7 Ways To Know Whether You're Studying Just Or Staring At A Page

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Boy, if I had a turkey for every student that spends hours staring at a page instead of studying then everyday would be another thanksgiving. (Yea. That one was pretty far out there but I like it.)

Staring at a textbook page is not studying. Sure, you might remember the occasional fact but you might as well be digging a ditch by pacing back and forth a few million times. You're not getting any efficiency in your studying when you're just looking. You need to actively make yourself remember information.

Studying is not supposed to be boring. At the very least, it should be painful. (At the very best, it should be entertaining.) Your brain is able to remember things easily but you need to practice your ability to access that information while you're studying. If you're not giving your study time the attention it deserves then you're grades will suffer.

Here are 7 things that you need to watch out for when you pick up your textbook to study. They can help you verify you're not just practicing your mindless stare, you're actually studying to get some results.

1. Test Your Recall

Testing your recall is the only way you can know whether or not you're really studying effectively. Looking at your textbook and trying to remember something is significantly different from looking at a blank test trying to remember it. The book can give you cues to the answer. A blank test, typically wont.

That means, you need to stop looking at the textbook, close your eyes, and try to remember the information that you learned. One of the easiest ways to test recall is through flashcards. There is no “kinda' right answer” when you're using flashcards. You either know the answer or you don't. That's how you need to treat your recall training.

If you're not verifying that you can remember the information you're learning then you could spend hours staring at a page without even realizing it.

2. Stop Studying

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One of the quickest ways to notice whether you were actively studying or not is to take a break from studying. Give up the (potential) illusion that you were actually studying, and let your mind wander to whatever it wants to think about. Don't do anything though. Just settle down where you were studying and let yourself dream about whatever you want.

Where does your mind go? If you have a little trouble stopping your thoughts about the study material then that's a good sign. Your brain is actually interested in the material. So, you were probably, at least a little, engulfed in the material. If, within seconds, you're thinking about biking or corn mazes or some other random something or another then you might not have been studying.

Quickly stopping your thoughts about studying isn't necessarily saying that you weren't studying but being able to hold onto them is a clear sign that you were.

3. Look Around You

Look up from your textbook while you're studying every once in a while. You need to look at the things going on around you. The number one problem that you need to look for is controllable distractions. If you look up and see your phone that you've been using to text people then you're not really studying. Distractions kill good studying. The same goes for a television or even music.

There are less obvious distractions that come up too though. I remember trying to study in the library one time when looking up, I realized I was sitting close to a girl I had a thing for. Naturally, every time my head looked down at my textbook, instead of thinking about interesting class stuff, I was busy thinking, “What's something cool I could say....” Yea. I'm a nerd. That being said, there are less obvious distractions that you should look out for.

4. Give-A-Crap-O-Meter

Ask yourself if you actually care about what you're studying. If you don't. Then I can virtually guarantee you're not really studying. Sorry... as much as I wish people could study things they aren't motivated to study, it's just not true to any reasonable extent. The more you care, the better you'll study. The less you care, the worse you're going to study.

What if you don't care? Find a reason to care. Or accept that you don't care and don't do it. Either answer could be appropriate for different situations.

5. Time Check

Look at the clock and estimate how long you've been studying. If you've been studying for more than an hour without a break then you're probably not studying anymore. The average person learns a whole boatload of information during the first 15 minutes of studying. Past that first 15 minutes, the amount they learn decreases significantly and continuously. Within 2 hours of studying, most people, won't be learning anything new.

The mind is not magic. You can only shove so much information into it at a time. When you try and binge on information, you force yourself into a study hangover. The next time you have to pick up the textbook you think, “I hate this. I don't want to do this anymore.” It's better to study in moderation. The results are better and it keeps your brain in check.

6. Result Tracking

If you're not paying attention to the changes in your test scores then you're not going to be able to know for sure whether or not your studying is working. Pay attention to how much you study and the grades you end up getting for that study time.

