How to study 10+ hours daily without getting tired and depressed?

The road to cracking the JEE mains, or really any competitive exam, is a long and testing one.

The many harrowing stories that you hear about people that did poorly after putting in years of practice really doesn’t help you keep a positive outlook.

However, we believe that by adopting a systematic and scientific approach that includes a few simple, basic and doable steps, you can ward off these negative feelings. This is one thing most toppers focus on right from beginning and the others don’t!

Moreover, these tips and suggestions will help you achieve the studying time duration of a productive 10 hours, without so much as a glitch, that seemed impossible once upon a time.

1. Eat healthy.

This is probably the most cliché tip of all times, but it is cliché and used ever so often for a reason: it works!

If you plan on dedicating more than ten hours for serious studying daily, you will often find that eating will slip off your radar.

Studying such long hours requires mental stamina and for this, getting the right amount of nutrition at the right intervals is essential and so is staying hydrated – drink water at regular intervals.

2. Take the right amount of breaks.

While one may not want to break the flow of their studies at times, it is essential to take breaks.

All of us study in very different ways and have different preferences. I will tell you two approaches for this, here is the 1st one:

• You can decide and customize the breaks you take according to how you study.
• You can study and divide your time in blocks of say, an hour or 45 minutes.
• After each of these blocks, take a break.

And, the 2nd approach would be this:

• First set goals for yourself in terms of chapters, or topics, or number of questions to be answered.
• Once you reach that goal, you can take a break.
• Take these few minutes of the break to stretch your feet and to refresh yourself.

What may seem just as a few minutes of break can actually do wonders by allowing you to physically move around and rejuvenate yourself.

It will avoid all the tiredness to pile up at the end of the 10 hours.

3. Use the rest of the time wisely.

Just because you study for more than ten hours a day doesn’t mean you can’t have fun and do things you enjoy!

Don’t let studies overshadow your hobbies and extra – curricular activities. Since your study time is yours to personalize, you can break the time in 2 – 5 hour slots and go running in the evening or play your favorite sport, if that’s your thing.

You can play an instrument, watch the latest season of House of Cards or read!

By doing these other activities, you won’t go to sleep feeling that you didn’t do anything you enjoyed. Moreover, you will be able to break the monotonous routine you are likely to get into if you study such long hours.

4. Change your study area.

It is quite possible that you stay holed up in your room for days at a stretch and get out only to eat or for a few minutes to chat with your parents.

But if the quality of your study time is independent of where you study, always try to change the surroundings you study in. You may not just want a change, but you may even need the change.

It is important for you to break anything that may seed continuous boredom as that is the one way ticket to depression.

The same room for 10 hours everyday can do this. Instead go sit in the living room, your parents’ room, or the library at times. 

5. Use different ways of studying.

If you know how you study and what works for you well, you can do wonders with this knowledge.

Are you more of a visual/auditory learner or more of a linguistic one? Depending on this, you can use different languages of learning.

Instead of only reading out from a textbook and answering questions behind, you can instead watch video lectures that maybe make learning easier for you.

Not everyone can read and understand everything at once. This is where online education really comes in handy – there is reading material for once you are able to grasp the concepts taught in the online videos.

After going through this reading material, there are various online tests and quizzes to check your understanding.

6. Stay Motivated.

JEE Preparation is a long race that you got to run without limping if you want to get a top rank.

At times, you might end up with less enthusiasm for studying and feel like giving up. This is when you need to keep yourself motivated.

You can do this is two ways:

• Speak to a mentor – could be your parents, brother or sister, friends, teachers!

• Read motivational quotes – Motivational quotes simply work when you are running low on your motivation levels. Here is a list of 11 great motivational quotes for your JEE Main & Advanced exam that you should keep referring from time to time.

7. Don’t live in a world of possibilities.

It is only natural for high school students to think about the future, especially those high school students that are appearing for an exam as competitive as the JEE mains.

As important as planning for the future may be, it is crucial to do this with a limit and in a way that it doesn’t dominate all your thoughts.

Don’t stress and live in this realm of “what if’s” –

• What if I study so much and fail the JEE’s?
• What if I fall sick on the very day of the JEE mains?

It is honestly a useless state of mind which leads to unnecessary stress and this a slippery slope to not cracking the JEE’s. Instead, focus and work hard now and let your hard work speak in the future! 

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All in all, to achieve the productive 10 hours of studies without feeling drained out of energy is to keep it all simple. Good luck on your journey to success!