How do you not burn out? (1 Viewer)

j12onuzim

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I personally burn out so easily and I seem to get tired after just 2 subjects.
How does one stay consistent, even if they have a study timetable?
 

rumbleroar

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Tbh, stay motivated. It will be a driving force for your hsc. If you burn out already, maybe you need to assess why you burn out so quickly.


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iEatOysters

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Live a balanced lifestyle and take breaks at regular intervals so that your brain doesn't become clogged with excess information. Definitely do some exercise to get your brain working if you feel as if you're close to burning out!! Also, make your study timetable realistic because there really no point in making one if it can't be followed. E.g. Doing work for six hours without breaks is plain unhealthy and will give you an excuse to procrastinate as you'll tire of doing work very quickly. And most of all, write out your aims and don't give yourself an excuse to burn out! (easier said than done haha)
Oh and get enough sleep (for your brain to function well) and tidy up your room beforehand so that you won't feel a random urge to clean up your room in the midst of doing a maths question or something.
 

strawberrye

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Ok, due to my recently long posts, I will keep this one short and sweet:)

1)Establish goal(s) that are either based on individual subjects, week by week, term by term, ATAR, university goals, both short term and long term that you want to achieve during your HSC year. Make sure those goals are goals you really want-not those that your parents or friends want you to have-establish personal goals will enable you to have meaningful reasons to keep studying and working hard for the entire year

2)A study timetable seems to not work for you, so try to do a to do list day by day listing all the things you must do and other optional things you need to get done-school work and other commitments-avoid procrastination by using surfing the net as a reward another a successful study session, for example, and keep it to 5-10 minutes for every 45-60 minutes of high concentration study.

3)Enforce some self-discipline, perhaps group study might work for you-perhaps you need the occasional encouragement from your friends-but don't get distracted, whenever you want to give up, rehydrate your brain with some stretching and cold water, and visualise yourself at the end of the HSC year, achieving all the goals you want, and having no regrets. Smack your desired ATAR on the wall-and whenever you feel quickly tired, have a 5 minute break and look at that number-and think to yourself-if you want that ATAR, you will just have to keep working hard and keep studying

When people burn out-it is usually because either they have irregular sleeping routines or they lack self-discipline that comes from lack of real motivations. Make sure you sleep and rest well so you are alert in your study, eat healthy food, exercise and find some genuine, intrinsic source of motivation and that way, with persistence, consistent optimistic attitude and determination, you will maximise your potential and improve your HSC results. Hope this helps and I wish you all the best for your HSC years-don't burn out-but you must keep working hard-it is an endurance race, and you are only at the start-there is still a very long way to go:) (Don't give up!)
 

gwilymprice

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Health plays a huge factor, well for me it did anyway. For me I could see the difference each day depending on what I are that day. Be positive too and just try to not be hard on yourself when making mistakes
 

williamdaft

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You MUST balance your lifestyle. What I did was, go home, eat some healthy food, drink water. I usually studied for an hour and had 15 minute breaks, and then an hr study. Try different ways to study, I did questions, past papers, group study, reading aloud (helped a lot in economics and history), writing notes, and figure a way that best suits your study style.
Definitely try your best to get 6-8 hrs of sleep.. I usually had 4-6 hrs of sleep which I regret.
Try to use some study breaks to pursue a hobby, whether it's playing a guitar (what I did) or playing soccer with mates.
It really helps the body to get relaxed. So, healthy food, plenty of sleep, hobbies, and consisted study with small breaks, is the way to go.
 

panda15

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You MUST balance your lifestyle.
This. You can still get really good HSC marks without dedicating your life to it. If you have a good social life, your school life might not seem so daunting and you will be motivated to study more. You're in year 12, which means people will be turning 18, which means there will be lots of 18th parties which is the perfect opportunity to get loose and forget about the HSC for a few hours. Although the HSC is very time consuming, year 12 was definitely the most enjoyable year socially.
 

williamdaft

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This. You can still get really good HSC marks without dedicating your life to it. If you have a good social life, your school life might not seem so daunting and you will be motivated to study more. You're in year 12, which means people will be turning 18, which means there will be lots of 18th parties which is the perfect opportunity to get loose and forget about the HSC for a few hours. Although the HSC is very time consuming, year 12 was definitely the most enjoyable year socially.
Yeah!! Yr12 was a very enjoyable year for me! A good social life, a few parties, and just basically relaxing yourself once in a while is beneficial.
 

cem

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Build some 'me time' and 'family time' into your schedule e.g. plan to spend some time with friends doing non-study/school things on a regular basis such as going to the movies on a Saturday night or to the beach or something. Take half an hour or so in the afternoon when you first get home from school to go for a walk/play with the dog or younger siblings - even helping them with their homework rather than worrying about your own. Insist on doing some household chores to help the family - although ask that someone else do them during exam weeks - and only during the week before and week of - this keeps the family supportive and as part of your studies as well as keeps you involved in the family during this stressful year.

