One of the most important things in regards to studying, whether online or on campus, is managing your time effectively for study. This is of extra special importance when you’re putting in extremely long hours to finish an assignment or revise for an exam.
Now, the general consensus on studying ‘overtime’ is drinking a hell of a lot of coffee and pushing yourself to the absolute breaking point in the hope that you’ll manage to stay up through the night…but what happens then? Our guess? You’ve either finished the assignment but weren’t able to proof-read it (at least not effectively) or you’ve burned yourself out so much that you end up blanking out during the exam; neither of these 2 scenarios are desirable.
This is where science comes in; believe it or not, it’s a fact that your brain can only focus on a limited amount of time, generally 5-15 minutes at a time. To better explain, during a lecture for example, your brain needs to ‘reboot’ every 5-15 minutes, taking up to 5 minutes to come back to 100% focus. To top it off, out of those 5 to 15 minutes you’re most receptive for the first 5; now you’re probably wondering what this means to you in terms of study? Simple.
When you study, whether it’s writing an assignment or revising for an exam, the best thing you can do is revise in short bursts with intermittent breaks; for example, 30 minutes study, 10 minutes rest. Your brain is most receptive at the start and about halfway through those 30 minutes; now this might seem like a contradiction but it is a fact that this method will maximise your study time. The short bursts mean you minimise your brain’s reboot time getting the most out of your study time.
The most famous of these productivity approaches is Pomodoro Time; used all over the world by students, office workers and huge companies alike, Pomodoro Time is the ultimate productivity boosting method. How does it work?
25 minute bursts followed by a 5 minute break. This is repeated for 3 rounds with a 15 minute break on the 4th. If you want to find out more about Pomodoro Time go to:
Not convinced? Try it out and we guarantee you won’t regret it!
