All fingers are not of the same size. Every day is also not the same. Some days are productive while others are dull, boring and wasteful. A most common problem which candidates face is how to maintain their rhythm and remain consistent in their preparation. Most of the candidate faces a sinusoidal wave pattern in their preparation where they peak the studies on one week but waste the next half week. This mainly occurs when we are unable to soak the pressure of studies. Even in the course of a day, a candidate may put a night out only to waste the next full day. Or he may be studying for 4 hours at length but end up wasting next two hours on the pretext of relaxing the mind. This is where the difference come between an experienced veteran who have faced various competitions in the early phase of life and other novices.
Different people have different strategies to keep themselves motivated. The momentum strategy has two parts to it. One set is applicable to the study session. The other is applicable to interregnum period.
I am listing 10 such strategies to follow during the break period.
1. Buy a big wall clock and put it in front of your bed so that whenever you wake up, this is the first thing you see.
2. Keep a big calendar which reminds you of the number of days left for the exam and the next big task and its deadline.
3. Whenever you close your books for a break, write down the time when you wish to start the session again. Also, write down the things left unfinished which you may wish to complete in the next session.
4. Whenever you go to sleep, write down the target for the next day. It is a must. Clear your table and keep only those books on the table.
5. Whenever you feel like wasting time and not studying at all, watch some informative or inspirational or some youtube videos (Depends on your inner core. Some people watch violent videos while few others may go for porn). Don't hesitate from taking a break. But before starting the movie, write down on a piece of paper "what are you going to do after the movie gets over".
6. Best way to relax is "Sleep"
7. Make right friends. Remember, you and only you are responsible for your failure. In the one hour, you waste in some irrelevant activity, some other fellow may be burning the midnight oil. All you have to do to find the right people is "Observe". Don't make a friend who forces you to break your session for a tea break and political gossiping.
8. Utilise your tea and breakfast sessions for some fruitful and relevant "Chai pe charcha".
9. Feel the desire to get into service. Feel eustress. Feel the warrior within you. And believe strongly that you are already on the list. God has just asked you one thing "charaiveti charaiveti". It means "Keep walking Keep walking".
10. The moment you feel like "Ab naa ho paayega". Register the moment in your brain and remain seated for 10 more minutes challenging yourself and pushing your limits. Don't worry about productivity in those 10 minutes. Suspend all the other activities you wanted to do for this brief time. Once ten minutes are over. Recall the moment when you were about to give up. This way you can develop your willpower and increase your sitting capacity.
During the session:
1. Play it like Dhoni. Hour by Hour and Day by Day. Take one session at a time and ensure that you are completely immersed in it. If you are studying geography and imagine yourself sitting on the Everest or Indira point in Kanyakumari. Let every nerve of your body feel it.
2. Do ask yourself some reflective questions in the process.
3. Ask your mother/sister/girlfriend to monitor your goal. One can do the self-monitoring through a self-evaluation chart. The chart is a simple tabular check-box form of a to-do list of common activities of the week.
4. If the days are going unproductive then enter into group studies. Group study has its own set of rules. This is listed in another blog.
5. One do not have to worry about the content covered on day to day basis. Howsoever little, but make a progress every day. Speed comes on its own when we follow a disciplined schedule. Most of the science graduate finds it difficult to absorb that they could read only 50 pages of the humanities notes in the whole day. Take it as a normal.
6.The nature of exam is such that if a person is a philomath while then he can never be bored. If you are bored by history then read geography. If bored by geography then read economics or the polity or psychology or sociology or any other random topic or subject. Just make sure, ask yourself a question on "how is this going to help me?". Remember some salient points. If bored with everything else then one can practice maths or watch some videos on youtube.
Last but not the least, It is the strength of your desire to get into service, which motivates you. Motivation comes from the belief that "I can do it". Given the randomness of the results, every tom dick harry has a reason to believe that he can top the exam. So can you. Your ability to come out the bed and sit on the chair to study entirely depends on "How inspired do you feel to crack this exam?".
Hope this helps.
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