monday to sunday i  made sure that i was at my desk and studying  

at the very latest 8 a.m i realized that having  a structured study schedule was so integral when  

it comes to studying smarter rather than harder  i noticed that by studying at 8am every single  

day after a few weeks i made it into a habit so  it became much easier because my mind knew that  

it was time to study so that's exactly what i was  able to do and forming these kind of study habits  

it encourages us to repeat the same tasks every  day until it just becomes instinctive just like  

brushing our teeth every morning we don't even  need to think about it right we just do it and  

that's really integral when it comes to studying  smarter not harder we want to make our lives  

easier not harder we want to create a situation  where studying is just integrated smoothly and  

seamlessly into your life you're not forcing  yourself to study but instead you're creating  

structures in your life and these study habits  and strategies they're what make your studying far  

easier on top of that i made my studying fun again  super important when it comes to studying smart  

honestly studying smart is just about making your  life easier making the studying process easier so  

going into how to make your studying funnies  honestly i could talk all day about it and it  

would be going a bit off topic in this video but i  go through various ways you can make your studying  

fun and engaging a couple of months ago you can  click on the pop-up banner to watch it some days  

i had lectures for two or three hours a day and  other days i didn't have any lectures at all so  

if i didn't have any lectures i'd study from 8am  to 5pm there were a few breaks in between so i  

studied for eight hours from monday to saturday  and four hours on sunday but honestly studying  

for this number of hours just wasn't really  necessary i was aiming for a 4.0 gpa and i  

knew that six hours of really smart and efficient  studying would get me a 4.0 gpa just six hours but  

i didn't want to leave anything to chance i knew  that if i studied an extra two hours every day  

there's no way on this planet i wouldn't achieve  a 4.0 gpa i mean it would be almost impossible  

i like that idea of setting a goal but then  putting in so much work and directing so many  

resources towards that goal that you absolutely  smash it so you set a goal but you study  

far beyond it if that makes sense but it did work  when i graduated i achieved a first-class honours  

degree which is equivalent to a 4.0 gpa i achieved  a grade of 75.5 and i only needed 70 to get a 4.0  

gpa anything above that was just a bonus so i  could have studied a lot less than eight hours  

a day i could have probably even gone down to  four hours a day if i'm completely honest but i'd  

have to make sure that those four hours were super  efficient but honestly that would have been risky  

i do like how i did it where i just over studied  to make absolutely sure that i hit my goal and in  

my final year my grade was high enough where even  if i didn't attend the last five or six exams and  

i got zero percent on all of them it really didn't  matter that much my average grade would have still  

been high enough to hold me above the 4.0 gpa  grade band i kind of treated university like  

having a full-time job that's where my mindset was  so most white-collar workers work at least eight  

hours a day and if you're feeling tired or having  a particularly bad day they can't just call their  

boss at work and tell them that they're not gonna  come to work today because they can't really be  

bothered that's just not how the real world works  and the people that do do that probably wouldn't  

have that job for long so usually at around 5  p.m i'd pack my stuff up and i'd go home usually  

i'd do some video editing for this channel for a  couple of hours and at 7 pm was my relaxation time  

this is really important to be able to relax and  unwind at the end of the day i'd spend it going  

out with friends and some days i'd be working  on some other side businesses i had going on at  

the time and honestly some days i'd just turn  on netflix or watch youtube for an hour or so  

if you study smart and you really concentrate  your studying into a smaller number of hours  

then that will really afford you more time at the  end of the day to really just relax and do things  

that you really enjoy doing and this is kind  of your award for studying so hard during the  

day and i think it's quite important for long-term  performance and really just maintaining a healthy  

lifestyle at 10 p.m i'd be in bed now i took this  incredibly seriously it really is easy to have a  

set time that you need to be in bed by but then  we just get busy right we just want to stay up  

and watch another film or watch another youtube  video a bit longer and the next night it happens  

again and before you know it you're going to sleep  at ridiculous times and it's near impossible to  

wake up early so it's super important that you  prioritize the time that you go to sleep because  

in the morning when it's time to wake up you'll  thank yourself for it without a productive  

daily routine at university it would have been  extremely difficult for me to have achieved a 4.0  

gpa just like pushing my teeth in the morning  waking up at 4 45 a.m going to the gym at 6 30  

a.m and arriving at the library at 7 45 a.m they  all just became daily habits they didn't require  

much determination or willpower i simply just  did them and that's really what i want to get  

across in this video studying smart is all about  making your day flow smoothly and productively  

your studying shouldn't be this thing that you  hate to do that you have to force yourself to do  

every day now obviously you are going to have bad  days and there will be elements of your studying  

that you find boring or subjects that you don't  particularly find interesting and that's okay  

that's completely normal but i'm talking about  overall your overall experience with studying  

should be very positive it's so important to keep  your studying interesting because then you're more  

likely to want to do it right and this idea of  studying smarter not harder is a really popular  

topic on this channel you guys seem to love  watching videos on ways to make your studying  

easier so you don't have to study as hard which  makes sense right why wouldn't you so i've made  

two other videos on this topic how i study smarter  not harder you can click on either of the cards on  

the screen they both go over how i can actually  minimize the number of hours i study while still  

achieving really good grades i say it all the time  you don't have to be studying crazy hours every  

day instead try studying fewer hours but studying  smarter then finally i'll go through this topic in  

a lot more detail in the transform your grades  in 30 days course links in description below