Struggling to knuckle down and make good progress with your assignment? Here are some top tips from Arden staff and students.
Procrastination can take even the most focused of people in its grip from time to time! If deadlines are looming and you’re struggling to concentrate, try taking a moment to consider what might help you regain that focus and get some ticks on your to-do list. Here, students, staff and tutors from Arden University share their top tips to help you stay productive and achieve your goals.
1. Take study breaks
Go outside and smell the flowers. - Johanna Landu, Law student
2. When having to read numerous academic articles from journals, look at the abstract/summary, introduction and conclusion
This will give you a flavour of the overall contents and may prevent you from reading 50 pages of information that isn’t applicable to you research needs. - David Harris, Business Tutor
3. If you’re finding it hard to study at home
Take a walk to your local library as this will help you focus. - Cemene Wellington, BA Healthcare student
4. Create a daily checklist and work through by priority
Seeing how much you have ticked off at the end of the day will give you a confidence boost and make you appreciate what work you have completed. – Nadine Riley, Student Support Team Leader
5. To make sure I am as productive as I can be, I always make sure I'm studying in the library or even a quiet spot in a coffee shop
For me, being at home has too many possible distractions which can obviously have a negative impact on my studies. - Mat Larkin, Law student
6. Improve your mindset
Approach tasks in a positive manner and reduce the influence of negative distractions. - Alison Watson, Programme Leader for Business
7. Set your own tasks as meetings in your calendar
That way you protect time for it. If you need to move it, you can, but you are forced to put it in another place. – Sian Duffin, Student Support Manager
8. Turn off distractions
Don’t look at Instagram or Twitter every 5 seconds, and maybe even switch off your mobile phone. You can find that the minutes all add up and can eat into the time you have to complete the job in hand. - Shahzia Akhtar, Law and Criminology Tutor
At Arden, we offer learning models to help studies fit around the things in life that mean the most to you.
