You have got to study your butt off. There is no doubt about that, probably since before even starting school. In fact, you’re going to study so hard and so often that people are probably not going to understand it. (“Sure, I can go to that family function. I’ll have to study extra leading up to it and make up for it afterwards. If I do that, then I can clear about 15 minutes during a study break for it.”) The flip side, though, is that you can only study so much before it is no longer effective. Jen describes says that the brain is like a sponge. If you hold on to it too tightly and never let it relax, then it never has the chance to soak up more. This article is how you can utilize breaks to maximize the effectiveness of your studying.
Keep Your Time Separate
Study or don’t. Relax or don’t. Keep those times separate and don’t let them overlap. I often take Sundays off as my dedicated relax time during the week. It wouldn’t be uncommon for a fellow student to join us on whatever beach outing we were doing for the day. They would bring their notes and study on the beach. However, at the end of the day, they would have spent all day looking at their notes but then didn’t cover much material because they were distracted. The entire day had been wasted. No ground was made on the material and they hadn’t loosened their grip on the sponge. The reverse is also true. What quality studying happens when there is a movie on for background noise? Keep those times separate and dedicated.
Take a Break When You Are Distracted
You know that feeling when you’ve read the same paragraph 3 times and still don’t really know what its saying? You’re burnt and you need a break and you’ve already wasted time. You’ll hit a wall, don’t try to push through it. You’ll waste time doing so and have a decreased level of effectiveness for the remainder of your session.
Take a Break Before You Are Distracted
If you wait until you are distracted, you have already wasted time. Instead of letting yourself get to that point, build in scheduled breaks. Many people follow the pomodoro method (25 minutes study, 5 minutes break. Do that 4 times and then take a 15 minute break). There are plenty of apps with built in timers and trackers for this. This method was not effective for me since I have a tendency to gauge my studying not by time but by task item. It’s still the same concept, though. I’ll do 20 questions and then take a break. Or I’ll watch a lecture, write a blog post and then take 5 minutes. I am more satisfied by crossing things off a list than watching a timer. Either way, you are preventing yourself from wasting time and managing your burn out.
Stop Screen Time
The vast majority of our study time is spent on screens. If I’m not in front of a patient, you can almost guarantee I’m on a computer, a table or a phone – all studying. Nearly all of my textbooks were digital, so I barely read physical books when studying, either. When you hit a break time, get up and walk away. Your brain needs the rest, your eyes need the rest and your body needs the activity. Spending all of your break on your phone, cruising YouTube or whatever, does not make a quality break. Get up and walk away. Do some stretches, look out a window, give your kitchen the once over. This is the same concept of point 1 (keep your time separate) but on a microscale. Another solid analogy is working out. If you’re at the gym, doing some bench presses, after doing your sets, your not going to spend your break by doing pushups, right? It’s still working that same muscle set. You wouldn’t be ready to do more bench presses after your break. You will burn out faster if you don’t adequately get a good reboot during those short breaks.
It is easy to think about your break down as down time spent not focusing on school. There is even a bit of guilt that we feel when we are relaxing and not studying. Reframe this as healthy, effective breaks lead to more productive studying. Allow yourself the ability to refresh your mind and you’ll find you’re covering more material, retaining more information and feeling more energetic all around!