9 Ways to Get through a Study Session That Don't Involve Adderall ...

Of all of the ways to get through a study session, drinking water is the one that is great for your mind and body. Staying hydrated is the perfect way to make sure your body is running at full capacity, and it will help keep you focused and awake. Whenever I have to pull a late night, I make sure to drink tons of water to help keep me up. It is almost as good as coffee, not to mention that your bathroom breaks can technically be considered a study break. So make sure you start your study session with a nice cold bottle of water.

In addition to staying hydrated, make sure you are putting the right food into your body during a study session. Foods like apples, nuts, and broccoli are all proven to help students study more efficiently. They provide you with the right kind of energy and keep your hunger from distracting you from your books. Keep a snack handy during your trips to the library and make sure the sounds of your starving stomach don’t disrupt your studying.

The key to any good study session is having the right playlist. Everyone’s music taste is different so each study playlist varies by person. I personally love classical music, which has been scientifically proven to help you focus, or calm relaxing music like Jason Mraz or Taylor Swift. If you are pulling a late night and are afraid of falling asleep, try something more upbeat like some techno music without words or some high-energy pop music. It will keep you dancing in your seat all night long rather than drooling all over the library.

Nobody wants to sit in the same chair for hours on end staring at a textbook or laptop. Every hour or so, give yourself 5 minutes to take a walk around the block. It will help clear your head and give you a small study break. You will feel 10 times more energized after giving yourself a small break and you can sit down with a refreshed mind.

Everything is more fun with friends. Get your friends together to optimize your study time. Not only can you get notes you missed from each other, you can slip in some social time to your study session. It will feel more like hanging out than a cram sesh and you will have more energy to get through your whole study guide. Just make sure you are motivating each other and not preventing each other from studying.

You will be way more engaged in studying if you give yourself incentives. Reward yourself with a yummy snack or a couple of minutes browsing the Internet. When you reward yourself for studying, you will be more motivated to properly get through your work. But be careful to space out your rewards throughout the tonight and make sure they won’t be something to distract you too much from studying. The perfect reward should go hand in hand with studying, not overshadow it.

Don’t spend all night just looking at a book or just staring at your computer screen. You will drain your energy and feel like a zombie after a few hours. One of the easiest ways to get through a study session is by switching up your study method. Take an hour to study one subject from a textbook, and then switch it to a new subject on your computer. It will not only give you a break from a monotonous night, but it will help you test how much material you actually retained.

Sure, regular self-control is great for keeping away from Facebook, Twitter, and basically any online distraction possible, but try using selfcontrolapp.com to actually keep yourself in check. It will block your access to whatever website you choose, for however long you choose. If you want a 3-hour study session, you can block Facebook for that amount of time. And then no matter what you do, you will not be able to access those sites until that timer runs up. It is great to keep yourself from “accidentally” spending 6 hours wasting time on the Internet.

Studying is a whole lot easier if you have a game plan before you sit down. Set goals for what you want to achieve for the night and then keep those goals in mind while you are studying. It will motivate you to stay focused and help you keep going all night. Know what you want to study, how you want to study, and for how long. And don't stop studying until you have reached your goals. These kinds of things will help you get through the study session with smooth sailing.

No college student enjoys studying. And with the insane amount of work and pressure that gets put on us, sometimes taking Adderall for a late night study session seems like the only option. But these ways to get through a study session will get you going till you make the grades. What did you think of these ways to get through a study session? What other methods do you use to stay alert while studying?

Sources: campustalkblog.com, collegegreenlight.com