Very often students ask the question to their parents / teachers / seniors , etc - how can I study say for 6 hours, 8 hours or 10 hours? Studying for such a long period of time and that too on regular basis is really difficult, without taking a break. So,the next genuine question comes, when to take a break and how long it should be and what to do in those breaks?
There is no direct answer for all the queries....it depends upon person's aptitude, dedication and brute discipline which s/he can enforce on her...having said that despite of various shortcomings , we can improve our study hours' efficiency...which I'm going to explain in the current post.
Now, lets say you have 3 hours and you decided to study for 3 hours and further you made your mind that I wont be taking any break! ( This happens with many students, ask yourself!) ...so after the start, 1st hour will be very effective...but after say 1.5 hours, the absorption capacity of brain goes down and its kind of pulling it further, struggling , without any tangible outcome. It won't be fun!
This is not the correct approach.
The better and recommended technique of studying anything with utmost focus is to study in short bursts (which I too prefer to do). Think of in this way, lets say you have to run 5 kms ...one approach is to run at a constant speed for entire stretch of 5 kms and the other is to run for 400m really fast and then walk for say 100 m and then further repeat the same cycle. In my opinion, when it comes to a brain intensive activity eg studies, later one ( equivalent of that) is more fruitful.
Infact there is a name for this technique and is called Pomodoro Technique. There is no hard and fast rule for the duration of burst and break, but the ideal duration is around 25-30 min session followed by 5 min break...one can stretch it to 40-45 min with a 10 min break....but dont make it 2 hour long in one go, because cognitive science has already proven the fact that normal human beings dont have a mental capacity to concentrate at the same level for a long duration of say 2 hours.
Nowadays, there are many apps and add ons available for crome browser for setting the time duration, especially for those , who prefer to study with the laptop and other devices. ..for offline folks, you can set the alarm in initial phase and very soon you would discover that your biological clock has been synchronized with the pomodoro and you can practice it , even without any alarm clock!
For those 25-30 mins, you are not allowed to do anything else....no multitasking, no distraction (believe me both are killers)...say you are studying subject A and suddenly you realized that you have to finish some assignment of subject B or you have to write an email to your friend...then kill/ halt these thoughts for those 30 min and if its very necessary then jot down on a piece of paper as a "do to list" and do them later.
Now, the last thing in this sequence is....how to utilize the break of 5-10 min...some of you must be tempted to play some mobile game or other such activities...but thats not the great idea...because switching human mind between two different tasks with equal efficiency is difficult...once you start playing a video game, there could be an obsession to halt the studies for some time and focus on the game and believe me on this, its very likely that you end up in playing the game for that entire evening....so what we should ideally do is to take up something which doesn't require similar mental intensiveness...say...sitting quietly, taking deep breaths , talking to friends / family / go to person, short walk or just lying down...after the break again resume the next pomodoro cycle...thus the study duration of say 3 hours , can be fragmented into 6 cycles, where you would be studying for 2.5 hours with 30 min net break.
Trust me on this, once you do it for 3-4 times, you yourself gonna see the change ....in terms of increase in your effectiveness and decrease in fatigue and stress levels.
I got to know about this technique at a very late stage of my "student life" and I still regret!
To sum up - its like a "sprint" and a "walk"....followed by another sprint and walk cycle!
I hope this helps.
There is no direct answer for all the queries....it depends upon person's aptitude, dedication and brute discipline which s/he can enforce on her...having said that despite of various shortcomings , we can improve our study hours' efficiency...which I'm going to explain in the current post.
Now, lets say you have 3 hours and you decided to study for 3 hours and further you made your mind that I wont be taking any break! ( This happens with many students, ask yourself!) ...so after the start, 1st hour will be very effective...but after say 1.5 hours, the absorption capacity of brain goes down and its kind of pulling it further, struggling , without any tangible outcome. It won't be fun!
This is not the correct approach.
The better and recommended technique of studying anything with utmost focus is to study in short bursts (which I too prefer to do). Think of in this way, lets say you have to run 5 kms ...one approach is to run at a constant speed for entire stretch of 5 kms and the other is to run for 400m really fast and then walk for say 100 m and then further repeat the same cycle. In my opinion, when it comes to a brain intensive activity eg studies, later one ( equivalent of that) is more fruitful.
Infact there is a name for this technique and is called Pomodoro Technique. There is no hard and fast rule for the duration of burst and break, but the ideal duration is around 25-30 min session followed by 5 min break...one can stretch it to 40-45 min with a 10 min break....but dont make it 2 hour long in one go, because cognitive science has already proven the fact that normal human beings dont have a mental capacity to concentrate at the same level for a long duration of say 2 hours.
Nowadays, there are many apps and add ons available for crome browser for setting the time duration, especially for those , who prefer to study with the laptop and other devices. ..for offline folks, you can set the alarm in initial phase and very soon you would discover that your biological clock has been synchronized with the pomodoro and you can practice it , even without any alarm clock!
For those 25-30 mins, you are not allowed to do anything else....no multitasking, no distraction (believe me both are killers)...say you are studying subject A and suddenly you realized that you have to finish some assignment of subject B or you have to write an email to your friend...then kill/ halt these thoughts for those 30 min and if its very necessary then jot down on a piece of paper as a "do to list" and do them later.
Now, the last thing in this sequence is....how to utilize the break of 5-10 min...some of you must be tempted to play some mobile game or other such activities...but thats not the great idea...because switching human mind between two different tasks with equal efficiency is difficult...once you start playing a video game, there could be an obsession to halt the studies for some time and focus on the game and believe me on this, its very likely that you end up in playing the game for that entire evening....so what we should ideally do is to take up something which doesn't require similar mental intensiveness...say...sitting quietly, taking deep breaths , talking to friends / family / go to person, short walk or just lying down...after the break again resume the next pomodoro cycle...thus the study duration of say 3 hours , can be fragmented into 6 cycles, where you would be studying for 2.5 hours with 30 min net break.
Trust me on this, once you do it for 3-4 times, you yourself gonna see the change ....in terms of increase in your effectiveness and decrease in fatigue and stress levels.
I got to know about this technique at a very late stage of my "student life" and I still regret!
To sum up - its like a "sprint" and a "walk"....followed by another sprint and walk cycle!
I hope this helps.
Very true
ReplyDelete