Are you studying in the right place?

Where do you study for college? 

When you're in that environment, do you feel really productive? When you finish do you think "ahh...I got even more accomplished than I thought I would"?

Do you feel like you're at your best? 

Are you getting the grades you know you can get?

If you answered "no" to any of those questions, then it might be time to change where you're studying for college. 


For me, the best study place, the place where I could easily answer "yes" to all the questions above, was the college library. 

I almost never did college work or studied from home. I scheduled time before and in-between my classes to spend in the library each week, without fail. From the cozy corner cubicles surrounded my books to the quiet buzz of the computer lab, that is where I felt at my most productive - and I really was.

But here's the thing - I didn't realize until recently how powerful this actually was. Let me explain:

I've been working from home for almost three years now, and recently I found myself feeling restless. I wasn't feeling like I could answer "yes" to the questions above anymore. Even though I was still working hard, at the end of the day I still felt antsy, like I wasn't accomplishing what I needed. And at the beginning of the day I felt sluggish. What was up?

When an opportunity arose for me to rent an office, something inside me clicked - THIS is just what I need! I realized all this time I had been fighting against what I had known so instinctively in college - I work best outside of my home. 

My new office!

Environment matters. Just walk on the beach, into a dance studio, or onto a sports field, and see how those environments make you feel. What do they make you want to do?

For me, home has always been the place where I like to read, sleep, eat, eat, eat, watch TV, and relax. It's never been the best "work" environment for me.

I can't tell you what the "best" environment is, because I think it can be different for every person - and you might even find you need different environments at different times. 

I just want to encourage you to take the time figure out what really works best for you. Notice how you feel when you're working and preparing to do well in your college classes. If you aren't feeling that sense of flow, try changing your environment.

Because trust me, when you find that place that inspires you to do your best work, work doesn't feel like work anymore. It feels more like art.

My new favorite inspiration spot near my office. :)

What is your study habit grade?

It is time for the final Study Tipping Tuesday of the semester! 

And it won’t be long before you find yourself logging onto your college’s web site, entering in your password, and opening up that link that posts those ominous words:

Final grades.

But while grades are obviously important, the bigger picture is that grades and courses are meant to help you develop positive habits of study and thinking that you can take with you the rest of your life. 

So while you can’t open that web page with your final grades just yet, you can see how you did this semester when it comes to developing those positive study habits.

And since Study Tipping Tuesday will be on hiatus until the fall semester (lots of other exciting things to come in the summer, though), let’s see how you did with your study habits. 

Review the questions below and honestly evaluate yourself. Your answers to these questions will correlate pretty well with your final grades. 

• Did you work on your core? 
• Did you get organized and build a filing system?
• Did you overcome the all-nighter and make the most of your early mornings?
• Did you prepare your presentations?
• Did you build a task list?
• Did you make test review work for you?
• Was time on your side?
• Did you work on developing the little habits?

And as you look back on this semester and look forward to the next, I hope you'll commit to improving your study habits every day. 

Because success requires continuous effort. 

And you deserve that success – so get pumped up and go get it!

And if you haven’t yet, get revved up for your final exams :)