How to Be a Hardworking Student [20 Tips]

I know what it feels like to be a successful student. In fact, I graduated with honors from my university. After that, I became a lecturer teaching for about 3 years. As someone who has seen both sides of being a teacher and a student, I know what are the tips in order to become a successful hardworking student. So here are 20 tips on how can you be a hardworking student.

Here are the tips on how to be a hardworking and a successful student:

1. Tell Your Goals to Others
2. Always Be Attentive in Your Class
3. Take the Opportunity To Ask Questions
4. Have a Study Partner
5. Have a Good Sleep and Rest
6. Develop Grit and Don’t Quit
7. Stay Away From Social Media or Infinity Loops
8. Reward Yourself After Doing a Good Job
9. Time-Blocking Is Essential
10. Set Some Inspiration From Others
11. Eat Right and Healthy To Have a Stable Source of Energy
12. Think of the People You Care About
13. Be Passionate About the Things You Are Studying
14. Exercise Regularly To Increase Energy Levels
15. Have a Hard Working Circle of Friends
16. Know the Disadvantages of Laziness
17. Do Not Multi-Task
18. Keep a Good Class Attendance
19. Make a Study Routine or Habit
20. Always Have a Clear Goal and Target

Of course, this article will discuss each of these tips in greater detail so you can understand what each of these means to be a better and hardworking student.

This article is by no means a form of some bragging. I just want to tell that I became both a student and a teacher. I know what it felt like to be a student, and I know how it feels like to be teacher because I started my career in teaching at age 22.

I even had students that are older than me. So, in just a year, I experienced both sides since I graduated at the age of 21. Thus, these tips will come from both the student and the lecturer side of me. These are the tips that helped me get good grades when I was a student, and what I’ve seen on my students when I was teaching for 3 years.

1. Tell Your Goals to Others

I always hear people telling that it is bad to tell your goals to others.

I don’t think so.

I believe that telling your goals to your friends is a good way to have accountability. Since you’ve already said your goals to others, you will be forced to be accountable for your own work.

This is because your pride will be at stake if you don’t do something.

Ego can be a good or a bad thing for us. If only we us it for good, it is very effective.

I remember telling someone that I will do whatever it takes to get good grades in our certification exam. Thus, he is waiting for my results because of my promise to get good grades.

I didn’t achieve rank 1 but I at least got the 11th rank among the 5,000 people who took the exam.

And that 11th rank got me a teaching job just a year after the exam. That’s why I became a lecturer at 22 and had students older than me.

That is the importance of telling your goals to others. If you want to be a hardworking student, tell it. That can be the reason why you will persevere to study even if things get harder.

In fact, I’ve seen in forums that there are people looking for their accountability partner where they will tell their goals and check each other up.

So there are people who will benefit a lot by telling their goals.

Telling your goals is an effective way in becoming a successful student because you will have a sense of accountability for your words. This means that you will be forced to do your best in your academic works because your words are at stake.

2. Always Be Attentive in Your Class

In my career as a lecturer, I have seen students that are studying for other exams instead of listening to their teacher.

When I was a student, I actually listened to my teachers instead of studying in the class. This is because I prefer studying alone rather than in a place filled with distraction.

Furthermore, I find listening to my professors better since most of the time, the things they are teaching are the ones they will include in their exams. So I take note on the things they are saying especially the things they are always emphasizing.

If you want to be a successful student, always be attentive to your class. Find the points where your teacher is emphasizing because it basically means that it is very important and there is a high chance that it will be included in exam and quizzes.

Being attentive in your class lets you get information that your teacher cares about. What this means is that teachers who emphasize a certain point while teaching usually wants their student to know that so they will usually include it in quizzes and exams.

Plus, listening to your teacher is way easier than reading or learning from your books. getting information from listening is easier compared to reading.

3. Take the Opportunity To Ask Questions

Asking questions is a perfect time to learn more from the lesson.

