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Productivity is a tricky thing, isn鈥檛 it? I remember doing my Master鈥檚 dissertation, and there were days so painfully unproductive that I thought I鈥檇 never actually finish it. We all go through periods of unproductivity and procrastination 鈥� it鈥檚 all part of being a student (and human). That鈥檚 why we鈥檝e got these three productivity principles to help you face your next productivity slump.

Some Core Productivity Principles for Studying

From my research, it turns out there are tons of 鈥減roductivity principles鈥� out there! Some articles say there are five core productivity principles, others say there are ten. Then there鈥檚 another article talking about the four pillars of productivity. So, from what I can conclude, people have a lot to say on how to be productive! For this post (and because we know you鈥檙e short on time with exams and term papers and all that), we鈥檙e giving you three core productivity principles (and an extra two!) to get you through your research, writing, and study sessions.

Productivity Hack 1: Set Your (Bite-Sized) Goals

We鈥檝e talked about it in a lot of our posts when it comes to studying: You always need to establish your 鈥渨hy鈥� and 鈥渨hat鈥� (or, in other words, your goal for your study session). What do you intend to achieve today? Do you need to revise a particular subject for an exam? Are you conducting research for your thesis? Do you need to write your term paper?

You need to have a very specific goal in mind when you sit down at your desk. You may have heard this before, but your goals should always be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely):

• Be specific with your goal. For example, 鈥淭oday I鈥檒l write two sub-chapters of my thesis鈥� or 鈥淥ver the next two hours, I will have learned X and Y topics for my upcoming test.鈥�
• Make sure your goals are measurable and (for another 鈥渕鈥�) micro. As I said above, set goals that you can measure (X number of pages written, Y number of chapters studied). Also, set micro (or mini) goals that are achievable. Giving yourself overwhelming tasks like 鈥淚鈥檒l study this whole book in ten hours鈥� or 鈥淚鈥檒l write two chapters of my thesis today鈥� is too much 鈥� you鈥檒l just get overwhelmed and probably procrastinate!
• The above point all ties in with being realistic with your goals and with yourself. If you know you can鈥檛 study for more than 45 minutes without taking a break, don鈥檛 set a goal of a 鈥渢hree-hour study session on X topic.鈥�

When it comes to the 鈥渨hy鈥� part of goal-setting, remember why you鈥檙e writing this term paper or why you鈥檙e studying for this test. And I don鈥檛 mean 鈥渂ecause I have to pass鈥� 鈥� that puts pressure on you and is a little demotivating in all honesty. There is a reason why you started studying and chose a particular course 鈥� let that drive you when the slog of studying seems a bit too much to handle.

Productivity Hack 2: Get Rid of Distractions

It has been that our human brains cannot focus on more than one activity at a time. When we multitask, we鈥檙e using more energy, sending us towards that dreaded productivity slump.

When you sit down to study or write, then that鈥檚 ALL you should be doing. Put your phone away (seriously far away) and turn your notifications off. Head to a quiet corner of the library where there are few people around to disturb you. Tell your roommates/siblings/whoever you鈥檙e living with that you鈥檙e entering into a study session and don鈥檛 want to be disturbed. And please, please do your best not to fall down a YouTube rabbit hole about who wore what at the Met Gala. I know when you鈥檙e writing on your laptop or using the internet to study, it is all too easy to watch 鈥渏ust one quick video鈥澛爋n something totally unrelated to your work. If you need something other than quiet when studying, rather try out a study music playlist.

According to Carlson鈥檚 law, 鈥淐ontinuous work takes less time and energy than when it is done several times.鈥� This means that you should achieve your study session/writing session goals to avoid going back and trying to achieve them again at a later stage.

Productivity Hack 3: Do Not Push Yourself to the Limit

Contrary to widespread belief, you should not work yourself to the bone! I don鈥檛 know where this idea came from that we have to overwork ourselves (?) 鈥揑 mean there鈥檚 even a scientific law (called ) that says 鈥渂eyond a certain threshold, the human efficiency decreases, even becomes negative.鈥�

That鈥檚 why it鈥檚 so important to take study breaks. And take it from someone (aka me) who used to think that studying for hours on end (even through the night) without breaks was a good thing: pushing yourself to breaking point (or even burnout) is NOT productive and can end up doing more harm than good (also, just think about how many mistakes you make when you鈥檙e tired).

Quick real-life example: I was so tired when editing my dissertation, I wrote 鈥渟houlder鈥� instead of 鈥渟oldier鈥� without even realizing it. Talk about making a first-grader error!

