Studying for 15 to 17 hours sounds like a big deal. In the beginning, when my class teacher said that the former students worked at least 15 hours per day for their exams, I was shocked and thought, how am I going to study for such a period? Just looking at that seems crazy, but you must get in the zone to see how it will work. So here I came with this article for you to encourage working for long hours with the way I developed myself for best performance.
You won't be able to study for 15 or 17 hours just after you start, but you can start with your current level and gradually increase your working time by turning you into a hard-working person with the help of my secret study hacks. For efficient working and time management, these study tips will be essential for you too. The most important thing is not the time you work but the productivity you have while studying. So I guide here to work effectively with the focus of mind for long hours.
Let's dive in and find out what will help you to study effectively with full concentration for a long time.
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Prepare well before studying
1. Make a timetable
Working without a timetable is the biggest mistake students make in learning. Even I played the same role at the beginning without having a proper plan for my studies, and I wasted half of my working hours thinking about what I should do. When you don't have a schedule, you waste your time(without even knowing) thinking about what you are up to do in the next hour, and you won't know until you're distracted from your studies. Or, if you didn't get actual work to engage in, you'll tend to focus on something else but not the studies.
Just think if you have a schedule with fixed blocks of time for each and every task. Really you don't need to worry about what you should do, because you've already decided what to do in this period. I also made a night study routine; if you look at that article, you'll get a clearer idea about what I'm asking.
2. Be motivated
When this happens, you need someone to cheer you up to get in the zone setting your mood to study. But if you don't have anyone to cheer you up, you can search the internet for motivational videos, quotes, or stories. From YouTube, you'll find so many inspiring videos from many YouTubers around the world.
Looking at a motivational video and going to sleep after watching is not the way to success. First, Think about your dream. Ask questions yourself about why you are learning. How does this all-stuff help you to succeed in your process?
The most important thing we need is a passion for our studies. You have to love your studies. When we love what we're doing, we never get tired. If I give you my life as an example, IT is my favorite subject in school. When I start to code or study new facts through computer science, I can work the whole day as I never feel the time is passing, and my mother always reminds me to take my meals; otherwise, I'll miss them too. The reason is I love computer science that much.
3. Make a target
This is the key, and it is also similar to having a timetable. At the beginning of the day, think about an aim to achieve and organize yourself to reach that target. For example, every night, just before I go to bed, I write down the tasks I need to complete on my whiteboard by the end of tomorrow. So when I come in the morning for studies have a target to achieve, and I only think of it. Having daily targets is the other trick you need to use.
Having an extensive schedule is needed, but other than that, you need to have tasks organized every single day forever to complete that big plan. Also, You should be confident to complete it by the end of the day. For that, you can reward yourself like to watch an episode of your favorite movie. As mentioned before, if you make a motivation for yourself to work continuously, it's no more a big job to reach higher levels of your targets.
Tryout writing down your study goals in a better visible place for you. Try telling your friends or family members about what's your target today, so it will lead you to do it, making responsibility in your mind. Just think of the happiness you feel when showing someone that you've done all of it, and that's the true pleasure of achieving goals.
4. Eliminate distractions
Try the best study methods
5. Reward yourself
We like to have rewards in our life. The release date of our exam results is the moment we receive the best outcome for our student life. But if we don't work hard for our aims, we won't be able to reward ourselves. So to receive that ultimate reward, we must study well for our exams. Basically, working for long hours can be tedious. It's worse when we feel like we're not getting anything end of that task.
That's why you have to reward yourself. It motivates you to work harder because you know you're going to acquire an award for finishing your task, which can be anything. For example, when I completed the daily targets, I used to reward myself by playing my favorite video game for 2 hours. Sometimes I watch an episode from my favorite tv series like Friends. Or else you can ask someone like your mother to treat you to your most desired meal if you accomplish your studies that day. I recommend you read my article on how to reward yourself during study sessions.
Honestly, this is the best way to motivate yourself for studies or work harder. So what can be your reward if you finish a task? Let me know in the comment section. And share this article with your friends and ask how they use it to reward themselves.
6. Take short breaks (Pomodoro technique)
Studying continuously for a long time can make you dizzy. If we try to overdo it, we'll also lose concentration and get distracted from our studies. Therefore you should have study breaks in your timetable for an effective learning experience. But these study breaks can't be long, and that's why we call them short breaks, which can be for 10 or 15 minutes. But don't try to engage in works like scrolling through Instagram or Facebook or watching a joke video on YouTube because that can ruin your whole schedule, and you'll end up watching a TikTok video instead of studying.
