A safe, cozy and peaceful house is the perfect place to study your lessons after learning them from school. Especially when exams are approaching, you should seriously review your notes without procrastinating and getting distracted. You must really do your best to reap rewarding results. Nevertheless, as you focus and strive hard, remember that study breaks too.
Of course, you cannot just keep on reading, memorizing and cracking the books without pause. You need to rest in between, so your mind can breathe and recharge. Bombarding your head with information and not taking a few minutes of breathers might cause you to be overwhelmed. As a result, your mind might not be able to effectively digest what you’re studying.
You need to take short recesses while you’re burning the midnight oil. This is also to help maintain your productive mood. These breaks don’t need to be very long because you might forget that you’re actually studying. They could be around 15 to 25 minutes.
But what you should keep is that there are good and bad ways to spend these breaks. Needless to say, the bad ways will ruin your study routine, so don’t think twice. Choose to do what’s right while you rest for a while. How? Here are 7 healthy things to do during your 20-min study breaks.
1 – Refuel your tummy with nutritious snacks.
Studies are important, but you shall not care less for your health just because you are studying very well. Do not skip meals. Eat on time. It’s not bad to pig out during your study breaks, but best if you choose healthy chows.
Refuel your tummy with nutritious snacks, and see your mind become sharper and more active. Don’t hold back the want and need to eat when your belly is already rumbling. A famous chocolate brand says, “You’re not you when you’re hungry,” and that’s true. Your mood declines, patience shortens and interest collapses when you’re hungry. Right? Right.
You can study better when you and your tum are feeling happy and healthy! It’s literally replenishing your body and mind.
2 – Listen to energizing music.
No matter how much someone is known to be a bookworm or an information lover, he/she is not always in the mood to study. There are times when you don’t just have the pep at the moment. There are times when you like the subject, but as you sit there, you feel like your motivation is not enough. Don’t give up though. You might just be needing a little study break and some sounds that will switch you on and build up the zest.
Pause your reading, and play one to three songs that will surely energize you. You might feel like dancing while listening to these bops. That will help kick-start an atmosphere of liveliness that will affect your mood to study.
3 – Do some stretching.
Probably one of the downsides of spending all your review days at home is getting a stiff body. Since you’re staying at home, focusing on studying, you tend to forget about caring for your physical health.
Use study breaks to do some stretching. Put down your book and highlighter marker. Stand up from your study table. Stretch your hands, arms, legs and back. Do a few low-impact exercises. Go outside your room. Use the stairs. Within 20 minutes, you can do these and have beneficial study breaks.
4 – Take a walk outside.
Aside from just stretching, taking a walk outside your house is another healthy way to enjoy your study breaks. Don’t go far. Just stroll around your garden, patio or any outdoor house area. Check your plants. Refill your pet’s dish or bowl. Get some sun. It has so many benefits to your mental and emotional well-being. It can boost your studying determination.
Curb the physical inactivity that makes busy students unhealthy. During study breaks, move around by walking outdoors.
5 – Clean up your study area.
Study breaks can be made purposeful if you clean up your study area in this short recess. Freshen up your study table and remove clutter that bothers you while focusing. Throw away trash. Spruce up the room’s look, so you can be comfortable. What’s more, you will feel more excited to study with a neat and nice study space.
6 – Power nap ONLY IF you can!
For some people, study breaks are equal to sleeping, but hey, keep in mind that this only takes around 20 minutes. That means you cannot really sleep so soundly, or else, you will wake up late, fail to study calmly, and cram everything.
There’s such a thing called “power nap”. This is when you sleep quickly, just a few minutes, then wake up later feeling really pumped up and ready to study. Actually, power naps are effective to stimulate your energy without feeling any more sleepiness.
BUT! BIG BUT! Power nap ONLY IF you can. Not everyone can do this. And if you can, it’s possible that you cannot always do it.
If you’re a heavy-sleeper, don’t sleep during study breaks. Doing so is an automatic key to waking up 5 hours later.
7 – Do not use social media! Don’t play games!
Last but the most determinative, do not use social media and do not play video games on study breaks. Check your gadgets for softcopy of lessons, online tutoring reviewers, news, urgent messages to reply to and more important reasons.
Although breaks could be a time to check your phone, social media is a black hole that you won’t be able to easily escape once you step into the temptation. While scrolling up and down your virtual timeline, you think only 10 minutes have passed when it’s actually been almost an hour. While saying “one last game”, you think you’ve only said that twice when it’s actually been almost an hour that you’re saying the same thing.
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REST RESPONSIBLY!
You are neither a computer nor a robot, neither a gadget nor a machine that can keep processing information for long hours and days without breaking down. As a human being, taking study breaks is a must if you don’t want to break down. This will aid you to repower and reawaken yourself whenever you’re already getting exhausted while comprehending so many lessons and courses. Space and balance are given way. Through this, your studying methods can work more efficiently for you.
While study breaks are super essential for students, they must be done wisely and with discipline, so they can be maximized. Use your recesses healthily, so they will not betray you and make you tired or lazy. Have self-control, and be smart. Make healthy study break habits part of your overall study habits!
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nicole Ann Pore, a content writer from the Philippines, is the author of this article.
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