When you start tracking your study results, you learn which methods of studying are the most effective for you personally. Keep the word personally in mind. No study strategy is perfectly efficient for everyone. Everyone has their own quirks. Without tracking, you'll never find your own.

7. Exhaustion

If you're exhausted within the first two minutes of studying then you're probably just staring at the page. That's a sure sign that there is some problem in your current study routine. If you're exhausted after 15-20 minutes of studying then you're probably studying right.

If you're testing your recall and trying to load your brain with information efficiently then you will tire yourself out over time. Many people do feel physically or mentally exhausted after a good study session. That usually means you're doing it right.

When that exhaustion does kick in, it's probably time to put away the books and be happy.

Studying is not as simple as teachers make it sound. It's an active process that requires a real focus to matter. (If you're not focusing, you might as well not study at all.) Using these 7 strategies you can help figure out when you're actually doing the dirty deed and when you're kinda just sorta looking at a book hoping that something sticks.

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How To Know When To Stop Studying

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I've given some pretty bold study advice but one piece of advice that confuses most people is this: You should not study when you're completely prepared for a test. Even if you have the time.

There is a time when every student should be absolutely done with studying before a test. In fact, there are plenty of times when stopping studying does way more good than continuing to study. While most study advice focuses on “STUDY MORE!” I tend to believe in an appropriate balance. The human brain is not naturally designed to memorize large sets of information without some survival necessity. The less necessary the studying is, the less effective your going to study it anyway.

When To Stop Studying Before A Test

If you have a good study habit then you probably don't need to study the night before you take a test, in fact, there are plenty of advantages to not actually studying before you take the test. If you've studied all the pieces of information that you planned on studying then studying for it one more night won't help too much.

The brain gets bored when it starts getting used to the same information. The first time you memorize something it's a novelty that your brain is more inclined to let stick. If you're going over it the sixth or seventh time then the brain is a whole lot less interested in making it stick. That leads most students to a nasty case of horrible distraction.

That distraction is terrible for the study habit but it can also lead to poor recall during every study session in the future. When you struggle through the final study session before a test (because you're not focused,) you're also setting yourself up to struggle through the test. In fact, you might even start to have to worry about the test. That can ruin your sleep that night. That can ruin your final score on the test.

I've found, one of the best ways to eliminate worry about a test is to not study the night before it. Instead, I accept that I'm as prepared as I ever will be. A bad study session before the test is a whole lot worse than no study session. Sleep is generally easy when you have the required confidence. When it comes to test time, your brain will have spent 24+ hours thinking about how confident you are. Stress won't be an issue.

One of the best things about cutting out studying the night before the test is the habits that it helps develop. When you avoid studying the night before a test you train yourself to never cram. Cramming absolutely kills most students ability to study. (See my other articles for a long explanation.)

If you haven't studied everything required then it may be better to study the night before a test but in the future, try to be at least one day ahead.

When To Give Up Studying For A Night

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There are times when you should stop studying during a regular study session. Many times people think it's important to study no matter what. While I recommend a habit of starting to study, I certainly don't think it's necessary to end studying at the same time habitually. Some days, it's better to stop studying early than to ruin your good study habits by studying longer.

The first and most important time to stop studying is when you've mastered the information you intended to master. Before any study session, you should have a goal to understand a certain set of information. When you have memorized that information, and have proven it a few times, you don't need to spend more time studying. It can be helpful to reward yourself and stop studying then. When you study faster than expected, you can make some really amazing things happen.

Another time to stop studying is when you can't study effectively mentally. If you've spent 10 minutes trying to stop thinking about something other than studying during your study time, you may be too distracted to effectively study. If you're usually really good about studying then don't feel bad to stop studying when you're that distracted. It shouldn't be a habit but there are times when there are more important things to think about.

The last time I recommend stopping your studying is when you're physically incapable. If, after ten minutes of studying, you're physically exhausted to the point that you can't focus on anything, you should stop studying. This is usually because of sleep deprivation. Learn your lesson and fix whatever happens to be causing your struggle. That being said, don't give up studying to do something fun. Spend the time you should be studying laying down or resting.