Hope these ideas help.
 

enoilgam

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Ok, due to my recently long posts, I will keep this one short and sweet:)
I personally dont mind the long posts :).

To the OP, try pacing yourself a little better - from what I can see, I think you're having more of a problem with procrastination as opposed to burnout. I would try breaking down the work into smaller chunks, instead of doing it all at once. Like you might want to summarise 30 pages worth of economics notes in a week. A lot of people would try tackling it in one night - what usually ends up happening is that because there is so much work, you feel overwhelmed which causes a loss in confidence and hence procrastination. If you break it up into smaller tasks (i.e. I want to do 4-5 pages a night), this is much more achievable. When you achieve it, your confidence will go up and so will your willingness to do the work.

This post relates more to procrastination, but like I said, I have a feeling that this is more the issue in this case.
 

obliviousninja

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Burn out is one of the lamest excuses. Its as false as elo hell.
 

LoveHateSchool

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Basically strawberrye's advice is golden and what I'd endorse heartily.

On what worked for me:
1) I set goals for each assessment, ranks for each report as well my overall ATAR and #no of b6 goal and course/uni goals. This kept me motivated on the small stretch all over the year. Goals should be realistic and focus on improvement from prior tasks :) If you get close to goal but don't get it, don't despair, the act of setting a goal and working towards it is helpful even if you don't quite reach it. Arguably better than not setting a goal in the first place. Then you look back constructively on why you didn't achieve it, what you could modify the next time and move forward :)

2) Yes to do lists were the bomb with me, with incentives after I'd crossed of a certain number of things. This encourages effective opposed to dawdling rummaging around the desk-esqe study as you are directed on what must be done. Timetables only work for people who are brutally honest about their patterns but also have a relatively stable life pattern. Regardless if you try and timetable or not, it's helpful to know when you are most effective. Can't hack a study on a Fri afternoon? make that your downtime. Do you prefer to work at night or morning etc.? Main reason I advocate to do lists over tiemtables is I always found you can never seem to count on contingencies in life. I may have thought I'd get my modern history reading done right after school, but then had to do something like go to the chemist to get my nan's medication. Also timetables limit that your motivation/efficiency varies with mood and that as we are human. Some days I was just in the zone and it was good to capitalise on that. Some weeks would be more struggle-y weeks where I'd be lighter on myself.

Know yourself, and know that the power of rest, recreation, sleep, socialising is a potent performance weapon :) It's a marathon, not a sprint. I took complete breaks at points in the year and did fine.

3) As corny as it is, make your goals visible on the wall and maybe have some motivation triggers. For me, I had my favourite quotes in my school folder, my psych up song (yes it was a Disney song :p) or even a youtube video. Even maybe some light dance or something for me. It's on this point I say intrinsic motivation is the most important. Extrinsic factors like beating your snotty second cousin won't have long lasting motivation, nor will making your teachers happy. they can help to an extent, but they won't be the main driving force.

4) When I experienced burnout (in something completely unrelated to studies/school)-I'd say it occurred because I pushed myself so hard and didn't see the result. I lost the outlook of looking what I'd overcome to rather being disenchanted with things. It was when I had a break and re-evaluated my goals in that life area that I overcame burn out. It's kinda like being a circuit breaker, although jolting yourself to circuit break is the hardest things. Know yourself and know the signs of burn out and respond to them before they snowball.
 

LoveHateSchool

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Burn out is one of the lamest excuses. Its as false as elo hell.
I haven't experienced burn out with school/uni studies(have experienced a lack of motivation at a few times but nowwhere near 'burn out stage'), but I can completely see and know it would be common.

I might have used to have a mentality like you when I was much younger. But I can tell you burn out is palpable thing. The thing I experienced 'burn out' in was the thing that I probably most loved at a time in my life, and put the most time into. So I'm saying I definitely think it is a palpable thing.

Although many will say 'oh I just burnt out' when it was other factors as a throw away line, but it is a true and sucky state many legitimately face.
 

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