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Studying really isn’t complicated: Here’s how to do it
Recent trends on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and study focused subreddits seem to trend towards more and more elaborate techniques that promise to ‘maximise studying efficiency’ and ‘decrease procrastination’. And although these resources will often claim to allow you to study for 10+ hours a day, they can often be unsustainable, difficult to implement, inefficient or in some cases even anti-productive.
If you’re reading this, the chances are that you’re struggling with studying. And if that’s the case, I hope that this article will give you an honest strategy that you can actually use to transform your study habits in a sustainable and effective way. But note that while this strategy is simple and sounds easy to implement, performing it consistently over time can be challenging and there will be times where you are tempted to skip sessions, not fully implement the strategy or just not follow through with it. But those of you who do implement this simple strategy should see noticeable improvements in focus, productivity and academic success.
So if you’re not interested in implementing these (at times, challenging) methods to improve your studying, thanks for clicking this article but this isn’t the one for you. If you are prepared to implement this strategy however, I will keep this article short and sweet so that I don’t waste too much of your time and that you can get back to your studies.
The five simple steps to actually get studying
1. Learn to take accountability
A trend I’ve noticed recently is a growing collective mindset that everything is someone else’s fault or that your specific personal circumstances are uniquely responsible for you being unable to focus or study. The problem is that as a society, we have coddled people whose situations (in a wider context) are actually very fortunate and privileged and excluding a very small minority of people who truly have no control over the circumstances, you almost certainly have more influence over your ability to study than you may think.
I hear and read a lot of excuses about not being able to focus, or study or do well on tests but often even a shallow look at a daily schedule can reveal that it’s not a case of not being able to focus or find the time to study, it’s a lack of discipline and poor prioritisation of time. To succeed as a student, you must be able to be disciplined with your time and effort (something that I explore in my article on the 7 habits of productive students), but perhaps more importantly, you must take accountability and ownership of your actions and their results. If you didn’t pass an exam, you know next time to study harder, more effectively or for longer. If you don’t understand a topic, take the initiative to study deeper into the topic or reach out to lecturers for additional support. The first step towards academic success is realising that it is within your control to achieve it.
2. Be ruthless in removing distractions
It’s no secret that we live in a world of distractions unlike anything any generation has faced before. From social media, Netflix, TV and more, we are bombarded with an endless amount of content to consume. Unfortunately, however enticing, enjoyable and relaxing these distractions are, they are the biggest enemy facing focused work in modern times. To genuinely focus, you need to be ruthless in eliminating these distractions. Cal Newport explores this in Deep Work where he says:
“To learn hard things quickly, you must focus intensely without distraction… If you instead remain one of the many for whom depth is uncomfortable and distraction ubiquitous, you shouldn’t expect these systems and skills to come easily to you.”
Largely speaking, the more extreme you are in removing distraction, the larger your chances of academic success. So how do you eliminate these distractions? A good place to start would be to remove all unnecessary notifications from digital devices. This can help remove many of the cues that feed the habit loop of distraction. But a more effective (if extreme) measure is to delete social media in its entirety from your devices. In future I will make an article or video on this but the key point is that you want to make your phone a tool that you control, rather than have it control you. If apps, notifications or any other distractions in the digital world don’t offer immediate benefits towards your goals, remove them.
The best option is to remove the device completely from both your study and relaxation environment. Put your phone in another room while studying or better yet, go to the library without your smartphone and laptop and study. When taking a break, read some fiction, cook, exercise or just simply zone out for a while. Many of you may read this and think ‘what if there’s an emergency and I need to contact someone or someone needs to contact me?’ This is a valid concern, but rather than use that as an excuse to study with these distractions, take meaningful actions towards your goals and seek solutions to these obstacles. Perhaps in this example you could buy a cheap $20 flip phone that you take to the library to study to avoid the temptations from a smartphone. Or remove all apps except Messages or WhatsApp. There are plenty of ways to remove distractions from your studies, but you have to do it ruthlessly.
3. Simplify your study resources
Of all the points, you’re probably going to be most skeptical of this one. It follows from the second point of removing distraction but goes into more specifics regarding the resources and methods of studying. Here, I’m suggesting that rather than relying solely on online resources for your studying, you spend some proportion of your time studying with textbooks, paper and pencil. Well, in reality it doesn’t have to be that primitive, it can instead be something more akin to printing out practice questions, lecture notes or slideshows in advance and working with those physical resources in a distraction free environment.
