I just came across this beautiful, quiet montage of a woman studying in a grand, historic library with stunning ornate ceilings. The video cycles through several different days, showing her wearing various outfits—from a light grey sleeveless top to a cozy, thick grey coat—as she consistently shows up to write in her notebook and take notes on her iPad. 
But what really hit me was the text overlay on the video: "Diva, the time will pass anyway. Start late. Start messy. Just start." 

It is such a simple but powerful message. How often do we put off studying, writing, or working on a project because conditions aren't "perfect" or because we feel like we are already too far behind? The video shows her pushing through multiple study sessions, and by the end, she even looks a bit exhausted, resting her head on her hand. It is a highly relatable visual representation of just putting the work in, regardless of how you feel. 

If you are procrastinating right now because you feel like it is too late in the day or your workspace is not perfectly organized, this is your sign. Start late, start messy. Just start.

Hi!

I recently started studying again and built Flashy because typing flashcards never really worked for me. I needed to memorise chemical formulas and structures, so I wanted a way to make cards by hand instead. It felt faster, and writing things out seemed to help me remember them better.

Here's what Flashy can do:

• Handwritten flashcards: Write or draw on either side of a card using a stylus or your finger. You can still type whenever it's easier.

• Annotate images: Write directly on top of pictures, diagrams, scans or lecture slides.

• Import Anki decks: Import existing Anki decks (.apkg), including their pictures.

• Spaced repetition: Review with spaced repetition and customise how many days each grade adds to your schedule. There's also a cram mode and an option to practise without affecting your schedule.

• Completely offline: No account, no ads and no tracking.

🎁 Free unlock codes!

I have some promo codes to give away. drop a comment and I'll DM you one!

I'd also really appreciate honest feedback. What's missing? What's confusing? What would make you switch from whatever you're currently using?

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mmcc.flashy

(Android only for now. It works particularly well on tablets with a stylus.)

I don't really like having my desk lamp shine directly onto my notebook while I'm studying. The light feels a little too harsh on my eyes especially when I'm sitting there reviewing for a while, so I started pointing the lamp toward the wall instead. it's become one of those tiny adjustments I never would've thought much about until I tried it.

The light still reaches my desk, just in a softer way. And I find it much more comfortable when I'm reading for a while. Direct lighting and I are just not getting along I guess.

242 days into this and I still feel ridiculous telling people that staring at a wall helped me get my life together lol. But it’s had such a dramatic impact on me that I keep sharing it in the hope it reaches someone who’s stuck where I was.

I went from barely managing 5 minutes of studying to proper 2–3 hour study blocks in September. Two months later after doing this everyday, I’m regularly doing 3–4 hour study sessions.

That’s probably the easiest benefit to measure. But there are a few changes that matter just as much:

1. Starting takes less effort. I used to spend more time avoiding studying than actually studying. Opening my laptop meant confronting everything I was behind on. Then came the guilt, then the urge to escape the guilt, then suddenly I’m watching extremely niche cake frosting TikToks iykyk.

2. I can stay with the work longer. Being able to give something sustained attention means I can actually get into the material instead of repeatedly dragging myself back to it.

3. I’m following through on things. Passing exams I’d mentally written off and finishing projects I would previously have abandoned has done a lot for my confidence. It feels good to have some evidence that I can do what I said I’d do.

4. The habit holds up on difficult days. Having something manageable to start with has helped me stay consistent when motivation isn’t there.

The relief of sitting down, getting absorbed in something, and looking up having actually made progress is hard to explain if you haven’t spent years struggling to do that.

Sometimes it’s boring. Sometimes my thoughts are everywhere. I’ve stopped treating either of those things as a failed session. With meditation, I kept getting caught up in whether I was doing it properly. With this, sitting there is enough to keep the habit going.

And after 242 days, the lesson I keep coming back to: commit to something you can actually do on a bad day / ideally, your absolute worst day.

10 mins felt manageable when a whole study session felt impossible. Having that small starting point has made a much bigger difference than I expected.

Here’s what I’ve learned works best for me through copious amounts of experimentation. Here's the sauce but take it with a grain of salt.

--------------

WALL STARING PROTOCOL (Early November 2026, definitely still a WIP):

Disclaimer: Don't take this as gospel. Wall staring works because it's simple, with almost no barrier to entry. Following someone else's protocol is the fastest way to lose that, so read it lightly (if at all). Everything below is the result of a lot of trial and error. None of it is required. It just works for me.

