Self-discipline is the way to keep ourselves focused on our
study. But, it can be difficult to stay self-disciplined throughout our student
life. In this article, I am going to share with you the self-discipline tips I
used as a student that actually works!
Further in the article, I will explain about these
self-discipline tips. You will learn why they are helpful. Also, learn how you
can apply these tips into your student life starting from today.
What Is Self-Discipline?
Based on the CollinsDictionary: “Someone who is self-disciplined has the ability to control themselves and to make themselves work hard or behave in a particular way without needing anyone else to tell them what to do.”
Simply, self-discipline is an ability to control ourselves to get things done.
Why Is Self-Discipline Important For Students?
During our time as students, we will have many classes to
attend, assignments to complete, and exams to prepare. All these activities
will require us to be self-disciplined to do them.
Being self-discipline is especially important when in
college. This is because college is a place where we will have to manage much
of our learning by ourselves. College is less structured and less guided in
their instructional education.
Therefore, the
ability to be self-disciplined will be important to get things done in school
and life.
1) Eliminate Distractions
When we want to build our self-discipline, we should first identify the distractions in our life.
Being able to identify our distractions demonstrate our awareness of them. Only
then will we be able to eliminate them.
A common distraction that affects many of us are our
smartphone. We may be caught up in messaging our friends throughout the day, or
scrolling through social media to find the latest happenings in our friends
life.
You will want to eliminate these distractions when building
self-discipline, as they will drain your energy and willpower. Without your
energy and willpower, you will find it difficult to stay self-disciplined on
any tasks.
The advice here is to put your smartphone to “Do not
disturb” or “Airplane” mode when you are working on a task.
Another distraction you may come across in your student life
is over committing yourself to group activities. These group activities can be
clubs and/or societies in your school. Over committing to too many group
activities can be immensely distracting.
Like any distractions, you will find that over committing
yourself to group activities can drain you of your energy and willpower. That
means you might find it hard to stay self-discipline.
If you find yourself committing to more than 2 or 3 group
activities, consider eliminating the group activities you are least interested
with.
Find the distractions
in your life that always make you less discipline, and begin eliminating them.
2) Know Your Own Inclinations
Take time to become aware of yourself
Knowing your own inclinations mean that you are aware of your own needs and uniqueness.
A need might be your tendency to become hungry at specific time of the day. Or
you might have a unique inclination towards certain time of the day, which you
are most energized.
It is important to be able to identify your own
inclinations, as they will help you to become more self-disciplined if you work
with them.
For example, if you feel most energized in the afternoon each day, then it might be best to schedule your most challenging task at that time. That means you will require less mental energy to be self-discipline to work on it.
3) Reward Yourself After Studying Hard
Building and
maintaining self-discipline is linked to your motivation. You will want to
keep your motivation level high. It will help make it easier for you to stay
disciplined on your task.
You should treat yourself to something, such as a break upon completing a task. This will be a small boost that energizes and recharge your mind. While it is a small effect, doing so often, can build the motivation that leads to better self-discipline.
4) Have Planned Goals And Strategies
Identify the goals you want to achieve, and plan them into your schedule. As the saying goes, “What gets schedule, gets done”. Also, you should always have strategies to reach each of your goal.
Together, a planned goal with a strategy to reach it can
help you to stay self-discipline. The reason is because a planned goal with a
strategy has a visible and workable path to achieve it. This helps to reduce
the level of self-discipline you need to stay with your goal.
5) Use Technology
You can use
technology to set reminders to help you stay self-discipline. For example, you
might want to set a timer for casual website browsing to limit the time you
spend on the activity. This way you would not get overly distracted by website
browsing and forget about the next task.
Technology can also be used as a means of monitoring your daily activities. It
can help tell you whether you are spending your time effectively to achieve
your goal.
With technology, you can adjust your daily activities to be
more aligned with your self-disciplined agenda to reach your goals.
6) Make Decisions In Advance
It is always good to make decisions in advance. That means you will be less likely to procrastinate
on getting things done when it is time.
Some decisions you might want to make in advance will be
prioritizing and scheduling of your tasks.
Take a no compromise approach to decision making. Once you
have decided to do something, you should follow through. Try not to change your
mind when it is time to do the thing.
By taking such an approach, you will be more likely to complete
your task, and you will be able to stay disciplined.
7) Create A Routine
The best tip of staying self-disciplined in your life is to create a routine. The routine will help you to maintain daily consistency on your tasks. Once you have internalized a daily routine, it will become effortless, and you will not need to actively think of it.
Remember your goal of a daily routine is to help you stay self-disciplined
in reaching your goals. Therefore, you need to structure a routine that
maximizes the work on your goal.
A standard routine for a student’s day can be 2 hours of
study revision at 3 pm to 5 pm daily. Maintaining this study revision daily
will help the student stay self-disciplined in his study. Thereby achieving good
grades for his studies.
Think of what kind of routine you would want to establish to
help you stay discipline. Importantly, you have to be realistic, and establish
a routine that you will likely follow. This will be crucial if you are
trying to stay disciplined on a difficult task.
Keeping your routine realistic by focusing on tiny steps at
the start can provide the required momentum to work towards the ultimate goal.
So, what routine will you setup today to be more
self-disciplined? Share them in the comments below.
The Most Important Thing About Self-Discipline
After reading all these self-discipline tips, if I were to
narrow it down to one thing you should do to help you be more self-discipline –
It is CONSISTENCY. Being consistent
will build up your self-discipline. It is unrealistic to expect yourself to be
able to suddenly focus on your task, if you have always let yourself get distracted.
Starting from today onwards, think of the tasks you want to
be consistent about. Then start working on it consistently!
Related Questions
Is self-discipline the same as willpower? Self-discipline and willpower are two different ideas. But their underlying ideas are very similar.
Is self-discipline a skill? Self-discipline is a skill. It is like any skill, where you can spend time and effort to improve on your self-discipline.
Related Articles
We like to recommend these series of related articles that will add more to develop your better life. Below we have carefully curated a series of articles.
We believe these hand-picked articles will help add to your understanding and practice of self-discipline:
Embarking on the journey to college is an exciting yet challenging endeavor. To help you navigate this path with confidence, we’ve compiled a comprehensive guide outlining ten essential steps for college readiness. From exploring your college options to mastering standardized tests and securing persuasive recommendation letters, we’ve got you covered. Join us on this adventure as we pave the way for your academic success.
Studying can often feel like an uphill battle, with challenges like lack of motivation, monotony, and procrastination hindering progress. But what if we could turn these challenges into engaging opportunities? Enter gamification: a strategy that infuses study routines with game-like elements. From earning points for tasks to unlocking content upon reaching milestones, gamification transforms the way we approach learning. Dive into our detailed guide to discover how game mechanics can revolutionize your study sessions.
Self-discipline is the way to keep ourselves focused on our study. But, it can be difficult to stay self-disciplined throughout our student life. In this article, I am going to share with you the self-discipline tips I used as a student that actually works!
Children are actively energetic and excited about a lot of things. There are various reasons as to why this may be happening. While it may be a natural occurrence in their nature, it is still important that the excessive energetic outbursts become regulated eventually. How should you effectively deal with a hyperactive child? Hyperactivity is
You can improve your memory and recall by using these strategies – mnemonic devices, repetition, chunking, spaced learning, and writing things down. These strategies alone can help you to improve your memory and recall. To improve further, you must know the role of exercise and sleep in your ability to improve your memory and recall.