Anonymous: Hi! I read your studying post and I love it! But I was wondering if you have anything targeted to enfp studying tips? As you know, it's very hard for us to study and revise :)

I understand your pain. I’ve encountered many extraverts who have trouble dealing with traditional learning conditions. I will direct this answer to both ENFPs and ESFPs because both types tend to have similar problems with attention, focus, and self-control. This is not an easy problem to solve, so… long post ahead!

I’m not sure how much you know about cognitive functions. In case you don’t know, I will go into detail below. I want to draw attention to your functions because understanding them in depth will help you understand why you have problems and why only YOU hold the solution to those problems.

Dominant/Auxiliary Functions (ENFP = Ne+Fi / ESFP = Se+Fi)



You probably grew up feeling as though it was hard to always sit still and focus on one person talking for an hour. That is the traditional classroom setting and it is geared towards people who have good focus and long attention spans.



As a youngster, you only develop use of the dominant (Ne/Se) and auxiliary (Fi) functions. Ne/Se means that you are focused on what is happening in the present moment. Se is focused on physical changes in the environment whereas Ne is focused on interesting possibilities/ideas that each moment produces. This means that your attention is easily distracted by whatever happens, be it a noise, a change in your visual field, or a sudden random idea. Once something captures your attention, you will feel the urge to follow it, usually abandoning what you were just doing/thinking previously. Unfortunately, using only the Ne/Se function means that you are drowning in a sea of stimulation and have trouble prioritizing what to focus on. So you may appear a bit scatter-brained to other people because you have so many things to pay attention to (and then chase after).

Your auxiliary Fi function is supposed to turn away from all that outside stimuli and shift your focus to your internal state or your personal needs and priorities. If you do not develop Fi well, you will find that your inner self feels more and more conflicted. For example, it is not uncommon for ENFPs, who are usually very bright and sunny on the outside, to suffer depressive feelings on the inside. This inner/outer conflict should be resolved by balancing Ne and Fi and using them well together, that is, you should become good at judging when to extravert (be active in the world) and when to introvert (give yourself time for much needed rest and reflection).



Tertiary Function (Te)



When you hit your late teens or early twenties, your tertiary Te function should start to pull at you like a puppet string. Te is the motivation to control and organize your actions according to the demands of the environment, that is, being goal-oriented. At this point, if you’ve developed in a healthy manner, you will realize that always chasing after immediate/fun stimuli has a downside, which is that you cannot stick with tasks or follow through with plans. Once this weakness becomes apparent, Te will come knocking as a sign that your personality is imbalanced (i.e. you are too dependent on Ne/Se).

You will find yourself subconsciously drawn to tasks that require organizing, such as rearranging/redecorating your work space or sorting through your belongings. You might wake up and think “this is what I should do today”. Unfortunately, many ENFP/ESFPs will reject or ignore this pull to organize because they feel it boring or too restrictive of their natural spontaneity, i.e., it feels “out of character”. They might even hate it because it reminds them of how parents/teachers used to scold them to focus when they were younger. This can produce a lot of inner struggle.



However, it is important that, at this point, you listen to the “Te voice” because it is telling you the way out of your problem. It is trying to balance out your personality by making you more focused and controlled. You probably cannot listen to that voice 100% of the time but even listening to it 30% of the time will give you much better self-control. Many ENFP/ESFPs find that if they ignore the Te voice too much, they will frequently suffer feelings of guilt or failure, because they know what they should do but they refuse to do it. The only way to resolve these negative feelings is to follow the Te voice whenever possible.



Using Te to Organize



This brings me to the solution to your problem. Look around your life and observe how disorderly it is. REALLY OBSERVE. For instance, do you have a system for organizing your bedroom? Is the data on your phone/computer properly labeled and organized? Do your school notes have any sort of order to them (do you even make notes)? Do you have reliable learning/study methods or procedures? On your free days, do you follow any sort of schedule? Do you keep failing at something repeatedly? The more you train your attention on how disorganized you are and how you are not making progress or reaching goals, the stronger your urge to organize things will become. This is the reason why naturally organized people organize things… because they hate seeing and feeling a mess!



Once you get to the point where being extremely disorganized makes you feel uneasy, you will naturally start organizing. Usually this happens through experimentation. ENFP/ESFPs are generally creative people. They can come up with interesting solutions to problems. If you use this creativity to experiment with different systems of organization, you can eventually find the system that works best for you.

