[terminalcommand]

I think that this kind of advice can be detrimental to people like me. It basically says force yourself to study 5 hours a day no exceptions. If you get a job or other extracurricular activities don't count it as work time.

Well, I lived that lifestyle in high school. I studied 4 hours a day, limited every extracurricular activities to not interfer with my study time. At the end I believe I have missed a great portion of my life and it was not worth it.

Studying everyday is a great goal to aspire for, but no way you need to study that much every day. Go to classes with the textbook, mark the areas the teacher lectures about. Take notes during class. Once in a while review the book and your notes. In the meantime make thought experiments, try to apply the information you learned on imagined cases you made up for fun.

There is only so much willpower you can tap into. Once that is over you basically drift not being able to do anything. It is much better to live a balanced life and never put yourself into impossible workloads for a prolonged time.

Another point is that these kind of study hacks work for people who can already study. If you are a procrastinator in soul (a deep procrastinator in Newport's terms), this advice won't help you. If you're procrastinating heavily your mind is trying to tell you that what you're doing is pointless.

One powerful weapon to fight it is to keep an agenda. Plan your day before (for example using org mode or a simple paper agenda). Set very small goals and always reschedule if you need to. For example 22 Jan Monday: place the notes taken during X class in a file. 23 Jan Monday: Buy the book required for Y class etc.

If you can keep your study material somewhat organized, you will find it much easier to begin studying. It is all about tooling like programming.

One last note: studying in a silent place does not always work. Especially when I'm bored, can't start studying or mentally overwhelmed, it helps a lot to put on headphones and blast some talkshow in the background. The change in the tone and volume of the host and occasional jokes and laughter feed my stimuli seeking brain. After 30-40 minutes I can continue without listening anything.

These reflect my hard-earned experience and intensive soul-searching :) YMMV

[Spooky23]

I think the point is you need to have time set aside as part of your normal process to study if you are serious about your education. It's time that you should be focused on your academic pursuits, not drinking, working, gaming, girls, etc.

I didn't follow this sort of advice, and paid the price. I sailed through most classes on my wits, but hit a wall when more advanced classes had time demands that I couldn't meet due to work or other obligations. When I tutored high school and undergraduates in math, I saw smart/lazy kids making the same mistake... they would pick up the material in class and never learn how to read a math textbook. Life was good until it wasn't, usually when they hit Calc 2 or 3. It was hard to watch.

[bg4]

Same, regret it to this day.

[hood_syntax]

cough Calc 3 cough

[hokus]

It was all so easy until it wasn't!

[dhimes]

Me too. Trying to help others avoid this mistake.

[keiferski]

I agree strongly with your first point, for the simple reason of “unknown unknowns.” Maximizing the optimization of your current situation, so to speak, can often result in missing out on opportunities which would bring you to a higher, better level than the one you are on currently.

Extreme focus and hours can be effective in short bursts, but need to be balanced with some time for randomness, wandering, and other non-planned activities. One should always be trying to expand their current intellectual domain, but it’s nigh impossible to do so if you keep your head down 24/7.

[ams6110]

Bear in mind that this guide was written by a professor. Someone who chose to make academia the focus of his life. Such a person may be likely to feel that academic achievement should be the highest priority in one's life, since it was for him.

[hokus]

I sense great pedantic joy in the text. One of my personal rules: When people are enjoying themselves I must figure out why I'm missing out. If I can just hold onto 1% of the joy I can usually expand it later on my own.

Its not that I have to make my own candles and my own candle holders then burn them for specific purposes - but I do know how some manage to enjoy that process.

[coolg54321]

> There is only so much willpower you can tap into. Once that is over you basically drift not being able to do anything. It is much better to live a balanced life and never put yourself into impossible workloads for a prolonged time.

I am a victim of this, Because of the competitive nature of things in my part of the world, I had to skip the extra curricular activities and dedicate all my free time (4-5 hrs a day) for studies and I am completely out of balance now. It's very difficult for me to find a balance or enjoy the activities now.

[terminalcommand]

As a person whose been there, I can say that it is temporary. Drift for a couple of months, even a couple of years if you can afford to. You will eventually find balance in your life and be much more prepared for the future.

I always thought to myself when I felt bad that it was actually fortunate for me to have lived this kind of extreme burnout earlier in life where I didn't have serious obligations and had time to overcome it.

Now when I think back at the times when I worked crazy hard, I think the root of that problem was my insecurity. I thought if I had good grades, it would lead me to a good university. A good university would lead me to a good job. And a good job would lead me to a good life. It was a pretty hard blow when I realized that the cycle of work never stops. There is always something to do and what I got left with after high school was poor social skills and a massive burnout.

At Uni I stayed away from ambitious people, hanged around with slackers and misfits. I joined a band, became the go-to guy for making party posters/concert posters by leveraging my computer skills. At the same time my grades didn't suffer that much considering I studied considerably less.

I can't buy the tales of self-discipline anymore. If my body is actively fighting me on the work I think I'm supposed to do, I don't do it. I try to organize my work so that I don't lose track of the essentials. If I can't get myself to work more at least I get these covered. Most of the times, the work that I think that needs to be done turns out to be unnecessary.

Unfortunately ambition is a two edged sword: on one side you work yourself to the bone for a period of time exceeding all expectations, but on the other side once you depleted your energy, you can't get yourself to work at all.

That's why after many years of trial and error, I now manage the essential work in my life in org-files. I schedule a maximum of 6-7 essential items for my week. These tasks also include life-obligations such as getting a haircut, sending out job applications, going to the doctor etc. I usually try to do these tasks to avoid drastic outcomes in the future. My org-agenda works like a security rope for me. I cannot foresee my mental state or outside factors affecting my life, but at least I always know the few tasks that absolutely need to be done beforehand to sustain my living.

[reallymental]

I can strangely relate to this comment, to a higher level than I can usually 'relate' to other comments about workflow or thought processes.

Regarding procrastination, the advice on tying small tasks together is bang on. One task leading to another usually results in a more productive day, I've found. The pessimist in me wants me to credit/blame this to the games I've played as kid, where the level up/task done dopamine boost is enough to get through the next level/task.

YMMV.

[hollander]

Fight procrastination by starting the habit of studying one hour daily, or even half an hour. At first it's more about the habit than about the progress. Find a buddy to support you in your quest. When the habit sets in, which could take months, start to set other goals or habits.

[amrrs]

Your last point is very valid for me. I've exclusively kept Malcolm Gladwell's Spaghetti Sauce ted talk for that purpose. Every time I need to work in a problem without distraction, I just start this and go deep.