Greetings everyone! This Mohammad Sumon! from #Bangladesh

^{Hello everyone! I hope you all are doing well by the grace of the Almighty.}

Today, I am very excited to share my entry for the Contest organized by the Steem For Pakistan community. A special thanks to the community admin & modarator @ahsansharif Brother, for hosting such an engaging competition.

^{Spreading positivity and creativity through my words.}

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Real Life Problem Solving Challenge: Study Techniques

In my opinion, does studying make you remember everything? Absolutely not. Many of us have the experience of getting confused in the exam notebook even after sitting in front of the book for hours. I finished my studies in 2017. I also suffered from this same problem during my student life. Not remembering to read, losing attention as soon as I saw the table, and losing my temper just before the exam were my daily familiar pictures. However, even after completing my formal education, I now realize for various reasons, learning is never-ending. We have to learn new things at every moment and step of life. Currently, my daughter is four years old, and my little niece is with her. Both of them are now in their first learning period or primary education stage of their lives. Children of this age cannot be taught in the usual way. So, to make them both understand something easily and to facilitate their memory, I use different and interesting techniques. From my past student life and current experience teaching my daughter and little niece through play, I have developed some simple and effective methods, which I am sharing below.

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Smart Study Techniques: Balancing Learning and Technology

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01. What study technique do you often use, and how effective is it?

In my daily studies and currently teaching my daughter and little niece basic things, I basically follow two methods, which work great for all of us:

• Teach & Role-Play: After reading a difficult topic myself, I used to explain it to others in a simple way. Now, for children, I have made the technique a little more fun. After teaching my daughter and niece the alphabet, rhyme, or animal name, I tell them, Today, you two will be teachers and explain this story to the dolls. When they go to teach it to each other or to their dolls in a half-hearted manner, it is very easy to catch where the beauty or their memory is lacking. At this young age, this is a great help in removing their thinking power and speech inertia.

^{Cover: The joy of early learning and exploring alphabets (My Daughter & My niece)}

• 80/20 Principle: Not every page or all the information in the entire book is equally important. Almost 80% of the real learning comes from just 20% of the syllabus topics. For children, too, I focus more on these age-appropriate 20% of the core basics (like manners, basic words, and numbers) so that they don't have to put too much pressure on them to study.

^{A selfie of me teaching my niece}

I keep the main points, verses, or pictures of their reading in a colorful diary or drawing notebook. I encourage them to draw pictures or charts on the walls of the house or on the whiteboard with different colored markers, which is very easy for a 4-year-old's brain to learn.

02. What is the biggest distraction that affects your studies, and how do you control it?

The biggest obstacle in my studies or in maintaining a study environment at home is the sound of smartphones and social media notifications or cartoons. In the past, whenever I sat down to study, my mind would quickly wander to the sound of Facebook or YouTube notifications. Once I picked up the phone, I could not understand how an hour or an hour and a half would pass. Due to this habit, I was in a lot of trouble in the past, and my results also started to deteriorate. Now, when I teach my daughter and little niece, this phone or the gadgets around me are a big obstacle because children of this age are very quickly attracted to phones.

How I dealt with it:

To get out of this problem, I chose the Pomodoro Technique.

• Before sitting down to study or sitting with them, I silence my own and everyone else's phones in the house and leave them in another room so that they are not in front of my eyes.

• I set a timer on my watch for 25 minutes. For these 25 minutes, I put aside all the worries of the world and focused only on studying. I also tell them, For these 25 minutes, we will watch movies and read stories, and then we will have a break.

• After the 25 minutes are up, we take a short break of exactly 5 minutes. During this time, we let them play a little or wash their hands and face, but we don't forget to hand them the phone.

This simple rule eliminates the lack of attention.

03. What is one good habit that helps you improve your academic performance?

In my life, the biggest tool for improving my study performance and remembering anything for a long time is Active Recall or the habit of closing the book after reading and remembering it.

Our common habit is to read and reread the same thing over and over again. But I have changed this rule. After reading something once or telling a short educational story to the children, I close the book. Then I ask them to try to remember it by closing their eyes or drawing a picture in a corner of the notebook. When we force the brain to remember any information, the brain understands that this thing is very important. As a result, the reading goes directly to our permanent memory. Due to this habit, the fear of forgetting something in the exam hall or in real life goes away from the mind forever.

04. Explain any digital tools, apps, or resources that you commonly use for study?

In this journey of learning new things at every moment of life, I take the help of a modern digital tool to make studying easier, namely, an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot.

I mainly use this tool for my own studies and to make this learning period for my daughter and niece more fun.

^{Using ChatGPT to create fun and engaging learning worksheets for kids}

^{A quick selfie during my daily productivity and learning session}

^{My reliable AI assistant for professional Excel problem-solving}

After reading a difficult page in a book or a rhyming page in a children's book, I take a picture of that page with my mobile phone. Then I upload it to AI and say, Make some simple quizzes or questions suitable for children from this picture, which I can playfully ask them. The tool immediately generates all kinds of wonderful ideas. As a result, it is easy to find beautiful guidelines on how to explain a topic to children with simple examples. It is a great way to test yourself and your children playfully.

05. What advice would you give to students who struggle with anxiety and depression during their studies?

Many students today suffer from stress or anxiety due to the pressure of studying, the mental competition to do well, and career worries. As a senior who graduated in 2017 and a parent, I have some practical advice from my experience:

1. Take a deep breath before studying: If you feel very restless or stressed while sitting at your desk, close your eyes and take deep breaths for 3-5 minutes and exhale slowly. This breathing exercise calms your mind completely. If you make children do this as a game before they sit down to study, their restlessness will decrease.

2. Divide studying into small parts: Don't be afraid to see a whole syllabus at once. Set small goals for each day. Completing a little reading builds confidence in yourself, which removes the feeling of sadness.

3. Stay away from social media: A major cause of stress is the overuse of social media and increased screen time. If you stay away from them during study days or before exams, your mind will be much lighter.

4. Get enough sleep and a little break: Continuously reading like a robot makes the brain tired, which further increases depression. So take short breaks in between reading and get at least 7-8 hours of sound sleep at night. Good results will come only if the body and mind are healthy.

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I have already successfully commented on the posts of those who have already participated in this contest to increase engagement: ✌️

• Comment 1
• Comment 2

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^{Camera Device: Samsung Galaxy A04}

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I would like to invite @jimiaera02, @damithudaya, and @saxopedia to participate in this contest. Hope to see your wonderful entries! 🙂

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If you enjoyed my post, feel free to upvote, comment, and share your thoughts. Your support keeps me motivated!

Thank you very much ❤️

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