Studying routines / lifehacks?

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Hi. I guess I've sorta come back to the site for the time being. It actually doesn't seem so bad now. Anyway, I've got a question for you folks

What kind of things do people here do to study better and get more done? I've figured out a thing or two, but I'm still trying to figure out more

For me, one of the worst things is to realize that I've spent time not only not doing work, but not having that much fun. I usually zone off certain times for studying and for rest/play. If I'm studying, I try to stay focused and work on the task at hand.

I've dabbled with various tools. The first, of course, is the to-do list. But sometimes it's too ambitious, and doesn't really help me. Sometimes I would divide up the to-do list into several modules/sections, but I ended up picking and choosing from each module.

I wrote a chart/planning program for myself that's worked pretty well called danChart (check it out at http://chart.dangrover.com -- use demo/demo to try it out, or let me know if you want an account for yourself). It's pretty simple and nice, but occasionally there will be things that don't fit in very well. But it's better than Backpack/Tasktoy which still go with the normal, linear to-do list model.

It's especially hard to set milestones on some "projects" I have to do for my independent study things. Like I'll put for a day on the chart "Work on Project 2", and I end up either blowing it off because I didn't set a very specific goal/means, or I check it off (it actually uses stars) because indeed, I did work on it.

One thing I find hard is that I always get some cool idea at the worst time. Or I get curious about something and I look it up on Google/Wikipedia. Or I just read my rss feeds. I'm thinking of keeping a little notepad of "things to pursue later". Of course, I always think of that very idea, and realize I have no place to write it down .

Of course, sometimes I'm just 'not in the mood'. A lot of the time, I'd love nothing better than to study, but sometimes I just can't. Especially on those days where I'm stuck at home, I can't go to the library, and I feel very sweaty/messy/lazy. Those are the days when I spend time neither studying or having fun or resting.

I've managed to salvage a few bad days...there are things I do sometimes. Sometimes it's just a matter of brushing my teeth before I feel better or getting a good lunch. Sometimes I just laugh idiotically until I feel better .

The main problem though is that things often do not go according to plan. Or sometimes plans are not made according to how things will go. Like today, I was planning on studying for a while, but it ended up being a lot of just sitting around and not getting much done. Then my parents had to fight for a long time, and I figured I needed to be with my brother, because he was really scared of it all. Sometimes my mom will refuse to give me a ride, etc. Or the library / restaurant / bus / whatever isn't operating as I expect it to. I need to either adapt better or make better plans. Sleep is part of that. If I should be in bed, but I'm not tired, what do I do? Is that play time, or work time?

The biggest thing, though, for me is balancing stuff that is productive and good but not school with school. There will always be an endless supply of schoolwork that needs to be done, but it would be impossible to completely focus on it.

Take my job (please) -- I've got a job working at CRREL, an army corps of engineers lab. I've pretty much got free rein on hours, I work when I'm able to. It's actually a wonderful place and I enjoy working there (especially since I've got my own office there now ), but sometimes I think "gee, I could probably use this time better studying".

Or reading -- I've avoided any leisure reading most of this year (last book I read was Curious Incident, oddly. good book), because I always figured "well, if I've got the energy to read <i>this</i> I could probably be reading something required". For better or for worse, though, I just started reading. My aim is to finish <i>Journey to the Center of the Earth</i> in the next week or so. It's fairly readable and fast moving though, so I'll see how it goes.

One thing I've always heard is to reward yourself. Usually, every Friday, I'll spend the evening overindulging in everything (tv, video games, food, reading, coding, caffeine, sleeplessness), and be wasted the next day. I usually buy a milkshake and one of those gigantic newspapers from the city (boston globe, NY times, etc) before I go home. Great fun! But the thing is, that goes on every Friday whether I've worked hard every week or not .

Anyway, though, what tricks have you guys employed to get stuff done? I think I've got a lot of it worked out, but there's a great degree of uncertainty in a lot of things. Is that to be expected, or are there ways to run a tighter ship, so to speak, but still allow yourself room to breathe? I'm going off to college in a year or so, so I figure i'd better get this stuff figured out while the workload is smaller.

For me it's more or less having a reason to get it done. I never got into to-do lists or daily planners because the discipline one needs to fill them out and follow them is something I really don't have.

As for studying, if professors would find a text book that appeals to me, I might have the ambition to read it. However, I find most text books to be bland and mind numbing to point where I want to hit my head against the wall after reading them for five minutes. As a result, I don't get much out of them, so I rarely touch them unless I need to look up something specific.