So my advice is to use this break to go for a walk around your house, and it's better if you have a greenish garden or find your little puppy or cat to have some fun. Also, don't forget to read the article Benefits of studying with your pet, which is specially made for animal lovers and explains how spending time with your pet during breaks can help your mental health.
7. Use hard copies
8. Try to write always
Writing is better than reading while memorizing
Just trying to read a textbook or memorize doesn't make our body active, and it can make us dull, leading us to lose our focus on learning. But if we engage in writing, it can help us stay active through studying. Because it can not only make energetic the muscles of your hand but also the neurons related to writing, our fingers, our eyes, and many more. It can help us and our minds by leading us to be more focused on our studies and defeating drowsiness.
But hey, don't mistake me, I'm not saying to write something without any idea. You can make short notes or Mindmaps, or else you can try doing test papers. Likewise, you can engage in any writing skill that can make you more active and energetic throughout your time. On the other hand, experts say that writing improves long-term memory retention.
9. Don't study in a group
10. Study in different ways
Learning is a process of understanding a new thing. And there are many different ways of getting that understanding. We can engage in group activities, projects, practical activities, or anything for better performance and learn for an extended period without getting bored. We all know repeatedly doing the same thing is boring, so we must plan our study routine with exciting and more active learning segments.
Whenever I have theories and concepts to memorize, I tend to go a unique way, such as making a fun story or a song of that theory with my own words. So I can quickly memorize and recall it later. Likewise, by engaging in such activities in our learning process, our mind always retains in the learning zone. In addition, we gain fun with it. Just think, you may remember the complete lyrics of a song, but how does it feel to have a complex theory as a song in your head? And you can always sing the concept as the lyrics. Believe me, it's pretty interesting.
11. Do fun activities
We have many fun activities to link in our learning process and can turn any boring subject into our favorite one by making it fun. Let me tell you a secret. When I was in grade 9, history was my dull subject, and I didn't want to stay in the class during the History period. Even the word history made me sleepy. But it changed when Mr. Dasun Gamage came to my class to teach history. He used to teach us history differently by making fun of it. He taught us how to learn a subject in the best way, and since that day, I have started learning through different activities.
When it comes to complex subjects and theories, I enjoyed learning through fun ways like watching videos, doing practical activities, making jokes, doing quizzes with friends, etc. With all of this, I managed to divert any boring topics into my favorite ones. If you want to be the happiest learner in your school, follow my guide on how to make boring subjects interesting to get more ideas about loving to learn.
12. Change the position
Staying in a fixed position for long hours can be mentally and physically problematic. As sitting in the same position occurs, you have many pains in your body. Furthermore, it can make you boring whatever you're learning, and you won't attempt to work effectively, losing your concentration.
As I'm always saying, you can try learning in different positions like reading while walking inside your room or garden, teaching an imaginary person by acting like a tutor, or listening to a recorded lesson or a podcast while riding a bicycle. Additionally, riding a bicycle or running also gives you extra exercise.
Also, try out studying in your garden with white noises of the environment, which makes your learning so enjoyable. The other thing is separate a time to exercise at least for 10 to 20 minutes because this helps to stimulate your muscles and brain cells to be more active and helps to increase your focus during the study sessions.
13. Listen to music
Listening to music is also an important thing you should consider when focusing for a long time. Especially when you're stuck with your learning schedule, you need to have some kind of rest for your brain even though you don't want. There were also myths in the past that listening to music can make you more intelligent, but later research has shown that it's not true. It depends on your personality and lifestyle whether or not music can help you learn more effectively. I talked more about this topic in an article on studies and music; if you want to know more about this, you can check it out.
14. Don't overwork
We're human beings, not some kind of AI robot. So like our body, our mind does have a limit for everything. Even a computer gets overheated if it was turn on for long hours under numerous processes. Similarly, our mind gets tired when we try to overdo it, and that's why we need to have a rest. What I'm suggesting here is to take a power nap. It's a short sleep of 20to 30 minutes which gives you to rest for a while, recharging your brain. Through this period, your brain relaxes, and you feel energetic to work again after your nap.
15. Challenge with friends
This is one of my favorite things I do with my friends than collaborative learning. When I used to study with my friend, we challenged each other like:
"we'll see who will study for a longer time or solves the highest number of math problems or modal paper questions by the end of today."
Believe me, it's pretty interesting and practical. Somehow at the end of our game, we also had punishments like the person who lost the challenge had to buy lunch for the rest of us the next day.
This increased our competition, and we started to work more time. As a result, we scored the highest marks in the classes. Truly we loved learning that way and gained happiness. Furthermore, we practiced working more time of the day efficiently. Share this article with your friends and ask them to try this way to study.
