9 Tips On How To Be More Productive As A Student

To maximize efficiency, you’ll need to know how to be more productive as a student. You’ll be wasting so much time if you don’t integrate these tips into your lifestyle as a student.

Use these tips to 10X your productivity as a student and breeze through your classes.

March 2, 2024 by Kazu Fujimoto

Take notes

As a student, it’s important that you take good notes. Develop a system in which your note taking is very clear and concise. When you’re taking notes, in class, make sure to focus on the high level concepts that your teacher or professor is explaining.

Also, be resourceful when you’re taking notes.

When your teacher provides notes for a college class, just place direct edits on the notes themselves and only write subject matter that you think is necessary.

Look up efficient note taking methods and try what works for you.

Ideally, taking notes on Microsoft Word Document files or paper and pencil is what works for me.

See Notebooks on Amazon

Integrate deep work sessions

Instead of a long 8 hour work session where you’re multitasking, do short deep work sessions. Deep work is pure focused work on a single task, with no other distractions. When done right, deep work sessions output some of the most powerful work you can do.

To tap into deep work sessions, you must make sure to eliminate all distractions. Turn off all notifications and block time off your calendar so that you have time to write.

Take breaks

Studying and working as a student is similar to working out in that you need rest. From a working out standpoint, rest is what allows you to recover. From an academic standpoint, rest also helps you recover from that stress you give yourself when you’re working on assignments, projects, or studying.

Go for walks, hang out with some friends, and get a change of scenery. You’ll find when your outlook on life is more positive, you’re more productive long term.

You are not leaving anything on the table for taking short breaks.

Make study groups

Always strive to form study groups in your classes. This is great for networking and gives you a chance to collaborate ideas that were discussed in classes or projects.

Study groups give you a chance to dig into how other students’ problem solving skills are. You might learn something critical that you weren’t able to because you didn’t look at the problems like they did.

Diet

Your diet should consist of Whole Foods. Minimize processed foods as you can while you’re a student. I know, everyone tends to eat junk food or cheap food such as ramen noodles or Taco Bell, but this is terrible for your health.

You will be much more productive in the long run as a student if you integrate a clean diet into your lifestyle.

Along with enhanced cognitive benefits, you will have a better outlook on life, and your body will generally be in better shape.

Things such as inflammation, tiredness, grogginess occur when we eat a terrible diet. This is why you should do everything you can so that you eat a cleaner diet – it’ll be more productive in the long term.

Ideally eat a diet full of proteins such as eggs, steak, salmon, chicken along with sufficient carb and fat sources. Cook with oils such as avocado and olive oils and avoid inflammatory oils in your diet.

Exercise

Along with putting in the long hours of studying, you need to be exercising. It’s good for your mind, gives you a mental break, and puts you in good physical health. Your body will feel much better over time when you implement exercise into your routine regularly.

Strive to exercise between 3-5 days per week and try to keep your workouts at around an hour maximum. An hour a day is enough to get into and maintain peak physical condition year round. Exercising more than that plus trying to be productive as a student will lead to over training and exhaustion.

Integrate compound lifts and make sure to put an emphasis on mobility. As students or even working professionals, we stay hunched over our desks or in bad positions for prolonged periods of time. This is terrible for our posture and can even make it painful for us to live a normal life.

Many people deal with hip pain, back pain, leg pain, or shoulder pain because they don’t exercise right.

Look up a decent push pull legs lifting program to get started.

See Weights on Amazon.

Sleep well

Sleep is so important. Make sure to get a good 6-8+ hours of sleep every night. You might function best on 6 or 8 hours of sleep – learn what works best for you.

Sometimes you might be so busy to the point where you’ll barely be getting any sleep at all and just relying on fuel such as caffeine to keep you up and alert. This is fine every now and then, but do not make a long term habit out of this.

To get better sleep, avoid blue light at night, take a warm shower to allow your body to cool, and have a wind down period.

Look into supplementation such as Magnesium Glycinate or Glycine to help increase sleep quality.

Hydrate

You need to keep yourself well hydrated to function properly and be productive. If you exercise a lot (which you should be doing), you should try drinking close to about a gallon of water a day. This is much easier than it sounds, especially if you’re on the athletic side and your body needs the water.

If you don’t need that much water, try drinking 6-8 cups per day. Find what works for you regarding hydration. Your body is made up of water and it’s essential that you’re hydrated so your body functions in an optimal manner.

Get a big water bottle on Amazon

Live a balanced life

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. It’s true – do not get so sucked up into being productive, finishing your homework, or striving for a 4.0 GPA as a student. Grades are important, but there are things way more important than grades as you advance through your life and career.

Make sure to regularly take breaks, go out with friends and family, and live life on your own terms. Chase a few hobbies, and give yourself something to look forward to day by day. There is 100% a need to grind, but you also need to rest.