Example: My ESFP friend had problems with her clothes being strewn all over her room. Try as she might, she could never keep her clothes in order. One day, she got fed up with the mess and put all her effort into working out a system. She put a hamper next to the area where she usually disrobed so that she could throw her clothes in immediately. She developed a simple rotating hanger system for clothing items that could be worn more than once. She found a well-designed jewelry box to fit all her accessories. It was a system she developed ON HER OWN AND CUSTOMIZED TO HER OWN NEEDS, therefore she was able to follow it quite easily from then on. It took her a few tries to perfect it but, after that, her room was always clear of clothing. Success! And, more importantly, growing confidence for handling future problems! (She kept extolling the virtues of her system to me for awhile in true ESFP fashion. I was very proud of her, of course.)

Many ENFP/ESFPs will ignore their messes because they think “that’s just how I am, oh well”. But that is just your inner Ne+Fi voice trying to defend your bad behavior, pushing you to be spontaneous and live in the moment. Remember: The Te voice is the one you need to listen to more.



Finding Your Own System



The main point here is that ENFP/ESFPs do not respond well to advice from others when it comes to being focused and organized - they must work out the system for themselves, otherwise they cannot follow the system properly or they will easily lose the motivation to follow the system. ENFP/ESFPs are resistant to advice in general because they don’t like too much structure or rules (defensive Te). I used to know some good ENFP/ESFP teachers who were very effective because they already put in the sweat and tears of finding the logical order to the information for themselves, so when they explained it, other people were able to grasp the idea/concept immediately.



Although you need to come up with your own system of organization, you can inspire yourself by being around someone who is very organized. You can learn some tips just by observing them. For instance, my ENFP friend often used my computer for work and happened upon my music collection which was sorted into several folders by date of release. All the files were perfectly and consistently labeled. She was amazed by my system and this inspired her to organize her own computer data in a way that worked for her. Before that, her desktop was often littered with miscellaneous files and she often had trouble locating things. She also took the time to customize things like wallpapers, menus and icons, which she enjoyed doing, even though it technically counted as organizing. So take some time to observe the people around you who are very organized. You can take some of their ideas and use them to inspire your own system.



Organized Studying



In my study methods advice, I said that each student must find a way to organize their own notes, so you need to experiment and find a way that works for you. When you personalize the system, it helps you remember better. ENFP/ESFPs often have trouble following a lecture in class because the instructor skips around and messes up the logical order of the information. This is why it’s important for you to take time to prepare well before class and reorganize your notes after class. Follow closely with the syllabus/textbook so that the outline of information is always in your mind.



Your notetaking system should: 1) include all the key information that you need to know, 2) match the order in the lessons or textbook, 3) be systematized well enough to use for review/revision when preparing for exams. Everybody has a slightly different system. Use more visual cues to remember little details. Use a binder and color coded dividers/tabs to your advantage.



Focused Studying



You must schedule regular study time and stick to the schedule. You must remove ALL distractions from your study space, including phones and computers! (unless you need it for research) Move around while you read/review. You can walk around the room or change positions often. This helps you release some energy and staves off boredom. Begin your reading by reading out loud (use dramatic voices to make it fun). This helps you focus attention and remember better.

Study in bursts and then take a break. E.g. Study 30 mins then rest 10 mins. Really rest. Breathe or do some stretching to give your mind a proper break so that you can replenish your focus and energy.

When you feel your attention lagging or you start to feel bored, switch to another subject to keep your motivation up. Study with another person and take turns quizzing each other. Or even pretend to study with another person and talk to yourself. It might seem weird to other people but if it works then do it. Try to teach/explain the information to someone else. That will force you into organizing it first in order to make it clear for the other person.

If applicable, find a video or demonstration to watch or listen to, if it keeps your attention better than reading.

Train Your Body



ENFPs in particular tend to neglect their physical health until they get sick. It is important to train and program your body to behave regularly. That means, try to wake up and go to sleep around the same time every day. Eat at regular times. This stabilizes your bodily rhythms and helps you to stick to schedules better. The times when you are hungry, alert, or tired will become predictable and then you can function better day to day. Listening to your body more will help you know the best times for doing things such as studying or resting. Bodily awareness is important for maintaining better balance in your activities, then you won’t tire yourself out because of not allocating energy appropriately.



In conclusion, focus on how disorganized your life is until it starts to bother you, then experiment with different ways to organize different facets of your life until you discover the best system that fits your needs. It takes some time to do this but you will not regret it once you learn how to be more efficient. Once you’re able to get part of your life organized, you’ll feel a deep sense of accomplishment but you need to work up your motivation by realizing just how messy your life really is.