How To Not Tragically Die When Studying For Long Hours😪

How many of you think that the one genius kid in your classroom just studies the whole day? I'm pretty sure most of you. Nowadays, we all tend to measure our skills or capabilities by seeing how long we can do a certain job. Why is that? It's because every day, knowingly or unknowingly we make the stupid mistake of considering the quantity of what we do rather than the quality (WHAAAAT???)

In simpler terms, instead of seeing HOW, our main focus is on HOW LONG we are doing any task. The same goes for studying, I've had plenty of people asking me about how long I study daily. Now, of course, this doesn't mean that being in higher classes you'll study for only one hour each day. We need to spend some time on our studies, but how can we do it productively, or, and here comes the main problem, how can we do it without falling asleep/getting bored? Well, scroll down!

OPTIMIZE YOUR TIME + KNOW YOUR LIMITS

No one in this world is invincible, so don't sit at the study table thinking that now you're gonna finish this whole thing in the next five hours, because you're not. In the best case, you'll have the maximum focus for two hours, after which, you'll either get bored or automatically fall asleep🥱

The first step to learning something new is always breaking it into pieces, or in this case, dividing your time into different periods. Always keep the first few hours, i.e. the first 1-2 hours for the hardest topic. After that, no matter what anyone says, always take a ten-minute break (and go raid the kitchen!!) But yes, for that you must give it all in the first few hours. Shut off all distractions, close that door, and show the book that you mean business. After your ten-minute break, get going again, only this time don't study for two hours at a go; set your goal for let's say 1 hour and 45 minutes. This will, in some ways, motivate you and as it is since your attention span is shorter now, will help you too.

P.S. Just an additional tip. When you're going into your second set after the break, make sure to just flip the pages and see what you did before. This will help in recreating that flow.

DON'T DEMOTIVATE YOURSELF

On some days we are just in the perfect mood to study. We feel invincible, we're like -

"Yaaasss, let's do this thing!" But then all of a sudden, we turn the pages and start counting them to get a rough idea of how long the chapter is! After that, with the speed of an Olympic-level runner, we sprint toward our couch (O my beloved, where are thou?)

In higher grades, most of the time the chapter will be too big. I remember once my 5th-grade brother sneaked a peek at my 12th-grade cousin's book and almost went in shock😂 When you're learning a new thing, too much information will never make sense in your brain. You need to organize the topics systematically so that you can make head and tail out of them. Always club the similar topics together, complete them at a go and then maybe take a break and move on to the rest. In this way, your flow won't be just random information going in your head, but it will actually be something understandable.

THE DIRTIER THE BOOK, THE BETTER

I know, I know...many people would disagree with me on this. While studying, there are always two kinds of kids. The first type is those in whose book you wouldn't see a single mark, I mean even new books would be dirtier than theirs! While on the other hand, the second type of kids are those in whose books you won't even be able to make out if the pages were white or not! (I'm a proud member of the second category😌)

While studying something new it's always important to note down the additional information that you think might be useful. Or maybe you can use this really amazing invention called a HIGHLIGHTER so that next time when you read it you know where to focus. Still, if you don't wanna dirty it, then write that information somewhere you know you'll read next time you open the chapter. In this way, you won't have to study the entire chapter again 'cause you'll know what all is important and what isn't.

Also on exam day when everyone is panicking and searching for the answer to that one question you can sit contentedly with an evil smile because you already know it😎

Now, of course, there are like a billion tricks on the internet like Pomodoro and all that to help you study for long hours. But I personally have never found them effective. I usually study according to my mood. Maybe I had to study biology today because I don't feel like stuffing random knowledge inside my head, so I'll just complete physics (although I'm pretty sure I'll never feel like studying physics😛) But my point is, according to your "stamina", you should know about what to study when and when to study what. I mean after a point you can't rely on your parents all the time to tell you to start studying. Now, this doesn't mean that you'll procrastinate, this just means that you need to improvise and compromise to get the best out of the day. Know yourself, cross your limits and reach for the sky. And as rightly said by the author R Collier - "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated."