I recently recorded a live webinar revealing six of my most powerful (and immediately useful) study skills.  Just click the image below to watch it.  Premium Members Only! Use this link to watch the webinar. You’ll have to log in to see it.

Revised and Updated

Taking frequent breaks maximizes your brain’s ability to recall. Hundreds of variations on experiments first performed in the late 1800s have confirmed that taking a 5 to 10 minute break every thirty or forty minutes will help you get the most out of your overworked and underappreciated neurons.

To help you remember to take study breaks, take a look at the free online app, Unforgetit. It’s perfect for setting break reminders to get you up off your duff on a regular schedule.

Want more details about breaks and maximizing your memory? Watch my free study skills video. It will take 45 minutes to watch and save you HOURS this week!

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Cody Blair has spent over a decade helping students and teachers discover the secrets that make learning simple! His ebook, Secrets Smart Students Know, reveals how the best students use powerful study skills, maximize their memory, avoid procrastination, and maximize their focus to achieve fantastic grades with much less work! Click now to find out more about simple methods to maximize your study skills.

© Cody Blair, All Rights Reserved. You may reprint the above article as long as you include the above bio/resource information in full, including the functioning links. Do not make any changes to the article or bio. If you can't include clickable links, please ask permission to reprint.

Revised from April, 2010 post.

If you can’t procrastinate, you won’t procrastinate.

Obvious, you say? Then why aren’t you making procrastination impossible (or at least scaldingly painful)? Here’s how you can make the P-word so blindingly agonizing that it ain’t even an option.

First, identify that dreaded procrastination-inducing uber-chore. Hint: What were you thinking you should do just BEFORE you started scrubbing out the trash cans and polishing the plastic ware?

Next, chunk it down into pieces that can be done in under an hour. That huge chore no longer looms and you’re less likely to shirk. Instead, you just have an hour’s worth of work to do.

Still procrastinating? Sheesh! You’re as bad as I am! No worries. Just break the hour down into ten minute chunks and commit to doing a single ten minute portion. You can quit after the ten minutes if you like, and you have permission not to even feel guilty about it. Anyone can do ten minutes. Most of us will find that after we’ve done the ten minutes, it’s pretty easy to continue on and do another ten minutes, and another, and another. Please log in or sign up to read the rest of this content. Find out more.

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Cody Blair has spent over a decade helping students and teachers discover the secrets that make learning simple! His ebook, Secrets Smart Students Know, reveals how the best students use powerful study skills, maximize their memory, avoid procrastination, and maximize their focus to achieve fantastic grades with much less work! Click now to find out more about simple methods to maximize your study skills.

© Cody Blair, All Rights Reserved. You may reprint the above article as long as you include the above bio/resource information in full, including the functioning links. Do not make any changes to the article or bio. If you can't include clickable links, please ask permission to reprint.

Homework and Practice

Homework can increase student understanding when assignments provide the opportunities needed to practice and apply new learning. - Northwest Regional Educational Consortium

‘Kay. Show of hands. How many of you like homework? … Anyone? … Bueller? … Bueller?

Most of us have an ancient, wired-into-our-DNA hatred for HOMEWORK (just typing the word caused me to gag). So… good news and bad news.

If we aren’t good at something we tend to lose focus quickly, so if you’re zoning out in class, it may be because your skills in the current subject ain’t cuttin’ the mustard. Here’s the bad news; homework–and more specifically, practice–is really the best way to develop certain types of academic skills. Calculus currently kicking your kiester? Much of the research shows that practice is what you’re probably missing. Those who practice math (more…)

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Cody Blair has spent over a decade helping students and teachers discover the secrets that make learning simple! His ebook, Secrets Smart Students Know, reveals how the best students use powerful study skills, maximize their memory, avoid procrastination, and maximize their focus to achieve fantastic grades with much less work! Click now to find out more about simple methods to maximize your study skills.

© Cody Blair, All Rights Reserved. You may reprint the above article as long as you include the above bio/resource information in full, including the functioning links. Do not make any changes to the article or bio. If you can't include clickable links, please ask permission to reprint.