This approach is useful for two reasons. First, it forces you to write notes and answers by hand. A 2014 study by Mueller and Oppenheimer found that students who took handwritten notes performed better on conceptual questions compared to those who typed notes, even though typists took more notes. What’s interesting is that according to this study, “even when laptops are used solely to take notes, they may still be impairing learning because their use results in shallower processing.”
The second advantage is that this method is harder. While making studying easier helps pass exams, the real goal is to improve our ability to consume and retain knowledge, which is a skill beneficial no matter the field. Cal Newport, in Deep Work, says the two core abilities for thriving in the digital economy are “The ability to quickly master hard things.” and “The ability to produce at an elite level, in terms of both quality and speed.” Doing hard tasks develops the skills to enable you to perform at the highest level. The ability to be bored has been lost in this age of content consumption, and those who are able to embrace boredom and focus for extended periods of time will thrive.
Of course there are going to be instances where you need to study or complete assignments on a laptop. But if you asked yourself whether the laptop is required at all times, I think answering honestly would reveal some content that you could study distraction free.
4. Set your schedule and stick to it consistently
Schedules are a critical component of any productivity workflow and the glue that connects a productive schedule to measurable outcomes is consistency. Your implemented study schedule will largely depend on your commitments, your available time and more importantly, how far away your exams are. But the ideal study workflow should look something like the green line below.
The mistake that many students make is leaving tasks to the last minute (the red line) which increases stress and the probability of burnout while simultaneously reducing how effectively you’re able to remember and apply the concepts which reduces the overall quality of the work that the student can produce. Working at a natural pace consistently rather than the frenetic burst of cramming is far more sustainable.
Another common mistake is using work-life balance as an excuse not to study. While a healthy work-life balance is important and recommended, some students misuse this excuse after spending too much time on the 'life' part and not enough on the 'work'. It’s better to think of work life balance on a longer time horizon. At the start of the semester, do more of the life part with plenty of socialising. But closing in on exams, the harsh reality is that to maximise the chances of success, you have to sacrifice parts of your life to study.
Conclusion
Studying can be hard, that’s just a fact. And actually, it’s exactly that fact that makes your education so valuable since it’s only those who are willing to do the hard work that will succeed - particularly in higher education where ‘talent’ plays much less of a role than hard work. If you’re struggling with studying, I hope this article provided you with an honest, sustainable, and effective strategy to transform your study habits. While the strategy may seem simple, implementing it consistently over time can be challenging. There will be times when you're tempted to skip sessions or not fully follow through. However, those who persist with these simple rules should see noticeable improvements in focus, productivity, and academic success.
The 7 habits of highly productive students
Academic success is not just about intelligence or natural talent. It’s also about playing the game of ‘school’ or ‘university’ most effectively. Highly successful students often excel not because they are inherently smarter, but because they have developed a set of habits that enhance their learning, productivity, and overall performance. And the great thing about them is that these habits can be learned and adopted by anyone willing to put in the effort.
As well as studying for my degrees, I spent my time at university exploring the habits of the most successful students past and present to try to understand what makes them stand out from the crowd. In this article, we will explore the seven key habits that set highly effective students apart. Whether you're in high school, college, or pursuing advanced degrees, integrating these habits into your routine can transform your educational experience and pave the way for lifelong success.
1. Don’t fall behind
If there’s one habit that you take away from this article, it should be this: Don’t fall behind. While university affords students more freedom over how time is spent than school, it’s worth avoiding the mistake of being complacent in your studies. At the start of a new semester, it can seem like assignments, exams and deadlines are far away, but given that there’s often only a matter of weeks between the start of a new semester and the first graded assignments, falling behind is far from ideal.
To get a better understanding of why falling behind is suboptimal (beyond the simple common sense reasoning), consider two students in the first weeks of a semester. Student 1 keeps up with the lecture content and on top of any class exercises, while Student 2 postpones it. By week 3, when assignments begin, Student 1 can focus on producing high-quality work with ease, whereas Student 2 must catch up on missed content while also completing the assignment, leading to increased stress and lower quality work.
Student 1 and student 2 will have effectively spent the same amount of time working over the three weeks, but student 1 spread this time more evenly, leading to a less stressful time working on the assignment with more time to check over his work and polish the submission.