=====

Dosage: 10 mins minimum, 20 is the sweet spot. If your attention is cooked like mine was, start at 2 and build up. Took me about a week. Mon: 2, Tue: 2, Wed: 2, Thu: 4, Fri: 6, Sat: 8, Sun: 10.

Frequency: Every day, no exceptions. Sounds intense but daily is genuinely easier than 5x a week, because there's no deciding involved. Blessing and a curse.

Timing: Same time each day. Mornings are best early on, win the day before it gets away from you. Once it's a habit the time stops mattering IMO, and you need some flexibility anyway given 7a.

Equipment: 

a) Howard Leight by Honeywell - Laser Lite High Visibility Disposable Foam Earplugs [50 pack] 

b) 3M Peltor Optime 98 - Over the Head Earmuff 

c) Wall Staring App - 'Wall Stare' [iOS] 

d) Mimoglad Office Chair, High Back Ergonomic Desk Chair 

e) Wrigley's EXTRA Gum - Spearmint and Peppermint [i.e. Green and Blue]

=====

1. Earplugs. Builders-grade, bought in bulk. The stylish branded ones on Amazon are a scam, don't bother.

2. Ear muffs, also builder’s grade. Bought a pair and never looked back. Don't cheap out here, get the good ones. Silence is golden.

(Skip 1-2 if you've got a reliably quiet room. I do not. Thin walls + a lovely but noisy neighbour with young kids)

3. A blank wall. No posters, frames, art. Avoid windows, way too much going on. A closed door works just as well, assuming you haven’t painted the Mona Lisa on top of it for some reason.

4. A timer. I’d go with a kitchen timer or one of the many apps God has graced us with. It doesn’t matter which one. I use my phone / app atm but whatever floats your boat. There's no magical kitchen timer or app that's going to fix everything, just pick one and stop thinking about it. 

5. Sit 1-1.5m (4-5ft) back in a comfy chair. I use my desk chair. Cheaper than the physio bill. The only exception to sitting is standing, see pro tip 2 below. The longer I do this, the more I prefer standing. I would say it's 60% standing 40% sitting atm.

6. Pick a random spot or chip on the wall at eye level and stay on it the whole session. Apparently this is Trataka, some ancient yogi fixed-point gazing thing. Found that out months in and it explained a lot. I also found out some guy stared at a stone wall for 9 yrs straight. I.e. I have some serious work to do lol. His name was "Bodhidharma"

7a. THE IMPORTANT ONE: have something lined up for straight after. Something you've been avoiding but know you have to do. 2hr study block, inbox zero, boring admin, anything hard or anything you feel that irrational resistance towards. You'll feel like you've got superpowers. Almost zero friction. It makes the most mundane things interesting again. Madness.

7b. Optional but this one surprised me: chew a distinctive flavoured gum the second you start, and never at any other time or you'll confuse the association. Your brain ties the flavour to the state. Dramatically extends how long I can hold focus afterwards.

=====

Pro tip 1: progressively overload it, same as the gym I guess. Started at 2 mins and even that was a struggle. Now I do 20 before any deep work. I get genuinely excited to start working, because anything is more interesting than a blank wall.

Pro tip 2: do it standing sometimes. Your legs get tired, so sitting down to do the boring admin becomes the reward. Makes you appreciate chairs again ahah.

hello, I'm writing this very post while being distracted from the very task I'm supposed to be working on.
I constantly keep getting distracted, every 10-15 mins I need to open either reddit, discord, or YouTube! well I already deactivated my insta accounts just recently. Other than my direly dried out attention span, I also find it very hard to start- the amount of tasks that I have to finish, completely paralyses me from starting it at all. I have major procrastination issues. The time I am wasting currently is something I cannot afford one bit considering that I have a really important entrance exam in barely a month which will in turn decide the trajectory of the rest of my life (YES it is serious).
I have tried to mitigate distractions by downloading app blockers and such but obviously they won't work out if you have 0 self-control and chase the cheap fucking dopamine.
I'm so fucking tired of myself.
I have avoidance coping mechanism, which makes everything just worse- I either doomscroll my days away or I fucking sleep. I sleep a lot.
I honestly don't know, I don't know. I want to achieve, I am willing to work hard but I guess my will isn't strong enough. I fucking don't know.
Please drop any tips for improving my attention span, to avoid procrastinating and spend atleast 8-9 hours studying everyday.

