I dont need it right now but i may need it should i go to grad school someday. What all can a person do to develop self discipline? i assume like anything else there is a whole school of psychological theory and tools to develop this ability devoted to the subject.
As far as drugs, i dont want to use amphetamines, so no need to recommend those. I have used piracetam & choline however, they didnt’ seem to do much for me other than make it maybe 20% easier to concentrate.
Self discipline is only tough if you impose it on yourself when it becomes necessary. Instead, begin to structure your life–get into a daily routine. After about a month of said structure it will become a habit that strengthens over time. If you’re looking at a mental stress, plan for ways to combat the stress without the use of drugs. Aerobic exercise like a couple-mile run is good for some things, other folks like the concentration required of weight lifting…that kind of thing.
Simple start: get/make a calendar that lets you divide up your day into hours. Fill those hours with stuff you need to accomplish like reading, laundry, errands, surfing internet, eating (get crazy–superimpose a healthy menu and don’t deviate, make it a game), etc. Stick to this calendar as though you lack free will. If you like/need goals, set some ATTAINABLE/ACCOUNTABLE/MEASURABLE goals.
Sounds awful, but try it for a month or two and see if you haven’t already started to lead a more orderly life. Self discipline is only one skill you will need for grad school. Another is Time Management–and you will ALWAYS need that one. Best of luck to ya.
Well, it depends on the problem. Are you not able to sit down and focus? Do you not retain the material? Does it just not appeal? Put it this way. Assuming you had a test in a couple days, what would you do?
There’s no real 100% solution for everyone and I’ve found it even varies by class, for me. For one of my classes, I opened the textbook the day before the test and read all the chapters we’d covered, then went over the Powerpoint slides for the rest of my study time. For another, I didn’t even read, because he’d go over the stuff he wanted from the book, so I’d glance that over and study my notes.
Or is it more about getting back into the habit of studying?
It’s easy to discipline yourself. First, you buy a big whip. Anytime you put reading your assigned books off for a day or two, you whip yourself to a pulp. Another solution is to actually enjoy or be fascinated by the subject you’re studying. That way, you might not have to use the whip at all. What subject are you thinking of doing your Masters in? And why?
Get a job. Do some real physical, manual labor for ten or fifteen years. If you are able to go back to school after that, you’ll study. I quit/was kicked out of six schools between the ages of 18 to 24. I’m 41 now and once again a full time student, now I’m in the Honor Society!!!
“Delaying gratification is a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experiencing the pain first and getting it over with. It is the only decent way to live” M Scott Peck The Road Less Travelled.
Your library will have a copy. You only have to read the first 40 pages or so. But that’s it - delayed gratification. If you can always do what should be done, what needs to be done then you’ve got all the self discipline you need.
So what happens is you write the essay instead of watching The Simpsons and watch TV later. You do the hour of guitar practice every day and in a year’s time you can play.
It’s not easy but it’s true.
Hmm. its not retention, i have pretty good retention. I think its focus, i have trouble forcing myself to sit down and study for some reason. I think a major factor is that i do not learn from studying as (not to brag) i already know the material pretty well by test time, so im just rehasing. If its totally new material and i am learning it quickly (rather than just reading the chapter to get it over with and not retaining anything) then studying doesn’t bother me as much. maybe/hopefully its partially the fact that most studying doesn’t accomplish much for me. I took pharmacology this semester, for the first test i ‘restudied’ for 6 hours the day before and 2 hours the day of the test and got a 95%. however on all the other tests i never studied that hard and got 1 92, 1 91, 1 97, 1 87 and 2 90s. In another class, when i buckled down to study i got the same grades i got when i didnt buckle down but instead just calmly went over what i didnt know from lecture in my free time. most of what i studied when i studied hard i was not tested over. I read something on SDMB where a poster said ‘a 100% required 100% effort, but a 90% required 50% effort’, and i think this applies to me, at least for now.
I can’t dig the websites up now because they are saved on my other computer, but i remember reading a few sites about procrastination that listed the causes of procrastination, of the 15 or so listed, at least 8 or 9 had to do with perfectionism and fear of failure. I dont know if i have that, i might.
if i had a test in 2 days, i would go over what the professor implied was important, and what i did and didnt know then try to learn what i didnt know. I think i have a fear that the test will be over something esoteric, so maybe i want to memorize everything, then i find out 80% of what ive learned isn’t important to the test so i lose hope on studying and give up. And when i do give up and study alot less my grades stay the same, but if i ever go to grad school i’d have to study 20-30 hours a week just to keep up with the class, not to memorize endless detail i wont be tested over like i am in undergrad.
