Category: Study Methods

Ever crafted the perfect schedule and study environment only to crash after an hour or two not even knowing what hit you? This struggle is common, but there’s a solution: understanding your energy cycles.

Knowing when you focus best can help you manage your time effectively, even with a demanding schedule.

What Are Energy Cycles

Energy cycles refer to the natural fluctuations in your energy levels throughout the day. These cycles are influenced by factors like your internal clock (circadian rhythm) and personal habits.

Each person has a unique energy cycle, leading to some being early birds, night owls, or something in between. That also explains the sudden slumps that leave you staring blankly at a textbook.

Think of your body like your phone’s battery. It needs regular charging to function at its best.

Just like a neglected battery can lose its capacity over time, neglecting your body’s rest needs can have similar consequences.

Trying to force your way through exhaustion won’t magically unlock boundless energy. Instead, it might lead to a longer recovery period down the line.

How to Use Energy Cycles to Study Better

 Knowing your energy cycles is a game changer and a far better idea than trying to power through via endless cups of coffee and zero sleep.

Once you can approximate when you’ll be at your best, you can decide to do the hard tasks at that time, schedule some quality rest time, and get back to it recharged and ready.

Schedule your classes

If you have some flexibility to choose classes from various time slots, pick the most challenging ones for your peak focus time and less challenging or more passive classes during your lower energy periods.

Or if you are working on a thesis and figured out you’re a morning person, try to go for afternoon classes so you can dedicate your most productive time to your thesis.

Taking notes and following your professor is generally less demanding.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, so be flexible and experiment with your schedule to find what works best.

The perceived difficulty of a class can vary depending on your interests, learning style, and even the teaching style of your instructor.

Adjust your study habits

 Studying isn’t one basic activity that you repeat to no end. It’s an umbrella term for tasks like reading notes, checking out flashcards, solving problems, and writing essays. Most of us have to do all or at least some of these.

During your dedicated study time, it’s good to identify the analytical and memorization tasks.

→ Analytical tasks generally demand more from you – like writing a thesis. They involve creativity, focus, and dedication. So it’s best to do those at your highest energy

→  Memorization tasks, such as reviewing flashcards or practicing vocabulary, can be tackled during lower energy periods.

How to Identify Your Energy Cycles

Figuring out your energy cycles is fairly easy.

Here’s the trick: pay attention when you feel most productive during the day and feel it’s easiest to enter in the flow state.

At the same time, notice those hours when no matter how hard you try, it’s painful to focus or to come up with anything creative or interesting. Do this over 1-2 weeks and there you have it!

Of course, energy can vary from day to day depending on factors like your diet, how much sleep you get, and what activities you get involved in.

However, tracking your energy for a week or two is usually enough to identify an underlying trend, an average of your energy patterns.

What Is Quality Rest?

I mentioned above that you need to take quality breaks and rest. What I mean by that is to pay attention to the activities you do during rest time. Don’t trick yourself into doing other tiring tasks.

Here’s how you achieve quality rest.

Sleep Hygiene

First and foremost, have good sleep hygiene. No matter when your energy peak is, when you go to bed, be mindful about it.

Avoid screens (phones, laptops) for at least an hour before bed, and create a relaxing bedtime routine.

Don’t take your phone with you. Avoid Netflix right before and try not to sleep with your TV on. It might harm your REM and affect your energy levels in the next day, even if you get a full 8-hour sleep.

Rest Your Mind During Breaks

Beyond sleep, when you’re taking a break during the day, give your mind a break too, not just your body.

While scrolling through social media might be entertaining, it bombards your brain with information.

Opt for activities that truly give your mind a break: a walk in nature, gazing out the window, or preparing a healthy snack between Pomodoro breaks. Minimize screen time during short breaks to avoid feeling even more drained.

Meditation is also a big one for me. Takes a bit of getting used to, but once you know how not to think, you have a magic trick up your sleeve. Even with a busy schedule you can sneak in 15 minutes of meditation (guided or not) to relax your mind and give yourself a quick refresh.

Recharge With A Power Nap

Power naps can also be a game-changer. It works like a reset button for some people. Experiment with short power naps (10-20 minutes) to see if they improve your focus and refresh your mind.

Prioritizing physical and mental rest can significantly improve your energy levels and overall well-being.

Bottom Line

Your body is not a machine, so ditch the guilt trips and relax – truly relax, don’t distract yourself.

Pushin through costs you more time in the log run, so strive to become a better planner and introduce intentional rest time into your schedule.

Listen to yourself, not to FOMO. Hacks won’t beat fatigue, but breaks will recharge you to crush your studies.

The Feynman Technique is a powerful study method designed to help you learn by teaching. If you’ve ever wondered what is the Feynman Technique or how feynman teaching works, this guide will walk you through the process and show you how it can transform your study routine.

What Is the Feynman Technique?

Named after Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman, this technique is based on the simple idea that to truly master a subject, you must be able to explain it in simple terms. When you break down complex ideas into digestible parts, you not only learn the material more deeply but also retain it longer.