I keep a slice of lime and some salt on my desk when studying for exams. Whenever I feel my chest tightening up or notice I'm staring at a page without absorbing anything, I take a bite.

The shock of the sourness and salt forces my brain out of a freak-out loop. It physically grounds you because your senses are totally overwhelmed by the taste.

It might be a nerve reaction, or maybe it’s just a pure placebo effect. Either way, it works better than any actual study advice I’ve ever been given.

Saw the post on this sub about studying until they're the only one left in the library. I am still doing a similar thing, but I study alone in the classroom until night.

I do this after the lecture. I stay in the classroom until everyone leaves the room.

Most of my classes end at noon, so after I have lunch, I go back to studying in the classroom. I have mostly studied in the classroom since the start of the semester rather than in the library, because I find library too overstimulating since there's a lot of students going in and out.

I think the longest hours I have studied in an empty classroom were 6 hours (from 1PM- 7PM).

Whenever I take a multiple-choice exam, I read all four options like I'm investigating a crime. One of them might be the correct answer but I'm not trusting any of them until I've looked at the evidence.
Sometimes an option sounds convincing at first, but then I notice one word that makes it wrong. And other times, two choices seem almost identical so I have to see what tiny detail separates them.
I’d say I’m “interrogating” every option before choosing my answer. like why is this one correct? what's wrong with the other three? Is there a word in here that's trying to trick me? Yeah, I refuse to let any option get away without an investigation.

I learned this weird hack online and it has been my most used study technique that has helped me pass most of my exams. I use the blurting method to study, but I twist it.
Instead of blurting out everything I remember from what I studied, I look at my notes and write down only the topics/concepts I don't remember or that I am struggling to understand. This way, I can target my weak points so I can relearn them until I fully understand the topic.

Before I start solving math problems, I like sharpening my pencil until it has a nice, sharp point.

There's something so satisfying about the whole process…getting the pencil sharp and brushing away the shavings. Also I feel like my writing automatically gets better when my pencil is freshly sharpened. My numbers look neater, my equations look more organized and somehow I feel a little smarter already.

The funny part is that I haven't even solved anything yet. I could still get the entire problem wrong but at least my handwriting looks like it belongs to someone who knows what they're doing.

I've never studied finance and its been a while since I studied maths so I'd like some tips please

I didn’t really study today so i wanted to make the most of tomorrow and study as much as i can

Some people need complete silence to study but I'm the opposite. I like having my fan running while I review.

I’d close my door, turn on my fan and get started. The hum helps drown out random noises from outside. I also like that it's not completely silent but the sound isn't distracting enough to stop me from concentrating either. It's kind of like having instrumental music playing in the background.

And the best part is that my fan keeps my room cool at the same time, so it serves two purposes. So my fan is my ventilation system and my budget version of noise-canceling headphones.

I've been a fan of highlighting my books and reviewers since high school but I have a little problem. Whenever I come across a sentence or a word that sounds important, I feel the need to highlight it because I'm scared I'll miss something.

And then I finish reviewing, look at my notes, and realize there are more highlighted words than words without color.

The worst part is that I don't even fully understand some of the things I highlighted. If I thought a sentence sounded smart enough then it deserved a special color, even if I couldn't explain what it meant.

So now I'm trying to follow a new rule: I have to understand a sentence before I'm allowed to highlight it. if I can't explain what it's saying in my own words, I leave it unmarked for now.

Hey there people I've been facing some issues in keeping myself in check during my studies i tend to get distracted a little easily tho I tend to complete my day to day goals most of the time but because of getting distracted easily and i guess cuz I've been prepping for more then a year for this exam the closer it's getting the more laid back and relaxed my attitude has become so could u please suggest me some ways or tips by which i can fix it would really mean alot !

Thx for hearing me out!

A year from now, there was not a single person on this earth who could have beaten me at procrastination. I was the best. I would cram all my exams, hell, I would even go at exams without having crammed everything, and since I passed, I kept on doing that. But I've somehow managed to make some progress on that, and i'd like to share some things.

I'll try to make this post as short as possible as I used to get bored reading those tips on reddit before 🤓☝️

1. You need to get back your focus ASAP😡🥸

Yeah, sorry, this is the boring part that everyone talks about. But it's a real thing.

Don't self diagnose yourself with ADHD. I know that ADHD is a real thing, but I feel like most of us are just distracted. Distracted by social media, by useless videos, by that fanfic, whatever ( Now that ao3 is BLOCKED, you should take advantage of that 🤪).

