Organizing life with timers

MCcuddles2

I was training at my gym today and I realized that a lot of my life is organized using a timer.

It just makes things easier.

My workouts are boxing oriented, so the timer is for twelve rounds, three minutes per round, with a minute rest in between.

I meditate daily, and that's with a timer too. With beginning bells, and interval bells at every ten minutes.

Cuddling (with a pro) is based on a timer too, usually around two hours. I like the boundaries and the structure. The boundaries go both ways, because as a client I don't have to do the emotional labor of maintaining a connection outside of our planned time together. It makes life easier.

So my question is this: I've been studying to prepare for school again and make a career switch and I have a hard time staying motivated. I was wondering if you guys and gals had tips for studying. Like maybe the human brain responds best to a certain amount of focused time with breaks in between. I'm just curious how people here absorb information. I need to find a way to be more efficent at studying, maybe through timers 😁

This article aligns with my experience. Basically: get plenty of sleep, go through stuff slowly, test yourself, and take breaks so long you almost forget the stuff before going back to it.

You can set timers once you've figured out how long all that takes for you (it's at least a little bit different for everybody).

CuddleDuncan

Consier your motivation. Why are you doing this? What will happen when you succeed? How will you feel? How will you feel if you flunk or drop out?

If you don't have one already, create a social support network for your studying.

Plenty of fresh air, exercise, fun, fruit and vegetables, etc. If you can't get all of that right just now, don't worry about it - just do the best you can.

1. Drink. You can't learn effectively if your pee is not clear or nearly clear. Water, juice, milk, tea, doesn't matter what.

2. Sleep. Essential for learning. The base case for adults is about 8 hours. If you need an alarm to wake up you aren't getting enough sleep.

3. Are you a lark or an owl? What time of day do you work best? If you don't know, figure it out and do the hard work then.

4. For learning purposes, throw the timer in the bin: it's actively harmful. Learning works best when it is goal-orientated, not time-orientated. Right - I will study Chapter 6 until I get 100% in the quiz at the end; and if I finish early I'll do the first two sections of chapter 11. Wrong - I will study for three hours.

5. What is your attention span? Humans work in cycles, and one of them is the attention span. It's usually around 45 minutes, but everybody is different. (Mine is short, around 37 minutes.) That's why films are usually 90 minutes or slightly less. You can tell when one attention span is up, because you will lift your head or feel the need to move. This is the time to go to the bathroom or get a drink. After two attention spans (i.e. about 90 minutes) take a ten minute break: check your phone, talk to somebody in the house, quick stroll round the garden, whatever. Four attention spans are a full session. [This is the part your were specifically asking about. Don't do it using a timer, just listen to your body - feel its rhythms.]

6. Always revise in pairs. When you learn or revise something, study it again, briefly, tomorrow. (The day after or even the one after that will do.) It turns out that if you put something into your brain twice in 24 hours you have a much better chance of remembering it.

7. There are two keys to remembering something. Firstly, and obviously, repetition. Secondly, putting it into your brain in different ways. Reading is one, hearing is one. Speaking is one, and curiously singing is another. (Some patients recovering from stroke cannot speak, but they can sing "I would like a cup of tea".) You can make a tape of yourself and then listen to it on the train. Poetry, mnemonics, acronyms, visual associations on revision notes using colour and shape .....

8. The best way to recall something is by association. (This is how memory experts do their tricks.) So, when you are putting something into your brain, create chains of association so you can get it out again.

9. Notes. Original notes are made as you study. The next day, write them up. Make the resulting document personal, make it yours. Revision notes should be roughly 20% of the length of the written up notes. Flashcards are one possible end of this process. Do it your way - some people like flashcards, others mind maps. Experiment till you discover what works for you.

10. Practice exams. Attempt the paper under exam conditions. Mark it firm but fair. Revise and learn what you need to. Then do the whole paper again under exam conditions. Learn what you need. For any questions that are still going wrong, create model answers. Create a short version of the paper (no need to re-do questions you got right twice) with time in proportion and attempt that. Do not move on to the next paper until you have close to 100% on this one. [This point applies more to maths and science than humanities or language.]

Good luck!

---

I'm a tutor by profession. Last year I had four students for the equivalent of AP physics (it's called A-level). One had a number of special needs, two attended a school in a seriously deprived area. They went to Harvard, Cambridge, Imperial College (=MIT?) and Kings College (=Ivy League).

quixotic_life

@CuddleDuncan ~ How handy dandy and timely this is! Thank you for taking the time to write it all up and share it here for others!!

