majored
Guides
Practical guides on studying: focus, revision methods, planning, and working with the attention you actually have.
How to study
The Pomodoro Technique, and when it stops working
Twenty-five minutes of work, five minutes off. What the Pomodoro Technique is actually for, how to run it properly, and the three situations where a timer makes things worse.
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Active recall: why testing yourself beats re-reading
Active recall means retrieving information from memory instead of reviewing it. What it is, why re-reading feels better and works worse, and how to actually do it.
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Spaced repetition: what the intervals are actually for
Spaced repetition means reviewing at growing gaps instead of cramming. How the intervals work, how to run it without an app, and where it is the wrong tool.
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Study techniques that hold up, and the ones that do not
A short, honest ranking of study techniques by how well they actually work — including the popular ones that research consistently finds useless.
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How to take notes that are worth going back to
Most lecture notes are never read again. What separates notes you use from notes you only make, and the methods worth knowing.
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How to study for exams, working backwards from the date
A plan built from the exam date rather than from the material: what to do with four weeks, with one week, and with three days.
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Using ChatGPT to study: what it is good at, and what it quietly ruins
Where an AI assistant genuinely helps you learn, where it produces the feeling of learning without the thing itself, and prompts that are worth using.
Focus and attention
How to stop procrastinating on studying
Procrastination is usually avoidance of a feeling, not a lack of discipline. What is actually happening, and the specific moves that make starting cheaper.
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Studying with ADHD: what actually helps
Practical study strategies for ADHD that work with how attention actually behaves instead of against it — starting, staying, and picking the work back up.
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Body doubling: why working next to someone helps
Body doubling means working in the presence of another person doing their own thing. What it is, why it works, and how to set it up in person or online.
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Executive dysfunction: when knowing what to do is not enough
The gap between intending to do something and doing it. What executive function covers, why the gap is not laziness, and the practical moves that narrow it.
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Hyperfocus: the other half of an attention problem
Hyperfocus is long, total absorption in one thing, usually the wrong thing. Why it happens, what it costs, and how to aim it at coursework without wrecking the rest of the week.
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ADHD and time management: planning around time blindness
Why standard time management advice assumes a sense of elapsed time, and what to do instead: making time visible, planning backwards, and estimating from evidence.
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Test anxiety: what helps before and during the exam
Why the mind goes blank under exam conditions, what preparation actually reduces it, and what to do in the first two minutes when it happens.
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How to focus on studying: change the conditions first
Focus is a condition, not a trait. The environment, cutting the task down, what to do with interruptions, and what is really behind "I can't concentrate".
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Study motivation: why it arrives late and what to build instead
Motivation is a poor foundation because it comes after starting rather than before. What holds instead, and what to do on the days it does not come.
Planning the term
Time management for students, without a colour-coded timetable
Why hour-by-hour student schedules break by Tuesday, and what to build instead: fixed dates, a two-week horizon and a small number of protected blocks.
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What a study planner is, and how to actually use one
A study planner is the one place your courses, timetable, deadlines and exams live together. How to set one up, what to put in it, and what to leave out.
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Study planner template: what to put in it
The fields a study planner template actually needs, why most templates have too many, and when a template stops being enough.
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Choosing a study planner app: what actually matters
The four kinds of study planner app, what each is genuinely good at, and how to tell which one fits before you spend a term finding out.
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How to get better grades, without studying more hours
Grades usually improve from four unglamorous changes, none of which is working longer. What actually moves a mark, and what only feels like it does.