If you’ve attended one of my seminars or read my ebook, you’ll already be aware of the fact that taking a break every thirty or forty minutes actually greases up your cognitive gears and think like an einstein. Along comes the Big Stretch Reminder program to help you remember to take those mentally stimulating breaks. Thanks, MonkeyMatt!

Reinforcing Effort

Student attitudes and beliefs have a significant effect on success in school. Achievement can increase when teachers show the connection between effort and success. - Northwest Regional Educational Consortium

Plato: “What giveth, wee Dipides? Thy project lieth untouched whilst thy deadline draweth nigh.”

Dipides [with downcast countenance]: “Woe is me, wise master. Yon titanic project is too difficult for the likes o’ me. I shan’t ever finish, and even should I do so (more…)

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Cody Blair has spent over a decade helping students and teachers discover the secrets that make learning simple! His ebook, Secrets Smart Students Know, reveals how the best students use powerful study skills, maximize their memory, avoid procrastination, and maximize their focus to achieve fantastic grades with much less work! Click now to find out more about simple methods to maximize your study skills.

© Cody Blair, All Rights Reserved. You may reprint the above article as long as you include the above bio/resource information in full, including the functioning links. Do not make any changes to the article or bio. If you can't include clickable links, please ask permission to reprint.

Summarizing and Note Taking

Effective summarizing requires analysis that leads to deeper understanding. Students benefit from taking notes in both linguistic and visual forms. -Northwest Regional Educational Consortium

All of us know how to summarize and take notes, but most of us only use those skills in certain situations. Ponder these examples… (more…)

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Cody Blair has spent over a decade helping students and teachers discover the secrets that make learning simple! His ebook, Secrets Smart Students Know, reveals how the best students use powerful study skills, maximize their memory, avoid procrastination, and maximize their focus to achieve fantastic grades with much less work! Click now to find out more about simple methods to maximize your study skills.

© Cody Blair, All Rights Reserved. You may reprint the above article as long as you include the above bio/resource information in full, including the functioning links. Do not make any changes to the article or bio. If you can't include clickable links, please ask permission to reprint.

Onlineschools.org recently listed StudyProf.com as one of their top 50 resources for students attending online operations management schools. Although many of the resources are specific to operations management there are loads of useful links that will benefit anyone. Take a look at 50 Resources For Students Attending Online Operations Management Schools.

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Cody Blair has spent over a decade helping students and teachers discover the secrets that make learning simple! His ebook, Secrets Smart Students Know, reveals how the best students use powerful study skills, maximize their memory, avoid procrastination, and maximize their focus to achieve fantastic grades with much less work! Click now to find out more about simple methods to maximize your study skills.

© Cody Blair, All Rights Reserved. You may reprint the above article as long as you include the above bio/resource information in full, including the functioning links. Do not make any changes to the article or bio. If you can't include clickable links, please ask permission to reprint.

Identifying Similarities and Differences

Learning to classify and discern differences and similarities prepares students for employing metaphor, analogy, and higher-order thinking skills. -Northwest Educational Technology Consortium

Focused students are like oysters. The oyster filters through a lot of water, straining out the tasty bits of nutrient. Every once in awhile  our erstwhile oyster encounters some problematic bit of grit. When this happens it closes up tight and rolls that sand grain round and round, until the oyster finally turns it into a pearl. Likewise, a focused student filters through a lot (more…)

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Cody Blair has spent over a decade helping students and teachers discover the secrets that make learning simple! His ebook, Secrets Smart Students Know, reveals how the best students use powerful study skills, maximize their memory, avoid procrastination, and maximize their focus to achieve fantastic grades with much less work! Click now to find out more about simple methods to maximize your study skills.

© Cody Blair, All Rights Reserved. You may reprint the above article as long as you include the above bio/resource information in full, including the functioning links. Do not make any changes to the article or bio. If you can't include clickable links, please ask permission to reprint.

The greatest thing by far is to be a master of metaphor…. It is the mark of genius. -Aristotle

Check out this post; a light upon the path to becoming a master of metaphor.