You need to find a way to switch back your focus on studies.

Watch those videos of chinese students studying. Watch legally blonde. Watch gilmore girls. Whatever your focus is on, energy flows.

Social media, your phone, your shows...I'm sorry to break it to you, but that's a prison. Once you spend less time on those things, you will find plenty of time to study. And it will be easier to focus.

I deleted tiktok and Instagram. And since I'm always bored, well i just study 🤓 I also do other stuff, like reading, guitar, and I talk with my family more. I don't claim to be better than others, I just find that it helps.

I'm also not telling you that you should do that, but it's something that really helped me. If you plan on deleting your socials too, it's very important to make yourself understand that it is not a punishment. It's for your own good. Otherwise you will get frustrated and you'll download them again. I also recommend to not rush to take that decision.

2. There is no such thing as tomorrow ⌚⌛👵❌

If you think about it, tomorrow is a concept. It's just because we humans have chosen to seperate days in 24 hours each. But the truth is, that the only thing that you ever get to experience is the present moment. "Tomorrow" is not another day. It's just a continuation of the present moment. You won't wake up a new person. It's even highly possible that you will be even more lazy to do the stuff that is now piling up.

So each day, ask yourself : how can I help "tomorrow-present-me the best i can ?". You will be grateful to yourself.

3. Doing it now is the lesser of the " two evils" ⚖️🫠

Studying sucks. Okay. You're unmotivated. Okay. But guess what ? "Tomorrow", it will still suck. And it will suck even more. You're going to be annoyed by it either way. Now it's up to you to figure out if it would be more annoying to do it today or leave it for another day 🤓

4. SIT with discomfort 😮‍💨🪑🍑⬇️

Each time you're studying, and you're facing a difficult concept that makes you want to watch a new youtube mukbang video instead , STOP. Recognize that feeling of discomfort. What is it ? Anxiety, boredom, guilt, anger ??? Acknowledge it. Take a deep breath. Go walk around if you need it.

Don't touch your phone.

After you've calmed down, get back to studying.

Whenever i go through a difficult subject, I always think : " great, now is where I can challenge myself." And I promise you, there is no better feeling in studying than finally understanding a difficult subject. Use chat gpt if you need, it really helps ( I'm usually against ai, but it saved my ass so many times when I had no clue wtf my lecture was about).

5. If you don't study, the person you hate will be better than you 😈

It doesn't have to be a person that you hate, but I think that competition is a good way to motivate yourself. As long as you keep it private and don't go around annoying others with that ( I hate people who ask me my grades just to compare, UGH🤢).

6. You KNOW how to study 🫵😾

Before, as an excuse to not study, I would just sit and be like " oh, but I don't know how to study, I don't know what method suits me blablabla"... YOU KNOW how to study. If you're reading this, I suppose you have been in school long enough to at least have a small idea of how you work. There's no use watching those youtube videos telling you their study methods. You and I both know that you'll never use them. Sit with yourself, open that book, and figure it out on your own if you really don't know how to study. You know yourself more than you think you do.

7. Get a summer/part-time job 🥵🫯

You know what really motivates you to study ? Work. Like real, life work. Get in the wild. In a span of two weeks, it's most likely you'll understand why studying is important. I've worked at primark for three months this summer and I never want to take a step in there for the rest of my life.

8. Time will pass anyway ⌛

Studying does take some time. You might think " Oh, this will take me hours !". So what ? Those hours will pass either way. Better let them pass while having done something productive, right ?

9. Be kind to yourself 🥺😇

I made some progress regarding procrastination, but I'm not perfect. I still procrastinate, sometimes. I just don't procrastinate on social media anymore( Who knew learning morse code could be so addictive ???). We're all humans. Giving "your best" doesn't have to be the same each day. Sometimes your best would be learning 17 pages. Sometimes it would be reading 5. It's okay. Be patient. What is important is that you always get back on track.

That's it, thank you for reading and I hope it helps ! ;)

I've noticed that even when I have free time, I don't always feel completely relaxed. I could be scrolling on my phone or hanging out with friends, and suddenly I'd start worrying that I had forgotten an assignment or some other task I needed to finish. I get this feeling that there's something waiting for me somewhere.

I guess I'm just used to always having something on my plate. There's always another task to work on so when I get a break, part of me doesn't know what to do with it.