Most of what I learn I get out of lectures, some say that that's bad, but I finished out my first year here at Oshkosh with a 3.3GPA.

[EDIT: Glad to see you back Dan!]

Scoots,

What were you grade breakdowns:
Class A= x
Class B= y
Class C= z
ect.....?

What is your schedule next year?

Hmmmm? What is like like at your
mom's. I saw a picture of her in the
members picture forum.

I say thanks for all that interesting and
insightful insight about your college life.

When I go back to school, I use other
peoples experiences to help understand
my tactics and approaches since I have
been out of school for a long time.

What tactics helped you?
What routines helped you?
A 3.3 GPA is good, they must have worked.

Sincerely,
Ghosthunter

I'll have to get back to you on this. The Computer system I need to log onto to gain access to that info is currently off line



I have never actually posted a picture of my mom here on the site, those were co-workers of my mom.

Life at the parents house is peaceful. I'm in the basement and have applied the same tagboard window covering scheme on the tiny windows in my basement room to keep light levels to a minimun when I so desire to shut off sensory input for awhile.



Simply doing what needed to be done when it needed to be done. I never got into much of routine, except for those that were already ingrained into me.

I would be like "Ok, I have to do this for tomorrow", and then I would settle myself down and do it.

I was fortunate this year to have a roomate during the fall semester who worked 2nd shift, and to have a room to myself during the spring semester, as well as living in a rather civil dorm. I had all the peace and quiet I needed to both rest and do homework.

I write out all my assignments down in an agenda book. This helps me out a lot.

Welcome back Dan. The thing that helps me most is to set alarms/reminders for everything - and a list in a prominent place of what I need to do, including regular tasks lol - if I don't write it down, it won't get done. In a work/study environment I use Outlook/KOrganizer to help me stay on track.

Dunc

What is your course/level of study, is that university? what year?

I was working full time for most of my degree, so I didn't have time to do much other than focus on assignments. Each subject required one minor (early in the semester) and one major piece (end of semester). There was a small set reading list of fairly dense texts so just getting thru the set list was a lot, although if the subject interested me I'd do my own reading as well.

Most NTs here use university as a social/dating club, so I never felt that I was any more 'behind' on my studies than they were. Quite the reverse!

Hey NuttDan,

Some of the tactics I used/use are:

1) Having good music on. I define "good" as having the ability to provide "white noise" to me - zoning out everything else, and letting me focus on my stuff.
2) Writing down all the tasks you want to get done that day, in no particular order, on a sheet of paper or in your organizer on the computer - but down try to mentally prioritize them as you write them down. You will know intuitively which ones are more important.
3) Try not to have more than about 4-5 things a day - too many things on the list sends me into overload and then I shutdown.
4) Try to get things down in the morning or early afternoon when your brain is still awake.

Hope that helps,

mentalman

I have major issues with studying.

I write things down. I have a plan. Lists. A goal set in mind.

But I never do it. I spend all this time preparing and its a waste. Sometimes I don't prepare because I know I'll procrastinate anyway. And I don't even enjoy procrastinating. I procrastinate by
- staring into space
- doing research on something random that has nothing to do with me
- doing MORE planning and making more lists
- cleaning

Yes, there is something very wrong here. I'm going to try that "Things to do later" list. Maybe that will help me. Maybe a little?

After even the most elaborate to-do-list constructions failed miserably and I was well on track not to get any work done at all this year, I came to realize that the key was not planning, but motivation. Unfortunately, I am extremely bad at motivating myself to do even the things I really want to do. However, while I was fully aware that something had to be done, I knew I wouldn't be able to make me do it myself. I finally came up with the very simple and yet incredibly effective idea of having someone else (a fellow aspie) check my timetables for me, while I checked hers in return. It might sound like you're losing control of your own life for a bit, but it's well worth it, and in fact, I really felt like I was gaining control of my life much more than I lost it. Good luck with your timetabling efforts, but if all else fails and you suspect that your problem might really lie somewhere else, this is something you might want to try out as well.

Unfortunately, I didn't figure this out until a little too late.

I've always done better studying when I get to focus on what I like. I've done a lot of independent research projects in the past, usually very informal and just to get more information. Like the time I spent about 5 hours at the local library looking for information on autism and related conditions a few months ago when I was supposed to be working ony my physics paper.

I can't have too much structure, nor too little. I have to know generally where I'm headed with something, but leave options fairly open. One thing that helps me study is to listen to background music, but it has to be a very specific type with no or few words.