With all these opportunities to stop studying, you might consider not studying at all if you're expecting to hit one of these problems. I recommend never not starting. Be in the habit of starting to study whether you're capable of finishing or not. Many times, when you think you won't be able to study, you wind up having a great study session. It's worth starting the session to find out.

Summer Study Stop

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Students hate me for this but let me make my case.

Nearly 30% of the information you learn during the school year gets forgotten during the summer.

If you study through the whole summer, you can be 30% ahead of your peers when school time comes. That can make the following year easier than ever. You should be taking advantage of that. You should not stop studying at the end of the school year. You should continue your habit so you're still working at peak when the next school year starts.

That being said, you don't have to study a bunch of information you hate. While it's good to review some of the subjects for school, you can focus most of your studying on subjects that you enjoy. Think about the things that you want to do with your life and study those subjects. If you want to travel the world then study Mandarin or Spanish or another language. If you want to become an artist then study art. Just keep that habit going.

The habit is the most important part. Once you're good at studying at a certain time, you don't wont to risk losing it. It can take a very long time to get it back.

Use this article as a guide to know when it's time to stop studying and when you shouldn't stop studying. Studying more is not always the best solution. Your brain is not magic. It can suffer from fatigue that drowns your ability to learn. Unless you're using some nootropic drugs then you can't get away with the forced information shove. You need to learn the effective means to deliver the information naturally.

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The Most Powerful Study Skill

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I spend a lot of time harping on one particular factor about studying. There are thousands of different ways that you can study more effectively. You can take a little caffeine. You can quit reading and start recalling. You can make studying a habit. All of these things can improve your studying but they rely on one fundamental skill.

This single skill can completely turn your grade upside down. If you lose it completely then your grades would collapse. If you could master it, you'd score perfect on virtually everything. It's a skill that can be developed and improved on. You may not be able to change your natural ability to learn. Some people are gifted at remembering things and others struggle with it. This skill is something you can actually do to improve how effectively you end up using your natural skills.

I'm building this skill up a lot for a reason. When most people just hear about this skill they zone out. It's been discussed before but most people casually dismiss it because it's not always the easiest skill to develop. In fact, it tends to go against human nature but it's a skill that's worth improving on. That skill is focus.

Getting focused is not just sitting down without distractions. It's getting “in the zone.” The feeling is almost euphoric when you're doing it right. In the moment, there is nothing that your brain would rather be doing than studying because it's tunnel focused on the study material. If you're not in that state absolutely every time that you study then you're not studying at your peak.

It is possible to study that effectively every single time but it's difficult.

The Outside Prep

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Most of the study advice I give on this website is meant to help with this single skill. It is hard to get yourself into the deepest levels of focus. Some of the easiest ways to help push yourself in the right direction have nothing to do with studying.

On this site, I regularly recommend making studying a habit. Focus is one of the benefits of having a study habit. When you study at the same time every day, your brain learns that focus is required during that time. That means, you're brain starts releasing the required chemicals at the same time daily.

I also recommend eliminating distractions. Distractions absolutely kill any chance of a person getting “in the zone.” Whenever the phone vibrates, your brain is going to leave its peak studying state. This is another one of the outside focus preparation possibilities.

The best things you can do to improve your focus involve things that have little or nothing to do with mental discipline. That's important to understand.

One of the major reasons people don't respond when they hear about the importance of focus is that they don't believe they can change it. It's very difficult to change internal habits like that but they can be pushed in the right direction by small outside prep.

There are many things you can do outside of your mind to help improve your focus. Focus on improving those factors at first.

How To Reach The Inside

You can remove all the distractions in the world but it doesn't do any good if you're still too busy thinking about the party you want to go to later while you should be studying. If you're not careful you could end up priming your brain to focus effectively on completely unimportant stuff instead of studying. I'm sure that's not the goal but here's a fun fact...

If you are getting distracted from studying then your brain thinks that unimportant stuff is more important than studying.

