Stop Assuming More Time Means More Results
If you’re a student at any level, you know that investing absolutely zero effort is a surefire way to performing poorly in your classes. Skipping classes, ignoring assignments, never reading and avoiding studying means not passing.
To some extent, the energy you invest determines the results you get. So at some point, we accept that doing nothing gets you nothing.
Over time, we start to believe that the inverse is true: Doing EVERYTHING will get you the results you want.
But what if “more is more” is really more of a fallacy than a study strategy?
Now, I understand that doing more can feel powerful, inspiring, and productive. But it can also be exhausting and undermine your confidence. When you are legitimately unable to dedicate a million hours to something (because there’s only so many hours in the day), you’ll inevitably feel unprepared or not good enough.
This “more is more” obsession runs rampant in all areas of our lives, and it is especially prevalent in the realm of education. Assuming that more time automatically means more results is one of the biggest mistakes I see my students making every day.
The problem with just spending more time studying is that students can continue making mistakes or reinforce bad habits for even longer. The second problem is that students who are stuck in the “I’ll just work longer and harder” mindset is that they rarely spend a portion of that extra time evaluating their study session. So they just continue doing the same thing, over and over again, hoping they will get different, better results.
Here’s a better plan:
1. Decide on an end-time for studying.
Parkinson’s law states “the task expands to fill the time allotted.” Have you ever written a paper ahead of time? Your teacher gives you two weeks to complete a research paper, and you split it up and work on a little bit each day. Then what happens in two weeks? The paper is done, and you turn it in. Now, let’s say you forgot about the paper and you realize you haven’t done it on the night before it’s due. How long will it take you to complete the paper then? Will it still take two weeks or will you still turn it in on time? Maybe the procrastinated paper wasn’t your best work, but you still didn’t take a full two weeks to execute it. If you don’t give yourself a deadline for your study period, the studying will expand to fill the time available. Only have 30 minutes? It’ll take 30 minutes. Giving yourself a whole weekend to prepare? It’ll take the whole weekend. Be mindful of this phenomenon and make yourself a schedule so you can effectively and efficiently use your time.
2. Evaluate your study periods.
To avoid practicing bad habits and making mistakes, set up multiple evaluations over the course of your study period. Every 20-30 minutes, make a practice of checking in with yourself to evaluate what you’ve learned so far and how confident you feel in your understanding. Ask yourself:
What did I learn?
Was this effective? What’s not working?
How confident do I feel on a scale of 1-10?
What could I do better?
3. Don’t study, rehearse.
The problem with studying is that is feels too passive. Often, in our study sessions our sole focus is getting through the material: rereading, highlighting, scanning notes, etc. But our primary concern should be on performance. Can I recall this information on a test? Can I apply this concept to solve a problem? Can I teach this information to someone else? Our goal shouldn’t be to just become familiar with the content. Instead, we must know the content in the truest sense of the word. Model your study sessions to mirror the test as much as possible. Will it be multiple-choice? Use practice multiple-choice questions. Will there be a timed essay portion? Write a sample short-answer response. Set up your study period just like the test so there are no surprises when you need to demonstrate your understanding.
