First, let’s talk about the things that constraint us to study for long hours-
1.Unwanted Thoughts
2.Technology (Social media, games, etc)
3.Family Issues
4.Noise
5.Saturation Point
Here are the strategies by which we can study for long hours, we just need to show the intent instead of thinking about the difficulty of these techniques. We have to achieve something big, for that, we have to follow the following strategies.
1.Prepare to study
For good quality of the study, we need to prepare for it prior.
- Fix a place where you can study daily, research proved that we make emotions for a particular place. For example, we can’t sleep on a study table or we can’t eat food in a toilet because we made emotions for every place.
- Keep all the necessary things with you like a water bottle, pencil, pen, scale, and whatever you feel is necessary.
- Do exercise just before studying, it keeps our body warm. A warm body is considered as the best state to start any activity because a warm body keeps us active. With a lethargic body, you can never focus on study for a long time. You can warm your body by doing intensive exercises like jumping jacks or pushups(just for 5 minutes)
- Meditation is also a good exercise for some people but I observed that the effect of meditation remains for a shorter period of time.
- This will save a lot of time because there is a set pattern of where to study and when to study and the things required to study.
2. Isolate yourself
When J.K. Rowling was writing the last part of Harry Potter, She isolates herself for 6 months. Her whole focus was on writing the best story.
As a student, you can choose the least disturbing time as the study period. At that time, you have to put all the thing out of that space which distracts you.
Your study space must be a quiet place without anyone’s disturbance. With the help of Isolated, you only need to control your thoughts.
3.Make it a Habit
We can motivate ourselves by watching a motivational video but that motivation will remain for a short period of time. To achieve a long-term goal, we have to make study a habit. We will be consistent if we make studies a habit and not treating it as forceful work.
A rock can’t be broken by a hammer in one day. We have to consistently hit the rock to achieve our long term goals. Most toppers give the credit for their success to their consistency.
The problem is not the distractions. People are stuck with their old habit loop. We have to change the habit loop.
4.Connect and summerize Things
When things get connected it automatically gets interesting. Things that are connected with emotions are easier to learn.
While studying, you need to learn some theory which is one of the most boring parts for some people but not for those who love reading because they can easily connect themselves with the author’s emotions. This will develop your interest in reading more about the author.
For practical subjects, start making your notes(self-made). When we revise things again, then the concept will click in our mind if we made the notes for the same. Otherwise, revision feels like we are doing that thing for the first time. This can lead to demotivation then it may be possible that we get distracted.
It is obvious that if we start enjoying studies then we can study for long hours.
5. Do something different
There is always a saturation point when our brain stops processing new things therefore we shift ourselves to social media or online games. When we start studying again then thoughts about social media and games will hover in our brains. We keep thinking about the notifications and replies of a friend.
So, it is necessary to reduce the importance of social media and online games in our lives to reach the long-term goal.
Actually, the problem is that we are trapped in an old routine. We are using social media for years, so it becomes our habit. We automatically keep thinking about it because of the level of addiction.
So, when we reach our saturation point then we can take a walk outside or talk to our family and friend on call instead of using social media and playing online games.
We can do intensive exercises again to relax our body and make our body warm again.
6. Don’t set daily goals
Never set short terms goals like for a particular day or a particular week. This will bound you to just complete the given goal. The main intent will shift from learning to just complete the task of that particular day. It will lead to a lack of good quality study as this will hamper the in-depth study. Just focus on the long-term goal for which you are hustling for.
“Write your long-term goal(ultimate goal) on the first page of your books and notebooks.”- keep it as a motivation feel the intensity of your goal and your affection for your goal. Now work on the execution and give me feedback for these techniques.
How to study the night before exams?
It is obvious that we can’t cover the whole syllabus in just one day. It is a foolish step to learn everything a day before the exam. Studying a night before the exam is like a trend in colleges. Here are some of the tips given below to optimize the night before the exam and how to study one day before the exam to score around 80% marks. Some of these tips are not only given by me but by Cal Newport who is a well-known professor in MIT-
1. Less is more
- We spend our 80% time with 20% of our friends
- 80% of accidents happen in 20% of places
- 20% of people have 80% money in this world
- 20% of people are responsible for 80% of the results in a company
- 80% of people die because of 20% of diseases
2. Don’t study out of the box things
It is a very good habit to gain knowledge, study out the syllabus, and out of the box knowledge. But it is not a good strategy to follow a night before exams. You can study the topic in-depth after the exam which I guess no one can do.
We can not give so much time to any topic. We just have to understand the concept well and its components. If it is a numerical then we have to do at max 3 numericals of different difficulty levels (preferably from previous year papers).
Be precise with your hard work and focus more on what you are doing. If you are confident in what you are doing then it will definitely boost your confidence in exams as well.
3. Mentally believe in yourself
4.Take a good sleep
Taking a good sleep is equally important as giving an exam. A restless mind can’t do things. Some people consider sleep as a wasteful activity but it is the state of rest where our brain is regaining its energy. This is a very foolish thing to say that sleep is a wasteful thing.
Elon Musk admits in his interview that he needs a good sleep before doing any task. It is a myth that all successful people sleep very less. Instead of that, it is proven in a study that the ability of the brain contract for people sleepless.
A restless mind always attracts attention towards itself that it needs sleep. Lack of sleep diminishes our creativity and analytical skill. So, it is better to conclude that sleep is not a wasteful activity. A good sleep always helps us in doing correct things.