The same thing happens to me. I used to study hard and really stress. Then I got sick of it and decided not to worry so much, just glance over my notes a few times and relax a bit, and I found I got the same grades. You know, if you’re doing fine, maybe it isn’t a problem. Maybe you just feel guilty cause you “should” be studying and working hard, but you do fine without it. Those grades are high Bs/low As in most of the classes I’ve taken (depending on the grading scale) and that’s nothing to be ashamed of or feel bad about.
What I do when I need to Sit Down and Study is go to the public library. There are few distractions, and I can stay as long as I need to. If I need to find an answer that isn’t in the textbook, I’ve got access to the reference books to find the answer.
Last semester, I got a 3.925 average.
Robin
One of the biggest problems I have motivating myself to study is relevance. If the subject matter doesn’t seem relevant I just can’t do it.
I’m doing a subject at the moment that possibly a third of is information I will never use after the exam! In this case I just force myself to sit down and read over the material - ROTE memorising if necessary… just to get it into my head long enough to pass the exam. For subjects like this, I don’t bother sitting down and studying until a week before the exam - I just don’t retain it otherwise.
Conversely, when a subject seems relevant, I fly through it and don’t have to do more than quickly revise notes before the exam.
I guess the key for me is to find a way to make the information useful - even if I have to invent scenarios; at least I’ve found a way to make the information meaningful.
Max.
My son graduated from college with a degree in Anthropology with a 2.9 GPA and ended up working in a casino for five years. Now he is back in college, in Nursing School, and is on the Dean’s List. Although some of his classes are not only irrelevant to real life, they are irrelevant to Nursing, but he is motivated to study them because they are a means to an end. I agree with hlanelee , there is nothing like manual labor to motivate you. I’m a retired Federal Bank Examiner, and we used to bitch all the time about more work and less time, etc. etc. etc. but one guy was happy with everything. Once he told me that he had worked construction for 5 years before joining the FDIC and compared to that this was heaven. Everything is a matter of perspective.
One technique that works for me when it comes to programming. I personally term it as the “reward at the end of the tunnel”. The premise is very simple. Think of a reward beforehannd. Maybe a good meal, watching a movie, a nap or what-not, something which you enjoy and feel like doing at the moment. Next, tackle what you are supposed to be doing for the next 30 mins, without any interruptions or distractions.
After 30 mins is up, regardless of how much work you done, regardless of the quality, go for the reward. If at the end of the 30 mins you have no desire to stop, then don’t stop! Continune till you feel you have done enough, then claim the reward.
Usually after working on something for 30 mins, you will get in the ‘mood’ for it and won’t feel like stopping till you are tired, and achieved something. It work wonders at programming for me, so maybe it will work for you too.
You have to trust me on this. Try studying on the toilet. Well, identifying probable test questions and being active in the learning process helps as well. The following should be done over a period of days by the way.
Although it sounds goofy, there are some pretty good concepts at work here. One, you’ve identified the relevant information while ignoring the other stuff. Two, by making three sets of notes, you’ve already participated in the active learning process long before you’ve even started to study. Three, you’re in an environment that is free from distraction, better than the library. Four, you have a routine where you study a little bit each day, instead of trying to cram it all in at once.
thats actually a good idea yellowcakesolid, however i only spend about 10 minutes a day on the toilet, so thats not alot of time to study. I think one of my major drawbacks is trying to learn everything, trying to memorize everything and every detail. in some classes that is necessary test taking strategy, like for a lab exam in anatomy & physiology I & II, but in most lecture classes thats not needed.
Ha-ha, you don’t have to use the toilet all that time; just close the door and force yourself to study. It’s basically the best place I know for removing distractions. I think you might be looking at two different issues here. One, you have a hard time distinguishing relevant information from irrelevant information, or telling a test question from non-test question. In this case, you can try the stuff above or ask others for their tips. That’s not a slam, by the way. I’ve met some really smart people who have a hard time “just taking the teacher’s word for it”; they have to do all the math calculations, do all the lab steps, and stuff like that. Two, you feel you have to have right answer all the time. You have to get all As, or you’ll be kicked out of school, be a failure, let your folks down, etc. I can’t help you with this one. Sounds like a question for a med student.
Try learning to play an instrument. (I admit to prescribing this for every problem. A few weeks ago I posted that it would ease TMJ. I think I’m right, but I’m seeing a pattern in my suggestions.)
The reason I suggest this is that it requires intense focus, if you go about it correctly. More important, though, is that it’s something you care about. Other activities that seem to yield the same focus are the martial arts, archery, etc.–basically any sport requiring constant concentration. Different types of meditation require the same thing–yoga, Buddhist meditation. Children who participate in meditation type activities or music have been shown to concentrate/learn better in school and have less behavior problems. (You’re not a child and probably don’t have a behavior problem; I’m just providing a little semifactual information here.)