8 Student habits to boost productivity to the limit

Published by Miguel Canales on November 13, 2020November 13, 2020

Are you feeling less productive these days? Being productive is about using our resources to produce the best result in our work or studies. This means doing more in what you have. Maintaining a good level of productivity for a long time is very difficult. There is a direct relationship between your productivity and your state of mind. Feeling great makes us being motivated and focused on our work, but this motivation does not long forever. Here are 8 student habits to boost productivity to the limit:

1. Set realistic goals

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There are days when we wake up wanting to conquer the world. Overconfidence leads us to overestimate our capacity, we plan too many tasks for too little time. As the day goes by we see how we cannot meet our expectations and motivation turns to frustration.

Your list of goals might be too long, reduce it. If you split your to-do lists and you schedule them into more days, you will feel how that you make an advance every day and you are reaching your goals. Fulfilling all your tasks, no matter how many they are, is such a rewarding situation, that you will get the motivation to work harder every day.

2. Never leave an unscheduled day

Just as in the previous point, it is important to set realistic goals, it is not recommended to 'sprint' in one day, and leave almost no tasks for the next one. A day without any planned tasks can break your motivation streak. The point is that whenever you sit down to study or work you must know what to do. The lack of planning makes you to lose focus on your goals, it reduces your productivity and leads to procrastination or resolving unnecessary tasks.

To avoid this, schedule for the very long term, set yourself an important goal to achieve for the following in weeks or even months. Then, split it down into smaller tasks to do over this time. You don't have to plan it very carefully, as your project progresses, new and specific tasks will arise.

Scheduling your days

3. Seek one ambition and many rewards

You are working hard for something, but do you know what it is? It's important to set an ambition for yourself. Ambitions are a set of goals, for example, the goal of any university student is to pass all their subjects, in fact, each of them are a goal by itself, but the final ambition is to graduate. Ambition is what makes you work so hard, it is a very long term goal and achieving requires a great effort. So, in order not to lose motivation, from time to time, you should seek rewards for meeting your objectives and following your plan. Following the example above, each academic year, if students pass all their subjects, they can enjoy several months holiday during the summer as a reward for having studied and passed their exams.

Rewards are ways to motivate you to work every day, they can be from going to your favourite restaurant, going out with friends to unwind for the weekend or preparing a trip during the next holiday. These rewards will motivate you for a while, but there is no greater reward than meeting your ambitions.

4. Focus on your needs

When we set a goal, sometimes we have to do things we don't want. We start looking for excuses or other tasks that are not essential. Although, it is difficult to focus on what is important, you should do it to be productive. If necessary split these task into several of them so you see the results step by step. If you find it necessary, give yourself a reward for these tasks.

Doing what we like is usually very simple, but sometimes we have to do things we don't enjoy. To make them easier, dividing these tasks into smaller ones, is the perfect way to avoid frustration and accomplish all of them. In the end you'll be rewarded for your effort.

5. There is no need to reinvent the wheel

Use the popular knowledge whenever you can. This does not mean copying, but taking advantage. Scientific and technological advances make our lives easier, use them to be more productive. Always try to find the perfect tool for the task. You will achieve your goals much easier and fast.

For example, if you join the Erasmus+ programme, you will need to look for accommodation. However you don't need to check all the real estate agencies or ads in the city. Use an accommodation search engine such as Erasmus Play, which helps you find and compare all the student housing. It will help to save your time as much as possible.

6. Learn how to disconnect

If you think about the same topic all day long, you are spending your 24 hours on it. That is proven to be unproductive. Learning how to disconnect becomes very important when you want to concentrate on what's important at the moment. Disconnecting helps you to take a topic up again with more energy, a fresh mind and cool ideas.

Each person has their own way of disconnecting, the easiest way is to separate your study or work area from your living area. This is very difficult for students, who in addition to attending classes spend hours studying at home. In these cases, the easiest option is to study in a library if possible, so you do not associate your home with your studies. We already know that this option is not always possible, so there are other methods such as getting out of your routine by doing physical exercise, meeting friends or doing any activity outside.

Run at sunset

7. Know your limits

Only you know what your limit is, what can help one may not help others because every person has their own limits. The last advice is to push your limits, see which tips fits you best according to every situation. Discover when you need to stop or when you can achieve something more. Find your best habits to improve your productivity.

Gaining experience is partly about knowing your limits and capabilities. You must take these habits and make them yours. Each person needs to adapt their routine to their own way of being. If you are a person with little (or no) patience who wants to get quick results, you may focus on setting short-term objectives, step by step they will take shape and become a great long-term goal. If you are a person with great aspirations, set yourself a great ambition, don't worry if the final result is still far away, big things are not achieved in a short time, meet your objectives as a daily basis and the results will come.

8. Make the environment yours

You need to feel comfortable in your workplace, from the clothes you wear to how it's organized, everything affects your ability to concentrate. If you feel more comfortable in jeans studying at the library, do so at home. If you can't be in your ideal study environment, try copying it. But, if you haven't found your ideal study environment yet, here you can find some tips how to organize your room to improve your productivity, try it out for sure!

These student habits will boost your productivity to the limit, and they can be applied to any area, both in your work and personal life, so take advantage of them. What about you, how do you increase your productivity? Do you have any tips to be more efficient and achieve your goals? Tell us your habits to encrease your productivity in the comment section down below.

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