This is an example of a gain-loss asymmetry. In other words, falling behind means that you actually have to do more work to catch back up than if you were to stay on top of the work or better yet, get ahead.
2. Use your free time wisely
As mentioned in habit 1, university life offers students a huge amount of free time if spent correctly. It’s unlikely that during school studies, you’ll have had as much free time (or at least as much freedom over your time) as you do at university. And it’s crucial that you spend this free time productively. But productively, here, doesn’t necessarily mean studying or working. There’s far more to your time at university than studying and spending time productively doesn’t always mean doing more work.
In Cal Newport’s “Slow Productivity”, he notes that one of the principles of Slow Productivity (a system that allows us to avoid the frenetic work culture of modern life) is to work at a natural pace. This means that time spent away from your work can actually aid your productivity when you pick it back up again.
What are some of the ways you can spend your free time wisely? There’s an almost infinite list of ways - each depending on your interests and current commitments. Perhaps it’s spending time with friends socialising, or working out in the gym, or exploring side projects or starting a business. There’s a huge variety of ways to spend free time wisely that gives you a break from studying. Just be cautious to maintain a healthy balance of work and play.
3. Embrace ignorance. Avoid arrogance
Starting at college or university can sometimes feel like a competition where the prize are your grades and the competitors are your fellow classmates. And to some degree it is. Although as I point out in some of my other articles, the idea about classmates being ‘competition’ is a poor mindset to have. Instead it’s better to utilise collaboration to foster friendships, collectively improve understanding and to aid in your quest to compete against your real competition - your former self. But let’s assume that you think as many do: That you’re in a academic battle against your cohort. In order to try and get one stage ahead of the competition, it can be tempting to try to enter university with the arrogant attitude that you know more about the content that will be taught to you than your classmates.
However, this mindset can be massively detrimental to your learning experience. Entering with a sense of overconfidence can close you off to new perspectives and valuable insights that are crucial for a deep understanding of whatever it is that you’re learning. Let’s look at why this is by considering two students: Student one enters university having shallowly consumed a broad range of content on his degree subject. Student two enters university with less specialist knowledge of the subject but with a more open minded approach to learning. This is how their academic development and total understanding of the subject may look like:
While student 1 starts with more knowledge than student 2, an arrogant and more closed minded mindset to learning means that over time, student 2 absorbs much more knowledge than student 1 and surpasses his understanding of the subject. In an ideal world you want both traits. Enter university with an open mindset, ask questions, and seek help when needed. But also engage your curiosity by learning about the subject before hand and get ahead of the crowd (as we’ll see with the next habit).
4. Be proactive
On the flip side of the coin to how you spend your free time is how you spend your time that you dedicate to work. Most of this time should be dedicated to the most obvious and important tasks: Completing assignments, attending lectures, studying for exams and preparing for seminars. But a small amount of this work time (perhaps 5-10%) should be spent on ‘proactive activities’ that separate you from the general student. It’s often how this 5% of time is spent that will determine who the high achievers are, and who the average students are.
The great thing about proactive activities is that they often have a much larger return on effort and time than grinding through tedious studying activities. To see why this is, let’s take a look at an example. Imagine that you’re about to enter exam season, and have found yourself struggling with one of the concepts from the previous semester. One approach to dealing with this would be to grind out the study sessions which will likely work but typically requires several hours of tedious and often stressful work to try and connect together concepts and ideas to form an understanding.
Instead, an alternative approach which is much more proactive would be to make use of the office hours of the lecturer whose content it is that you’re struggling with. Given that most students don’t take advantage of these sessions, you’ll often find yourself in one-to-one sessions with a lecturer and are given much more tailored tutoring on topics of your choosing.
Other proactive activities might include pre-reading lecture content before the lecture which allows you to follow the more nuanced ideas that may be discussed in the lecture. You may also find external reading on resources and topics surrounding the content of lectures beneficial in providing you with a much deeper and more intuitive understanding of the content. This often means that in an exam situation, the answers to the questions will come much more naturally rather than having to resort to pre-thought answers. A final suggestion would be to get ahead before or early into each semester in planning assignments and upcoming deadlines for the forthcoming semester.
The common feature of all of these suggestions is that they are based on taking initiative to get ahead of the game early on. Proactivity can often outweigh the importance of productivity if implemented effectively.