There are a couple I hadn't thought of or heard of before, but totally make sense!

Now to write notes on this, then rewrite to make them my own within 24 hours, and sing the ones that resonate as I use my fancy pens to write them on the note cards I'll be hanging up next to my study area!!
🤗👩‍💻

CuddleDuncan

@quixotic_life

@CuddleDuncan

applause

And yes, attention span can vary greatly.

Mine is either three minutes, or three hours. 😜

@CuddleDuncan: Awesome! Thanks for sharing your expertise. Like @quixotic_life, I'm taking notes.

Lovelight

All these tips and those shared above may be overwhelming. Thus, you may read thinking you got it, only to get lost again. So the biggest tip, is to go one step at a time and put into action/habit. Some tips that could be useful for you, if possible:

• Suffient sleep is 🔑. Use the power of your mind to wake up and just use the alarm as a back up.

Generally speaking when you get adequate sleep, you will simply want to wake up like @CuddleDuncan said. You don't need harsh alarm bells waking you up and can wake up before it. I prefer and can wake up with soft sounds. Or before it goes off. Though with the lives we live, I understand it's not always, for everyone, possible to get enough and let our bodies run their course. So just do your best.

Moments before sleeping, tell yourself the time you want to wake up, eg: "Wake up at x:20." Set the alarm for x:30. Odds are if you give yourself a fair amount of sleep time, you will wake up at just about the time you said.

Prior to getting out of bed, you can run a clear and concise mental checklist: Get up, do this, do that, etc.

When I don't take a minute or two to run that mental checklist, I find that I stall.

• Healthy, energizing, and memory boosting diet is also key.

You can't be your best or learn well if you're exhausted/forgetting a lot. So if you don't * already have *, I'd suggest writing/typing out your breakfast, lunch and dinner plan ahead of time.

• Organize and tidy to your satisfaction, your: mental, emotional, physical, and technological environment. Quality over quantity.

Have a dash or two of colors/simple things that make you thrilled to see your study space. Can be a motivating sticky note, a bright (fake) plant close by, uplifting (digital) wallpaper, etc.

• Be kind to yourself and set rewards.
• Aim to study the task you find difficult first thing.

I personally tend to study in the day, even though I enjoy the night better. Because it doesn't result in my sleep, study and in person socialization schedule being out of sync.

If there are say two of them, you may choose a(n short) activity/subject you enjoy to put between them.

Avoid studying similar subjects around the same time as it's easily confusable.

The Forgetting Curve: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/forgetting-curve.htm

Summary: Using Spaced Repetition to Combat The Forgetting Curve. "The gaps between your review sessions can be longer as time goes on. So, you might refresh your learning from a lecture the following day, then two days later, then after a week, then after 30 days… and you'll still know all the key information a month on! Reviewing information like this, at strategic points after you originally learned it, will stretch your recall and strengthen the memories encoded in your brain. You'll also discover any gaps that you need to focus on and relearn, if necessary."

The Reason You Procrastinate:

The Truth About Procrastination:

The Real Secret of Productivity:

The Five People You Need in Your Life:

• Have a separate account on your computer for studying, a separate YouTube account if you use it to learn, etc. Your phone should also have the main screen with only the essentials organized in folders.

Furthermore, your browser/notes should have your high quality study materials easily accessible.

• The hardest is probably just getting started, so do what you need to build momentum.

@MCcuddles2 By the way, what is your learning style? How do you learn best?

If you want to share why you feel demotivated, you can feel free to share here/message me. Or simply recognize and work on how to overcome.

Lovelight

I have a highschool student and this past year I remember there being an interval of studying with ten minute breaks every so often. We watched a documentary on it and it surprised me. I can’t remember how long…but I think it’s 46 minutes that the adult brain can focus on something and then change to something completely different in a different location for ten minutes then back at it.

Maverick07

The biggest challenge for me is that it takes a while to get to that mindset of reading, studying, writing a technical article, etc., and really focusing on. Once I'm there, the length of the activity varies a little but I stop if feels unproductive.
Sometimes I go to the gym during lunch hour, and actually "work" or think about work while swimming laps - I really get some things done (mentally, lol), go figure... I guess, whatever works for you.