103. How Long Should I Study? How Do I Stay Motivated? (Q&A)
Episode 103
In this month's Q&A episode, I'm answering two questions that hit on some of the biggest study and productivity myths out there.
Question One: A college student asks how to study for six to eight hours straight without crashing. My answer? Don't.
Question Two: Someone asks about staying motivated to finish projects once the initial excitement wears off. Spoiler: motivation isn't the answer.
In this episode of Learn and Work Smarter, I give you the real talk about effective studying, the truth about motivation, and the systems that actually help you get things done.
What You Learn:
Why 6-8 hour study sessions are a really bad idea
A study structure that actually works
Why "study with me for 12 hours" YouTube videos are misleading
The truth about active recall and why it's exhausting (and why that's good)
Why motivation is overrated and what to rely on instead
How to take action even when you don't feel like it
🔗 Resources + Episodes Mentioned:
⭐The College Note-Taking Power System (Brand New Program!)
⭐Assignment Management Power System (Brand New Program!)
Episode 08 - Motivation vs. Discipline:
Episode 24 – Why You Can't Focus (And What to Do About It)
Episode 54 – The Secret Ingredient Behind Every Accomplishment Ever
Episode 55 – Body Doubling
Episode 72 – How to Finish Unfinished Projects
Never stop learning.
❤️ Connect:
-
The following transcript was autogenerated and may contain some interesting and silly errors. But in the name of efficiency and productivity, I choose not to spend my time fixing them 😉
103 How Long Should I Study and How Do I Stay Motivated (Q&A)
===
[00:00:00] Well, hello there. Welcome to the Learn and Work Smarter podcast. I am Katie, and this is episode 103, and it's also one of our monthly q and a episodes where I'm answering questions submitted by listeners of the show. If you would like to submit your own question for me to answer in a future episode, just fill out the super simple form on the homepage of Learn and work smarter.com.
All right. I am answering two questions this week. One is from a college student and the other is from what I assume is a working professional, but actually I'm not totally sure you'll see what I mean when we get to the questions. And just, um, a quick word of advice to anyone who is submitting questions.
The more information that you give me as background, I mean, I can't be reading a novel obviously, but the more information you give me about are you a student, are you a professional. If you're a student, what grade you're in, if you're professional, maybe what industry. I won't read that stuff on the show necessarily if it's not related to the question, but it will help me frame my answers.
[00:01:00] And remember, everything that we talk about today can be found in the show notes at Learnandworksmarter.com/podcast/103.
If you're watching this on YouTube, you can find everything in the description box. And while you're there, be sure to subscribe and say hello in the comments. All right, we are ready to get started, so let's do that.
All right. Our first question is from a student in college. I am going to read their question. They write, hi Katie. Do you have any tips for studying for six to eight hours straight? I can usually hit around three before I crash out, so I'm [00:02:00] looking for ways to stay in it for at least twice that Thank you so much. love your stuff.
Okay, listen, time for some tough love. No kidding. You're crashing out after three hours. Three hours in itself is way too long to be locked in in a cognitively demanding task without a break, and to think that you're trying to double that or to hit six to eight hours? Too much.
So I'm really gonna do my best to steer you in a different direction here.
So my first question to you is, why? Why are you aiming to study for that long? It's not effective. Even if you're getting an advanced medical degree and you legitimately have a ton of hard material to learn, the best way to do that is definitely not in, you know, one six to eight hour chunk.
I usually recommend max study sessions of 45 minutes before taking a break, but you could do 90 minutes straight without a break if you're accustomed to that level of focus. But you gotta be honest with yourself. In that 90 minutes, make sure that you're truly, [00:03:00] truly focused. If you get distracted, if you keep popping into your email or maybe checking your phone or zoning out on what you're reading, 90 minutes is too long.
Instead of eight hours nonstop studying, I would rather you do two 90 minutes sessions. This is if you can sustain 90 minutes of focused attention, with 20 to 30 minute breaks between each 90 minute chunk. And then if you truly need more time that same day, you would repeat that ratio later in the day after a much longer break in the middle.
That gives you six hours of studying, but it's more focused. It is deep thinking, and you're definitely not frying your brain in the process. And remember not moving your physical body for six to eight hours at a time, it's not just unproductive. It's actually really unhealthy. Like it's really not good for you at all.
