If you’ve never heard the term study burnout then you either don’t aggressively study or you’ve more mental fortitude than I’ll ever understand. If you ever write a book I’d love to read it. Though I won’t be able to because study burnout makes me hate the sight of books.

It’s not uncommon.

The reason I chose the topic of burnout today is I’m burned out myself. I’ve been at a desk for 13 of the last 14 days.

The demotivation sets in and makes studying further hard. Then you feel guilty for not studying which piles onto the stress and the whole thing becomes a vicious catch-22.

So what the hell do you do?

First up — get used to spotting the symptoms (in yourself or others):

Long term fatigue

Intellectual exhaustion

The inability of the brain to absorb more information

An unwillingness to study further

A decline in academic performance

Apathy toward educational topics

The earlier you can spot burnout coming on — the sooner you can react to it and the easier it’ll be to deal with.

There’s a difference in missing your morning coffee and dealing with long term fatigue where you just can’t stomach the idea of working any more. Even though I constantly preach time management as being the key to effective studying and it’s kind of the whole basis of the student organizer pack — I still find myself doing it when I have a deadline.

It’s easier for me to say you need to focus on your work-life balance or you need to plan your studies better. For actual advice you can use now, however -this rang home for me:

To me, study burnout is often caused by these few major factors: lack of life priorities; lack of time management skills; lack of study tools to maximise productivity; lack of stress management strategies; However, in order to deal with them, first and foremost, I think you need to take a close look at the larger scheme of things in your life. There are a few important things you need to do immediately, and for the longer term to help you to stay energised, inspired, motivated, and focused on your desired outcomes or cherished dreams. First things first. At least at the macro-cosmic level, establish compelling, inspiring and overarching long-range goals and objectives, broken down into short-term, medium-term, and long-term perspectives, and covering all the major life dimensions, with an academic pursuit as your top priority, followed by a systematic game plan, in your life to drive you. With a game plan in place, you can then factor in your learning agenda, or study plan, or even side-gig project plan, if any. But more importantly, with the end in mind, goals, priorities and a plan, set your direction and keep you focused on the things that matter to you the most. Using a military analogy, goals, priorities and a plan, are like precise commands preset into the flight plan of a Tomahawk cruise missile, homing on to a predefined, long-distance target. Secondly, at the micro-cosmic level, learn, acquire and practise proven efficient and effective study and productivity tools to help you navigate your academic journey with ease, expediency, and ace it.

Time management is essential!

Pace yourself. Trying to do it all at once is too much. Your mind and body will inform you of this. So, take breaks. For example, if you study for 2 hours, take a 15-minute or so break. Get out of the room. Go for a walk. Eat something healthy. If you prefer to study for 4 hours take an hour off and eat something healthy. In either case, if you find that your break time is not enough, take an extra 5 or 10 minutes per break.

However, you study you have to break the rhythm so that your head can clear and rest. Don’t allow yourself to be persuaded to abandon study during the breaks. Always set a time limit and stick to it.

Begin studying early. Start studying for tests as soon as you move into new material.

When possible study with someone who is committed to academic success. This will keep the person for always trying to get you to quit studying and go out somewhere. It also will assure that he or she brings good notes and materials to the study sessions that should complement your own.

Be realistic in your expectations from studying.

Medical students need to take time to look at what is realistically possible versus what they would want in an ideal situation.

Other Resources and Tools: