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The Breaking Point: When, Why and How to Take a Step Back

November 13, 2015 by admin

Lehi, Utah, USA --- Caucasian teenager studying in classroom --- Image by © Mike Kemp/Blend Images/Corbis

We’ve all undoubtedly been there before: eyelids heavy, consciousness fluttering, mind racing and head swimming with countless factoids and anecdotes in a last-ditch effort to retain as much relevant information as it takes to pass the exam looming just over the horizon.   Although the art of cramming is used and accepted by students everywhere, a stockpile of evidence points to the fact that working tirelessly without taking a breather is not only less productive, it’s counterintuitive to productivity altogether. Memory retention drops, critical understanding of concepts dwindle, and overall motivation for learning and completion of tasks falls by the wayside if you don’t give yourself some time to take a step back. So when’s the best time to take a breather, and how can you make the most of your breaks?

Studies show that working in 90 minute bursts and cycling in a routine break can boost your productivity greatly. During this cycle, your brain mirrors activity trends similar to those you experience while sleeping. Over this cycle, your brain will flow through differing states of alertness, and taking a break at the 90 minute mark will give your brain a chance to refresh and reset the cycle of alertness and productivity. Take care not to make your break too long, but long enough to really refresh yourself. Research indicates that a 15-35 minute break (if taken mindfully) will greatly increase your ability to be productive during each 90 minute stint.

There are several effective ways you can capitalize on your breaks to increase the impact they have on your ability to work. One of the most useful things you can do during down time is to make it active. Physical motion helps to break up the mundane very effectively, and actually getting up and leaving your workspace can help to separate your mind from it temporarily and hit the reset button. Whether it’s going for a walk around the building or doing pushups or jumping jacks in the office (a little unorthodox, we know), find something physical to get your mind wandering and blood flowing.

When you’ve been zoned in to a project or study session, you start to feel a bit disconnected from the outside world. Use your time away from your desk as an opportunity to reconnect somehow, either by chatting with someone in person or on the phone, catching up on social media, or sending a few texts. This break from isolation will be refreshing and help you to stay motivated to dive back into what you’ve already spent time accomplishing.

On the flip side, you could zone in further and take some quality “me” time during your breaks. Take some time in a quiet place for meditation and deep breathing exercises. Reflect upon your day’s work and center yourself to continue the work you still have to do. Know yoga? Get posing. These mindful movements and exercises can greatly impact your mindset and give you a clean slate to hack away at the rest of your work.

In any case, the evidence is clear: breaks help you to increase your productivity. Reward yourself with the 20 or so minutes of down time after working hard for 90. It’s good for your work, your brain, and your overall well being. Start taking routine breathers while working on your next big project and see the results for yourself.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: break, studying, work

Learning Effectively: A How-To Guide

October 15, 2015 by admin

African American student studying while sitting in the library.

As September comes to a close and makes way for October, it’s safe to say that the 2015-2016 school year is, by now, in full swing. The excitement and spike in motivation to buckle down that tends to come with the start of a new year is most likely starting to wear off, and study habits are already starting to slip as extracurricular activities and heavy workloads weigh on the minds of students and parents alike. This phenomenon (let’s call it the “Mid-Quarter Slump”) is a very real experience for many students, and is a strong inhibitor to the learning opportunities of those who don’t bounce back from it.

 

What exactly is it that causes students to fall into the mid-quarter slump, and what can we do to combat it? Simon Oxenham of Big Think provides the compelling argument that we’re never taught how to truly learn in our early educational years, and believes that a large contributing factor for a loss of motivation could be that our lack of technique in the learning process makes it less stimulating and more difficult. An article published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest discusses ten different learning techniques along with the researched effectiveness of each one. We’ll briefly cover some of the ten that you may not have heard of, starting with the least effective and summing up with the most effective ways of learning.

 

The techniques with the lowest effectiveness ratings were highlighting, the keywords mnemonic, rereading, imagery use for text learning, and summarization. Despite proving largely ineffective for long-term information retention, these are some of the most common practices taught and used in the education system today. The Keyword Mnemonic links phrases and their meanings to the sounds of the words themselves, and while it serves a purpose for memorization, it lacks the substance to convert knowledge into application and often doesn’t carry on into long term knowledge. Imagery use is a technique in which students mentally associate images with the text they are absorbing. While this can be effective for young students, the focus in older students tends to become more on forming the relationships with the images than the information itself. Summarization is shown as ineffective primarily because it does not help students retain for information-based tests, such as multiple choice. However, it has proven to be effective for essays and tests in which the student is not prompted with a possible correct answer.

 

Ranking in the middle range of effectiveness were elaborative interrogation, self-explanation, and interleaved practice. Elaborative Interrogation was seen as having moderate effectiveness because of its ability to prod students to critically think and ask why information is true and what conclusions can therefore be drawn from it. It is most effective, however, when the learner has prior knowledge of the subject, so this technique may not be best for a brand new subject to the student. Self-explanation involves the student explaining their thought processes in coming to their reached conclusion. This helps the student fully grasp the subject matter and their thinking, but ranks only as moderate because it can prove to be very time consuming. Last on the moderate scale is Interleaved Practice. This technique involves changing the subject matter being studied fairly frequently to keep the student from growing bored of or getting “burnt out” on any particular subject. In theory this seems as if it would be effective, but there is not much research to indicate it is a highly useful technique.

 

The techniques that scored the highest levels of effectiveness were practice testing and distributed practice. Practice Testing can be a number of different things, ranging from actual practice tests distributed by a teacher to making flashcards to study prior to a test. Testing provides a high-stress, high-stakes environment for students, and practice tests allow them to test their knowledge prior to the event in a much lower stress situation. This has proven to enhance their opportunity for learning and information retention greatly, as well as increase their test scores overall. Distributed Practice is the act of spacing out learning and studying into periodic sections based on how long you wish to retain the information. Studies show that only 10-20% of time studying is required in relation to the length of time one wishes to retain information. Therefore, if students study in a more spaced out and less time-intensive fashion, they are more likely to retain the information day to day.

 

Ironically, most students tend to stray away from both of these highly effective techniques and run in to problems. The method of procrastination and cramming in the days and hours leading up to a test (the exact opposite of distributed practice) will almost always lead them to “winging it” on the test, and they will have never had the opportunity to do a practice test beforehand. This perpetuates the stress that often surrounds testing and elevates the stressful culture of schooling that most students often feel in general.

 

Learning styles vary widely from student to student, but these proven techniques, when implemented (along with other techniques that work for you) will help you keep the Mid Quarter Slump at bay and ensure that you learn effectively!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: learning, school, studying

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