Your brain tanks when your body stays frozen in one position for hours. You need circulation. You need oxygen, you need movement. You're alive, right? Your spine needs a break, your [00:04:00] eyes need a break, even your thinking benefits from switching states for at least a few minutes. And here I am arguing for a 20 to 30 minute break for 90 minute study sessions,
now if you prefer the shorter burst approach, I'm gonna give you a study structure to try. It adds up to roughly about three total hours divided into 45 minute chunks. So something like 45 minutes of focused, concentrated studying, a 10 to 15 minute break, 45 minutes on. A 10 to 15 minute break and then 45 minutes on. That gets you about two hours and 15 minutes of focused, concentrated study time within like, you know, three hour span or so.
But if you need the full three hours of devoted study time, you could add one more 30 minute study block after your last break. Or, if you are dead set on somehow for some reason, on getting six hours of studying done in one day, which I am still trying to steer you away from, you could repeat this 45 minutes [00:05:00] on 15 minutes off pattern until you hit your arbitrary six hours.
This is much more effective than trying to brute force three hours straight during which time you're actually getting distracted and taking unproductive breaks that you're not even realizing are breaks. In your studying, like I hear from students all the time, like, I don't know why I did poorly on the test. You know, I, I studied for five hours. But if there were a hidden camera somewhere in the room, you'd see that, you know, in that span of five hours, there's maybe 90 minutes to two hours, absolute tops of focused, concentrated learning. There is so much more time spent zoning out or checking phones or getting up to go get a snack or even staring out the window.
And this is so much time that we don't account for, and we mistakenly tells ourselves that it is time we spent studying.
What I'm saying here is that you, you do need those breaks. You do need to get up and get a snack and stare out the window. Right, but I want you to be clear about when [00:06:00] those breaks are and take them intentionally so that your non break time is spent doing the real work that you're there to do.
And you will find that if you do it this way, that you do not need to be studying for six to eight hours a day. Also too, I have seen these videos on YouTube where it's like a live stream of somebody studying for six to tweet, six to tweet six to eight, sometimes even 12 hours at a time, and they're glorifying, they're like, study with me 12 hours.
And you can kind of, you know, log into the video and do some sort of body doubling along with it. But they're glorifying this approach to studying, which is frankly really bad. And a sign. D, dare I say it, of I'm gonna say it. What the heck? It's my show. I can say what I want. I think it's a sign of mismanaged time.
Honestly, if someone's like, watch me study for 12 hours, I'm asking myself, what have you done before this? Like, why have you not? I'm gonna talk about this too in the second part of my answer, but do not be using these [00:07:00] ridiculously glorified hyper dramatic YouTube videos of glorified studying as if it's something to be proud of and try to emulate.
Absolutely. A crock of junk. No.
And here's something else that students forget too, and this is why I know those videos just like are complete balogna. True active recall is exhausting. It is supposed to feel really, really mentally uncomfortable, but that's how you know it's working. Like if it hurts, you're doing it right. But because it's truly effortful, it is nearly impossible to sustain for more than 60 to 90 minutes at a time. In fact, that's why I almost always suggest limiting study sessions where you're using active recall to 25 to 45 minutes at a time. These people you're watching in YouTube study for, you know, eight to 12 hours at a time, they're not using active recall.
And if you're not using active Recall, then you're wasting your time right there.
And I am hoping some of you just caught what I said a second ago was that if you're, you know, to limit your study sessions where you're using active [00:08:00] recall to like no more than 45 minutes, there is no other kind of study session. During the study part fo focus on me right now for some reason. Like you're doing a million things and you're listening to the show like Zone Back into me.
This is really important. Okay. During the study part of your test prep and the learning process, you should only be using active recall study methods. Rereading your textbook and looking over your notes is a complete waste of time. That is not studying. It's something different that has a time and a place, but it's not studying.
In SchoolHabits University, I teach exactly what these active recall methods are and how to use 'em for different types of content. But more importantly, inside that program, I break down what I call the FOMSO five Step Study Framework. Studying using active recall is only one. Of the five steps, and it really even doesn't even come until closer to the end of the process.
But there are three other absolutely critical steps that students must take before they even [00:09:00] begin using active recall. And if you don't do them, you're wasting a ton of time thinking you're studying, when in fact you're probably studying the wrong things or studying too much or maybe not enough. You are wasting your time in your, I'm using air quotes if you're not watching this on YouTube, but you're wasting your time in your study sessions, quoting that, looking for your materials and trying to figure out how to actually study them.
