The Ultimate Guide To Making Yourself Study Everyday

You want to study everyday and be like all those A+ students but you find it difficult to get the motivation and often find yourself procrastinating, right?

So the question is how do you make yourself study everyday? 

It’s not actually as difficult as you think. 

To make yourself study everyday you need to find long term solutions such as establishing a daily study routine, setting manageable study goals, setting alluring rewards for yourself and creating a good study environment for yourself. But there are also short term, quick fixes for getting motivated on the day you want to study such as doing a bit of exercise before studying, committing to a single task, using the low effort hack or using the pomodoro study technique. By finding the right techniques for yourself you will be able to study everyday without much worry or hassle. 

Short Term Solutions For Getting Motivated To Study Everyday 

The reason why it is so difficult to make yourself study everyday is usually due to a lack of motivation and/or procrastination. While these things aren’t easy to overcome, there are many hacks that you can use to overcome momentary disinterest in studying for instant results. 

1. Do A Bit Of Exercise Before Studying

You have probably heard this all before, how exercising can drastically benefit your studying. Despite how much you don’t want to put in the effort to get up and do a short workout before studying, there is plenty of scientific research that backs up the benefits of it. 

According to Dr. John J. Ratey, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, exercise can improve your learning. In his book “Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain” he says:

 “First, it optimizes your mind-set to improve alertness, attention, and motivation; second, it prepares and encourages nerve cells to bind to one another, which is the cellular basis for logging in new information; and third, it spurs the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus.” 

Dr. John J Ratey – Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain

This sums up very well the benefits of exercise, not only to get you motivated and your brain ready to learn but also to help you retain information for longer periods much easier.  

There are heaps of quick workout apps that you could download onto your phone such as 7MinuteWorkout that you could use to motivate yourself to study everyday. You could also do one of those fun dance workout videos from youtube before your study session. 

2. Quickly Clear Your Workspace

Don’t spend too long on this step as it could end up being a way for you to procrastinate. Take 2 minutes before you start studying to put away unnecessary textbooks, notebooks and other things on your desk that are not related to what you are going to study. This is a vital step as it will prevent your mind wandering to unrelated tasks and help you focus on the task at hand. 

3. Commit To A Single Task

If you need to increase your motivation and start studying now don’t waste time planning out everything you are going to study. This is another form of procrastination for studying like spending too much time cleaning your desk. Just simply commit to a single urgent task! Tell yourself you are going to do this subject for that many minutes and challenge yourself to complete it. 

If you are feeling super unmotivated you could use the 5 minute start hack. This is where you say that you are going to spend 5 minutes on a task and that you can stop after 5 minutes. This is a great hack for building momentum because once the 5 minutes are up you are likely going to want to continue studying. Starting is usually the hardest part of studying!  

4. Try The “Low Effort” Hack

The low effort hack is where you start a task and write down anything that comes to mind. It’s a great technique if you often procrastinate to start tasks because you are a perfectionist and are worried about not creating a perfect end product. 

For example, in the instance of writing an essay, you would write down anything that comes to mind. Don’t worry about structure or your waffling. Having something written down on the page is 100x better than nothing. 

5. Use The Pomodoro Study Technique

The pomodoro study technique is a time based method of studying that encourages you to focus on a specific task for a set amount of time. The normal pomodoro session, often referred to as a pom, is 25 minutes long. You usually do four 25 minute study sessions with 3-5 minute breaks in between each one. Once you have completed four ‘poms’ you can have a longer 20-30 minute break. 

When I use the pomodoro study technique I like to keep track of what I am studying and for how many sessions to give myself a better idea of how long I need to study for a certain subject to get a good grade. That is why I designed a pomodoro tracker template. You can find my pomodoro study tracker template in my digital student planner or get a printable pomodoro study tracker here. 

If you want to learn more about the pomodoro study technique you should read my ultimate guide to the pomodoro study technique here.

6. Remind Yourself Of The Pressure Of Cramming The Night Before

If all techniques fail, remind yourself of the horrible pressure of cramming the night before for an exam. Even if you spend just 10 minutes studying each day for 6 days before an exam, you have already done the equivalent or even better of an hour the night before. 

Why is it better to space out your studying? Spacing out your studying is so much better than cramming because of the concept of spaced repetition and the way your brain processes and retains information from your short term to long term memory. 

Also if you are interested in learning more about how to stop cramming for assessments I suggest that you read my full article on it here.

Long Term Solutions For Consistently Studying Everyday 

1. Figure Out Why You Procrastinate 

Procrastination doesn’t happen because of not wanting to do something or being lazy but rather feeling unmotivated to do something because of negative feelings associated with it. 

For example, you might have a fear of failure for a maths test and because of your negative feelings associated with it, you will procrastinate it and not start studying for it. 

If you figure out what causes you to procrastinate you will have a better understanding of why you do it in the future and thus you will be able to overcome it. Through this recognition process you will be able to start easily studying everyday. 

2. Set Study Goals & An Alluring Reward

Maybe it is difficult for you to study everyday as you don’t know where to start. It’s a great idea to set study goals or create a study revision timetable. If you have a full study plan laid out, all you need to do is start. This eliminates procrastination and feelings of unmotivation. 

I like to set my broader study goals using my goal planner in my digital student planner. I use the SMART goals process to outline a realistic goal to achieve in a short period of time. The goal planner lets you go step up step through the goal making process by filling in the blanks to questions and prompts. 

I then make a more specific study plan each day using the daily planning pages of my digital student planner. 

Here is a screenshot of a daily plan page from my personal digital student planner:

As you can see I have used highlighter in my daily schedule to colour code activities e.g. studying. I have scheduled certain times for completing assignments and revising content. I have also written more specific studying tasks in my to-do list which I tick off as I complete them. 

Pro Tip: For whatever study goal you set, you should also have a reward for completing it to further motivate yourself to achieve it!

3. Build Better Study Habits

Setting studying goals is the first step in building better habits to study everyday but it doesn’t end there. You need to implement tasks into your daily routine so your study goals come true. 

For example, you might study flashcards on the way to school each day on public transport and make a habit out of it. Or you might dedicate an hour after school each day to revising old content to spread out the revision load so it’s not all before an exam. 

It’s not too difficult to implement daily studying into your routine, you just need to find the right time and put in the effort to do it every day. Once you’re in the swing of things it’ll be second nature to study everyday. You won’t even realise that you are doing it. 

To help you build better study habits you could use the monthly habit trackers that are found in my digital student planner or get a printable monthly habit tracker.  Set one of your monthly habits to track as a specific studying goal and colour in the box that corresponds for the day that you did it! 

4. Create A Good Environment For Studying 

My final long term solution to consistently studying everyday is to create a good environment for studying. You should invest in a good quality desk and desk chair that you are comfortable working at as you will be spending so much time at it everyday. 

My Study Space Recommendations:

• Good Quality Desk: 4NM Folding Desk for Small Space Offices
• Comfortable Adjustable Chair: Boss Office Products Black Boss Office Deluxe Posture Chair 
• Excellent Light Source: Multifunctional LED Desk Lamp with Wireless Charger
• Cute Stationery Jar: YOSCO Ceramic Desk Pen Holder Stand Marble Pattern Pencil Cup
• The Best Highlighters Ever: Zebra MildLiner Complete Set 25

Before You Go!

Don’t forget to check out my digital student planner that I mentioned in this article!

It can be a really big help in achieving your goals as a student and act as a tool in aiding you to study everyday!