6 Easy College Productivity Hacks You Can Start Doing Today

Are you looking for ways to be more productive in college?

Do you want to know 7 time-tested college productivity tips that the top students use to kick every student in the rear come exam time and in the real world?

If so, then this post is for you.

You will know all of the tips you need to be extremely productive in college and if you follow the tips this post, you will never fail a college class ever and you will know how to be more efficient in college; I promise you that.

So let’s get right into making you Super Student on steroids!

Create a Schedule

This is by far the most important step to any academic endeavor.

In fact, if you just learn this one tip, you will be an expert on how to make college life more productive.

A lot of times what happens is students get so distracted with a lot of the things college entails and they neglect their own planning.

This is not the situation you want to be in.

You want to know what you are going to be doing during the day and sticking to that plan.

You MUST budget your time accordingly to get the most out of your experience academically and in the other areas as well.

This is why I recommend for you to create the schedule for the day the night before to give yourself time to evaluate what you have in front of you and how it needs to be tackled (because you don’t want to be sacked like a quarterback. Ouch)!

Ideally, you should create this schedule using time blocks that spread out the work you need to do throughout the day. For instance, you can say that from 9:30 am – 11 am, you need to study, say, Sections 2.1 and 2.2 for the 1^st Biology Test of the semester. Also, you can say that you have a club meeting to attend from 2 pm – 3:30 pm and block time for that without having to worry about whether you are going to study for this and that during that timeframe.

The bottom line is when you create this schedule, you’ll bring yourself peace of mind knowing that you’ll know what you’ll be studying and when you’ll be studying without any disputes about it whatsoever.

All you need to do is maintain self-discipline and self-control and you will make yourself immune to any indecisiveness over what to do (which will negatively affect you if you fall for it).

Also, go with your gut if it’s telling you something. It will most likely pay off.

If you’d like to know how a schedule is extremely effective, I encourage you to read this article here which has a lot of points that I personally testify to and are in agreement with this post.

As for where you should write your schedule, I recommend a Post-It Note since you can keep it in your wallet and you are more likely to lose a planner, especially when you are busy and have your mind on more important things.

If you are a woman reading this, I know you’ve seen the pretty planner pics on Pinterest to fancy it up and you ladies like to pretty it up. You might be ready to smash the screen and say “What? No planner? How DARE you deprive me of my PLANNER! AAAHHHHHH!!! I HATE YOU!”

I get it, but for us men, we just want to get it done and get it done fast regardless of the looks.

And it works.

I explain more in this article here, but the bottom line is get Post-It Notes and write your schedule there while sticking it on your wallet. You’ll thank yourself later.

And now this one isn’t going to be your favorite one, especially if you like sleeping in, but this one is going to be the medicine that saves your academic career, so read on to know what it is.

Don’t Work in Your Bed

You’ll fall asleep, guaranteed.

Let’s be real here guys: The bed is awesome, but for one reason and one reason only and that is to:

Rest.

That’s it.

When you are working, are you resting?

No.

So what should you do?

Go somewhere that’s effective for studying.

What are those places?

Many. They can be your library, your home office if you have one, some place outside, a computer lab on campus, etc.

Basically anywhere where you will not feel tempted to sleep and you will not get distracted.

That is for you to find.

Once you find that, or those, place(s), make those your routine study spots.

Sure, you might have to study somewhere else for some period of time, but having those spots where you will not get distracted will give you a lot of peace of mind down the road when you need it. That is for sure.

But as for your bed, give it a big hug when you sleep because you are going to need it, but when it comes time to study, think of it like a 14 foot mama alligator in your backyard protecting her eggs.

I think you know what to do if you ever encountered that scenario.

Do that to the bed when it’s time to study.

Now here’s one where I think you’ve seen many times, but you can’t wrap your head as to why employers ask for this.

Multitasking = No-No

This one is b******* at its finest.

There is plenty of research out there that dispels this myth completely and yet, employers still the guts to ask every candidate to do this!

Basically, if you try to do multiple things simultaneously, you will not get anything done.

And that’s a fact.

So if you go into college, or are in college, and you are trying to do this, stop.

Right now.

It will not serve you well and your problems will keep persisting.

NOW, let me make an important distinction.

If you are asking yourself “Can I handle multiple responsibilities within the same timeframe?”

The answer to this question is yes.

Let me explain.

Unlike multitasking, handling multiple responsibilities does not involve doing things simultaneously.

It involves doing one thing at a time, while at the same token, we need to manage those tasks into our timeframe.

This is where a deadline comes in to force you to take action on what you need to do so you can get to the next task.

And hence, this is the premise of the academic schedule.

You have a certain timeframe to learn the material for each class. You are expected to achieve certain marks by the end of the semester and you must do anything to manage those tasks.

But, when it comes to doing, say, biology homework and calculus homework at the same exact time like 9:53 am, this will not work.

Our brains are not engineered to do multiple things simultaneously.

And that’s reality.

So rest assured, if you understand the difference between multitasking and handling multiple tasks in a certain timeframe, you will have a much clearer picture of what you need to do and your panic meter will drop like flies.

And now you can feel comfortable with applying to jobs that require “multitasking” without having to yell at the hiring manager and saying “MULTITASKING DOESN’T EXIST YOU IDIOT! GET OVER YOURSELF!”

Now here’s one where I’m assuming the first place you go to is Starbucks when it happens:

Avoid All-Nighters

Ah the latte mania.

