Hello everyone!

This post is to lay out some of the things I’ve learned to do in the 7 years I’ve been studying I.T. and programming. Like anything else, studying is a skill that requires practice and continual improvement. Hopefully this post will help those of you that are teaching yourself some good ways to study consistantly long term without getting burnt out.

Things that have worked well FOR ME!

*obilgatory reminder - What works for me may not work well for you. It probably will though.

Time Tracking

The entire time I was in school, I never tracked my studying. Like most people, I studied only when I thought I had to. This led to last minute cramming, short periods of high stress, and a general hatred of studying.

Fortunately for most of us, we can’t cram. There’s no deadline for long term self improvement. Unfortunately most of us still carry over our cramming study trauma from school and this causes most of us to indefinitely delay the first step of studying. We’ve only studied because of the “stick” and have never studied for the “carrot”.

The only way I’ve ever been able to study consistantly is by tracking my time and to set study goals for myself.

Selecting goals is important, but not worth getting stuck on. When I was just beginning and felt like I would drown from all the things I could learn, certifications were my go to. They made great goals because they had a self contained subject matter. Now that I use time based goals. Enter the 1,000 hour a year goal I’m working on now.

I’ve used google spreadsheets, flipd on iOS, and Clockify among other time tracking platforms. The medium itself doesn’t matter and you should use the minimum level of granularity that you can tolerate. It keeps it simple and when it comes to tools that support your studying. You’re not trying to learn how to use an enterprise time tracking software, at least I hope not!

Here’s an example of what my current time tracking spreadsheet looks like.

Time Tracking Table

Time Tracking Graph

Believe it or not, the most imporatnt column on the table is column E “Actual - Desired Hours.” This column shows me if I’m ahead or behind my study goals. If I’m ahead, I don’t feel bad taking a day off. If I’m behind, I still don’t feel bad taking a day off because life happens and I can always catch back up. This brings me to my next study tool…

Setting reasonable goals

In my unhealthy prime, I was single, studying 10 hours a day, working 8 hours a day, sleeping 4 hours a day, and left only a couple hours in my schedule for eating, and keeping clean. This was misserible, unhealthy, and not sustainable. I forced myself to do this for almost a year and it ground me to dust.

Don’t do that!

Use a calendar, block off family time and releaxation, and set realistic goals. Have as much of your day put into your calendar as possible. Don’t forget, just because it’s in your calendar doesn’t mean you have to do it! It’s just a plan, and like any plan you should expect to deviate from it from time to time. That’s ok!

If you’re just starting out then please don’t use any of my study goals for yourself. Like anything else, you have to practice studying to build up dicipline to continue when it’s difficult and the wisdom to stop when before you burn out. Start with 15 or 30 minutes a day. If you can do that for 2 weeks, then bump up by a half hour. 3 hours a day might not seem like much, but try doing that 365 days in a row.

Study your study habits

The reason that I start by focusing on time tracking and setting reasonable goals is that they’re essential to find a study pattern that works for you. If you’re not measuring how you’re studying, how do you know you’re studying correctly?

What do I mean by that you ask? Reference the below graph to see what I mean.

As you can see, I study pretty close to my daily goals for for 6 days in a row, then take at least a day off after that. Knowing this, I can give myself permission to take a day off around then because I know this pattern works for me. I get caught right back up to my goal within a day or two after my day off.

You should also take some time to intentionally experiment with how you study. Try changing what time during the day you study, play with how long you study during a single study session. Maybe pomodoro timers work great for you, maybe not. If you track your study time, you’ll be able to see what works for you.

Burnout and Recovery

All of the above are great on their own, but when you bring them all together you can achieve the more important goal of not burning yourself out.

Studying consistently is difficult because the more you study the closer to burnout you’ll get. You will burnout at some point. It’s just going to happen. That’s why you need to experiment and track how you study. Eventually you’ll find a sweet spot that lets you study without burning out.

Once you do this long enough, you’ll actually be able to identify symptoms of pre-burnout. Listen to them! There’s no reason to push yourself to your breaking point when you can just take a day off. Being completely burnt out will cost you more study time, give you more stress, and demotivate you much more than if you took a break as soon as you notice you’re entering your pre-burnout phase.

I’ll give you an example real quick. When I get burnt out, my motivation goes to zero and I feel like an empty shell. I can still get myself to go through the motions of studying, but I have zero retention. I’m also extremely irritable, and basically glue myself to the sofa and watch brain numbing TV for up to two weeks. My burnout is very strong and lasts quite a long time.

What I’ve noticed is that as I get closer to burnout, the hours I’ll study each day naturally get lower and lower, I’ll start missing days of studying, and then in a last act of defiance I’ll dump a ton of hours into a couple of days. Then BAM. Burnout is right around the corner.

As soon as I notice I’m getting close to burnout, I take at least a day off. No studying, no extra work, no side projects. The best way to fend off burnout is to spend time with friends and family. Reminding yourself why you’re studying and how these new skills can impact those around you can help recharge your motivation batteries and fend off burnout.

Better yet! Schedule breaks into your studying if you find that you keep bumping into burnout. It’s like working for the weekend. If you know your break is right around the corner it can make it easier on you to stay consistant until your study vacation!

Conclusion

I know a lot of this may seem obvious, but if you’ve never done long term studying like this before then it can be easy to study too hard, too fast, and end up burnt out.

Tracking your time is key to finding a study pattern that works for you. It’ll help to drive you towards healthy and reasonable study goals that will help you avoid burnout.

Don’t try to do everything perfectly. Just do the minimum needed to get started and focus on continual improvement towards healthy study habits. Perfection is the enemy of progress!

Now get out there and get learning!