How to Study

Don’t give up too easily. You can be overly realistic—
too ready to give up just because something is a trifle harder
than you’d like. Don’t aim too high and feel miserable when
you don’t come close, or aim too low and never achieve your
potential—find the path that’s right for you.
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Concentrate on areas that offer the best chance for
improvement. Unexpected successes can do wonders 
for your confidence and might make it possible for you to
achieve more than you thought you could, even in other 
areas.
Chapter 2
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How to Organize Your Studying
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Monitor your achievements and keep resetting your
goals. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly—ask yourself how
you’ve done and where you’d like to go now. 
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Put your goal pyramid right up on the wall. See it. 
Feel it. Live it. 
Use Rewards as Artificial Motivators
The way you decide to use a reward system depends on how much
help you need getting motivated to study. As we’ve observed, tasks
that are intrinsically interesting require little outside motivation.
However, most schoolwork can be spurred along by the promise 
of little rewards along the way. If the task is especially tedious or 
difficult, make the rewards more frequent so that your energy and
determination don’t flag.
As a general rule, the size of the reward should match the difficulty
of the task. For an hour of reading, promise yourself a 15-minute ice-
cream break. When you complete a rough draft for a big assignment,
treat yourself to a movie.
Three Great Ways to Get Super Organized
As you begin to make goal setting and organization a part of your daily
life, here are three concepts that will make a huge difference in your
success.