Study Tips

Hi solson. First of all you do not have a problem! You just encountered a life situation which seems to be hard. Consequently, your mind categorized it as a Problem. The trick is that the more you will think about it as being a problem, the more it will really be a problem! Second, you don't remember anything you do not care about. Doooh... What does make you think it is not normal? What we don't care is hardly memorized. Nobody does it! So here it is... beautiful... your answer is in your text... do CARE about what you are studying!!! ( let's assume first, you WANT to study and not that you are OBLIGED or NEED to study, because your parents are beating the s**t out of you if you don't want, for ex). Now, TO CARE means first to accept what you have to do. It's logical, if you HAVE to do it, than you can' t change it. Ok, let that thing be. Accept it, because you cannot change the situation and try to get out of the box. It's also fun! A lot! Think about this. You hate something, and suddenly, just as a GAME, try to imagine the other way around, you know, just for the fun of doing something else from time to time. After all, it's boring to have the same phone for a long time, or the same car, or the same jeans, or the same sneakers,... or the same object of dislike! Right? Imagine you are not hating it anymore and you LOVE IT! It's your hobby! How would that be? Try to imagine, what will I do? IS it nice, is it not nice? Whatever... So you will PRETEND you are caring trying to identify what is caring, ok? It's not only related to study. Caring about what we are doing is the key of achievement. Caring about brings focus. Focus=all of your thoughts are about what you are doing NOW (study, for ex). Focus is achieved by exercise. When other thoughts ( other than those related to what you are precisely studying) are coming, simply remove them and start again. Slowly you will achieve focus. You will see it can be identified with a particular state of your mind. And a particular feeling in your body. In order to identify what I said, you have to consider yourself an OBSERVER of your own mind and body. Now, practically: start for example to read your book. Boring, huh? Keep reading, do not worry about not understanding, but put also some concentration on observing what's going on in your mind. And also in your body. Try to do both things at once: 1.reading and hearing your voice 2. observing or getting awareness about what's going on in your mind and body. Now... you will identify thoughts about completely different topics coming. Replace them ONE BY ONE, with more concentration about observing yourself. You will soon notice the stupid thoughts vanishing. Your mind is no longer 'talking' bull s**t anymore! Now, try not only to listen to your voice reading the text, but also to UNDERSTAND the meaning. Everything will become slowly... slowly... to make sense! If new 'stupid thoughts' are coming, do not worry, replace them with more observation, imagine you are a policeman directing the traffic. The cars are your 'stupid thoughts'. You put them on hold. You let only the 'good cars' pass all the way. Have patience and do not hurry up! Do not stop observing your mind and being aware of the feelings from your body. When you try to understand what you read, use that part of you who observed everything, until now. It's an area much deeper than the one where the stupid thoughts are coming from, right? Indeed it is... Have you ever been so profound, btw? Of course you have, and you also remember how peacefully and clear is everything when you 'think' in THAT way. Right? Well, continue with this exercise until the 'deeper area' of yourself is CONVINCED of the fact you FULLY comprehend the entire text you read ( use like no more then half a page at start) . Comprehension and not 'learning by heart' is the key here, ok? Keep doing this until you are sure, all the connection was done, you KNOW what you ' ve just read. Do not cheat about that 'convinced' part because you screw it up yourself! Do not stop the exercise until you will tell to yourself that you comprehend and you are able to remember later ( because, after all it was not at all so hard to understand, right? ) and you also KNOW and will REMEMBER how to 'touch' that deeper part of yourself that can observe what's going on in your mind. Ok, then stop and do nothing. Or do whatever you like. After, say 8 hours, go to your desk and relax.Make sure your breathing is normal. Make sure nothing can or will disturb you. Start observing your mind again ( it will be helpful to close your eyes in the beginning) . Let your thoughts just flow... Without any control. But IT IS IMPORTANT TO WATCH YOUR MIND meanwhile and to be aware of the content of any spontaneous thought. Do not judge the thoughts, just observe them. Take care not to be 'kidnapped' by any of those thought, because sometime they are very interesting thoughts. You do not care about them. You care only about OBSERVING them under an imaginary microscope. After say 10 seconds, replace the flowing thoughts. one by one,(you are again the policeman in the crossroad) with the thoughts remembering what you learned 8 hrs ago. Let them come out from that 'deeper area' you already know now. The home of the observer... You will be surprised by the result. Now you have just identified the path to that state of mind. From now on, just by remembering the feelings in your body and the path to that particular state of mind you will be able to FOCUS on everything in seconds. The process is not so fast as it was written here, so you have to take big patience! Also to understand that the key is to do everything STEP BY STEP. Only the observation is permanent. The rest of the actions are done one after another. Never, more than one item in your focus. The item and the observer, ok? Only After you will learn focus, you can start trying to achieve the multitasking focus. Not before! I'd love to know from you if it worked . And also if you have any questions. Peace, huh!

Re-write your notes over and over again, and try to really understand the material. Take a tape recorder with you to your lectures - and listen to them while driving, commuting, or cleaning at home. Join a study group at your school. Make flashcards of material and study that way. Those are just some ideas that I've tried to use. I'm also at a loss as to how I can "study" - because most of the time, I just end up staring at my notes over and over again and not digesting or memorizing the material. I think you need to do whatever you can to try to make it fun, though, because if you can't make it fun..You really just don't have all that much going for you. *shrugs*. And that way, you actually memorize the material. Anyway, those are the things that I've found to be helpful to me!