Studying

Some years ago, I rode in the Boston to NYC AIDS bikeathon. The ride was 300 miles over three days and through some pretty rough terrain, especially in the big hills of Connecticut. The ride’s slogan was I’m Possible. This was a clever play on words because although it felt impossible it would certainly be possible to complete even for a regular person like me. More importantly, of course, the slogan reflected the intended big dream of finding a cure for AIDS.

I learned early on during the long training process that taking breaks was going to be the key to my success. The advice I was given was to take a break before I felt it was needed because waiting until I felt it was needed might be too late. Crashing was the term used if you got to the point when you couldn’t go on. Inevitably, crashing happened when one pushed themselves too hard: when a rider waited too long to eat, drink or get off the bike. My team and I did not want this to happen to any of us. None of us wanted to end up on the Sag Wagon*!

Soon enough, the big day arrived. Food and water breaks were built into the ride every 10-15 miles. Even though it seemed like a lot of breaks, we took every single one to get at least a few minutes off the bike. I’m proud to say that I finished the ride strong, and so did all of my teammates (and none of us ended up on the Sag Wagon!). Meanwhile, people were crashing all around us in large part because they didn’t pace themselves. They didn’t take proper breaks.

Taking mental breaks is just as important for the mind as taking physical breaks are for the body. The mind needs to rest just like the body because, indeed, the mind is the body. As a student with looming academic challenges aplenty, it is critical that you work to maintain your staying power. After all, you likely have weeks, months and years ahead of you to get where you want to go. Questions arise then: How often should you take breaks from your study and for how long? What should you do during your breaks to help you avoid the equivalent of crashing?

How should I plan my study breaks?

For most people, most of the time, a good rule of thumb is to take a short break every hour. One approach is to take a 10-minute break after every 50 minutes of study. Another approach is to take a break 5 minutes after every 25 minutes of study. The exact timing doesn’t matter so much as long as you take regular, short breaks. Check out the Pomodoro Technique to get you going on this.

Adding longer breaks is important too, especially when you have a lot of studying to do. There are many reasons why you might need to work for long stretches – maybe you are preparing for your qualifying exam, a big presentation, or you are researching and writing your thesis. Whatever it is, building in longer breaks will give you the stamina you need to stay on task. For longer study periods, a longer break is recommended to stay fresh after about every 3 hours of intense study. Longer breaks should last at least 30-60 minutes but can be longer.

What should you do when you take a break?

Taking breaks are important to help you stay focused, but so is what you do during your breaks. Many students turn to social media, email, or other digitally related activities for breaks, and this is a mistake. Most likely you do your work on an electronic device; therefore, it’s best to do something different for your break – get up, walk around, stretch your body, get a drink of water. Taking the wrong kind of break is like not taking a break at all.

Building in enough and the right kind of breaks helped me finish the Boston to NYC AIDs ride strong. Being strategic about taking study breaks can do the same for you. Inevitably, there will be roadblocks along the way, but you will be ready to take them on if you plan strategically.

We hope that this short blog will help you to think strategically about how to take breaks. Breaks are so important to help you stay focused for the long haul. If you would like more support, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at The Learning Center. Academic Success Coaches are available to meet with you to discuss how you can best work breaks into your study time and many other study strategies.

learning@rochester.edu

If you want to know more, check out the sources below:

Albulescu, P., Macsinga, I., Rusu, A., Sulea, C., Bodnaru, A., & Tulbure, B. T. (2022). " Give me a break!" A systematic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy of micro-breaks for increasing well-being and performance. Plos one, 17(8), e0272460.

Andersson, H. (2018, July 3). Social media apps are “deliberately” addictive to users. BBC. www.bbc.com

Beckman, T. (n.d.). How and when to take study breaks for optimal learning. Brainscape. www.brainscape.com

Disability Resource Services at The University of Washington (n.d.). Taking Effective Break. The University of Washington. www.washington.edu

Eyal, N. (2012, August 29). Infinite Scroll: The Web’s Slot Machine. Psychology Today. www.psychologytoday.

Namba, R. (2024, April 18). The Pomodoro technique: Study more efficiently, take more breaks - Learning Commons. Learning Commons. Learning Commons. www.learningcommons.ubc.ca

Niedermeier, M., & Kopp, M. (2022). Physical activity in short study breaks: Short-term effects on cognition and potential for implementation in students’ everyday life. Current Issues in Sport Science, 7.

Pastor-Vicedo, J. C., León, M. P., González-Fernández, F. T., & Prieto-Ayuso, A. (2024). Effects of physical activity breaks on cognitive function in undergraduate students: A pilot study. Cogent Social Sciences, 10(1), 2326692.

Oakley, b. (2014)A Mind for numbers: how to excel at math and science even if you flunked algebra. Penguin.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (n.d.). Taking Breaks. The Learning Center. www.learningcenter.unc.edu

*The Sag wagon was a van that picked people up who could not continue riding.