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Problems with studying can be due to bad habits. Your sense of how to manage your time or how to concentrate may be poorly defined and put into action. This results in an unnecessary drain on your energy and emotions. For example, if you have an exam, a progress report, research for a lecture, any act of learning that requires preparation and organisation, you can see it as a traumatic, self punishing experience by delaying it. If, instead, you did the task in small bitesize increments before your deadline, your task would be considerably easier.
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This is not a complex, tedious process. It simply involves breaking your whole project into workable segments. You can do this with any block of material, such as the information to be learned for an exam. Your learning module can be compared to a jigsaw puzzle piecing together each bit until the whole picture emerges.
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Other poor study habits may result from the physical location of your study area and your association with it.
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1. Designate one particular location for study and use that place consistently.
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2. Eliminate any external distractions.
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3. Leave the location as soon as you are unable to concentrate.
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Some distractions will never be easy or even possible to eliminate, such as a neighbours dog barking, or traffic.
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If your concentration has diminished it can be regulated by a time set for your activity. Give yourself a starting and stopping time that is within your normal attention span and then working within those limits. Without a time limit you can create exhaustion. Don’t keep to your stopping time if you can no longer concentrate. When you can’t focus your attention on your material, it is time to stop and leave the location. This will allow your to associate with the study area as a positive one. You will view it as a productive place where you can succeed at what you are doing.
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Anxiety, stress and depression are all too common these days and with these negative thoughts and feelings, it is very difficult to concentrate on studying.
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