Why You Should Be Giving Up (Sometimes)

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Bad things are going to happen in school. There are going to be tests that you bomb. (Okay... Considering my typical reader, bomb might mean a B but you get my point.) There are going to be teachers that you hate. There are going to be whole subjects that you dread. Heck, you're going to have plenty of personal problems to screw up your school work too.

One of the major differences between a successful student and a failure is that successful students learn to handle that negative stuff more effectively. No one gets through school without suffering from at least a few major problems. Some students suffer from a major setback and let it hold them back for life. Other students regroup and get themselves back into a new rhythm.

That's kind of a cliché but I think it's worth looking into a little because despite the classic iterations of this cliché in school it works a little differently. Many teachers will tell you to not give up after you make a mistake but in the real world, it's not that simple.

Quitters Sometimes Prosper

Just imagine how much hate I get from society for writing things like this. Sometimes, it's okay to give up. In fact, sometimes, you're better off giving up. (And I'm saying it to impressionable students! OH NO!)

Giving up is not always a negative.

There is a difference between giving up on an achievable and important task and giving up on an unachievable and irrelevant one. Giving up on an achievable and important task is usually stupid. Not giving up on an unachievable and irrelevant task is even more stupid. Of course, virtually everything falls somewhere in-between these extremes.

Too many students try to continuously attack their own weaknesses instead of focusing on building their strengths. Think of the classic nerd on television that sucks at physical education. Guess what? NO ONE CARES EXCEPT YOUR PE TEACHER! Sure, if you're competing for a super exclusive college, it may help a little but it won't help nearly as much as blowing all the skills your good at off the charts.

Does that mean never work on things you're bad at?

Of course not. Balancing it out a little is key. You can't be good at everything. You're not some super magical alien that's somehow capable of ignoring all the classic conventions of being human. I'm sorry to inform you but, unfortunately, you're one of the humans. (Well... Probably.)

Sometimes, it's okay to lay off the accelerator and see what other options you have.

World Class

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Outside of school, virtually everything I tell you in this article would be completely uncontroversial. Relating it to school is what scares a lot of people. A lot of people feel like students are incapable of understanding the complexity of regular life. I think those people are idiots. (Yes. That's a little harsh but if you agree with them you can always stop reading.) This is something you already know but it's something you might be scared to admit to yourself.

No one can be great at everything. I like to think about Michael Jordan as the perfect example of this. Michael Jordan was one of the greatest basketball players in history. When I was young I remember him moving from basketball to try playing baseball instead.

There he was, the greatest in the world, switching to a completely different sport. My natural instinct was telling me, he's going to be good. I really wanted to believe it but, as those with experience in the real world suggested, it didn't work out.

Everything is like that. It is very difficult to be one of the best in the world in two ultra competitive fields. In Michael Jordan's case, that's pro-basketball and pro-baseball.

In your case, that might be Math and English. If you're really good at one thing then, to continue to compete with the best, other things will have to suffer. When you fight this, you usually will end up feeling like you're a failure. That, unfortunately, will make you suffer in every aspect of your life.

When To Give Up

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The first key to knowing when it's appropriate to quit is figuring out how to set your priorities. If you set them right then this step becomes a whole lot easier. Be sure to check out my old articles for more on that if you need some help.

When you put in more (well-thought out) effort, and the results aren't blatantly obvious. It's time to start considering giving up. That being said, you usually shouldn't have to give up in the traditional sense.

Most of the time giving up should consist of giving up on your current strategy. If you're trying to improve your grade in Math and reading the textbook is getting you nowhere, STOP READING THE TEXTBOOK. Give up that original plan and move onto a new one. Maybe sit in the front of the class to focus better. Maybe ask the teacher for help. Maybe hire a tutor. Just be damn sure to STOP READING THE TEXTBOOK IF IT DOESN'T HELP YOU.

If it's something that you've already decided is low on your priority list then you should consider giving up the extra suffering you're investing in the problem completely. Maybe it's alright to get a B in Art class. Maybe you don't need to excel in the subjects you don't care about.

Once you figure this out it can dramatically improve every aspect of your studying (ironically, that often includes the subject you're “giving up” on.) In life, giving up is not never doing something again. It's stepping back, taking a breather, and approaching a different solution.

Don't get caught up in the old story they tell you about never giving up. It's a wild oversimplification of a very complicated subject.

Getting amazing grades is not impossible. In fact, it's easily possible. Yes... You read that right. Easily possible. That is, when you learn the right way to approach it. That's what this blog is about. Good grades can come from long and hard work or they can come from smart work. Smart work is what this blog is all about. Be sure to follow this blog and check out it's archive to get better grades than ever with less work than ever.

You Don't Know How To Study

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Yes. I'm talking to you.