If you are someone who does advance studying, then it is perfect to ask your teacher especially the things you didn’t understand while self-studying.

if you are someone like me who does not do advance studying, it is the time to ask your teacher for clarifications during the class.

What I find interesting is when I ask things from my teacher, I remember their answers clearly and I can recall it easier during exams.

Your teacher will also appreciate you because they will know that you are asking questions because you are listening to them in class.

It is a win-win scnenario.

Asking Questions is a good habit of successful and hardworking students because it helps them solidify their learnings in the class. It also builds a relationship where the teacher appreciates his or her student asking because this means that they are listening while the teacher is speaking.

4. Have a Study Partner

Some students prefer to study with a friend or group of friends.

I am not a fan of both but it works on some.

A study partner is actually effective for some because it lets them ask each other on the learning they had.

This is because sometimes, there are points that you might miss when reading the book, or when listening to your professor.

This method is extremely helpful especially if you ask each other for things. But it requires pairing up with someone who is as serious as you when studying.

It is also a good area to show accountability. Tell your goals to them and let them check up on your if you are doing the work.

Some hardworking and successful students tend to have a study partner. This is because study partners tend to be good if you didn’t get something important in the class, or when reading a book. They can discuss their learnings and check each other out if they are still studying.

5. Have a Good Sleep and Rest

This is something I’ve learned after graduating and I can’t stress this enough to my students after learning this.

Have a good rest and sleep.

This is because our brain has its limit. Science has proven numerous times the benefits of sleep to learning and memory.

If you want to learn more about sleep, I made a book review where you can learn more about how to get better sleep and how important sleep is for our life. Here is the link: Why We Sleep Book Summary

Furthermore, sleep has been related to motivation. People who are sleep deprived usually find it hard to stay motivated.

While it may seem counterintuitive that I am talking about sleep in an article that talks about working hard as a student, I can safely say that students who are sleep deprived and very tired tend to study in an inefficient manner.

It is important to study hard, but it is also important to study smart. Studying when you are sleep deprived makes it more prone for us to forget what we’ve just studied.

And the important result we can get from studying is to remember things for exams.

I remembered trying not to sleep and just study for a quiz when I was a student. I got 17/60 because I can’t remember things I’ve studies that night.

Have a good rest and sleep when necessary. Successful students not just work hard, they also work smart. It is important to know when studying more won’t help because you have to spend your time wisely if you really want to have good grades.

6. Develop Grit and Don’t Quit

Successful students don’t give up. This is because they know that it needs a lot of hard work to see results. The people who succeeded are the ones who didn’t quit and having a failed exam doesn’t mean that you will fail the other ones. Move on and study more next time.

I see others quit because they feel like they can’t succeed anymore.

But ask this instead.

Instead of contemplating that you might fail, why not use that time for studying and learning.

Grit does not only help in your school, but life in general.

It is best to develop the habit of not quitting in the middle as early as possible. Success takes a lot of hard work and a month is usually not enough. Success can take years to happen and only the people who developed grit and perseverance enjoy the fruits of their labor.

This is because people who quit at the early stage will not get any good results.

Also, in the student’s perspective, failing one exam doesn’t mean that it’s over. You have more than 1 exam in a semester and you can just get better grades next time.

Do not give up if you still can turn it around. You will thank yourself later once you succeed.

7. Stay Away From Social Media or Infinity Loops

Right now, one of the hardest things that students face when studying is the constant distractions. Notifications everywhere fragment their attention thus, their efficiency in studying is very low. Studying with fragmented attention makes us remember less.

In the book “Make Time”, it told about infinity loops where it can take all of your time without you knowing.

Such examples are applications that have infinite scrolls.

If you can notice, social media apps such as Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, have an infinity loop where you can continuously scroll to no end.

This takes too much of our time and can cause us to have less time studying.

That’s why I actually did a social media detox and the results were phenomenal. I was able to work a lot and have good sleep at the same time. If you want to know my experiences while doing the social media detox, here is the article: Everything you need to know about Social Media Detox

Also, if you are interested in the make time book where it taught how we can make time for the things that matter, here is my book review: Make Time Book Summary

8. Reward Yourself After Doing a Good Job

When I was a student, after having my exams, I go outside and treat myself for some food.