All of you guys lining up for the Finals Week Coffee Bonanza trying to stay up until 3 am in the morning trying to study for Calculus II, Organic Chemistry I, the essay for the professor whose feet stinks because he wears his sandals far too much in class and never takes a shower, etc.

You want to stay up because you see everyone else doing it and because of that, you stay up.

Guess what?

It’s a myth.

All-nighters are the worst thing you can do for yourself academically and health wise.

Why?

Well, let me ask you this. How do you feel when you wake up with little to no sleep each day?

Pretty bad.

Do you know what happens with all-nighters?

You get little to no sleep the day before the test.

And when you feel that bad, you do pretty bad, don’t you agree?

Look, it’s understandable because you think if you use every possible minute before the test to study, you will have a higher chance of passing.

But it isn’t true.

Doing well on tests is a process of consistent work from the first day of classes up to the last day without any deviations whatsoever.

This is how every great student, and every great professional for that matter, approaches their craft, with consistent daily effort every day.

And that’s what you need to do to avoid all-nighters.

Along with some common sense, you just need to discipline yourself to say “You know what? It might be unpleasant. But, if I need to do this in order to achieve my goals and it is the way to go to do so, so be it.”

And I can assure you consistent daily effort along with the correct study tactics and techniques is the way to go over pointless all-nighters.

I can give you countless testimonials about all-nighters not working and the consistent daily effort model working.

I discuss these very successful tactics that myself and other high-achieving students use to literally crush every one of our classmates come test time in this very epic 25000 word post I wrote about the 85 college tips you need to know in order to maximize your college experience and come out of it like a rockstar.

It’s long, but I promise you it’s worth a read.

It’s literally every detail you need to know from making it a business decision to academic superstar study hacks to using extracurriculars to get what you want out of your career.

Definitely read it to save yourself a lot of trial and error.

After all, it only costs your time to read it 🙂

Now here is one that will catch you by surprise and make you want to leave this website right now.

Get Rid of Your Smartphone

I knew you were going to be shocked when you read this.

Now be honest here. How many hours do you spend on your smartphone per day?

Plenty.

How much time does it take away from what you are supposed to be doing?

Plenty.

And do you spend more time on the smartphone than you should?

I’m going to take that your answer is yes.

And this is the reason why you should get rid of the smartphone for a good old flip phone.

You see, when you use your smartphone irresponsibly, you are hooked to it like a drug.

Your eyes become glued to the screen and you experience pleasure in it just because it feels good.

As a result, the content creator has successfully gotten your attention in an effort to drive your eyeballs down the screen.

And as you keep scrolling, they capture more of your attention until your attention is kept automatically as you keep scrolling and switching through apps.

What happens?

You waste your time.

Do you really want to waste time or do you want your time to be put to use wisely?

I thought so.

Now there are ways to leverage the smartphone to get the most out of it and make your life more productive.

However, chances are you use it more for time-wasters than for being more productive with your day.

And if you are not disciplined with it, you should not have it.

It’s that simple.

I remember when I got rid of mine. I 10X’d my productivity as a result and I became more disciplined, more dominant in the classroom and I retained more of the material.

Why?

Because I realized the smartphone was a time waster and I took action to get rid of it.

And as a result, I got the reward.

You can do the same.

Trust me, if you are concerned about not being in that WhatsApp group, don’t be.

Just watch your classmates flounder in desperation of your brilliance as you pull away from them for not having a smartphone and focusing your attention on what needs to be focused on.

Now if you aren’t sold on getting rid of it because you might miss out on club events, think of it this way:

Without the smartphone, you will be forced to be more proactive in getting the information you need to attend events and complete tasks for these clubs which will help you develop your go-getter/entrepreneurial nature, which you will eventually need in life.

So let getting rid of the smartphone be a stepping stone to this.

Now here is another tip you can immediately implement and your concerns about the study material will disappear in a flash.

Drink Plenty of Water

Yep, you heard that here first!

Drinking enough water actually helps you study better and it helps you perform better on tests.

According to research from the University of East London and the University of Westminster, if you drink enough water before an exam, you can see your exam scores increase by 5% and your course grade increase by 10%.

That’s the difference between a B and an A in some cases.

The reason is because you concentrate better when you drink water.

Have you ever had a sip of water and you instantly felt relaxed and you noticed your stress levels go down?

The reason is because your mind clears itself of all the stress that’s inside it because of the lack of water in your body. As a result, your brain can process information better and your comprehension goes up.

This is why when you drink water, you concentrate better and hence you study better and, from personal experience, you don’t waste precious hours awake pretending to sleep just because you forgot to drink a sip of water.

And when you include sleep into this equation, your exam scores will go up or down depending on how much you get. So if water increases your ability to go to sleep, you better bank on it every day before the exam to save you from unnecessary stress.

I discuss more about the importance of water in the article attached and there is another article here that discusses more about the research I mentioned earlier about drinking water and exams (and quite a lot of tips that I used myself and can safely say they work).

Wrap Up

I hope I didn’t disappoint you today with the tips I’ve tested myself to dominate my classmates academically with average test scores in the mid to high 90s!

If you enjoyed this post and got a lot out of it, definitely subscribe to Join the Island, the world’s best blog for college students and young people alike to get the information they need to kick ass in every aspect of their life! You can do so with your email address in the action box below. New posts will be sent straight to your inbox when they are published.

Until next time,

This is Evan signing off.

PS: If you have any questions or you would like to share your thoughts on the article (or anything for that matter), feel free to leave them below. They are greatly appreciated.