5. Build strong systems
One thing that became apparent to me during my time at university is that strong, reliable systems can make the university experience so much easier and more pleasant. If you set up reliable systems that you can trust for studying, assignments, exercise, or even the simplest things like waking up or going to sleep on time, you greatly reduce the amount of conscious action that’s required to perform these actions. And this is actually a well documented phenomenon in productivity and is explored in James Clear’s Atomic Habits. To truly build a strong foundation of habits and systems, I’d recommend reading the book, but one relevant takeaway relevant to this point comes from the habit loop. Put simply, all habits can be broken down into four stages: Cue, craving, response and reward with each stage feeding into the next. In order for a habit to form, there must be a sufficient amount of incentive or drive for each of these stages.
Given that both productive and unproductive habit systems are built on a foundation of habits, you can manipulate the habit loop to get your desired outcome - more good habits and less bad ones. How do you do this? By following the four laws of behaviour change:
For a comprehensive example of how to apply and optimise the habit loop as a student, take a look at my article on this here.
6. Exercise the body as much as the mind
Picture what you’d consider to be a productive, high achieving student. I’d wager that you envisioned some variation of someone at their desk or at the library studying for hours on end, day after day. While the dedication, discipline and focus displayed by this hypothetical student are all traits that high performance students share, those who have a healthy and productive lifestyle also put an equal (if not higher) priority into time spent of their physical and mental health as they do on the time spent studying. This doesn’t mean that more time should be spent exercising than studying - that would be unhealthy and unsustainable - but rather, the importance of both are equal.
A study of more than 3,500 workers in a range of industries in Denmark who were tasked with just 1 hour of weekly supervised exercise found that as muscle strength improved and body mass index decreased, there was a measurable increase in productivity [1]. Several other studies have also shown similar benefits from regular exercise on both physical health and productive output.
Implementing exercise into your routine as a student shouldn’t be too difficult. A simple 45 minute to 1 hour session three times a week is more than sufficient to ensure that you’re gaining ample benefits from the exercise.
7. Study deeply
As a student, the phrase time is money could more accurately be rephrased to time is grades. And there are two ways that I’ve found this time can be spent: With short bursts of highly intense work or as a slow burning, moderate intensity work style that is more consistent over time. The work style that you choose will depend on a number of factors including how much time you have, what content you’re studying and what type of learner you are. But whichever style of work you prefer, studying ‘deeply’ can dramatically increase the volume of work you complete.
In Cal Newport’s aptly titled ‘Deep Work’, he defines deep work as ‘activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit’. It’s not difficult to see the value of deep work - in a world of increasing distraction and stimulation (particularly among students), it’s those who are able to deeply work on a skill, task or project that are able to generate the highest chance of success.
To implement ‘deep study’ into your life, you could utilise a whole range of techniques. One method that has been particularly beneficial to me has been to embrace boredom. We live in a world in which at any moment, you can get immediate mental stimulation from apps like Instagram or TikTok. As such, for the first time in history, our ability to be bored has become an estranged skill. So what happens when you get bored when working or certain study sessions become difficult? You’ll immediately get the craving (as mentioned in 5) to get mental stimulation which today, typically means that you’ll reach for your phone. This is not a particularly desirable situation since boredom is an important skill for improving focus. So in future, avoid constantly seeking stimulation such as checking your phone during every spare moment and embrace the boredom that naturally comes with studying.
There are several other ways to embrace a deep work style to your studies such as being strict with your time management, setting dedicated times during the day for social media use, cultivating a study environment that is void from distractions and setting up strong routines and rituals around your studying. All of these lead to the same result: A style of studying that embraces the flow state of highly efficient and productive work that will not only benefit you in your studies but will be a valuable skill as you enter the workforce.
Conclusion
To conclude, we’ve seen that academic success is not necessarily a matter of inherent intelligence or natural talent alone. But rather, it comes as a result of strong habits and skills that give us the best chances of maximising our academic potential. The seven habits discussed—staying ahead in your studies, using free time wisely, being proactive, embracing ignorance and avoiding arrogance, building strong systems, balancing physical and mental health, and studying deeply—are powerful tools that can significantly enhance your learning, productivity, and overall performance. By integrating these habits into your daily routine, you can transform your educational experience, reduce stress, and pave the way for lifelong success.
