Have you ever opened up a bag of corn chips and noticed you couldn’t stop eating them?
It’s not that you’re overindulgent or have a weakness for corn chips.
Food scientists work hard at figuring out the bliss point of food products. The Bliss Point is the amount of an ingredient, such as salt, fat or sugar, which optimises deliciousness. When you hit the Bliss Point, the pleasure pathways in your brain light up.
Why would food manufacturers spend millions of dollars trying to find the Bliss Point?
The reason is simple: so you keep going back for more.
Your phone and the apps on it are exactly the same as that addictive bag of corn chips. These products have been carefully engineered to deliver hits of dopamine and instant gratification. Billions of dollars have been invested to make you addicted to using this technology.
As The Slow Media Manifesto states:
And just like a bag of corn chips, once you open up social media, you have to be careful how much you consume. The more you have, the more you want more. And this can wreak havoc with your health and happiness.
Below are some simple strategies I recommend experimenting with to reclaim your time, energy and attention.
Instead of checking the time on your phone’s home screen, invest in an old school watch. Not a fancy Apple watch that can receive messages, etc. Just one that tells you the time.
Pings, dings and rings from your phone take you off track. They pull your attention away from what you need to do. They tell you to check a message, open an email, etc.
Turn these all off.
Don’t even let your phone vibrate.
Here’s what I recommend: Have set times when you check your phone throughout the day.
If you’re worried people will think you’re being rude because you don’t respond to their calls or texts immediately, then this strategy is for you!
Do not disturb while driving mode will send an automated text message back to the person who has just messaged you.
The default message tells the person you can’t pick up the phone because you’re driving. But you can customise this message to suit your needs.
You could change the automated message to:
“Hi. This is an automated reply to let you know that I’m currently studying. I will not see your message straight away but I’ll get back to you soon.”
Let’s face it, if you have to open up your laptop and login to social media, you’re less likely to go on there.
If you must keep social media on your phone, have it blocked by default with an app. Allow yourself to go on only at certain times.
You need to be very selective about which apps can send you notifications. Any notification is a trigger that can potentially derail you.
If you have an iPhone, try this little experiment:
Pick it up.
Does the display turn on without you having to press a single button?
If yes, this means the Raise to Wake setting is on.
Turn this off by going into Settings > Display and Brightness.
By disabling this setting, you decrease your chances of getting derailed by seeing notifications every time you pick up your phone.
The colours on your phone are hyper stimulating and intensify the pleasure experienced from using it. You can make your phone less pleasurable to use (and addictive) by turning the colours to greyscale.
You can do this by going into Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Colour Filters.
You can use technology to help you stay off technology. For example, the app Freedom allows you to schedule being locked out of certain sites for parts of your day. Stay Focusd will limit the amount of time you’re allowed on certain sites and will kick you off the Internet at a certain time (cue: bedtime).
This is perhaps the simplest and most effective thing you can do. Before you sit down to do any work or face-to-face socialising, put your phone away. Out of sight is out of mind.
It may not be enough to put your phone in another room. If the urge to check your phone is strong, put your phone in a box in another room (maybe in a box that has a lock on it).
Alternatively, hand your phone to someone in your family who you trust. Tell them not to give it back to you until you finish doing what you need to do.
Non-stop texting messes with your brain chemistry. So you need to give your brain a break from constantly processing and sending messages. This is where phasting can help.
Phasting is the digital equivalent of intermittent fasting. This is where you take time out from using your phone and looking at screens. It could just be for a few hours or an entire weekend. It’s up to you. But by doing so, you’re giving your brain and your senses a chance to readjust and recalibrate to the real world.
Your ability to focus is your most important and valuable resource. Don’t let it get hijacked by some tech company in Silicon Valley. Practice these simple strategies to cultivate a healthier brain and less frenzied lifestyle.
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But if you keep making the same mistakes over and over, it can be demoralising.
In this article, I share 12 common mistakes students make when preparing for exams, and what you can do to avoid making them.
But let me be clear, this article isn’t just for students and it’s not just about exams. It’s for anyone who is up to stuff in life. It’s for anyone who wants to keep learning and growing.
My advice is don’t read this article all in one sitting. Treat it like a practice exam: print it out, put your phone away, and work through 1-3 points at a time. Then, get up and take a fun rest break!
Are you ready to dive in? Let’s go!
Without a doubt, this is where most students go wrong with tests and exams. They don’t give themselves enough time to learn the content properly.
They leave studying until the last minute and try to cram as much information as possible.
First, there are a few things you need to understand about how you learn:
Based on this, start preparing for exams before you feel ready, while you can still think clearly (i.e., you’re not panicking and freaking out).
Not all stress is bad. Stress can be a source of fuel and energy. It can help you focus your mind and swing into action.
But too much stress – the freaking out kind – can mess with your ability to focus and learn. If you’ve reached that point, where you feel like bursting into tears or curling up into the foetal position, you’re experiencing bad stress. You need to stop whatever you’re doing and calm your nervous system.
