Refreshing Things To Do On Your Study Break 📚

Bon soirrrrrr 🙂

I made cake, and now I’m doing a Maths paper.

It’s funny how quickly you can go from having fun to being bored out of your mind.

As I’m sure you already know, I am giving my IGCSE examination this March. Translation: Since June I have revised the same material about 169479249 times and done 1638793247832 papers. This whole year has basically been practice for these our March exams, which means studying practically nonstop.

And the thing about that is,

It gets old pretty fast.

Like really fast.

I always study in intervals with breaks in between, but I’ve realised that if you spend your breaks the wrong way, it’s gonna make you loathe those textbooks even more. For example, NEVER start the new episode of your favourite TV show, telling yourself that you’ll only watch the first ten minutes.

Girl, who are you kidding?! You know you’re not going nowhere till those 45 minutes are up.

So I thought I would share with you guys a few things I like to do on my study break that help me feel refreshed and ready to hit the books again.

EDIT: I AM SO DONE WITH MYSELF because I had this post ready to go yesterday since I’m doing the daily posting thing and I FORGOT TO HIT PUBLISH. 🤦🏻‍♀️.

1. Take A Shower

I promise I’m not crazy. I’ve always gotten my best idea in the shower, it’s actually where I do most of my thinking and planning. But I just love them in general. Anyway, there is something about taking a quick shower with some nice hot water that REALLY refreshes me. It’s the one thing on this list that I can guarantee you will work every single time. Another thing I do is I always end my shower with a quick burst of very cold water. You probably already know that it’s good to do that after washing your hair, but I just find that it gives you a wake-up shock to get you in the mood to work again. Trust me on this one, guys. Showers are awesome.

2. Power Naps

Just two days ago, my best friend was telling me how there’s no concept of a power nap with her – that a nap is either AT LEAST an hour, or nothing. I know, #relatable. My naps would ALWAYS be two hours long. Now obviously, that’s not feasible. You just can’t waste that much studying time. But it is possible to take power naps, you guys. It’s scientifically proven that a 20-30 minute nap is the ideal duration to leave you feeling awake and ready to go, because longer than that, your brain starts to enter the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep (the deepest stage), and if you’re awoken in the middle of REM, you’re going to feel groggy and dull. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been in the middle of a paper, feeling super sleepy, but wanting to complete what I was doing. At this stage, it’s always best to set a really loud alarm and just get some shut eye. When you’re tired, your brain isn’t going to retain new information anyway, so there’s no point of continuing to read through your half-closed eyes. A little nap can go a long way.

3. Reading Motivational Quotes.

I’m a HUGE quote addict. I love them so much, and I can PREACH that reading a few motivational ones when you feel lazy and y can do WONDERSS. I do this one all the time, and you know what would help even more than just reading them? Writing them down and sticking them somewhere you can see. Nothing gets me more pumped and eager to start my work than reading a few good quotes. As my closest friends know, the wall right in front of my study table is plastered in sayings and quotes, that way, I get motivated every time I look up! I also have another wall covered post its, with lots of quotes, lists of goals, memories, and special moments on them. I call it my ‘Word Wall’.

Blogging is also something I do on my study breaks – like right now!

Hitting that ‘Publish’ button and getting that satisfaction of a completed task really gets me in the mind frame to complete even more.

Now please excuse me as I return to the 5-minute study break I’ve been on for two hours.

ThePastryPoet, signing off.