Stoicism for Students: How a timeless philosophy can transform our approach to studying
In recent years, it seems like there’s been a surge of interest in the ancient philosophy of stoicism. Data from Google trends shows that in just the past 5 years, there’s been a 600% increase in interest for this topic and the r/stoicism subreddit has grown from 840 to more than 610,000 members between 2012 to 2024.
The reason for this resurgence is likely more complicated than a brief analysis can uncover. Perhaps it’s the pragmatic insights that stoicism gives for leading a fulfilling and meaningful life, or the close connection between the philosophy it teaches and the habits of history’s greatest minds, or maybe it’s as a rebellion or resistance against the seemingly growing trend of abdication of personal responsibility - but that’s a topic for another article. Here we’ll explore how this philosophy of discipline and self-sacrifice can be applied to a group with a culture that stereotypically displays the least amount of similarity to stoicism: students.
What is Stoicism
Being ‘stoic’ often has a connotation of being brave or indifferent or restrained in the face of adversity. It’s the classic “Keep calm and carry on” mantra in a nutshell. And although Stoicism does encompass that resilient indifference to external circumstances, it’s core principle can be summarised as something much more fundamental. In his book ‘The Daily Stoic’, Ryan Holiday (perhaps the most well known ‘modern stoic’) explains that “Stoicism teaches that we can’t control or rely on anything outside… our ability to use reason to choose how we categorize, respond and reorient ourselves to external events”. In other words, the backbone of stoicism is the ability to react (and in many cases, not react) to external situations - a form of self discipline. So this leads to the question: why aren’t students stoic?
I must admit that this question is slightly misleading and unfair on the part of many students and I’m vastly generalising the global student population here. But from my experience of being a student, and from observing the behaviours of other students, there are some key takeaways from the teachings of Stoicism that, if applied correctly, could dramatically increase the productive output of students.
How can Stoicism benefit students
1. Managing Stress and Anxiety
“You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius
Most students at some point will be faced with a crippling amount of coursework, glooming deadlines and a seemingly impossible amount of extracurricular and social commitments to maintain. It can be all too easy to work - as Cal Newport writes in Slow Productivity - dangerously close to our breaking point. As a result, reaching that breaking point can be just an extra assignment, one poor study session or even just a marginally less productive day away and in most cases this will lead to growing stress, anxiety and eventual burnout.
However, this isn’t a dead end hopeless situation that all students must face. By following one of the core principles of stoicism - “We Don’t Control External Events, Only Our Thoughts, Opinions, Decisions and Duties” - we can forge a powerful control over the stress of student life. This isn’t to suggest that we should be passively meandering through our studies care free with the attitude that ‘whatever happens, happens’. Rather it’s a way of taking control of the situations - and more importantly - our reaction to the situations we face as students.
Got a new assignment? You have the control to get that done now. Don’t understand the contents of a lecture? You have the control to re-watch, -read or -learn the content. Upcoming exam that you’re stressing about? Again, you have the control to start studying now. By recognising that you have control over your actions and how you respond to external events, you can reduce the stress and anxiety that typically come with student life.
It’s this shift from being a victim of the responsibilities of a student to having the control to conquer the challenges that come with it, that is a fundamental aspect of stoicism that can be incredibly empowering for students. It shifts the narrative from being overwhelmed by tasks to being in charge and capable of overcoming them. This change in perspective can greatly reduce the stress that comes with the overhead worries of being a student. Stoicism teaches individuals to be content with what they have and to accept the things they cannot change. This powerful lesson can allow individuals to focus time and energy on more productive and meaningful pursuits.
2. Improving focus and productivity
"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do." – Epictetus
It’s unlikely that the early stoics - Zeno, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and the likes - were hyper-fixated on productivity in much the same way as modern workers and students are. But, as I’m sure you’ve experienced at some point, effective time management is vital for productivity, and Stoicism offers valuable insights on prioritising and allocating time efficiently. According to the Epictetus:
“The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control.”
This perspective enables individuals to focus their time and energy on what they can control, reducing wasted effort on uncontrollable factors. By concentrating on what they can influence, Stoics make better decisions about time management.
Stoics like Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus and Seneca believed in doing what matters most, taught that overwhelming tasks can be broken into smaller parts and advocated for preserving time and energy where possible. And the great thing for us is that all of these ideas can be be efficiently applied to modern working life. Techniques like task prioritisation, progress milestone tracking and time blocking have been popular for increasing effective productivity but all are in some form some evolution of the basic principles taught by the stoics 2,000 years ago.