It was very effective and when I get good grades, I treat myself for some waffles.

I love those rewards that it became my habit to wake up at 4am, be at school at 5:30am and study in the campus garden.

Doing this makes me look for my rewards so I studied hard so I can treat myself again.

You can reward yourself if you’ve done a good job. You can correlate the act of studying to something which you really want. This is called bundling. You bundle the things you don’t want with something you want.

For example, even as a lecturer, I don’t really like studying so I paired it up with treating myself to some bubble tea and waffles makes me want to study more so I can get those rewards.

9. Time-Blocking Is Essential

This might be the best productivity hack I’ve learned recently.

Time-blocking is a good habit to develop if you want to be a successful student. This is because we can make the time as a cue for our habits. Forming a habit of studying on a certain time makes it easier for us to study since we don’t need to use willpower anymore.

Time-blocking is essentially using some time to be a habit.

It is scheduling your study sessions at a certain time each day.

Now that I’ve think about it, I did this when I was a student.

I wake up at 4am, go to school at 5:30 and study until 7AM.

That is my routine and I blocked that 1 and half hour to only study.

I found that studying in a time-block manner makes me remember things a lot quicker because I am prepared to study at that time because it is already a habit.

10. Set Some Inspiration From Others

I had friends that studied hard because they have someone to look up to.

If you are a medical student, then maybe a doctor who you really idolize.

Many people used the power of inspiration to work or in this case, study.

Some people really work hard because they are inspired that their teacher will notice them if they did well in the exam.

Or you want to study hard because you want to be like the doctor you look up to.

You can always use inspiration to be better especially if the inspiration brings you success.

Having some inspiration can be a good habit to develop if you want to be an effective student. This is because when we are inspired, we tend to do more work than usual. Also, inspiration helps us set our goals so we know that we are on the right path.

11. Eat Right and Healthy To Have a Stable Source of Energy

I couldn’t count the times where I ate lots of sugar or drank a lot of coffee before studying.

While it gives a boost of energy so we can study a lot more, the effect after the sugar and caffeine is gone is too much.

Having a stable source of energy is way better since you can study for longer rather than relying on caffeine and sugar for energy.

Eating right also provides nutrients so our brain can function properly.

Successful students know that eating right is important to study properly. Relying on caffeine and sugar as our source of energy while studying is not a good idea. For one, the energy boost will only last a short while. Two is that it disrupts the sleep that is needed for learning.

12. Think of the People You Care About

There are lots of successful people interviews that say that it is the support of their family that puts them to work harder.

Some students use the people they love as an inspiration for them to work harder on their life goals. Also, studying well gives them a higher chance to land a good job that might make the people they love proud.

Thus, you can use that to your advantage. Think of the people you care about and why you are working hard to be successful. If you have an answer, use it as an inspiration.

Some successful students have people they care about. This means that they have someone or a family that they want to be proud of them, or they want to be useful in the future to the people they care about. This is a powerful force that urges them to work hard.

13. Be Passionate About the Things You Are Studying

If you really want to achieve things in your field, you need to be passionate on what you are studying.

This doesn’t mean that you should instantly be passionate about the course you’ve chosen.

There are some people who doesn’t really like their course but they learned to love it the longer they studies the field.

There are some doctors saying that they really don’t want to be a doctor, but when they are already studying, they find that medicine is really interesting so they learned to love what they are studying.

This is the same for all of us. We can learn to love what we are studying by looking on when it will be useful.

One of the most important things for a hard-working student is to be passionate about what they are doing. This means that they find the topic interesting. This reduces the amount of motivation needed to study and they tend to study longer when they like the things they are doing.

14. Exercise Regularly To Increase Energy Levels

To be able to study for long hours, you need to have a high energy levels.

I find that exercise not only increases our energy levels, but it is also scientifically proven that it increases brain power.

