How to Study for Long Periods of Time –
One Student’s Advice!
By: Anaso Emmanuel
If you are able to study for long hours without even losing concentration, you’re going to be a genius in medical school!
What other people read in 3 days, may take you a few hours, since you are in a position to remain longer, and achieve more in a brief time.
But, It is not Easy! Here’s how I do it!
Planning study schedules may be a smooth ride in medical school. I also enjoyed doing that.
Some days, I’ll scribble about 3 courses to read on that day. Full of joy, I’ll keep making arrangements to finish everything before the day ends. But at the end? I will probably get distracted and will stop reading earlier than planned.
You may have also been like me. Since there’s a whole lot of stuff to cover in medical school, you may set lengthy schedules for your reading.
But when it comes to doing the work? Distractions set in. You can’t study for long hours without even losing attention.
There’s just too many interesting messages to reply to, or something else you may be tempted to do instead of reading.
You intended to read for six hours, but you ended up studying for less. Time passes through, and you discover you have not covered much.
All this has to stop!
In this post, You’ll be learning 8 sure strategies to study for long hours without even losing focus. Let’s go!
1. Be Intentional about Creating the Habit
Perhaps you have noticed a colleague in medical school who read for extremely long hours. You try to check on them and discover they’re still in it, grinding, performing well and reading.
Then thoughts begin to run through your mind; How do these students read for long hours?
The thing is studying for long hours without losing concentration is a habit that you can develop. You can also be like that, but to begin with, you have to decide you would like to create this particular habit.
Surely yes, it’s not likely to be a easy ride, but if you follow the right measures continuously, you will also become resilient, and able to read for lengthy periods without losing focus.
So the first strategy is a mental one which entails you accepting that this is a habit you can form.
2. Get a Suitable Reading Environment
Learning in medical school should not be a chore. Medical courses are so interesting to learn that you naturally want to invest more time.
But where you study might influence whether you will have the ability to study for long hours without losing concentration.
If you would like to make you studying enjoyable, then get a suitable reading environment that always encourage you to continue the act.
It can be a favorite spot in the library or a place in your room, or just anywhere you desire. But make sure it’s convenient for you, and stick with it!
3. Rest Well Before starting
Research has proven that pressure reduces productivity, and productivity rates increase following periods of rest, and that’s true!
Be honest, don’t you feel refreshed after you’ve taken a nap? Don’t you fell better and able to do more reading? That’s exactly the point!
While most medical students love to stress themselves, ensure that you must have taken naps prior to your long reading plans.
On the other hand, if you do not take breaks before you read, you’ll become tired, and exhausted amidst your study period.
If you want to make the most of your study hours, then you need to relax before you read.
4. Refuel Yourself
You feed, exhaust vitality, become tired, and feel famished even during the day. That is okay. But if you would like to study for extended periods, make sure that you’re not hungry.
Hunger can be a major distraction to a successful study in medical college.
In my first year of medical school, I noticed that I was very much distracted in classes when I didn’t take breakfast.
However, once I made a commitment to eat every morning before classes, my concentration levels improved!
So prior to going in that long reading plan, ensure you get a nutritious meal or snack.
Fuel yourself, and be sure you read on an empty stomach. You may also take in snacks to refuel amidst your reading session. This will be super useful in lessening the need to depart the reading table.
5. Remove Distractions Intentionally
Your Textbooks are set, study plan created, today you are ready to study as everything is now perfect. But then that notification sounds, a message from your best friend asking you a question. And as expected, if you answer, you might drop attention, then begin to get into Twitter, WhatsApp or some other intriguing thing to do.
But this has to stop. If you are want to study for extended periods without losing focus, you will need to give up social networking, switch off the internet, and concentrate.
No matter how self-disciplined you are, if you keep your phone linked to the world wide web, the odds are that you’ll get distracted.Studies have proven that 57% of Some students who are extremely effective in college, do not make use of the web or any internet resource while researching.
Not that all those things are not wrong, however they might distract you rather than helping you.
Here Are a Few Tips on that:
- Switch off all notifications.
- Put only the textbooks that you need before you.
- Use headphones to listen to music
6. Break your Study Session Into Tiny Bits
Like every goal, breaking up your study session to tiny bits is a good means to attain success in the long run.
Whether or not you would like to read for 8 hours or more, you can divide the session into brief components of 50 minutes or 2 hours.
Start the timer once you’ve begun reading and with a part, quit reading and have a break. Access what you’ve read up to now, and continue!
7. Use Quizzes to check your memory
Studying in a stretch can sometimes be boring, but with medical school quizzes, you will be up with sharp focus, and able to study for long hours without even losing concentration.
Asides that, reading with quizzes help challenge you and give you a hint in key areas to focus on while reading a passage. Additionally, it may give you an idea of the way the tests will look like.
In this guide on studying anatomy for medical school, I explained how quizzes can help students learn better. I also talked about the Protégé effect and 9 other tips for studying anatomy.
8. Reward Yourself for good work
Let’s say you want to study for 6 hours. You can achieve this goal by putting a reward at the end of your plan.
You can decide to reward yourself with a movie, dinner date with a friend, or anything you want. That way, you’ll appreciate the effort you need to put in to read for long hours!
Final words
In this post, I’ve discussed how to read for long hours without even losing concentration. We’ve looked at practical actions to take to guarantee you attain this feat. What are you going to do today to ensure you stay focused for long while reading?!
About Author
Anaso Emmanuel, is a Medical student from University of Nigeria, A freelance writer and Blogger at medicsdomain. In his free time, he enjoys sharing insightful guides about medical school and connecting with other medics.
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