Really... I know you might consciously think that you need to study but your brain is way more efficient than having to think about it. Your brain is trained to focus on what is important. Just imagine if you were standing in the middle of an open field during a thunder storm. Do you think you could effectively study while there was a chance you could get struck by lighting? Probably not. Even if, statistically, you're probably not going to get struck and you are statistically going to have the test, your brain still has it's priority set.

If you're not thinking about studying while trying to study then studying isn't important enough for you. (Or something is too important to study while thinking about. Get out of that field in the lighting storm. Then study.) You need to figure out why you're not treating studying as important. I'll go over some general ideas but be sure to read some of my previous articles to understand them deeper.

Think about how embarrassing it would be to get a poor grade. It's not the most effective way but it can be powerful. Think about the teacher making a bunch of big red marks all over your test while they have a disgusted look on their face. Imagine how your parents will react. The worst part isn't that they might punish you, the worst part is thinking about how they might end up worrying about you being stupid. Think about failure in the most painful way possible. Your brain will have no choice but to focus on studying after that.

Another more effective but slightly more difficult method is to figure out why the information you're learning is absolutely awesome. Really... no matter what you're learning, someone in the world is enthusiastic about the subject. Figure out why they're enthusiastic and think about it. If you're studying history then think about how amazing it is that these are real people that can help you learn real lessons about life. If it's anatomy then think about the muscles you're studying being all over your body. Whatever you naturally want to focus on, your brain will lead you to. Make that the focus of your study and you can see amazing results.

Kill The Monkey Brain

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If you've followed the first two pieces of advice in this article then you should not be distracted too much. There should be no external distractions. Internally, you should naturally be pulling to learn the subject. In most cases, you shouldn't need to use this final piece of advice. That being said, every once in a while you may need to use this strategy.

When I've gone a few days with a little too little sleep, I usually suffer from what I call, “monkey brain.” No matter how hard I try to focus, my brain keeps bouncing, swinging around, and throwing feces all over the place (no I don't know how that metaphor works but I'm sure you can come up with something.)

There are times when it's fun to have a monkey bouncing around but not when you're trying to study. I'm sorry PETA but this is a monkey in my brain that I can't let live. When you let it live, it carries over to your next study session, even if you get the sleep you need. Whenever you find that monkey bouncing around, you need to stop it.

When you catch yourself going off topic you need to stop thinking completely as fast as possible. Just shut down. Tell yourself that you are officially being distracted. Accept that. Take a few breaths if you have to. Tell yourself why you need to study. After a minute of thinking about it, get back to studying. If the monkey isn't drowned by your good reason to study yet then close your eyes and repeat.

DO NOT STUDY WHEN IT'S BOUNCING AROUND. Fight it until it goes away. When you accept the monkey bouncing around as a natural part of studying you effectively kill any future studying you do. Studying requires focus to work effectively. Anything less is a waste of time.

Focus can make the difference between an hour of study wasted or an hour of study material mastered in ten minutes. I'm not exaggerating the slightest bit. The reason some students have to study for hours is not because studying requires hours. It's because studying requires intense focus. If you're studying right then you shouldn't need to study for hours a night. A few minutes will usually do.

Do not dismiss this. This is something that you can do something about. The most important part is that your conscious about how well your focused. Pay attention and you can make yourself amazing at focusing fast.

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How To Actually Enjoy School

I dreadfully have to admit that I learned this lesson a little too late. I was the kind of student that absolutely hated to have to go to school for years. I would finagle with my parents. I would say countless prayers for snow. I wouldn't be surprised if I intentionally breathed more around people that were sick. Really, I hated school with every bone in my body.

This should not come as too much of a surprise but this lack of enthusiasm showed straight through to the grades I got. I wasn't one of those students that could hate school all day and score high anyway. It wasn't until I started to flip my attitude about school that my higher grades started to show up. When I got to college this improved attitude change allowed me to take twice the average course load and still score in the high end of my classes. When you learn to enjoy school, everything in school becomes easier.

Learning to enjoy school has to be a conscious change. While some students may have a natural inclination to enjoy it, you probably aren't one of those students if you're reading this.