Here鈥檚 the deal:

Every individual has a limited energy capacity to distribute to different priorities, which should be restored afterward. For example, if you cram for ten hours a day, you will quickly burn through your energy store, restoration will take longer, and you鈥檒l just land up wasting your next day. I鈥檝e mentioned this before: In an ideal world, eight hours of our day should be for work/study, eight hours for exercise and other life activities, and eight hours for sleep. And those eight hours for study include attending classes and taking breaks. So please don鈥檛 cram for ten hours a day 鈥� you鈥檙e just doing a major disservice to yourself (and your results).

The Power of the Pareto Principle and 2-Minute Rule

And just to help you be extra productive, here are two more principles that harness the power of time to get you started and motivated!

The Pareto Principle

According to the Pareto principle, when it comes to many outcomes, 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. In other words, 80% of your effort gives you 20% of your results (and vice versa), which means that if you focus on the 20% that creates the 80% of your results, you can learn to study more efficiently and effectively! To put it very simply, you need to learn how to focus on the main things that will yield the best outcome so that your 20% will actually give you 80%! So, when you鈥檙e struggling to be productive, try to remember and harness this principle. Here are some examples of how you can do this:

• Say you鈥檙e writing a term paper and you鈥檙e doing research on the topic. You could technically research forever, but the trick with the Pareto principle is to identify 20% of your research that will be valuable and useful to your term paper. Then use this 20% of info to start writing immediately. So instead of researching for hours on end trying to find suitable info for your paper, just pick out 20% of the good stuff to start writing. This way, your Word doc won鈥檛 be blank after a few hours, which is always encouraging!
• If you鈥檙e preparing for an exam, rather focus on studying and revising your main topics as opposed to trying to learn something new. This is because about 80% of your exam success will come from the last 20% you spend on studying for the exam. If you鈥檙e interested, you can check out Robert Koch鈥檚 book,聽. Koch used the 80/20 principle to graduate from the prestigious Oxford University. He discovered that you can answer between 80 and 100% of your exam by learning 20% of your study materials. This means you should focus on core topics rather than trying to understand EVERYTHING about the syllabus. Plus, even if you don鈥檛 study certain chapters/topics of your syllabus, it鈥檚 often likely you will know some things from simply listening in class or from general knowledge!

The 2-Minute Rule

I learned this one from one of the awesome 91影视 employees. O臒ulcan Tezcan, an Engineering student and SEO intern, shared this with me:

鈥淢ost people think that motivation is something you need to have before starting something. It is actually the opposite. Motivation is something you get after you have done a small part of what you want to complete. If you have a goal/task in mind, just focus on the first two minutes of that goal/task. This means that your goal should be to get through the first two minutes of that activity. When applied, you will realize that you can do more and want to do more. This is actually an old saying in practice: Start and you are halfway there.鈥�

So, the trick is to start for two minutes, and I can guarantee you, it works. Whenever I don鈥檛 feel like exercising, for example, I just start … and after those two minutes have gone by, I鈥檓 in it to win it!

Also, some further awesome wisdom from O臒ulcan:

鈥淓ven when I am super tired and can鈥檛 even think of doing anything other than sleeping, but didn鈥檛 study/work out/take courses that day, I set a goal of doing the first 2 minutes and dropping it for the day … Most of the time, I end up spending at least half an hour to an hour on that task. Growth is exponential, not linear. 1% growth every day results in 37778% growth at the end of the year.鈥�

Enough said!

A Quick Word on the Productivity Curve

During a typical study session (and in ideal cases), once you start working, your productivity increases, reaches its peak, and then gradually decreases over time (we can call these stages start, peak, and end). This is why it is SO important to take study breaks (plus, studies show that we humans generally cannot do more than 90 minutes of intellectual work). And if you apply the productive principles we mentioned above to each stage of the curve, you鈥檙e guaranteed to have a successful study session!

Book Recommendations on Productivity

before we end, I want to give you some awesome books about productivity you may want to read.

• Atomic Habits by James Clear. Habits can help you to be productive and less stressed.
• 聽The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey. This book will give you a different perspective on productivity ideas and principles. He also included some challenges for the reader.
• Getting things done by David Allen. This is also and amazing book about organisation and you guessed it: getting things done.
• Deep Work by Cal Newport. Deep Work is great for being productive, try it out.

Improve Your Productivity While Studying

OK, full disclaimer: There will always be some days where you are simply unable to be productive. And this could be a good sign that your body and mind just need a break and a day of sleep, including bingeing your favorite show and chilling. But once you鈥檝e recovered and need to get back to the grind, we hope the principles mentioned in this post will help you have some of your most productive study/writing sessions ever!

Also, if you need a friend to hold you accountable and help you study effectively and efficiently, you need to check out the 91影视 app.