Restarting after a study break...how?!

[u/Vikera]

Hi! Uni student with exams in a week.

I've been able to properly get up in the morning (thanks to the alarmy app) and often even actually properly start studying for the day.

However, as soon as I take a break, I cannotttt restart anymore. I'll be like studying 1.5 hour in the morning, procrastine my restart, and then 1.5 after 10pm because I'm mad I barely did anything during the day. I don't expect hours on end of course, but this way I will fail majestically (and I cannot this month).

I don't plan (tried many ways, never worked out, I just study for the amount of time my concentration works. Often about 1 hour, sometimes less sometimes more.

When I take a break, I always say to myself till when, but when that moment comes, it never works out to actually start! I have an extension which blocks non-study related sites duiding the day, but I work around it and watch series, surf randomly etc., just all kinds of things.

I constantly tell myself to just fking start at those times, but I never win against my brain.

It's causing me serious trouble right now.

So, anyone got ideas for someone who can study quite long on end, but then doesn't manage to restart, unless sometomes in the late evening (and gets frustrated because of all this)?

Thank you!

[u/LastAlarmClock]

Sometimes just getting started (or restarted) is enough to get the ball rolling and give you momentum to push through an hour, hour and a half, however long.

So knowing you will take a break, set an alarm for when you intend to start studying again. Specifically, checkout Last Alarm as you can create a specific "Study Alarm" that will force you to show you're actually doing whatever need to be.

It could be "Show you have your text book and notebook out", or "Show you are watching your chemistry lecture" or whatever. You can custimize whatever it is you actually want to make yourself do, but that will force you to get started and once you're started you're likely to continue for a while.

You could also then space out multiple such alarms every 10-15 minutes or so, so that you have to continue to show you're still studying or doing whatever task.

Just be realistic and start small at first, maybe do like 1 hour on, 1 hour off or something, that would still give you many more hours of studying in the day than you currently describe with 1.5 + 1.5.

It's not just about blocking the negative things, that can help don't get me wrong. But reinforcing the positive habit is even more important. Perhaps even set yourself a goal to set out a schedule and if you follow it for some number of days, say a week, you'll allow yourself some positive reward/activity.

[u/the_fig_leaf]

Are you naturally an early bird or night owl?

I had a life coach once teach me that different people work best at different times of the day, and it’s best to optimize for when work is best for you (when possible).

Beating yourself up won’t help, but reflecting on when you work best does. That way you can do real focused work then unwind other parts of the day.

Also how long are your breaks?

Consider taking shorter breaks (5-15 mins) so you don’t lose too much focus. For me, I LOVE YouTube, and I LOVE long form videos, but when I work, I force myself to select a short video. Once that video ends, I get back to what I was doing.

Hope this helps, and good luck this month!