Study Plan that Works With Your Personality
- Arkie Rowe
- Apr 27, 2021
- 5 min read
Most people by now have heard of the Myer Briggs Personality types. Well, this post will talk about 4 Tendencies personality from the book "The Four Tendencies" written by Gretchen Rubin. The 4 tendencies, as the name suggests, breaks down people's tendency pattern into 4 different types (Upholder, Questioner, Obliger, and Rebel) based on what kind of expectations the individual responds the best too. I have also linked the test to 4 personality tendency at the end of the post so you can find out what your tendency is.
Quick note: this blog post was inspired by a YouTube video made by Med School Insiders. I will leave the link to the video in the Source section of this post.
Upholders
Responds well to both inner and outer expectations
Upholders can stick to any plans they come up with. But they can be too rigid with their methods and may feel the need to read every single material listed for the course.
To work around this potential weakness, when coming up with your study plan try to focus on the efficiency of your study plan. One way you can do this is by asking yourself some questions. Some questions you can ask yourself are "is this plan working well with my schedule?", "Could there be a better way to organise my study plan?" and "does the focus of this material match with the main contents of the course?". You can usually find the main focus of the course content in a section title "learning outcomes" on the first page of the chapter in textbooks. Some lecturers also include them in the first slide/page on the lecture slides/notes. For this process, you can use the notes which were uploaded by other students on Course Hero. By looking at other student's notes, you can pinpoint the main focus of each module. When you sign up for Course Hero for the first time, you also get 5 questions you can ask a tutor. So, if you're an upholder, you could use those 5 questions to ask how you can better pinpoint the main focus of the module.
Questioner:
Responds well to inner expectations but not outer expectations
Questioners are data-driven and make their decision based on the effectiveness of the plan. The weakness of Questioners is over-deliberation and wasting time on questioning the importance of each task.
One way you can overcome these weaknesses is by writing out your study goal on a piece of paper and place that paper on the wall. Whenever you feel like you're wasting time on small assignments and/or tasks, you can read over the goal and think about how completing those tasks can help you achieve that goal. This way you are less likely to waste your time questioning the value of the task and focus on what you can get from completing the task.
Another way of overcoming these weaknesses is treating your study plan and schedules as an experiment. Questioners naturally seek out information to improve their decisions/plans. So, by treating your schedule as an experiment, you can find a method that works the best for you. You can add to this by using different types of study materials which are available on Course Hero. Since Course Hero collects study documents from other students, you might find a study method that you haven't thought of before. I am a Questioner myself and looking at my schedule as an experiment really worked for me and has helped me be more adaptable to different situations.
Obliger
responds well to outer expectations but not inner expectations
Obligers usually have no issue meeting the deadline and are often considered reliable. But they may fail to meet their personal goals that could benefit them like studying more often. Obligers are also likely to burn themselves out trying to meet their outer expectations.
To overcome this weakness, one thing you can do is forming a study group. An effective way to manage a study group is to spread out the work between people in the group. For example, if there are 3 modules and there are 6 of you, each person can study half of the module, then pick a time to meet up and teach each other the part of the module you studied. This way your personal study time can be associated more with outer expectations and cover more of the course content in a shorter amount of time.
You can also look at the assignment examples on Course Hero. By seeing what other students have done for a similar assignment, you can get an idea of where you can improve and where you might be putting in an excessive effort into. Managing the amount of effort you put into each section of the assignment can help prevent burnout but don't forget to set aside some time to rewind as that is the best way to prevent burn out. Pick a day or time in a day just for yourself and stick with that schedule. If you're struggling to fight back the urge to work on an assignment during that set time, then think of this advice as a favour from me.
Rebel
Doesn't respond well to both outer and inner expectations.
The Rebel can be open-minded, be in touch with their true desires, and are independent. However, they may decide not to work on certain tasks just to reassure themselves that they have that freedom.
If you're a rebel, it might be a good idea to spend some time thinking of a different way to approach the task. If you don't feel like reading through the course materials or going through flashcards, try thinking of your own way to learn the course content. However, this method can be challenging to work with. One post I wrote previously talked about making a to-do list and working on the tasks that you could do on the spot rather than blocking out times. If you are interested in looking through that post, it's called Keeping the Motivation.
Another method you can use is setting up notifications with a passive-aggressive comment. Comments you can include can be things like "I bet I can't finish this assignment by the end of the week" or "There's no way I'll get a good grade on the next quiz". Again, it's up to you how you manage your time.
4 Tendency Test:
Take the test to find out which one of the 4 tendencies you are
If you are interested in using any of the resources I mentioned in this blog, you can go to the Course Hero tab to find out more information.
Source:
Diagram at the top of the page <https://yogahealthcoaching.com/boost-self-care-habits-applying-four-tendencies/>
Rubin, R (2017) The Four Tendencies: The Indispensable Personality Profiles That Reveal How to Make Your Life Better (and Other People's Lives Better, Too). Harmony Books. New York. Available at: <https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=H4K-DQAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=%22four+tendencies%22+AND+%22personality%22&ots=jLiiu5eKPX&sig=RE-H5boVR5oEPake21nWfbLZYW0#v=onepage&q=%22four%20tendencies%22%20AND%20%22personality%22&f=false>
Med School Insider (2018) PERSONALITY-based Study Tips | Tools for Better Grades. 6 May. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4rhSvqPM3s>
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