And when you're doing these three other steps in my FOMSO five step study process, you can spend more than 45 minutes at a time on those other three steps because they're not active recall based. Okay? So they're not gonna absolutely drain your brain. But they have to happen before you can even get to your active recall study sessions, which again, I am strongly suggesting you limit to 45 minutes. Past that point, you're not pushing through, you're not walking in, right. You're just doing lower quality work and tricking yourself into thinking that that time counts. It doesn't.
I also want you to consider something bigger, so zoom out with me here for a moment. Needing, I, [00:10:00] I kind of hinted at this like a moment ago, but needing an eight hour study marathon often means that the real problem is happening earlier in the week or even earlier in the weeks leading up to your study session.
If you're not reviewing your notes after class, if you're not touching the material again, you know until a week later, if you're not doing those small check-ins or micro sessions throughout the week, your only option becomes these giant panicked cram blocks. It's small, consistent review, 25 minutes a day that removes the need for these epic, oh, I must study for eight hours situations in the first place.
It spreads out the cognitive load. It strengthens your memory. It builds familiarity with the content way before you ever sit down for a long dedicated study session.
So I'm giving you tough love here because I want you to learn effectively and still have a life. Six to eight hours straight is not the flex.
Studying smarter in shorter focused science backed chunks. That's the flex. I hope that was helpful. I know it's not the answer [00:11:00] that you thought you were getting. Maybe you thought I'd give you tips on how to use caffeine or you know, some hack to keep you awake for eight hours, but Nope, I'm not about that.
You wanted chocolate, but I gave you broccoli. But broccoli, my friend, is better for you. Alright, our second question is also a really good one. I'm not sure if it comes from a student or a professional, 'cause as I said at the top of this episode, you know that information wasn't given, but it is a question that could be from either, let me read it.
Hello Katie. Thank you for the chance to ask a question. You are welcome. Um, really appreciate it. I was wondering something about motivation. I often start something feeling pretty motivated, but then before I finish it, I lose interest. This is across all areas of my life. Do you have tips for staying motivated when I'm working on things that I started off excited about that you for your time.
First of all, thank you for this question, because it is so honest, and I think a lot of people can relate to what you're asking and what you're talking about. So you start something feeling motivated and excited, and then somewhere along the way you lose [00:12:00] steam, the excitement fades, the interest drops off, and now you're stuck with this half finished thing that you don't really wanna work on anymore.
And here's what I want you to hear first. This is completely normal. Like this is how we humans work. We're not robots programmed to maintain, you know, consistent enthusiasm for every single thing. We start all the way until the moment we're done. Our interests change, our circumstances change, our energy levels change, our priorities shift for a thousand different reasons.
So if you're listening to this thinking there's something wrong with you because you can't stay motivated on something that you used to be motivated about, I'm here to tell you
there's nothing wrong with you. You aren't broken. You are just a normal human being. But here's where I'm gonna give you a perspective shift that might be uncomfortable at first, but I promise it's gonna help, and it actually seems to be the theme of today's episode. You wanting something and me giving you something a little harsher.
But the real issue here isn't that you're losing motivation. The real [00:13:00] issue is that you're relying on motivation in the first place. Motivation is fickle. It is unreliable. It is chemical and neurological, and it shows up when it wants to and it disappears when it feels like it. We cannot control it, and we definitely cannot depend on it.
Motivation is a luxury. It is not a requirement. I talk about this in episode eight of the podcast called Motivation Verse Discipline, which one matters more, and the short answer is discipline. Hands down. We think we need motivation to do things, but we don't. I mean, it's nice when it's there. It makes things easier, but we don't need it.
What we actually need is discipline. We need to take action even when we don't feel like it, even when the excitement is gone, even when it's not fun anymore, because the reality is that most things worth doing stop being exciting at some point. That's just the truth. The initial spark wears off, the novelty fades, and what's left is the actual work.
And in many cases, that tends to be a little more difficult than we thought and a little less [00:14:00] glamorous than we were hoping for. You know, I could share hundreds or honestly even thousands of examples of times when I'm not motivated to do the thing, but I do it anyway, and once I start I'm like, Hey, this isn't so bad.
