College Grind: Study Tips

As all of you may or may not know, I'm attending my second semester at MSJC, which is a really decent community college a few blocks away from my home. Staying on track with a busy, stressful schedule on top of workouts and job can be difficult. And when the time comes to study, you feel like you can't focus or feeling like you're going to crash or nap.

I'm going to give you my top 5 study tips that'll help you stay fit and keep you focused during school work.

1) Keep your brain fueled with healthy, but tasty snacks

The snacks that I reach for when my brain needs fuel to keep going are usually foods that're rich in omega 3's such as nuts, seeds, trail mixes, and nut butters; foods that's a bit higher in carbs such as dried fruit, apples, bananas, grapes, strawberries, granola, and greek yogurt. Also to reduce stress a little dark chocolate never hurts either to keep me focused and motivated while studying.

Not only are these foods delicious, but they provide glucose to restore energy, omega 3's to help brain function, and reduce stress with active, healthy chemicals to reduce blodd pressure and increase pleasure.

2) Give yourself a break.

Sometimes, when I've been resilient for a good few hours during studying my brain just flat out needs a break from work. Some things I do in that time is get moving. Even a quick 5 minute walk, jog, yoga, or HIIT routine will get your brain back in the swing of things.

The rule is during my study sessions I will give myself 3 breaks where I can watch a YouTube video or listen and sing along to a favorite song of mine.

If you still can't focus maybe you need a good 15 to an hour long nap.

3) Speaking of naps, make sure you get enough sleep.

If you're not sleeping enough, focusing let alone studying will be a difficult task because your brain is getting restricted from the rest it needs to function. And not only to function, but to live a full active life with less stress.

So make sure you're getting no less than 7-8 hours of sleep a night. I know that being in college and having a busy schedule is hard, and it's even harder to have alone time let alone get proper rest. So this tip is extremely important for not only studying or fitness but for life.

4) Always study away from distractions.

So if you're a fitness junkie like me, avoid the temptation to go out for a run when you really need to study and reward yourself later. If you're worried about getting a workout in then the best thing to do (or at least what works best for me) is to wake up earlier and get your workout done first thing in the morning, so you can have the whole day to yourself.

If you have the tendency to sing along with music, don't listen to music wile you study, it'll only make things harder to get done quicker if you're procrastinating dancing in your seat. Like I said, reward yourself with a dance party after the studying is all done. Right after my classes, I go straight to the library and study away, and not only do I retain information better and longer that way, I get it done quicker so I can move on with my day quicker.

5) And the last tip is to find a balance between studies.

Don't cram in for an exam a day before a test, not only is that stressful, but it's not the way to reach your full potential. Break study sessions for each class down into days. Say you have a study and assignment day for psychology, then a day dedicated to just English, and so on, until you finish and move onto the next class.

DO HOMEWORK FIRST. If you know you have work to get done, as Nike would say, just do it. It'll be an incredibly rewarding feeling do be free of the work after you've finished.

And lastly, study happy. Don't let learning be boring, always find new ways spice up your study routine with music, studying in new, quiet setting, make flash cards, personalize notes, and you can always set up study groups with friends.

Being a student may be hard, and being a fit, healthy student can be an extra challenge. But these challenges only lead to greatness.

Let me know if any of these study tips helped you. And stay healthy, fit, and stay in school :)

xoxo The College Fitness Foodie

#balance #blog #collegefitnessfoodie #fitness #fitfam #health #soexcited #foodie #student #college #studytips