If you find settling down to Study a problem; if you spend more time planning to study than actually studying, then you probably need a few procrastination- avoiding tips. The five tips outlined in this article, will help you get to a point where you are able to settle into a study routine which becomes a habit that will stand you in good stead for the years of schooling and beyond.

Firstly, you must identify where you will study. A low traffic area in the home, with adequate lighting and a large enough surface upon which to spread out your books would be a good start. Keep this space as organized as you would any work space in an office, for example. Paper, stationery, staples and the like should be within easy reach. The idea is not to have to get up to look for items once you have settled at your workspace.

If you are an organized person, you could apply this trait to your study tools and area. Many people find that color coding works to keep resources identifiable at a glance. You would, for example, have all your History resources covered in orange, while your math books would be covered in green paper. This color coding could be carried over to your timetable, homework diary and study program planner.

If you are a disorganized person, use your new approach to studying to help you become more organized, at least in this area of your life. Practice using your homework diary as a daily to-do list. The keeping of a to-do list will be a valuable tool for the college and adult years in the workplace which lie ahead. Use your list to identify urgent or high priority tasks, for example, work that is due the following day. Assignments for which you have been given a longer time to complete, should be carried over to the following day for further attention. When you have completed a task, tick it off or cross it out, so you can see at a glance what you have left to do.

Secondly, you must learn to focus in the classroom or lecture hall. One learns through doing; and note-taking in classes when the teacher or lecturer is talking; enhances your concentration. Learners whose learning style is auditory (based on what they hear) will even find themselves able to recall exactly what the teacher said in class. The notes taken in class will be untidy and employ a shorthand which only you will understand. When you get home, you need to rewrite these notes neatly onto a study or revision sheet.

Rewriting the notes will enable you to review and revise what was covered in class and will be a help to you for future tests and examinations on this section of work. Auditory learners can talk out loud to themselves while writing out the notes. Visual learners are stimulated by shapes, color and so on and they would do well to organize the notes into mind maps, using color to identify and separate headings and sub-headings from content. If you have not used mind maps as a learning tool before, now would be a very good time to start.

A study technique similar to using a mind map would be to use the Cornell method. This technique entails your drawing a margin down the left-hand side of your sheet of paper. Key words and headings are placed on the left and content and explanations on the right hand side of the page.

Regardless of your major learning style, it is probably best to use visual, auditory and tactile (hands-on learning, for example, writing) in combination. When re - writing your notes or studying, talk to yourself, create visual cues and write as much and as often as possible.

Thirdly, to become a successful student, you must find a way to memorize and retain the work covered. The most common of the techniques employed is the SQ3R method. This stands for Survey, Question, Read, Recite and Review. If you are settling down to learn a chapter for a geography test the following day; this is how you would use this method. First you would scan or skim read the chapter, or part thereof. Then you would formulate questions that need answering, then you would read the work more carefully, underlining key words and key concepts and write these down (on your mind map or Cornell page). You would then, out loud, go over the main points to memorize them.

You could at this point take a break, go for a brisk walk around the garden and then come back to review your work. The review stage requires that you recap what you have memorized and then test yourself. If you are using the Cornell sheet, you could cover the content on the right hand side of the page and make sure you can, for example, provide definitions or sub points under each key word which appears in the left hand side margin.

In the fourth study habit improvement strategy you need to draw up and stick to a study routine. Once you have learned how to study, you must now look at the when. As daunting as it may seem, most study skills experts agree that high school students and college students should spend an average of 40 hours a week on their studies, over and above classroom and lecture times. Again, you need to organize yourself. Look carefully at your weekly program and block out the time spent on extra mural activities such as sport. At a glance then you can see how many hours you have available to study each day.

When drawing up your study times, do not discount weekend days; it will not harm you to work on a Saturday or Sunday; these "free" days can afford great uninterrupted chunks of time during which you can study, especially during examination and high workload periods of the year.

In the fifth instance, you need to remember to take care of yourself and feed your brain to optimize your ability to study. Here the basics hold true. Eat well - include vegetables and fresh fruit in your diet. Sleep well; your brain will not retain anything if your are physically tired. Exercise is vital as it provides the brain with oxygen, thus maximizing your ability to study.

Study for fairly short periods of up to twenty minutes. Take a break, walk around the house or outdoors, do a few sit-ups or push-ups or any quick and easy aerobic exercise and then go back to your books, refreshed and ready to learn a little more. During exam times, you could use your easier subjects, for example, English poetry, and study a poem in between your allocated times for a heavier learning subject such as Physical Science, to use as a mental break.

In summary, a good student has a place and a time to study, is organized, has a method to employ to memorize the work; and determination to stick to a daily routine. As the Nike slogan so aptly says - "Just do it!"

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