Effective sudy habits are crucial to success in acquiring knowledge, whether this is in school, college or in the workforce. There is a tendency for some people to boast that they do not need to study to achieve good results, but if they do achieve good results you can be sure they do study. This tendency to boast is to do with self-image. They want to be perceived as extremely bright rather than studious people.

This tendency to boast is the source of the most common fallacy - "You don’t need to study very hard to get by. I know people who never study and still get top marks". There are variations of this, but the essence is that performance is the result of natural ability rather than effort.

Have you ever suffered from procrastination? If you have, you may be a victim of this fallacy because it is often the driving force behind procrastination. Procrastinators put off work until the last possible moment and often can only work when under extreme pressure of deadlines. They often stay away from classes, fabricate reasons for late work and feel ashamed of their last-minute approach (Burka and Yuen 1981). Procrastination, even when it doesn’t result in failure, is often a cause of much suffering.

Psychologists Jane Burka and Lenora Yuen, who have worked with procrastinators, observed that many students seem to believe that their self-worth is directly linked to their ability and their performance. The reasoning goes something like this. If you are in college or university you must be smart - and smart people don’t study very hard (fallacy). If they achieve a good result, this puts them in the category of the smart people and this has the effect of reinforcing procrastination.

Failure, however, causes a dilemma. If I am smart, how come my results are so poor. Procrastination offers a way out of this dilemma - students can blame their poor work on their late start, distractions and so on, rather than lack of ability - after all, it wasn’t their best effort, was it?

This leads to the first and crucial step in developing sound study habits.

Step 1 : Acknowledge that whilst learning can be immensely satisfying and life changing, it requires a sustained, consistent effort on your part. Success is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.

Step 2 : Set up a schedule for studying. A formal schedule is vital to an effective study program. Setting up a schedule will do much to prevent procrastination and also maintain motivation. By setting aside definite times for study you will also demonstrate your commitment to your goals and help maintain motivation.

To prepare your schedule, it is recommended that you work in weeks. Make a chart showing all of the hours in each of the week. Then fill in this schedule with the various activities you plan to do

Don’t forget to leave open or free times. (IPC Club Member is a computer program specially developed for this purpose. You can download copy from this site.)

Such an approach to scheduling should help you avoid cramming for exams at the last minute. Cramming is an ineffective study strategy for most students (Zechmeister & Nyberg, 1982). It strains memory, making long term retention difficult, it also saps your energy and can cause test anxiety.

When planning your schedule try to avoid putting off working on major tasks such as term papers and reports. Time-Management studies point out that we tend to tackle simple, routine tasks first, leaving larger tasks for later when we supposedly will have more time. This common tendency leads to repeatedly delay working on major assignments until it is too late. Break down major assignments down into smaller component tasks and schedule them individually.