3. Handling failure and setbacks
“In all things, there is a portion of what we can and a portion of what we cannot control.” – Epictetus
Failure is something that all students will face at some point and it will come in different forms depending on the student. One student may view a grade of 68% (a 3.9 GPA in the US) as a complete failure while another would’ve worked tirelessly for the same grade. We set our own threshold of what is considered a failure. But, regardless of where this threshold is set, it would be unwise to expect not to meet failure. So, now that we expect setbacks to occur in our studies, how can stoicism aid us in dealing with them? Rocky put it best when he said “It’s not about how hard you hit, but how well you can get back up and keep moving forward”.
Failure and setbacks will occur during our time as students. More important than avoiding these setbacks, therefore, is our ability to rebound and learn from them. As previously mentioned, one of the core principles of stoicism is to take ownership of things that are within our control. So if you face a setback for whatever reason, worry not about the factors that led to it that were outside of your control, but do consider how you could’ve controlled the factors within your control better.
4. Developing Self-Discipline
“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” – Epictetus
It’s no wonder that a philosophy structured around the pursuit of personal development and self-discipline directly improves both of these skills. But self-discipline isn’t just some neat skill that makes you more productive. It enables you to maintain control over your actions and reactions, leading to better focus, productivity, and stress management. Most of all, self discipline allows us to trust ourselves when we say we’re going to do something.
You see, self-discipline is a form of compounding self-trust. If you tell yourself you’re going to wake up at 7AM and do it, congratulations, you’ve just earned some discipline points and now intrinsically trust yourself to do it next time. Do this over and over and over again and you build a confidence that you can stick with what you set to do. If, on the other hand, you tell yourself you’re going to do something but let yourself down when it comes time to doing it (whether that’s because the thing itself is hard, or you’re not motivated, or you forget), then your mind starts to not trust itself in completing these tasks. As a result, there exists a significant amount of cognitive effort to get started with, and continue a given task - especially if it’s hard.
This goes back to the famous saying by former Navy SEAL Jocko Willink: "Discipline Equals Freedom." When you have self-discipline you take ownership of your actions. As a student this means taking ownership of our studying, our time and ultimately our education which leads to a more profound understanding and improved academic performance. It also cultivates resilience, allowing us to navigate challenges and setbacks more effectively. Furthermore, self-discipline can encourage healthier lifestyle choices, such as regular exercise and balanced diet, which enhances overall wellbeing and academic performance. Ultimately, developing self-discipline empowers us to lead more balanced, fulfilling, and successful lives both during their academic journey and beyond. Self-discipline is a skill, and like all skills, it must be practiced consistently to see it’s fruits.
6. Achieve a strong work-life balance
“Others have been in poor health from overindulgence and high living, before exile has provided strength, forcing them to live a more vigorous life.” – Musonius Rufus
A good work life balance is an essential component of long term productivity, success and above all happiness. It’s no wonder then that this was something that the stoics were focused on. How we actually implement techniques to improve this balance is a topic of intense debate in the world of productivity. By all accounts the stoics worked at a much more natural pace than the frenetic pace of modern life. As a student, this frantic work schedule can often be exaggerated to the nth degree with endless pre-deadline cramming. Later in this article we’ll explore some methods to combat this, but I’d once again recommend Cal Newport’s Slow Productivity for more information on working at a more natural pace.
Let’s first take the following example of a student who recently failed an exam. He may adopt the attribute this failure to the fact the contents of the course were too difficult or that he didn’t have enough time to study. Yet, he spent at most, 30 minutes a day studying and barely attended lectures due to other commitments. If the goal (which it very well might not be, but given that you’re reading this article, I assume it is) is to achieve the best grades possible in a healthy and productive manner, then certain commitments must be sacrificed. After all, if you don’t sacrifice for what you want, what you want becomes the sacrifice. I’d recommend listing out your five main commitments that are expected to be consistent over the next three to five years. Then place them in order of importance or significance. Then assign how much time per week you’re willing to sacrifice for these pursuits. This may look like:
Health & Fitness - 20hrs
Family - 7hrs
Studies - 45hrs
Friends - 10hrs
Video Games - 5hrs
Bear in mind that this shouldn’t be a concrete time commitment - studying may get more hours during exam season and less over the summer holidays. Family and friends may be the opposite. However, having some metric to plan you’re time to different commitments is a useful tricks to manage a healthy work life balance.
