Study tips

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Start ridiculously small – Don’t aim for an hour straight. Try 10–15 minutes with a clear goal (e.g., “summarise one page” or “make two flashcards”). Once you get into the flow, it’s easier to extend.

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Use the “set-up” method – Half the battle is starting. I’d just sit down, open the book or laptop, and tell myself, “I’ll just read the first sentence.” Often that tiny action pushed me past the 10-minute crash.

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Separate hype from habits – Study vlogs can be inspiring, but real progress comes from a routine that fits you, not YouTube. Find your peak concentration time (morning/afternoon/evening) and schedule study then, rather than when you feel “inspired.”

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Break work into sprints – I used Pomodoro (25 mins work, 5 mins break), but you can adjust. The key is giving your brain permission to pause before burning out.

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Make studying less “all or nothing” – Even if you only manage 20 productive minutes, that still adds up. Don’t see shorter sessions as failure — see them as building blocks.

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Shift focus from motivation → consistency – Discipline sounds scary, but it really just means creating small daily habits so you don’t have to rely on fleeting bursts of energy.

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I remember I would think about all the things I could get done and get so excited about being productive, but then would crash when actually dying it because it was all too much. I found that breaking things down into chunks and then putting it in a to do list helped so much. This way I could chip away at work and still feel productive after completing a small bit because I could see the progress from ticking things off. I would recommend making the tasks really small so that it’s a lot more realistic and sustainable.

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I personally have an awful attention span so using this technique helped so much to maintain my focus.

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I would do 20-25 minutes of study or a practice paper and then have a 5-10 minute break afterwards.

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It’s important not to just scroll on your phone during your break though because your brain is still really active doing that and this can cause you to be burnt out quickly.

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A massive thing for me when revising was getting rid of distractions on my phone so I would try to download either forest or opal to help minimise activity and notifications that can distract your focus

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Another thing that helped me revise and not crash out was having someone to revise with.

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This offers that extra bit of support and motivation to keep going and we would test eachother on stuff which can help with alertness and memory recall!