How to Concentrate on Study Continuously for Long Hours

Everyone desires that little advantage that will put him or her ahead of the competition. One such area is cramming more productive hours into your study regimen.

What if you could increase the number of efficient daily study hours from eight to ten? It's difficult, to be sure, but it's doable. In this piece, I'll go over seven measures that will help you combat lethargy when studying (as well as extra actions you can take to combat sleepiness in the afternoon) and therefore enhance your daily productivity.

Prioritize Your Routine

Take on the challenging stuff in the morning when you have the most energy. (This is the time of day when most people are most productive. If you happen to be an exception, feel free to tackle the challenging content at a time that works for you.)

This kind of planning aligns your energy with the complexity of the work at hand. As a consequence, you tackle fewer difficult themes in the evening, when you've used a lot of physical and mental energy and your proclivity to slack is at its peak.

On the contrary, if you choose simple tasks early in the day to give yourself a false feeling of success – as many procrastinators do - you're more likely to succumb to procrastination and give up later in the day, when your energy and willpower would like not to be challenged.

For the same reason, plan your low-effort, non-academic activities, such as socializing, phone calls, and daily chores later in the day as much as feasible.

Exercise Is a Must

In terms of academics, physical exercise improves learning capacity and long-term memory while also reducing anxiety and sadness. However, the advantages of exercise extend beyond that: it enhances focus, alertness, and motivation.

And the benefits of exercise might be seen nearly immediately. According to this study brief from the University of Texas at Austin, based on a survey of many published scientific articles:

Physical exercise may improve academic achievement in both the short and long term. Children are better able to focus on classroom work almost immediately after participating in physical exercise, which may improve learning.

With these advantages, you may not only get more out of your studies, but also stay for a longer period of time.

However, not all exercises are created equal in terms of their efficiency in boosting focus and alertness. According to most research, 30-odd minutes of strenuous, sweat-inducing aerobic activity is the most effective.

(Please keep in mind that not all exercises are appropriate for everyone.) Before beginning a new workout, consider your flexibility, strength, and general health to assess whether or not the exercise is suited for you. In this respect, you should speak with a skilled healthcare practitioner.)

Steal a Nap

Yes, steal... if you can't acquire it legally. It is quite significant.

According to a NASA research, pilots who took a 26-minute sleep decreased their gaps in consciousness by 34% compared to those who did not nap. Furthermore, individuals who slept improved their response speeds by 16 percent. Importantly, their performance was continuous throughout the day and did not deteriorate at the conclusion of a trip or at night.

The most essential part of napping, as discovered by NASA pilots, is that performance slacks considerably less than when you don't sleep, which means you may study at a high intensity even late at night if you slept in the afternoon.

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So, take a sleep in the afternoon, and you'll be more prepared for your next session. The short sleep might add hours to your nighttime routine, both in terms of quality and quantity. Here are some basic recommendations for taking good naps:

1. Keep it to 30-40 minutes to prevent falling asleep and feeling drowsy when you wake up. Furthermore, a lengthier snooze might keep you up late at night.

2. Try sleeping at the same time every day to help regulate your circadian cycle. The majority of folks take a snooze just after lunch. Make plans for yours.

Eat to Maintain Energy Level

Although your brain accounts for just 2% of your body weight, it consumes 20% of your daily energy consumption. Non-pleasurable cognitively taxing pursuits — academic learning would most likely fall into this group – deplete our energy quickly, according to research.

As a result, it's critical to eat in a manner that keeps your energy levels up while undertaking intellectually taxing jobs.

Consume a higher proportion of low Glycemic Index (GI) foods (for example, oats, porridge, low-sugar museli, granola bars, yogurt with seeds/nuts, low-fat dairy, soups, salads, anything wholegrain, and most fruits), which release glucose slowly into the bloodstream and thus keep energy levels stable for a longer period of time. High-GI meals (for example, pizza, white bread, burgers, cake, chocolate, cookie, potato chips, sugary drinks, and ice cream) have the reverse effect: your energy levels increase quickly and then sink, causing exhaustion and sleepiness.

Second, as seen in the graph above, your energy levels drop in 2-3 hours regardless of the GI meal you consume, implying that you need to replace your glucose level every three hours, if not two, in order to sustain your energy. As a result, consume modest quantities every 2-3 hours.

Conserve Your Mental Energy

Because your brain consumes so much energy (2 percent vs. 20%), it's critical that you don't waste it by allowing your mind to stray into debilitating, useless ideas. Persistent thoughts:

"Why did he treat me so rudely?"

"What if I don't pass the exam?"

And so forth...

An efficient technique to suppress such ideas is to notice them as soon as they enter your mind, count up to three, and redirect your attention elsewhere. (Yes, such ideas slip in so naturally that we don't recognize they're chewing at us psychologically, until you practice disrupting the flow of thinking.) And counting, or anything else you can think of, achieves just that.)

I know it's difficult to suppress such stray thoughts, but if you can...you save some important energy.

Take Regular Break

There are two reasons why you should take pauses. It not only calms you, but it also helps you regain your lost attention. After around 50 minutes, your focus begins to wane, and if you keep pushing through, you'll be studying with less concentration, which is equivalent to waste time.

As a result, after 50-odd minutes, take a 5-10 minute break to refocus. (Please keep in mind that this time frame may vary depending on the person.) So, experiment to see what works best for you.) Do anything except study during the break: move around, eat something, do some brief exercise, look outside, and so on. The idea is to step away from what you've been doing.

Study in Daylight

Well, this is probably a luxury you can't afford, but if you can, keep reading.

According to research, studying/working in the sunshine makes you less fatigued and more awake in the afternoon, enhancing your productivity or adding extra hours to your schedule.

On the second day, the DL group was also shown to perform better on cognitive processes — abilities such as thinking, memory, and attention that are required while conducting hard mental tasks.

So move your table and chair to a light-filled section of the room. This does not, however, imply studying in direct sunshine. It is sufficient if the room where you study gets sunshine.