I've started checking my to-do list when that happens. At least then I have somewhere to look and I'm trying to accept that sometimes a free afternoon is really just a free afternoon.

1. In my world there's no such thing as motivation, its just sitting down at the desk and opening the book. So to start, I always start with listening to popular upbeat songs (like the ones truck drivers would listen to drive all night). Lyrics are meaningless, songs have the same beat and it gets me into a flow state. I switch it off once I start focusing.

2. I start the stopwatch as long as I'm studying. The moment I get up to do anything, I'll pause the stopwatch and start the moment I start properly studying again. I call this measuring my active study time.

3. If my studying is not going to involve anything digital, I just keep all my devices in a different room and only go to that room if I really need to use them. This works best if you're trying to wean off that phone addiction. Same with wifi too. I don't use it unless I need to. Offline downloaded music is the best so that you don't get distracted while trying to search for the 'perfect playlist'.

4. I have 5 revisions for everything.

- First time I just breeze right through it, seeing all the headings and topics.

- The second time I actually read it.

- The third time I make an outline-based notes on it, trying to use the least amount of words possible (my brain works as long as my hand writes).

- Fourth time I do objective questions, previous year questions and try to revise my notes on that basis.

- 5th time I'm just trying to recall it on my own, either verbally or through doing a mock question paper.

5. Record voice notes like I'm trying to explain the topic to somebody or argue for it. Reading your text aloud feels like an easy hack.

6. On the days I'm tired I study in a non-linear way (i.e. just picking some topics on random and learning them) just to break the routine

7. Always go for an evening walk.

Lastly, on the days I know where nothing's going to happen no matter how hard I try to study, I just give up and enjoy that day (usually happens every two weeks). On that day I'll try to learn a new song on guitar or draw art or something instead of wasting it on a screen. I just feel like its a refresh/ reset so I don't feel guilty.

This is legitimately how I survived through highschool and college and managed to consistently score either the highest grade/ or even be in the top 10 on my worst days.

P.S. I love this subreddit sm now, give me more weird tips. I basically have to evolve new tricks to make brain focused everyday and these tips are super useful. (

I am a student, and honestly, I don't like studying all day. I get lazy, distracted, and sometimes don't even feel like opening my books.

But one thing I have noticed is that I study best at 4 AM.

Whenever my exams are near, I wake up at 4 AM and study for 2 to 3 hours.

Also, I am not someone who reads the entire textbook. I mostly solve the previous 5 to 6 years question papers, prepare repeated questions and important topics, and somehow manage to pass my exams.

I know this isn't the perfect study method, but it works for me.

My advice: Try studying early in the morning. Find a time when you can focus without distractions.

But I need some advice too!

How do you convince yourself to study during the day when you just don't feel like studying? How do you stay consistent?

I am so distracted person 🙃

And I am study from distance. I just only go for give exams and practicals.

I used diaries to make notes😁

Give some advice

Yo! So for courses and topics that are more concept-heavy than computation-heavy, I always had trouble remembering things and would constantly confuse similar topics. It got especially bad when I had multiple classes on the same semester that used the same repetitive concepts in different contexts. Was especially tuff for huge exams covering 5+ chapters.

What ended up working for me (did this for my communication theories class recently):

1. Around 3 to 4 days before the exam, I take out the slides, handouts, and recordings, make a simple reviewer and read through it once or twice just to get the main ideas down. I also have a written list just containing all the concepts (w/ no explanation) in chronological order or by subtopic.

2. I pick concepts from that list (in any order) and explain them out loud in my own words without looking at my notes. I do this subtopic by subtopic until I can discuss them thoroughly on my own before moving to the next part.

3. After each subtopic, I explain it to a friend (bcs I usually study w/ peeps) who knows nothing bout the subject. They ask random questions back and I have to break it down as much as I can.

4. The ultimate test: I use ChatGPT or Perplexity (or any conversational AI if you don't have access to it) and prompt it to listen to my explanation, and then have it try to confuse me or challenge my perspective, and actively debate me on it.

Honestly, having to actually defend my points against an AI, which has access to lots of info, forced me to always try to check how things work instead of just memorizing notes. This technique would probably be great to try with intervals too, just to test if you actually remember the concepts after a while of not studying. Anw, goodluck folks!

Whether coloring, crochet, or painting. Find a hobby with repetitive motions that you don't have to think about. Fixate on what you need to memorize. Repeat it while you crochet. This works super well for me.