School demands a lot from a student, and sometimes my resolve isn\u2019t equal to the task. The problem, however, did not lie with the subject matter but rather the way I studied. Once I sat down to study, I would deviate my attention to social media and pointless websites (yes, I\u2019ve seen the cat photos). Almost paradoxically, I wouldn\u2019t take a single real break, and thus find myself laboring to finish at 11. Hardly a recipe for success.<\/p>\n
I recently watched a video on motivation given by a psychologist (my life is sad), and he proposed a radical notion. He said that unrestricted free time in the middle of a directed activity yields better results. In English, by taking a break in the midst of homework to do whatever you really enjoy leads to better focus, work, and eventually, grades. At first, I raised my eyebrows, but he presented a very good argument (I\u2019ll share the link to the video to those interested). He said that everyone yearns for self-autonomy (the ability to have control over their own lives), and when we are directed to do work, it doesn\u2019t feed our souls. If we instead spent our time doing just what we wanted to do, we\u2019d probably do a better job. Convinced, I tried his method.<\/p>\n
It really works. When I\u2019m writing poetry or blogging, I lose track of time. I found that taking half an hour off to engage in my nerdy hobbies led to increased focus for hours on end. I strongly encourage anyone with a daily avalanche of homework to try this out.<\/p>\n
One word of caution though: don\u2019t spend that free time doing something pointless. The Facebook notifications, as plenty as there may be, don\u2019t really give you joy (except maybe that special someone liking your profile picture..yeah, that\u2019s legitimate joy). Try doing something you have a passion for. I know a guy who loves claymation, and he spends hours doing it on his weekends. I\u2019d say there\u2019s not much risk in following your heart for half an hour a day.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t find school all that captivating. It can be interesting at times, but it is quite a feat to ask Spanish homework to be interesting when you\u2019ve been pouring over other homework for three hours. I just excuse myself for a little break, snuggle up in my beanbag and read Harry Potter. Once I\u2019m back, I can weave my own wand and finish my with with an increased gusto. Expecto productivio<\/em>…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" School demands a lot from a student, and sometimes my resolve isn\u2019t equal to the task. The problem, however, did not lie with the subject … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-student-bloggers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s7JFoP-nikhil","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymajors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymajors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymajors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymajors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymajors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymajors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7008,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymajors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85\/revisions\/7008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mymajors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymajors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mymajors.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}