The 4 Steps of the Feynman Technique

Often summarized as the core of the Feynman study method, these are the four essential steps:

1. Choose a Concept:
   Identify a topic or concept you want to learn.
2. Teach the Concept:
   Explain it out loud or write it down as if you’re teaching someone else.
3. Identify Gaps:
   Recognize where your explanation falls short or gets confusing. This is a crucial moment in your learning process. If you’d like additional strategies on how to bridge these learning gaps, check out our guide on gap learning.
4. Review and Simplify:
   Go back to your source material to address these gaps and simplify your explanation further.

This four-step process not only clarifies your understanding but also highlights areas that require more attention—making it a highly effective revision technique.

Why the Feynman Technique Works

There are two primary reasons for its effectiveness:

• Simplicity:
  By focusing on the core of a subject, you strip away unnecessary complexity.
• Active Engagement:
  Explaining the material reinforces your learning, making the study process more interactive than passive reading.

As Richard Feynman once said:

“I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.”
— Richard Feynman

This approach removes the illusion of learning by forcing you to confront exactly what you do and don’t understand.

Applying the Technique on Your Own

Even if you don’t have a study partner, you can still benefit from the Feynman Technique. Here are some ideas:

• Record Yourself:
  Use your phone to record an explanation of the concept, then listen back to identify areas for improvement.
• Simulate a Virtual Audience:
  Imagine teaching an online class. This mental exercise can help you organize your thoughts.
• Write It Down:
  Draft a blog post or a simple summary in a word processor. The act of writing reinforces your understanding.
• Develop a Study Plan:
  Break down the subject into smaller parts and tackle each as if preparing to teach it. You might find it useful to prioritize your topics with tools like the Eisenhower Matrix, ensuring that you focus on what’s most important first.

Additionally, consider aligning your study sessions with your natural energy cycles to maximize focus and retention. Understanding when you’re most alert can help you get the most out of the Feynman Technique.

These methods make the Feynman Technique an accessible and adaptable tool—sometimes referred to as the Feynman Revision Technique—to improve your study habits.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 4 steps of the Feynman Technique?

The four steps are: Choose a concept, teach the concept, identify gaps in your knowledge, and review and simplify the material.

What is the Feynman Technique Theory?

At its core, the Feynman Technique theory is based on the idea that true understanding comes from being able to explain a subject in simple language. It emphasizes active learning and continuous refinement of your knowledge.

How effective is the Feynman Technique?

Many learners find this method effective because it forces you to engage deeply with the material. By breaking down and teaching what you’ve learned, you can pinpoint weaknesses in your understanding and improve retention.

The blurting method is a rapid recall study technique where you quickly dump all your knowledge on a topic on a piece of paper, immediately after you’ve gone through your notes. It can give great results because it engages your working memory and makes learning less passive.

Doesn’t sound half bad considering We spend about half of our waking hours mind-wandering. So you could argue it’s in our nature.

But the ticking clock doesn’t care about human nature, it just reminds you of an approaching deadline. And you’re suddenly Tom Cruise on a mission against time.

What Is The Blurting Method?

Basically, you force yourself to blurt out what you learn in coherent language. This forces you to use verbalization for learning.

In contrast, when you just read your notes, you may understand them, but remember close to nothing. That’s because you’re not actively using that part of your brain that’s responsible for recall. And that’s what you need in an exam.

The cool thing about the blurting method is that you already have everything you need to get started: a piece of paper and a pen.

How To Do The Blurting Method?

The blurting method is a rapid recall study technique where you quickly dump all your knowledge on a topic on a piece of paper, immediately after you’ve gone through your notes. It can give great results because it engages your working memory and makes learning less passive.

Doesn’t sound half bad considering We spend about half of our waking hours mind-wandering. So you could argue it’s in our nature.

But the ticking clock doesn’t care about human nature, it just reminds you of an approaching deadline. And you’re suddenly Tom Cruise on a mission against time.

What Is The Blurting Method?

Basically, you force yourself to blurt out what you learn in coherent language. This forces you to use verbalization for learning.

In contrast, when you just read your notes, you may understand them, but remember close to nothing. That’s because you’re not actively using that part of your brain that’s responsible for recall. And that’s what you need in an exam.

The cool thing about the blurting method is that you already have everything you need to get started: a piece of paper and a pen.

How To Do The Blurting Method?

As I said above, to put the blurting method into action, you just need your notes, a pen a paper.

For it to be effective, it’s best to study one topic at a time. If your content seems dense, break it into manageable sections, such as chapters and subchapters.

Once you’ve finished going through your notes, get your paper and quickly note down all you remember. Don’t stress on grammar, spelling, or weird wording.

Just let it all out.

One focus: Getting the information right

When you’re done, cross-check with your notes. You’ll identify any weak spots right away, so you can know exactly where you need to work more.

Of course, you can have your own approach to it. Grade your paper and revise only your mistakes after the first round.

There are plenty of ways you can go about it.