In addition, we also had a Telegram group to discuss lessons and share notes and papers. Not only that, but also we taught each other when we had complex questions and shared the essential facts we found through studying. We continued this daily, and in the end, we found nothing else but progress in every subject.
Make studying a daily routine
16. Eat well before studying.
Feeling hungry during our studies can be a pretty distraction for our concentration. When we start to continue our work, some may not feel to stop that for a little bit, like when I am programming. But most of the time, our brain seeks a reason to stop studying. To stop feeling hungry, you can eat well before studying or have a snack near you. Think if you left all the work and went to eat and you almost don't remember where you left after returning. So it's undoubtedly annoying that type of interrupts while studying.
Eating well can lead you to work continuously for a long time with full concentration. In addition, you can have a little healthy snack while going through the pages of the books. It can give you the energy you need to stay focused. We also have a video specially made about brain foods. You can check it out on our YouTube channel and choose what's good for you. For me, nuts almost come as my favorite to have while I'm at work.
I'm writing this article with a hand of nuts near me. So what's your favorite to have? Let me know in the comment section.
17. Sleep well before studying
Thinking of returning to work again this morning can be tricky if you're tired of studying all night yesterday. Even though you think I have the spirit to continue my studies, it's not good for your health. Sleep is essential to balance our lifestyle because it directly affects our mental and physical health. For a student, at least a sleep of 7 hours is necessary to stay healthy. Also, while you're studying and the drowsiness is bothering you, staying awake can be a big challenge other than studying with concentration. So, when you're about to learn, give the hours of sleep that your body wants, which will help you retain your studies and keep your mind alert.
18. Meditate
That's why you need to meditate. Like how you prepare your body for a particular work, your brain should also prepare for it by relaxing and trashing all unwanted thoughts to focus on your task. When it comes to long hours of studying, we need to stay focused for a long time to continue whatever we're learning, and it's very beneficial if you can meditate during your studies.
You can choose any time to meditate way for more comfortable for you. But I'd like to recommend 15 minutes of meditation before starting studying and just before bed. This can help your mind stay focused on anything, calm you, and relax you with a clear mind.
What's the most important thing about practicing mediation? Honestly, meditation helps your brain retain your concentration on your studies without thinking about anything else. No matter how many distractions come for you, when you have a clear mind trained with meditation, you will effortlessly focus on your studies in a few seconds. So when you solve a math problem, you won't remember what you've discussed with your loving girlfriend.
19. Choose the best time.
Finding the best time for your studies is an essential fact to think of. Though there 24 hours a day, we're not very comfortable with every period of the day, depending on several factors. For example, if you're going to study a subject that needs more concentration, like math, you need to have a peaceful environment. Otherwise, you'll get distracted from your work. Choosing the best time for your studies truly depends on you. No one can tell this is the best time to study. Some of you may be interested in learning early in the morning, while others prefer the nighttime for their studies. So it could be any time of the day.
If you find out a certain period of the day for learning and undoubtedly, it's the best time to study productively, then go on and see how it's working for you. If you're passionate about your work, that is the best time to engage in your studies as when you're so energetic, you don't need anyone to cheer you up or motivate and that's the benefit of choosing the best time. If you want to learn more about this chapter, you can read my article best time to study and memorize.
20. Choose the best place.
We tend to study in different places, and it's different from person to person. Students prefer the library as their learning place, while many try to learn in a study room of their home. So it can be any place; it may be your bedroom, a bench in a park, a spot under a tree, or any space. You have to consider whether it's comfortable for your studies. If you want to create a productive study space at home, you can read my article about it.
However, whatever place you choose for your studies should be free of distractions because we can't keep our mind on one thing in a location with lots of noise. If this place is your own studying room, you don't need to adapt to the environment as you're familiar with that background, and you just have to sit down on your chair to start your learning process. In addition, learning in your own room can be more beneficial. The reason is you can hang cheat sheets and critical points of theories on the room's walls.
21. Organize your workplace
Plus, it's a big waste of time, and you'll also get distracted from your studies. When my workplace looks like a mess, I have this idea of how I will work here, and I spend many hours cleaning, making my study space neat and comfortable. It turned out for me to stay all day working there. So you must keep it as a habit to keep your working place convenient and clean. I also mentioned that before in the how to focus on online classes post.
conclusion
So this is how I managed to work for long hours effectively with full concentration by defeating my laziness. Now I'd like to hear from you. Out of all these tips and tricks, which method from today's post will you try first? Let me know in the comment section.
There's nothing we can't do if we think of it, so have a determination to study with full focus. Like I'm always saying, we just want to make passionate about whatever we engage in, So go on and try these tips starting from now to see your progress on becoming a hard worker.
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