Better Options

The first thing you need to realize to start enjoying school is not exactly a pleasant thought. When you first think about it, it can feel an awful lot like a disincentive to enjoy school. In fact, it can be a disincentive. The point of bringing it up is the development of an honest conversation about school in your own head. This point particularly true about high school.

Do you have any other option than to go to school? What would be the consequences if you didn't?

Think about that.

If you're below the age where you're allowed to drop out then you don't have much of a choice at all. If you stop showing up to school the government could metaphorically hang your parents. That is, of course, assuming your parents don't metaphorically hang you first. It's pretty safe to say you don't have much of a choice.

If you're old enough to drop out of high school, could you actually do it? Would your parents let you? Do you have a job that you could pay bills with if needed? The vast majority of students have been tucked away in school for a decade of their life and never taught any practical skills for survival. Even if they do have the practical knowledge required for survival, the ridiculous bias people have based for a high school degree is a major extra weight to deal with. Most people don't have much of a choice to drop out of high school after they're allowed to either.

College is where you actually have some options. You can go to college or not go to college. There is still a major stigma with not going to college though. Many jobs in the future will require a degree. So, you probably will end up better off if you get the degree. At times though, circumstance will dictate that a college degree is needed.

What is the point of all this?

You probably don't have a choice if you're in high school.

I know, it doesn't sound all that pleasant but it's an important point.

There are a lot of things that can't be changed in life. Things happen that you will wish didn't. There will be rainy days on your picnic. Sometimes, someone you care about is going to die. You don't have a choice. The only choice you have is how you react to them.

You can spend your whole life grieving the things you can't control or you can learn to accept them and stop letting them control your life. Many students spend their whole lives trapped on “I don't want to be here.” Now, that's probably true but if you don't have a choice it's a pointless statement. (If you do have a choice then you're just torturing yourself.)

Sure, now is a good time to grieve about having to go to school. Spend some time depressed about it but accept that you don't have the reasonable choice to make it any other way. You could have to dig through trashcan if you picked leaving school. It's okay to dismiss that as an option. It's like breaking out of a prison. Sure, you could do it but there is a very real chance you'll end up with a bullet in your backside.

Depressing right. Embrace that for a little while but like all the things you can't control, eventually you need to let it go.

Fun Requires You

After that awfully depressing first step, you should be much better off. Most students spend their lives pretending those boundaries don't exist. It can be liberating when you acknowledge them. It's the only way you'll ever be free of them. This next step is meant to take that acceptance and turn it into something you can actually enjoy.

Most students tip-toe through their education. They do everything in their power not to get in trouble. No, my advice isn't stomping through school and leaving a trail of trouble in your wake (but that may be fun.) My advice is to stop the tip-toeing.

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When most students write a paper for English class they write like they're writing something their mother would read. They avoid “dangerous” subjects that might not go over well. That leaves most English teachers bored out of their mind reading the same “and that's how I learned...” crap. Of course, this makes it miserable for the student and the teacher.

Give up on the fear you have of being too noticeable. With everything you hand in, you want to rationally take bold risks. After a little bit of practice, these bold risks will pay off. Instead of writing the perfect paper for a English teacher, write the perfect paper for yourself. It won't be long after starting that you notice you can actually enjoy yourself with this stuff.

English isn't the only subject that you can do this in though. In every subject you should be trying to inject some of your own entertainment into the subject. In history class, remember things by telling yourself crude jokes about the major people and events. Or maybe remember the dates based on the clothes they wore. I don't know. Find something that allows you to enjoy the subject (even if it is crude or barely related.)

What I'm really asking you to do is to allow your personality to participate in school. Do not go hiding behind the guise of pleasing everyone else. Just learn the information in the way you learn it best. Take every opportunity to enjoy yourself that you have.

There may always be a subject or two that doesn't quite work out as enjoyable but by practicing this daily you should be able to change the way you feel about school. Instead of it being a place for you to hide out and wait, it can become a place where you inject your personality.

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