I absolutely can not study?

Question

I am a sophmore in college at a private liberal arts school in WI. I need study tips. I absolutely can not sit down and study. I hate working in study groups and cant study with friends. I need tips on how i can study on my own. I cant even focus on things im interested in. I am smart, but would do a lot better in class and on tests if i could study. I just cant sit down and get anything done. any pointers?

Answer 1

For lack of a better way to describe it, your mind and emotions are all filled up with clutter. You can't sit down to fill your mind because it's already full. Or you can say your mind is really overtired and it needs a lot of time to rebuild and rest. There are lots of ways to fix, this, but all of them take a while, I mean like a few years. In the meantime, we have to get you through school, right?

First I will give you some tips to get by for now and then explain a little better...

You have to trick your mind into thinking that you are not studying. Say you have to study three chapters in a book for a class 3 days for now. First off, you KNOW that you won't even be able to open the book until the night before the class. So tell yourself that you are not going to study it until the night before the class. don't tell yourself you are going to sit down and study earlier and then procrastinate and not study until the last minute. Just decide that you aren't going to study until the night before. There. Now doesn't that feel better? No more the the constant anxiety of procrastination devouring all your time. (If this is the case, you should see a counselor about this. but do NOT take any meds! (If you keep pushing yourself really hard for years, you might develop and illness like obsessive-complusive disorder, especially if you have a family history of emotional or mental illness. Then they will want you to take meds. You don't need them and they will make things worse! Ask anyone who's been on paxil...) Then take the book and set it out on a table or someplace else in your apartment or room right away, don't wait until the night before, but don't worry... you aren't really going to study. Then get 2 or 3 other things to do, like turn on a tv, get a gossip magazine, get some laundry going, etc. Then just open the book and read the title of the first chapter you have to study, and that's it. Stop right there, don't read another word. You might want to, but don't. Then go watch tv, read the mag, brush your hair, anything. Then come back in a little while or in a few minutes, whenever, and read the title of the second chapter, then STOP. Repeat. Now you should have only read the titles of 3 chapters. Keep repeating this process and in the next round, just read the first sentence of each paragraph in each of the 3 chapters. Don't try to remember them! Don't try to understand them! Don't try to focus or concentrate! This will destroy your efforts! This is what you can't stand to do. Besides, you watch tv and don't try to concentrate at all and if you watched a show last night and someone asked you what happened you can pretty much tell them (unless you like marijuana, in which case good luck with college anyway...) Then on the next round go back and read the entire first paragraph of the first chapter, then go do a few other things, then come back and read the second, etc. I know this ins't as fast as sitting down and really throwing yourslef into it, but it seems like you can't do that right now so don't try it. It will only make the problem worse.

