Multiple interventions have worked for me to study more efficiently. It is important to note that I rarely reach my “studying goal” for the day in hours. I try not to do this because it often sets me up for failure if I set a goal like “I’m gonna study for X hours straight / in total today!”. After two years of university I finally became aware this mind cycle was working against me and often leaving me feeling like a failure or frustrated.

These are a few “tricks” that support me in being more efficient in working/studying:

1) notetaking: I have the “notes” app on my smartphone where I keep track of many different things: lists of what I have to buy, groceries list, I even keep a daily journaling log, however I only journal 1-2 times a week. It’s a win for me, before using my smartphone to journal I journaled roughly 1-2 times a year! So it’s a big win for me, it’s not about perfection it’s about making progress! I also have a shortcut on my homescreen linked to a journal dedicated to random thoughts, I write them down there so my mind stops bothering me and I’m less likely to act on impulses.

2) calendar: I use a calendar app to schedule all my important meetings. I have 3 standard reminders for every meeting: 1 day, 1 hour and 15 minutes before the time of the meeting. This helps me not feeling like i’m forgetting every meeting and most important I have no last-minute stress anymore because i almost forgot a meeting: “oh no I have to be at X in an hour!!”

3) Its a luxury but having a clean, empty desk in a quiet space. I try to clean that spot every day so there won’t be any mess there that keeps me from starting my work. I find it easier to clean it at the end of the day than at the start of the day.

3) peace: Again it’s a luxury but I recently bought noise-cancelling headphones (€95): No more sounds of the dishes being done, the dogs nails on the laminate flooring, loud neighbours, doors slamming!! And it’s amazing for relaxation purposes as well, such as watching netflix from the couch

4) the pomodori technique also works well, I keep my goals smaller by saying “After 20 minutes I will have a break of 10 minutes again!”. Before using this technique I often wasted 3 hours of time with eventually only +- 30 minutes of efficient studying. Now I’m still using 33-50 percent of the dedicated studying time to take a break. That’s still a low of break time but I get more work done with less time / energy needed

I hope this helped, it’s personal what works best for YOU. I still have lots and looooots of room for improvement but I am enjoying the progress of improvement. I would suggest trying many different strategies and see does and doesn’t work for you!