You have no idea how to study most effectively. Don't worry regular blog read readers. I don't either.

Wait... That's somehow not comforting... Can you imagine, a guy constantly giving advice about studying saying that he doesn't know the way to study most effectively? Well... I guess you don't have to imagine because I'm humbling myself to that level.

What's my point?

When you run a study blog (or when you just frequent them,) one thing becomes abundantly clear. Everyone knows the “best” way to study, and unfortunately, the “best” way to study is rarely said to be the same thing. Virtually no one can agree on the best study strategies available.

(Wild tangent: So I was listening to this professor that studies studying. (Yea... you read that right.) It was almost like listening to a stuffy version of my blog. Many of the studies agreeing with my strategy are studies that I'd never even heard of. I guess my years of working on this stuff paid off. While I usually don't take much pride from agreeing with professors but this guy seemed smart. That or I just like stroking my own ego. Now please forgive me as I turn the tangential train around and bring it back into the station. CHOO CHOO!)

With all this disagreement on study strategies, this becomes blatantly obvious.

Simple Answers Don't Exist

Most people don't waste their time arguing about gravity. Why is that?

I know this sounds a little ridiculous but play along. Planes are flying in the sky above us. I can lift objects off the ground. Sometimes it can seem like dust is floating forever. Scientists have even created crafts that hover. Certainly, there must be someone willing to argue with the fundamental premises of gravity. Maybe one person somewhere? Well... I've never met that person and I have a theory why I haven't.

People don't argue about things that are measurable, relatively consistent, and objective. People can measure gravity. People can prove gravity. Gravity appears not to have changed in any significant way since it's discovery.

Study habits are not that simple.

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You cannot measure studying in any really objective environment. Sure, good experiments are possible but the definitive experiment is still way beyond what we're capable of. There are technological limitations that prevent equal people from learning the same thing in two different ways without the two things interfering with each other. All experiments require multiple people that are wildly different in hundreds of thousands of ways.

Study habits sure can't be considered consistent either. For most of history, studying was a niche activity for the super rich of their time. The only studying the average person would do would be practicing in a trade. “School” is a relatively recent concept. Schools started with children of all ages in a single room learning with each other. For the last 100 years it looks pretty consistent but remember, this is 100 years out of thousands total. Even now computers are changing everything. This is definitely too early to call it consistent.

Just like I mentioned before, there is no grand conclusive study experiment and we still don't even have the technology to try it. That means anything about studying is limited in it's objectivity.

Studying is a complicated subject because it has to be. Don't take my word or anyone else's as final.

You Don't Have To Be Lost

All this talk about studying being impossible to measure could easily make you feel a little lost in the wilderness. You don't have to feel that way though. Not having all of the information doesn't means that you don't have enough information to use. In fact, recent history has given us more information and more opportunity than at any time in history. (That might seem like a given but the fall of the roman empire suggests it's not. Wait... This is another tangent... Choo Choo!)

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You may not have the final objective answer to the studying problem but even a grade school education gives you all the tools you need to find your personal answer. No two people being the same makes study experiments impossible to make objective on a major scale but on a personal scale it's ideal.

Think about it this way. When map makers from Europe went to North America. They had no idea what they were stepping into. The process had to be completely objective for their own sake. No one had maps so it was uncharted wilderness.

What about the natives already living on the land? Did they have maps? Did they need maps? Of course not. They LIVED THERE. They could get the map and it would be a virtually useless sheet of paper for them. They've seen the landmarks. They know the area. It's the same thing with your brain.

Scientists can't yet explore your brain but you've lived in it your whole life. You know more about the best way to study for you better than anyone else. Not only that though, you're probably lucky enough to be familiar with the tool that can help you know your brain even better.

The Scientific Method

If there is one thing that you learn from my piles and piles of articles loaded onto this site it should be this. Your life is worth experimenting with. Using the scientific method, you can discover the most efficient ways for you to study.

Sure, no scientist is going to take your results as objective but who cares? If you put the slightest bit of rigor into your methodology they're going to be mostly true for you. Yes. You. That is the key difference between all the pointless study experiments and your personal study experiments. You are wildly different than other people. Who cares if someone else studies better hanging upside-down while humming Waltzing Matilda? Unless it works for you too, it means nothing. Personal experiments mean everything.

Given no personal experience, take advice but never lose sight of what's really important. You know what's best for yourself.

I give pages of advice on this blog. I've developed this advice from my own personal experiments but don't take them as more true than your own personal experiments.

Do you want to know how to study faster than your teachers leaving on a Friday night? (Maybe you never noticed because you leave so fast.) Well... Be sure to look at some of the articles in this blog. Also, please share this article to help spread the message.