7. Build a strong mind and body
“Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.” – Epictetus
As has (hopefully) been clear throughout this article, stoicism gives plenty of guidance for developing a strong mind by teaching the importance of discipline, self-mastery, and wisdom. To a student these are invaluable skills that can greatly enhance their academic performance and overall wellbeing. But stoicism also recognises the value of having a strong and healthy body. The stoics believed that a healthy body was a direct result of a healthy mind and vice versa.
Applying this to the lives of students, stoicism offers valuable insights into how students can resist the temptations and degenerate activities that often come with student life, such as excessive partying, procrastination, and unhealthy lifestyle habits. It teaches that our reactions to external events are within our control. This means that we have the power to resist temptations and degenerate activities by changing our perception of them.
For instance, rather than viewing a party as an opportunity for fun and pleasure, we can perceive it as a potential obstacle to our academic goals and personal development. Similarly, we can view procrastination not as a harmless way to avoid work, but as a hindrance to our productivity and success. By changing our perspective, we can empower ourselves to resist these temptations and make better decisions that align with our values and goals. As the stoics often taught, life is a game of balance.
Most students will at some point be faced with choices and often these choices come as a tradeoff between sacrificing long term goals for short term enjoyment. Stay in and study or go out and party? Study all day or hit the gym? Notice how none of these choices are immediately obvious as to which is most important. It is up to you to determine the correct balance of priorities and hopefully after reading this article, you can use stoicism to aid you in that quest.
How to implement stoicism as a student
Daily reflection: Taking a few minutes each day to reflect on your actions, decisions, and experiences can help you align with your stoic principles. It allows you to identify areas where you may have strayed from your values, and plan how you can better embody stoicism in the future.
Mindfulness practices: Mindfulness is a key aspect of stoicism. It involves being fully present in the moment and accepting it without judgement. You can cultivate mindfulness through practices such as meditation, mindful eating, or simply taking a few moments each day to focus solely on your breathing.
Voluntary discomfort: Stoics regularly practice voluntary discomfort to remind themselves that they can endure hardships. As a student, this might mean taking a cold shower, studying without distractions for a set time, waking up early, or resisting the pull of endless scrolling. This practice can help build resilience and refocus your priorities as discussed in the first section.
Journaling: Writing in a journal can be a form of meditation. It allows you to express your thoughts, reflect on your day, and plan for the future. Journaling can also be a tool to reinforce your stoic beliefs and remind yourself of the stoic principles you want to embody.
Practice gratitude: Practicing gratitude is a simple and effective way to shift your focus from what you lack to what you have. This aligns with the stoic principle of being content with what you have. Each day, take a moment to write down or mentally note something you are grateful for. You might be grateful for the friendships you have, the support of your family, your self-motivation or even just grateful for the ability to pursue an education.
In conclusion, Stoicism, with its core principles of self-discipline, resilience, and focusing on what one can control, offers invaluable guidance for students navigating the challenges of academic life. It provides practical strategies for managing stress, improving productivity, handling failure, developing self-discipline, achieving a work-life balance, and building a strong mind and body. More importantly, Stoicism encourages a mindset of mindful living, gratitude, and continual self-improvement. While the journey of education can often be demanding and stressful, Stoicism offers a philosophical compass to guide students towards a fulfilling and balanced academic experience. By practicing Stoic principles, students can transform their approach to studying, bolster their academic performance, and cultivate a life-long philosophy for personal growth and accomplishment.
Thinking of studying physics? Here’s what you need to know
Physics is arguably one of the most amazing subjects that you could choose to study. Now, as someone who has a degree in astrophysics, I’m not going to list all the reasons why physics is such a beautiful and important subject. But as Professor Stephen Hawking once said:
“No one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before.”
I thoroughly enjoyed my time studying physics and I aim to share that enthusiasm with others. However, success in this field requires certain skills and attitudes. So, what are these attitudes and skills that prospective physics students should adopt to excel in the field?
📈 Skills
🧮 Mathematics
Competency in maths is crucial for understanding physics. Essentially, physics applies mathematics to describe our universe. This skill is indispensable, whether your interest lies in quantum mechanics or astrophysics.
You might wonder what types of maths you will use in physics. Statistics and probabilities come into play in quantum mechanics and thermodynamics. Calculus is ubiquitous, from determining the pressure gradient inside a star to the Schrödinger Equation in quantum physics. Complex numbers come up during quantum and atomic physics studies, and even basic trigonometry is used to calculate the distance to stars using parallax.