You're trying a different approach as a temporary fix. Think of it as painting a house instead of building one. You are not going to start from the foundation and carefully build brick by brick until you put the final touches on the roof and decorate the porch... Instead you first just sketch the outline, then come back later and do some rough shading, then later add a little detail, then later draw in some trees, then draw in the windows, then later add finishing touches. You mind needs to absorb large bodies of knowledge in levels of depth of understanding, not by feeding the entire body of knowledge in from one end to the other and focus on each word as you read it, especially for most learning done in liberal arts subjects. Hopefully, with a little practice at this, you'll get a little better at it. Then mabey you'll be able to combine the 2 techniques, slowly adding layers of levels of depth of understanding, and then the traditional sit down and really throw yourself into it after you've done the first technique on the matter. Not for too long. If you feel frustrated take a break.
Even a healthy, fresh mind can only concentrate on average for 10 to 12 minutes at a time. I found that if I when studied, every 10 minutes I got a drink of water, looked at a magazine for a minute, even just leaned back, stared at the ceileing, and closed my eyes for 1 minute, I learned a LOT more. Then every hour take a 10 minute break.
Your mind actually uses physical energy that we could measure if we had machines that could detect energy that fine, or of such a very small size, but let's not argue whether or not that's true and just pretend it is. This energy is a body of energy, just like your physical body is a body of very dense energy (E=mc2). You actually need to condition and care for this body of energy to keep your mind fresh and strong. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People summed this up in Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw. We have to take time to step back and rest. Meditation, Chi Lel Chi Gong, talking with a school counselor, religion, all can be quiet time and good ways to rebuild and condition the mind. If you really want to dive into this subject, read The Mental Body by Arthur E Powell. Theosophy is a big subject, though, don't get lost in it or get obsessed with the subject.
The same could be said about your feelings as your mind. Of course there can be all kinds of other factors like family history, the stress of life events, etc. Don't limit yourself to any one ideology of what the mind, emotions, and body are or how to care for them.
I personally found that Chi Lel Chi Gong works great to condition and strengthen mind, emotions, and to some extent, also the body. But this takes 2 years of practicing MOST days (not absolutely all...) to condition the emotions, 4 to condition your habits, and 6 to condition the energy of rational thoughts, and there is little or no apparent gains inbetween so almost no one can stick with it that long without getting constant, tangible improvement.
Try to have frequent periods of silence, no TV or radio. It's better to have one of your favorite movies playing while you go about your business or some of your fav music then the TV or radio. They are mind-killers, no matter what is playing on them. Try to have frequent, even if short periods of quiet time and alone time. Try some yoga or other practice that will strengthen and balance body energy, etc. Good luck with what ever you do and take care.
PS. The sweets after a meal thing might be a yeast/mold/fungus thing. Pick up a bottle of GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract) and take a little for a short time. It might help, or it might be somthing else. Good luck.

Answer 2

I went through that. Never did find an answer. Some things that helped were: getting into a routine and sticking with that; eating a sufficient breakfast with some protein (I would get light headed from not eating enough, which made it hard to concentrate); exercising; don't allow yourself to be idle (it bred lazy studying habits for me); reward yourself for studying; relaxing and not stressing about it; each day do some studying (don't let it pile up to the last minute); do the assigned readings.

Sounds like you might have some mild depression, too. It can make focusing difficult. Visit a school counselor for tips.

I know there are medicines to help you concentrate, but I'm not sure you want to go that route. I never did.

Answer 3

Pay as much attention in class as you possibly can. That limits the need for studying. But as for studying yourself... try making up a schedule. Study for an hour and then take a 10 minute break. Study for another hour and then reward yourself in some way. Also, keep your motivation to get better grades in mind. You're in college now and can't get away with not studying as often.

Answer 4

I'm finishing up grad school and I am bored to tears with it cuz I realized I didn't wanna do it and now I'm six figures in debt for it, but I think if you read StevePavlina.com you'll see what's important and having a focus will solve most other problems, like studying and stuff. Cuz you can't study cuz you don't see a purpose, most likely.

Answer 5

It would help if you figured out what type of learner you are. In class, do you pay attention and respond better when there are pictures/graphs to look at or when the teacher is lecturing? Do you learn by writing things down or by organizing your thoughts into categories/outlines?

Once you figure out the style of learning, you can figure out how to study. For example, if you learn best by hearing things, record your lectures and listen to them again at home.

The website below can help you figure out what type of learner you are.

Answer 6

Here is a sure-fire method. Just Google "SQ3R study method". NB> It only works if you follow it properly, so part of the trick to studying is motivation and will power. Good luck.

Answer 7

Maybe you are not meant to be at college right now. I dropped out of college and joined the Army after my fifth semester and now I take online classes and am much better prepared to do well in them.

Answer 8

I use to go to the school library and find a quiet spot, free of distractions.

I feel your pain.

Answer 9

Yes you can. You made it in there, right? Okay. So before you hunker down eat an apple. Then go to it. Yes you can.

Answer 10

you should go somewere and study off campus or in most cases listen to music that you like i do that lol but try somewere you would like to go that is quiet or something