7 Tips to Effectively Study for Long Hours
The journey to your desired goal isn’t easy, but not impossible either. In order to achieve your dreams, you need to push yourself, stay motivated, be positive and maximize your efforts. When you push yourself to put in extra effort, no matter what may come your way, that’s when you are actually entitled to achieve your goals.
When it comes to cracking exams, in order to get a shot at accessing your dream career, you need to ask yourself two questions: are you willing to put in the maximum you can?, and are you ready to sacrifice your sleep?
These two queries are important, as you need to spend hours upon hours of studying to ace examinations. Knowing this, we bring you 7 tips to multiply your study hours and enhance your productivity with ease.
1. Work on Your Diet
When it comes to training your mind to sit for 10 hours-straight of studies, it is important to feed your body, first and foremost. The human body is the most complex machine ever known to mankind, however without getting into biology, the point is due to continuous digestion and involuntary activities, food in our body is constantly being broken down to release energy.
You need to munch upon a lot of carbohydrates & protein, as well as drink a lot of water to keep yourself full and hydrated at all times, allowing you to source into your personal power bank. Also, refrain from cola, sugar and dried fruits. While they may be sweet, they lack the necessary elements that give you energy.
Among our suggested food items are sprouts, whole grains, berries, nuts and caffeine, in a calculated, healthy amount. When it comes to caffeine, it is especially important not to go overboard, as it can lead to potentially damaging effects on both your body, as well as brain activity.
2. Reinvent Your Room
The world is full of colors, so why not paint your room? Colors break down monotony and play a crucial role in giving you a feeling of joy. When you plan to sit for 10 hours in a single room, engrossed in your books, you definitely need colors and creativity around you to keep yourself motivated.
Another thing you can do, if you are lacking creativity, is to simply switch rooms in your house every day, to study. Sometimes we don’t see the need for change, but that doesn’t mean it is not there subconsciously.
As you become more accustomed to a room, your eyes dart to the same things over and over, which creates a slight sensation of boredom that can get exacerbated over time, based on your patience. While going into another room may offer new distractions, it might also give you that much-needed feeling of change so that you do not fall into a boredom trap.
3. Keep Yourself Motivated
So far we’ve spoken about external aid when it comes to studying, changing diets and reinventing your environments. What about internal aid? What happens when all the external help isn’t enough? How do we keep going forward in our endeavours?
One well-known method is to appeal to whatever brings us motivation. Reading short stories, watching movies, surfing motivational videos or simply engaging in meditation/introspection might be the thing you need to re-balance yourself. Whatever your preferred method of briefly winding down may be, it is important you do it as soon as you start feeling burnt out.
Studying for 10 long hours in one day isn’t easy. Studying for 10 long hours, while doing daily chores, requires a lot of focus to stay positive and keep yourself motivated, in order to maximize that day’s achievements.
4. Choose Your Ideal Time
What are your ideal study hours? Are you an early bird or a night owl? All of us have an ideal time when we get creative, effective and productive. While some people find it easy to pull off studies the whole night, when the world is calm and fast asleep, others may prefer studying in the morning with their minds as fresh as dew.
If you are someone dedicated to studying 10 hours a day, you need to find your ideal time frame and extract maximum productivity in those chosen hours.
5. Plan Your Breaks (take ample break)
Rome was not built in a day, so how do you expect yourself to excel in 10 hours? Our brain is designed to support us in our deeds only if you provide it with ample rest and proper breaks. For a focused and guided study experience, you need to plan out your breaks based on your studies’ schedule.
We suggest you set targets. For example, you can take a break after successfully completing a chapter or after 1-2 hours of studies. In doing this, you will rejuvenate your mind and start afresh, which is key to absorbing maximum knowledge.
6. Study the Way You Want To!
What study technique best works for you? Are you more of a writer? Do you like watching videos to acquire knowledge, or you are more of a library reader? Everybody is different and so are our minds, there is no one-size-fits-all style.
However, there are some general criteria which seem to work for a large part of the global population.
a) Are you more of a visual learner, someone who is at their best when they can see what they’re learning? Then try taking online classes or invest time into online lectures.
b) Are you more of a slow learner, who tries to obtain a comprehensive recollection of everything they’re studying? In that case, we recommend jotting down points of interest instead of just reading through your entire material at once, quickly scribbling every detail you find. Remember, you have to be effective and efficient with your learning process.
c) Are you more of a creative person, who seeks novelty in everything? Well, then you can simply invent your ideal approach to studying – write your own quizzes, create little cards with hints on them or even go for the “Who wants to be a billionaire?” approach.
This latter method simply requires you to write down questions for each bit of information you want rechecked, accompanied by 4 different answers. You then ask a friend/family member to pose said question, alongside the answers, in any given order they choose to. They may change the answers’ & questions’ orders.
Once you identify your particular approach to studying, things become easier and your daunting 10-hour task may become a breeze. Gaining knowledge has no foundations, the more you seek, the more your deliver.
7. Keep Your Study Hours Organized
Even mere words require a certain letter structure. Being organized is important. This means we need to plan most of our life moments in advance, if we do not wish to be caught off-guard. From cleaning our rooms, to choosing our career, planning plays a crucial role in guiding us going forward.
When it comes to late night studies or significantly prolonged periods of self-education, planning brings a state of normalcy into what would be chaos.
If you’re not careful, you might end up reading the 2nd chapter after wasting 4 hours of your valuable time. Hence, budget your time accordingly! If you plan to spend 9 hours on a particular subject, segment it on an hourly basis. This will not only ensure you have a structured approach to studying, but will also boost your productivity fourfold.
Work Hard, Work Smart
Pumped up to get started with your studies? If yes, congratulations! You have been successful in motivating yourself to achieve the very best.
Dealing with competitive exams –such as minimum selection ones, is quite tough and hectic. You need strong willpower alongside as many tips as you can get, to hit the books at any hour, anywhere and everywhere.
Remember, in order to double your gain, you need to triple your efforts, because we’re talking about your dream career, at the end of it all. Hard work and dedication, those will see you through your 10 hours of study. Put in the most you can, because nothing and no one can get it done for you.
Author bio: Shreya Singh is a freelance writer since 2012. She is an alumna of the University of Delhi and has a post-graduation degree in English literature.
She has more than 5 years of experience in the publishing field, writing articles & editorials on numerous topics, spanning from education & lifestyle, to business and technology. In her free time, she loves sharing traveling experiences, trying to help others figure out their own traveling plans.
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