Study smart – plan your studies

For your study time, it’s important that you find study strategies that suit you and your learning style so that you develop the way of learning that best suits you. It’s about planning, getting good study habits, being able to motivate yourself when something is difficult, monitoring your brain’s performance and understanding how memory works, knowing what it takes to really learn something – and much more.  

Planning is about how you choose to set up and use your time to achieve a specific goal. Good planning can help you feel that you are in control of your studies and that you have enough time to do what you need to do. It has a positive effect on your well-being! Just like the skills you train and develop over the course of your education, you can train and develop your ability to plan and follow your plan. 

Motivation and goals 

Study motivation often varies over time. Setting goals, both short-term and long-term, facilitates studies. When motivation is lacking or low, it’s important to have strategies to be able to keep going. Is it more a matter of external or internal motivation for you? The important thing is that you learn what works for you and keep your goal in focus. 

When setting goals, it’s common to set them so high that they are difficult to achieve. This contributes to a feeling of not being able to do things, even though you have actually done quite a lot. A tip is therefore to set both main and sub-goals for yourself, where the main goal is the major objective and the sub-goals are what you need to achieve on the way there. 

Set smart goals 

Setting and formulating goals is an art and a common suggestion is to set SMART goals. This means that the goal should be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-related. Start with goals that are relatively easy to achieve within a short period of time. As you get to know how your studies work, and how you work, you can add to the goals and make them a little more ambitious. 

If you are stuck and find it difficult to find a way that suits your way of studying, you can turn to your study adviser for advice and guidance. 

Eight habits to help you learn

(from Mälardalen University) 

• Plan your learning
  First, draw up a general timetable for the entire course. Then you can set weekly timetables where each day is divided into two-hour sessions.  
• Preparation
  Always prepare for lectures, labs and reading so you have an idea of what it is about.  
• Set specific goals
• Set goals for WHAT you should learn – instead of how many pages you should read.  
• Process notes
  Do it as soon as possible after a lecture or after reading. This is how you make the knowledge your own.
• Collaborate
  We often learn best when we get to discuss with others. Book study meetings with fellow students.  
• Keep going!
  It’s hard to learn something you haven’t yet grasped, and sometimes we want to give up. Make it a habit to continue anyway.  
• Get enough sleep
  A tired brain has difficulty thinking and turning information into knowledge.
• Remove distractions
  In order to learn, we need to focus wholeheartedly on what we are doing. Put your phone in another room.