Thus, exercise not only increases our energy levels so we can study longer, but it also increases our brain power so we can learn more in the time period.

Exercise has been proven to increase brain power and memory. Thus, in order to be a successful student, we have to put some light exercises in our schedule. This gives us more energy throughout the day which can be used to give more time to our studies.

15. Have a Hard Working Circle of Friends

Having a circle of friends that shares the same goal as you is very important if you want to have a good habit of studying hard.

We are the product of the closest people we hang out with.

If we hang out with people who take their studies seriously, then we will be pushed to study more.

If we hang out with people who don’t really study and prefer to do other things, then we will be like them.

Hardworking students like to hangout with other hardworking students because they will pull each other up. This is a good way to develop the habit of studying. A circle of friends that pulls each other up is good because they also serve as our accountability partners.

16. Know the Disadvantages of Laziness

I have made an article listing the disadvantages of laziness. It is a good read especially if you really want to be a hardworking student.

Knowing the bad effects of laziness can cause us to work better on ourselves because we will know what can happen to us if we don’t take care of ourselves.

Here is the link to the disadvantages of laziness: What are the Disadvantages of Laziness?

17. Do Not Multi-Task

Multitasking has never been good for human productivity ever.

Even if some people swear that it works for them, science always tell otherwise.

If you are listening to your teacher, listen to your teacher. If you are reading books, read your book. If you are playing, then play.

One of the characteristic of a hard working student is that they don’t multi-task and they work smart.

Do not do all of them together. It is important to have focus and concentrate that matters on the present moment.

Only by eliminating distractions and achieving absolute focus where we can see our true potential in our work and studies.

Successful students value the importance of focus and concentration. They know how important it is to eliminate distractions in order to absorb as much information as possible. This makes them remember more things with less time needed for their studies.

18. Keep a Good Class Attendance

The lecture is the most important part of studying because it is the time where you will talk to your teachers or professors.

In class, look for the things your teachers are emphasizing because they are most likely the ones that will come out on exams.

Plus, more time learning in class is less time reading and understanding books. It is a lot easier to learn from listening to classes rather than reading.

A hardworking student knows how important it is to listen to their teachers in class. This is because they can find out about the things that the teacher emphasize in their lectures which will more likely come in exams. Plus, it is also easier to learn by listening rather than reading.

19. Make a Study Routine or Habit

As a student, I had a time block schedule where I just studied with absolute focus with no distraction.

The importance of building a habit is that it lessens what we call the activation energy.

Activation energy is how much willpower we will use in doing some action. In this case, to study.

Here is a simple graph on what is activation energy.

As you can see in this graph, to do our action, we have to use willpower.

There are 2 ways in order to use less willpower. One is to use motivation like seen in the graph.

The other is to lower the willpower required by using habits.

Hardworking students know the value of building a study habit. Habits reduce the amount of willpower required to do the tasks we need to do. On almost all occasions, studying consistently overtime is way better than pulling an all-nighter. Thus, habits are key to success.

A study habit is necessary if we want to constantly study minus the problem where we find it hard to force ourselves into studying.

20. Always Have a Clear Goal and Target

Successful students will always have a clear goal and target in mind. It maybe studying a certain chapter tonight before sleeping. Having clear goals makes it sure that you are going to be on track on your studies. Working on something without target will result to unproductive work.

Believe it or not, all of the things in this article are made in just 1 day.

I made everything including the infographic you have seen at the start of this article today.

The reason for that intense productivity is because I have a clear goal and target for today. Which is to finish this article.

Without any clear goals and targets, you wouldn’t know when to stop working. The problem with that is if for example, I don’t have any goals, I could’ve stopped writing in the middle.

But I know my goal that I have to finish it today before enjoying my weekend.

It is the same for studying. Find a clear goal on what chapter do you need to read today. What exactly do you want to learn today? Have them clear in your mind.

You now have all the tips necessary in order to be a hard-working student. I have listed here everything including the characteristics of a hardworking student.

Now, it is your time. Work hard and smart on your study goals.