Although this may seem overwhelming, these maths skills can be honed through continuous use and practice. For quick maths refreshers, my go-to textbook is Mathematical Methods for Physics and Engineering. I also made a video on my physics textbook recommendations here:
💻 Programming
Perhaps surprisingly, programming is one of the key skills you’ll need to study physics. Gone are the days of tedious and long pencil and paper calculations (although, you’ll probably have to do some of those too). Instead, data analysis in physics is now done almost entirely through programming. Programming is used in physics for things like:
Simulations/ modelling
Data analysis
Data visualisation
+ much more
If you're just starting your physics journey and haven't yet dipped your toes into the world of programming, Python is a great place to start. Python is user-friendly and relatively easy for beginners to learn, but it's also powerful and versatile enough to be used for complex tasks.
Python is widely used in the world of physics, making it a practical choice and comes with a multitude of libraries specifically designed for the field. For instance, AstroPy is a library tailored for use with astronomy datasets, making it an invaluable tool for anyone interested in this branch of physics.
Learning Python, like any skill, takes time and practice, but there are plenty of resources available to help you. From free online courses and videos to textbooks and tutorials, the wealth of information at your disposal is vast.
✍️ Writing
Writing is a critical skill in Physics, especially at university level. The further you progress in your physics studies, the more scientific writing becomes necessary. Typically, university students need to write a scientific report on their end of year projects, with a significant portion of the assessment based on the quality of their writing. When coming to your final year, you’re likely to have a final research project which requires you to explain some original research in a comprehensive manner.
Improving scientific writing can be very straightforward: Read scientific papers to understand the standard, ensure you have a thorough understanding of the topic you are writing about, and practice writing. Just like any other skill, the more you practice scientific writing, the better you'll become.
A piece of advice that everyone should consider is: if a concept can be expressed in simpler terms, avoid using complicated language. As Einstein once said:
“If you can’t explain something to a five-year-old, you don't understand it well enough.”
🧠 Attitudes
🎯 Take opportunities
It's crucial to always be on the lookout for the next opportunity. This includes attending relevant seminars that could provide additional insights into your field of interest, as well as optional physics lectures and classes. These educational platforms not only expand your knowledge but also expose you to various perspectives that can spark new ideas and fuel your passion for physics.
Additionally, participating in career fairs can open doors to potential job opportunities and collaborations. These events allow you to meet individuals from different sectors of physics, enabling you to broaden your network. Remember, the larger your network of physicists, the more resources and support you have at your disposal.
Networking with other professionals in the field can offer various benefits, such as the opportunity to learn from their experiences, gain advice on career progression, and even collaborate on future projects. This interaction often leads to inspiration and maintains motivation, especially when faced with the challenges inherent in the field of physics. Thus, continuing to grow your network and actively seeking out new opportunities are fundamental steps for success in this field.
🚨 Accept failure
The pursuit of science is essentially a journey filled with numerous failures, punctuated by a few rare successes that become the highlights of the expedition. It's a field that demands resilience and an unwavering spirit to persevere, despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles that may present themselves along the way. Therefore, it is of vital importance that your motivation to engage in scientific endeavors stems not from external rewards such as gaining recognition or achieving the highest grades. Such things are fleeting and can often be elusive, leading to a rapid depletion of your motivation if they remain unattained. Instead, your drive should be fueled by a genuine interest and passion for the process of learning and unraveling the mysteries of the natural world. It should be the intrinsic value and satisfaction derived from the process of discovery that propels you forward, not just the appeal of the title of being a physicist or the general allure of physics as a discipline. You should find joy in the journey itself, not just the destination.
🧐 Be curious
Don't just settle for your first answer! Dive in, explore it further. If you stumble across a 'wrong answer' or 'unexpected result', don't just toss it aside. Instead, challenge yourself with the question: 'Why did this happen?'. Dig into the why behind your answer. Remember, unexpected results aren't always mistakes; they can often lead to exciting discoveries. My first year lab supervisor said it best when he shared that:
“No new discovery came from getting the same results as everyone else.”
Those unusual or unexpected results? They're often the first step towards a new understanding, a fresh theory, or an innovative breakthrough.
You can watch the full video I made on this topic here: