Long-time lurker, encouraged by this community to get properly diagnosed recently (Thanks!).
Ok, to the point: I know taking longer to reach a college degree is normal, and I should just make peace with the fact that it might take me an extra year or two. But two whole years into college, trying hard and never being enough (to prevent failing subjects & falling behind) is …just sad.
Studying feels like trying to make the stars align. I will have to be in the library, with minimal smart devices (Laptop + MP3 player at most), properly prepare for what I need to study (The correct textbooks, maybe a calculator, the right notebook, etc…), in order to have 90% chance of studying.
(Basically the good ol’ “For the next 3 hour I am holding you hostage” way)
This works… but it is really slow and takes a lot of time for average amount of studying.
I would love to experiment with other methods, and hope to hear about how other people manage their studying.
Pomodoro timers, as someone else mentioned, are great. It was a lot easier to start when I could tell myself “ok, I only have to do this for fifteen minutes” – and most of the time when that first timer went off I’d gotten into a groove and kept going anyway.
For writing assignments, I found starting with a blank page really difficult, so I’d paste in a paragraph or two of lorem ipsum or some other nonsense text and go from there. Having words on the page, even though they were irrelevant and I knew I’d have to delete them later, tricked my brain into thinking “oh, I’ve already started this; carry on, then!”
The habit of doing even just a little bit every day was more sustainable and more effective for me than infrequent big cram/study/writing sessions.
I had probably the most success with using musical cueing. Whenever I sat down to write or study, I listened to one of the same two albums on repeat. (I like classical; one was Handel’s Messiah and the other was a two-disc set of Thomas Tallis choral works.) Even now, almost a decade later, when I put either of those on it instantly snaps me into work mode. Creating that kind of association is really helpful! And having only one or two choices also meant I couldn’t distract myself by trying to figure out what to listen to: it was A or B, end of.
You might also consider how/whether you could spread out your course load. Most years in undergrad I did five classes a semester, but one or twice I did four only (plus a summer class to stay on track) and being at only 80% of a full load made a huge difference.
Good luck!
That is smart! Could also do a reverse-challenge: The goal is to write something worse than anything that has has ever been turned in to that teacher. “teecha has a stoopit” (but don’t forget to delete)
Brian Tracy mentioned a similar trick for his shady cold calls business: A reward to the first employee who gets a rejection every morning, with a bell and everything.
Oh, also! I don’t know if you live on campus or if you’re a commuter, but if the latter: stay on campus during the day! Sometimes I had big enough schedule gaps that I could have gone home in between classes, but staying on campus instead made it a lot easier to just go to the library or whatever.
Great advice that works for many, including myself!
Even if you don’t get into the flow and do a single pomodoro session per day, a lot will be gained over 1 year, 5 years, 10 years. A degree 3 or 5 years later is much better than no degree.