Then I feel that momentum to keep going. You know? Let me give you an example, right? Just recently I got a new standing desk. I got an uplift desk, and I love it. I really do. But it only has one drawer. My previous beautiful desk, which I gave to my children, how lucky are they had these four huge drawers that I had all my office supplies perfectly organized, and I absolutely loved it, but whatever. So I was tasked recently with figuring out what the heck to do with the things that I had in those four drawers and, and now that I only had one drawer and I didn't have time for that. I didn't want to have to face all of those decisions.
Do I need this? Where does this go? Like I, you know, right. It was annoying. But I did it anyway, and about 15 minutes into my project I was like, Hey, this is actually fun. This isn't so bad. And boom, the project is done.
So if [00:15:00] you're only willing to work on things when you feel motivated, you're gonna have a lot of unfinished projects, which based on your question is exactly what's happening.
So let me give you some practical strategies to help you actually finish what you start, even when the motivation is gone.
First, I want you to get clear on why you started the thing in the first place. What was the reason? What was the goal? What were you hoping to accomplish or gain from it? Because sometimes we lose motivation because we've actually lost sight of the deeper reason we're doing something.
So try to reconnect with that. I know it sounds cheesy, but write it down if you need to put it somewhere you can see it. Just a few weeks ago I was working with a student on his college applications and we were writing his supplemental essays for a few of the schools he wanted to apply to, and one of his top schools had three supplemental essays.
That's not that uncommon. Now at this point. He had already written, I don't know, 12 supplemental essays for different schools, and he was just like, we got to this last one. He was like, I just can't do this anymore. I can't do [00:16:00] three more. I have done so many. I'm done. I am just not motivated to write anymore.
And he told me, he was actually like, I just don't think I'm gonna apply to this school anymore. Like I have enough schools. I don't need to apply to this one. And so I looked him in the eye and I repeated to him what he had told me. I said, you're not going to apply to one of your top choice schools because they have three supplemental essays and you're not motivated to do them.
Right. And then from there I asked them, why would you let a silly emotion, like motivation stop you from going after one of your literal dreams. And when I phrased the question that way with some really intense eye contact, he was like, oh, well, okay. I always get him with the eye contact and he saw what I was getting. Right. So remember this was one of his top choice schools, and he was seriously considering not applying because he wasn't motivated enough in that moment, in that short little fleeting moment to write the essays.
So I got him to tap into his deeper why without phrasing it in a way that sounded cheesy. I wasn't like tap into your deeper why. That just would not work with my students. But I got him to [00:17:00] recall why he wanted to go to that school in the first place, what programs they had that his other schools didn't offer.
Why the location was ideal for him, why everything about that university was exactly what he wanted. And these three, what, 250 word essays were just simply a matter of putting his hands on the keyboard and writing authentically his answers to the questions. So he was able to tap into his why and do the work regardless of how he felt about it. His why was not, I want to write essays. His why was I want to go to this school that is calling to my soul.
Now, if you tap into your deeper why and you realize that the reason you started it no longer applies, like your why has changed, or you don't actually care about the outcome anymore, then give yourself permission to let it go seriously.
You are allowed to quit things. I've said this before on the show, but I really wish someone had told me that when I was growing up. I talk about this in episode 72, all about how to finish unfinished projects. Not everything [00:18:00] deserves to be finished. Some things we start because we thought we wanted them and then we realized that we don't.
That is okay. Just drop it and move on. No shame. But if you look at the thing and you genuinely do want to finish it, or you know it's something that you need to finish, here's what you do. You stop waiting for motivation to show up and you take action anyway. And I know that sounds overly simple, but it is the truth.
Action is the magic bullet. There is no secret hack. There is no special strategy that makes hard things easy. You just have to do the thing even when you don't feel like it. In fact, I have an entire episode, episode 54 called The Secret Ingredient behind Every Single Accomplishment Ever.
And let me cut to the chase here and tell you what that secret ingredient is, is taking action. The only strategy behind every accomplishment ever is somebody taking action regardless of feelings, regardless of desire or motivation, just mechanically taking action. And before you think I'm being harsh here, let me give you some ways to make this easier, because I [00:19:00] do know that taking action is hard, right?
Especially for people with A DHD where task initiation is more challenging than it is for others. I'm not sitting here saying that taking action is easy. No way. But literally that's what has to happen. And there's some things you can do, which I'm gonna share with you now to make taking action easier.
But regardless, you still have to mechanically do the thing.