How To Stop Studying Too Much

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If you're reading this and thinking, “studying too much? is this guy crazy? No one studies too much! People don't study enough,” then you're probably not going to get too much from this article. Now, this article is awesome (I would know. I wrote it,) but it's kind of like giving a medical student the ability to write prescriptions for Adderall. It's asking for trouble.

If you're not a regular reader of this blog then I recommend you start with one of these more introductory articles:

Why You Suck At Studying

15 Lazy Ways To Improve Your Grades

That being said, if you're wild and crazy enough, well, smart enough, too have started implementing some of efficiency focused study strategies, then this article is for you.

When teaching people these study strategies, I find that the most common problem they have is the problem I suffered through at first too. After years of studying long hours for tests, it's hard to get comfortable not spending those hours studying. It's very likely that you'll feel like you're slacking off and that you might even fail because of that “slacking.”

This feeling alone is a problem.

Extra stress will increase the chances that you will end up failing your test. Stress is one of the most important things you're trying to eliminate when you eliminate excess studying. If you're going to stress out about it (consistently), you might as well just be studying.

It gets even worse though. That stress can lead you to start to study at the last minute to try and save yourself. That study time will be virtually useless because it will be rushed and highly stressed studying. When you screw up the test, you're going to be thinking, “OH NO!! WHY WAS I STUPID ENOUGH TO NOT STUDY FOR HOURS!” That will just help you bury yourself deeper into your ineffective study habits.

If you're trying to reduce your studying to improve your grades you need to be able to break your habit fast.

Remember Efficiency

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This is something you already know but it's something you're going to need to remind yourself every time you cut your studying short.

How much you work isn't what's important. The important part is the results you get. You can be the hardest working person in the world but that won't help you succeed if you don't have the right tools.

Efficiency is what you're really looking for. Imagine the difference between mowing a lawn with a lawn mower or a pair of scissors. No matter how hard the person with the scissors works, they're still going to find it impossible to keep up with the lawn mower. Don't be the guy with the pair of scissors trying to mow his lawn. (For some reason, I picture him like he works at a beauty salon with a comb in his hand. I bet he speaks with an accent too.)

Screw working hard! Working hard is easy. Anyone can do it. It has its place but school is where you're supposed to be becoming intelligent. Studying less increases your efficiency. Study after study has shown this. Once you get your planned out minimalist style study session finished. Close the textbook.

Discipline Through Entertainment

It can be tough to close the textbook when you have a history of studying way too much. But this is where you can have a little bit of fun with it. If you get the urge to study when you're not supposed to be studying, get disciplined and have some fun.

When you're first getting into the habit of reducing studying, don't reduce studying just so you can be more productive. For example, don't give up study time to put in extra hours at work or in the gym. After you get in the habit you can increase your productivity but while you're first developing the habit just have fun.

Find an interest other than studying to focus your time on. If you enjoy videogames, play videogames. If you enjoy watching hungarian dance videos, watch hungarian dance videos. If you like trying to bake your own Cheese puffs, well, good luck to you and don't start a fire. Use the things you enjoy to do to help you escape your bad study habits.

Track Everything

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I know that you're scared and I can't blame you. As I started to reduce my studying, I was convinced my grades would drop too. I was watching them and waiting but it never came. In fact, the opposite happened.

If you're worried then take comfort in tracking everything you score before and after you change your study strategies. Instead of looking at this like the end or beginning of your good grades, look at it like an experiment. At the very least, you're going to learn more about the way you study than at any other point in your life. This is going to allow you to maximize your grades in the future, whether you choose to follow through with the reduced study time or not.

As long as you're keeping track of your grades, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. If you see your grades slip below your comfort zone, you can always stop. That being said, I recommend you allow yourself a few point range to get used to it. I, personally, didn't see any negative change but I wouldn't count on it for the first couple weeks.

The best part about studying less is that over time, your grades will continue to improve. Many of the advantages of studying less don't come from the first couple sessions. They come after you start to adapt to studying for less time. The more you're able to intensify your sessions, the faster you'll be able to learn everything.

So, I know you want to pick up that textbook and try to improve your grade but it's the wrong thing to do. Every time you surrender to that temptation you set your brains adaptation time back even farther. It's just going to make your life harder in the long run.

If you're still struggling to get in the zone then you might need to check this article out:

Achieving Perfection In School

Don't you want to know the way that lazy looking guy with straight A's gets his studying done? Well, you've stumbled into the right place. Check out some of the other articles on this site. Maybe even pick up one of my books.

7 (Sneaky) Tricks To Starting The School Year Right

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Getting good grades doesn't require that you invest hours a night into studying. While some students can get good grades through that, it's usually the least intelligent way to get good grades. Instead of looking for better grades through more time investment, you should be looking for better grades through smarter time investments.

These 7 (Sneaky) tricks will help you do just that. They're far from the traditional “study more” advice that you'll hear from virtually every other source.

