Living with toxic family members is the unfortunate reality of many teenagers and young adults nowadays. The added stress and emotional roller coaster take a toll on the body and mind and much time is needed for it to recalibrate and function in normal day to day activities. Moreover, they have very detrimental effects on the mental resources and focus which are needed to pass your classes and graduate your program. Stress and memorizing tonnes of information certainly do not go hand-in-hand.
Living with toxic family members is hard enough when you’re not also studying, and I’ll discuss that in future posts. But for now I would like to share extremely effective tips that will help you achieve the highest grades possible without wasting precious resources. These tips may seem simple but they are grossly underestimated, and I cannot stress enough how many smart, bright, and talented students I met didn’t achieve good grades due to peer pressure to stay out and study late or procrastinating and cramming two days before the exam date. While these tips are worthwhile for any student to follow if they hope to overcome the stress of schooling and succeed in their studies, they are especially important for any student that not only experiences that same stress level in their studies but also has to deal with living with toxic family members. If I had to summarize these tips into one principle that will help anyone living in such an environment, I’d say “slow and steady wins the race”. So let’s get right into it!
- The importance of sleep
Sleep a minimum of 8 hours a night, and if you can’t sustain that due to other obligations, aim for at least a minimum of 6 hours each and every night. I noticed the most restful night sleeps are between 8-9 hours long a night. NEVER skip sleep while trying to memorize a big amount of information as sleep is your best ally in the consolidation of memory. If you are sleep-deprived, you cannot focus your attention optimally and therefore cannot learn efficiently.
2. Have a calming practice in the evening
A few ways to reduce stress before sleep that help tremendously are: deep breathing while listening to classical music, short meditation practice, stretching, and lastly, reading light literature, something that you enjoy. Give technology a break 1 hour before sleep.
3. 3-step strategic studying
I developed a 3-step process that helps a lot with memorizing information. Step one is studying early in the morning, as the brain is better able to focus then. A good time to wake up at would be around 5:50 am, followed by studying till 9 am. Step number two is to re-read whatever information you studied in the morning at night in order to refresh the memory. However, don’t go right into quizzing yourself at that point just yet. The third step is quizzing yourself the following morning on the information learned so far. This is the last step in the process of sedimenting information in your long term memory. By making your brain work to recollect the information you actually discover what you know and are able to explain and what still needs work. Simply reading the information over and over again without quizzing yourself will not be enough for the brain to sediment the knowledge. If you are a visual learner this strategy works without failing! However, if you’re more of an auditory learner, speaking out loud when you review information is the way to go for you!
4.Movement
High school, college, and university are what I call my “chair position” years as we sit down A LOT during classes, homework, and cramming sessions. Movement breaks are vital to your success in school as they increase blood and oxygen flow, which positively affects learning, physical health, and mental well-being. Try and take three small walks daily and you’ll notice how your brain will bless you back!
5. Procrastination
Procrastination is a big enemy for all students under amounts of stress in general, but for those who also do not have the support of their families, I would say it is THE biggest enemy. Always start studying for exams well in advance, at least three weeks prior to the scheduled date. The best way to do this is to start backwards and schedule everything you have to do. Here’s what I mean by that. Let’s say your exam is April 15th and you will be tested on ten chapters. Start by having a goal of studying three chapters’ worth of information every week, which works out to about four weeks in order to cover the ten chapters. I always leave one extra week’s leeway, just in case, since life often gets in the way. Based on this calculation, start studying for your class during the week of March 7th. I cannot emphasize enough how much stress you’ll eliminate by scheduling your time in this way because you’ll have a fixed plan to follow, you know you’ll have covered your bases, and if you happen to have a few bad days in a row and cannot do your best, there is plenty of time available for you to catch up.
6. Pick your spot
By picking your spot, ideally the same physical space for studying, the brain will associate it with increased focus. Having different physical spaces dedicated for different activities will increase the productivity of the brain. It really is ideal to not eat, study, relax, and sleep in the same place. Study at the library in a quiet place to optimize the influx of information or even outside in the park if the weather and location permits it and if there are not many distractions.
7. Take breaks OFTEN.
RULE OF THUMB: do not force yourself to study more than one hour and a half to two hours in a row as the brain needs breaks to function optimally. Breaks for snacks, nature walks, chatting with colleagues or friends, or just taking a breather are essential tips for your toolbox.
8. Peaceful music
Listening to peaceful music such as classical music, instrumental, or nature sounds are extremely calming and may help calm you and focus your mind to help you study. However, let me share an important tip I learned from a psychology class about why one shouldn’t listen always listen to music while studying . Doing that wires the brain to memorize and sediment the information learned more easily only when you play those tunes. Therefore, during an exam where you have no access to your playlist, your brain may have to work harder than usual to retrieve the information as it got used to that specific musical environment, which can increase your stress and make you slower than you’d like to be.
9. Maximum efficiency
Who likes doing the double amount of work unnecessarily for a particular task when drained of energy? I certainly did not. Whatever information you are trying to learn please know that rehearsing it in the following 48 hours following the class will cut your efforts in half at the end of the semester. The brain will have the information it just heard from your professors in its short-term memory for around 24 to 48 hours. After that, the brain will discard the information out of the short-term memory, since without repetition we only recall about 3% of what we hear throughout the day. If you start studying this information three weeks after first hearing it, you’ll have to use the same amount of effort to recall the information as if you were reading and studying something from scratch, leaving your brain to work much harder for maximum retention in your long term memory.
10.No blue light before sleep
Avoid blue light late at night, at least one hour prior to going to sleep. When it gets dark outside, your pineal gland secretes melatonin, the hormone which tells your body to slow down, close shop, and go to sleep. Blue light, whether from the cellphone, tablet, or laptop, is very effective at inhibiting melatonin production, which will reduce both the quantity and quality of your sleep.
There you have it, these were the best strategies I used during my whole “chair pose” years, as I like to call them. Good luck! 😊
SimplyLadyEvergreen 