So one strategy is to make the next step as small and as clear as possible. If you're staring at a big project that you've lost interest in, of course you don't wanna work on it. It's overwhelming, right? There's just too many pieces and the thought of getting through them all. But if you break it down into the teeny, tiniest next step, something you could do in 10 to 15 minutes, like we're talking bite sized, it becomes way more manageable.
And then once you start, momentum will kick in. Notice I said momentum and not motivation, because after some time, momentum can turn into motivation if the conditions are right, but in order to get momentum in the first place, you have to take action. In episode [00:20:00] 24, I talk about how we often can't focus 'cause we don't know what to focus on.
Like that is a huge lack of clarity, is a huge reason for lack of focus. The same thing applies here. If you don't know what the very next step is, you're not gonna do it. 'cause how are you gonna do it if you don't know what it is? So get clarity on that first. Now another strategy is to use your environment to support you.
If you're trying to work on something and your space is distracting, or it's chaotic, or it's loud, it's gonna be even harder. So clear your space, put your phone in another room, set a timer for 25 minutes, and commit to working for that short burst. Obviously, you know I'm gonna recommend the Pomodoro technique.
You can also try body doubling, which I talk about in episode 55. That can be particularly helpful if you have ADHD. You didn't say if you do or not, but that is a strategy that I recommend for anyone, A DHD or not. But that's when you work alongside someone else, either in person or virtually, and their presence helps us stay on tasks.
They're working on something else. We're working on our thing, but like in [00:21:00] parallel, right? Sometimes just having another person there working on their own thing makes it easier to push through when we're not feeling it. There's actually science related to mirror neurons in the brain to back up this body doubling strategy.
I have a link to that study in the show notes of episode 55. I have linked episode 55 in the show notes of this podcast, so you can get it, uh, get to it that way if you're curious about the study.
But here's the last thing I wanna say about this. If this pattern is happening across all areas of your life, like you said it was in your question, then I think it's worth asking yourself, are you starting too many things because if you are constantly jumping from one thing to the next, always chasing the initial hit of excitement, you're never gonna finish anything, and that's just gonna feel bad over time. So maybe the strategy isn't about how to stay motivated. I've already covered that, right?
It's not relying on motivation in the first place, but maybe it has nothing to do with motivation at all. Maybe it's about being more selective with what you start in the first place. [00:22:00] So before you commit to something new, ask yourself, am I actually gonna follow through on this? Do I have the time and energy for this right now?
Or am I just excited about the idea of it? There's nothing wrong with being excited about ideas, but not every single idea needs to be become a project in this moment. Some of them don't even need to become projects ever, but sometimes you want to do them, but now is not the time. I know I keep bringing up school Habits University, but honestly, the skills that I teach in that program are the backbone, are the soul of everything I teach on this podcast, and obviously inside that program I teach these skills much more deeply than I do on my podcast, but in my time management module, inside the program, I have what's called an activity inventory, and it's a process that I have SHU or School habits, that's what I call my students, SHU students go through to determine if they are in fact working on too much or taking on too little.
Because if either is true, if you're overextended or under extended in either direction, [00:23:00] motivation and discipline can just be all over the place. The activity Inventory is an exercise I have students do right when they start the program. 'cause it's not something a lot of people think about, but it's critical to managing time.
It's also essential for basically everything else. Like if we're not aware of what we're spending our time on and whether or not it's too much or too little or the right things in the first place, and literally what are we doing on the planet is time not our most valuable resource?
So isn't it the thing worth protecting more than anything else? SchoolHabits University teaches the skills that are required for school and career success. So I mentioned earlier that I wasn't sure if you were a student or a working professional, but it's relevant here regardless.
So to sum things up, losing motivation is normal, but motivation is not the answer at all. Discipline and action are. Getting clear on why you're doing the thing, breaking it into small steps. Using your environment and tools to support you and being more selective about what you are starting in the first place.[00:24:00]
I hope that was helpful. I know it's probably not the warm, fuzzy answer you were hoping for, but I think it's the one you probably needed to hear again today. I am serving broccoli when everybody's asking for chocolate. Oh, well, all right. That is it for this month's q and a episode. If you have a question you'd like me to answer, head to learn and work smarter.com and fill out the question submission form on the homepage.
And for links to all of the other episodes that came up today, as well as a transcript for the whole episode, you can head to learnand worksmarter.com/podcast/103.
Thank you so much for your time. Keep showing up, keep doing the hard work, keep asking the hard questions, and never stop learning.