1. Syllabus Plot And Scheme

Every student needs to be plotting and scheming based on the syllabus their teacher provides. What do I mean by that?

Lets say your teacher hands out a syllabus that states 10% of your grade is based on your homework scores and 90% of your grade is based on test scores. Now consider how hard the tests are and how common the homework is. You need to be able to look at that information and figure out where you need to be investing your time.

Let's make this example even more obvious. Lets say there are only 4 tests through the year and there is a half hour of homework every single night with that same point allocation.

What is the smart thing to do as a student?

SCREW THE HOMEWORK!

You can get a 90 in the course by just studying well for the tests. Investing a half hour every night is wasting significantly more time to see barely any improvement in your results. You only have so much time in your day. Do you really want to use it fighting for a few points when you can use it to get a ton of points?

That being said, by screw the homework, I don't mean never do it. I mean, consider not doing it when you really don't need or want to do it. An extra few points can help. They're just not worth sacrificing too much of your time for. Some homework can also help you prepare for the test. In those cases, maybe it will be smart to do it. Just don't consider the homework essential based on this syllabus.

With virtually every class you can use a similar method make powerful changes in your study strategies. Every class is different so you need to do the plotting and scheming on your own.

2. Get A Head Start

What is the easiest part of the year? Usually it's the first month or two. Take advantage of that.

Getting good grades early on is easy. It might seem like overkill to go for great grades early on but it's worth it. In most classes, the perfect score you get at the beginning of the year is just as important to your final grade as a perfect score you get at the end of the year. Considering that early perfect grade is significantly easier to get, those are the grades you're going to want to be fighting for, if any.

I get it if you don't think it's worth the investment but if you're planning on fighting for a higher grade, early in the year is the perfect time to get a head start. It lets you relax during the harder parts of the year.

3. Teacher's Alliance

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Do not make enemies with your teacher.

As far as you should be portraying, they are smarter than you. They care about you more than you do. They are perfect while you are a dog to be trained. I know, none of that is necessarily true but as long as you're subjecting yourself to class, this is the way to get ahead easier.

You don't need to be a suck up but in any confrontation you have with your teachers, you will lose. I wrote a whole article on this that's probably worth reading.

In the best case scenario, you want your teacher rooting you on. The way you make that happen is to act like you're a good student. Students that act like good students virtually never get failed. They also tend to get treated softly in the grading process. Use that to your advantage.

4. Irritating Perfectionist

The following is a strategy I've used only a couple times myself. I read it from another book. The part I love about this piece of advice is not that it's unbelievably powerful. (It's useful just not fantastic.) The part I love is that it takes number 3 in this list and puts it in perspective.

After receiving your first low grade in the school year, go up to your teacher and ask about every single point that you lost on the assignment. Take your sweet time in asking the questions.

The most important reason you should do this is to learn from your mistakes.

The more entertaining reason to do this is to waste your teachers time to the point that the teacher questions giving you low scores in the future. The teacher is required to help struggling students. They can't afford to spend an hour with you discussing every low grade they give you. Spending this time shows them that with every low grade they give, they might have to.

Consider this the important takeaway: Teachers are tools for you to get good grades. They're not there to help you. They're there to get a paycheck. You're their tool to their paycheck. (Imagine they stopped getting paid, how long do you think they'd keep teaching the irritating students in your classroom?) You're not there to make them happy either. You're there to learn a lot and prove it with your scores.

5. Drop Drama

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People will always be trying to drag you into their own personal drama.

Don't let it happen. You can deal with drama in television shows. Most of the drama other people try to drag you into has absolutely nothing that you can help with. You'll have plenty of drama of your own in life. Every ounce of emotional energy that you invest in someone else's problems makes your life worse.

It also makes your grades worse.

6. Don't Bomb

This should be obvious but some students completely miss it.

At no point in the year should you let yourself completely bomb anything (unintentionally.) One single outlying low score can drag your grade down fast. Just don't let it happen in the first place.

Hand in all your assignments. Remember that a 50 is way better than a 0. (And from my experience working with other students, complete crap can get a 50 when it should get a 0. Hand stuff in!)

7. Sleep It Off And Up And Over And Out

The start of a new school year is stressful. There isn't a more important time to focus on getting however much sleep you need to thrive. It's also a common time that students lose track of their time and stop prioritizing sleep.

One of the sad truth's about the school year is that you're not going to have as much time to do the things you love. Don't stay up late trying to make up for that lost time. It will just make your school year harder in the long run.

Using these 7 sneaky tricks you can bring your grades into the stratosphere (maybe even the mesosphere if you're lucky.)

Great grades don't come from lots of studying. They come from smart studying. This site can help you with that. Check out our archives. Maybe you should even consider buying one of our books.