Start preparing early. The more prepared you are, the calmer you’ll feel and the better you’ll do.
Other strategies you can use to decrease bad stress:
“Be calm and know that you can do this.”
Many students spend all their time leading up to their exams creating beautiful sets of notes. By the time they finish their notes, they’ve run out of time to do practice exams.
Notes can be super handy, but it’s what you do with your notes that really matters. Are you testing yourself with them? Do you create flashcards from your notes and test yourself with those cards?
The best way to ace any exam is to practise pulling information out of your brain. You need to test yourself (i.e., use active recall strategies).
Take it from me, this won’t feel as nice or easy as simply taking notes leading up to an exam. But at least you’ll be grounded in the reality of what you know and what you don’t know.
When your only exam preparation strategy is note taking, you go into the exam with a false sense of confidence (experts call this an ‘Illusion of Competence’).
Sitting tests and exams is also a skill. Whether you do well or not isn’t so much a reflection of your intelligence. It’s more a reflection of your exam technique and how well you have prepared.
Practise in the medium you’re going to be assessed in: do lots of past exam papers (ideally under timed conditions using pen and paper).
Treat it like you’re training for a marathon. At first, you might just do a 30-minute ‘exam’ workout. As you build your strength and stamina, work your way up to 45 minutes, then an hour. Eventually, be brave and attempt the full 2-3 hours.
After wrestling with some exam questions, make sure you check to see how you went (what you got right and wrong). Take note of any gaps in your knowledge, and give that content a bit more time and focused attention.
Distraction is the enemy when it comes to learning. When your attention shifts rapidly from one task to another, you destroy your ability to memorise information.
Multitasking also slows you down (i.e., it take you longer to do your work), whilst speeding up your thinking. Fast and frenetic thinking is the opposite of what you need for deep learning. To deeply understand information, you need slow and deliberate thinking.
Before you sit down to study, deal with distractions from the outset. Put your phone away from your body, on silent in another room. Install an Internet blocker app, such as Cold Turkey or Freedom.
If you use social media, get someone to change the password on your social media accounts so you can’t access them during the exam period.
Do what you need to do to focus your mind for a short, intense burst of study (25-45 minutes).
“Put your phone and other distractions away while studying as this will benefit you in the future … however phones will destroy your future.”
The complex terms, jargon and the text-heavy nature of your syllabus can make it scary to look at. But don’t let those things put you off looking at this document.
Your syllabus is too important to ignore. Referring to this document will help focus your mind and save you hours of time.
Bypass all the jargon and head straight to the unit content section. This section tells you exactly what you’ll be assessed on.
Print this section out so you can easily refer to it without having to go on your computer (and potentially get derailed).
When you start a study session, choose a syllabus point and use an effective study strategy to make it stick (e.g., active recall).
You spent hours re-reading your books, highlighting chunks of information and re-writing your notes before the exam. You can’t understand why you didn’t do better?
I’ll tell you why: you weren’t using effective study strategies.
Swap ineffective ways of studying (e.g., re-reading and highlighting) with effective study strategies, such as active recall.
You can practise active recall in different ways, including testing yourself with a deck of flashcards, doing past exam papers, and teaching a concept to a friend.
You’ve also got dual coding (i.e., using words and pictures to help you learn). I’m a big fan of mind mapping. In fact, I mind mapped my way through my undergraduate degrees in Law and Psychology, and my PhD.
Dual coding is a great way to understand new ideas and how those ideas are connected. But to make those ideas stick, make no mistake: you’ll also need to do active recall practise.
To learn more about how I combine mind mapping and active recall, check out my short online course, Let’s Mind Map!
Entering the exam room (or any important situation) in a chronically sleep deprived state is a terrible idea. Expect to have trouble recalling information and focusing your mind.
Bottom line is: Sleep matters. It matters a lot.
This study found that students who participated in an ‘Eight Hour Sleep Challenge’ and prioritised getting 8 hours of sleep each night leading up to their final exams outperformed those who didn’t take the sleep challenge.
Make getting 8-10 hours of quality sleep a non-negotiable part of your study plan. Plug your phone into charge at least one hour before bed and don’t touch it until you get up the next day.
Remember, sleep is the ultimate performance enhancer. Everything you do, you’ll do better after a good night’s sleep.
“Sleep the night before. Don’t cram.”
By the time you get to your final exam, you’re feeling over it. You’ve lost all motivation to study. You don’t really care how you go. So, you do the bare minimum to prepare. You go in with a plan to … wing it. But winging it isn’t an effective strategy.
If you’re running low in motivation and energy, do little activities to re-energise and feel normal again.
One student shared this piece of great advice that made me laugh:
“Study early, study late, and somewhere in the middle treat yourself to an $11 Medium meatbox from Kebab Lads.”
Perhaps an $11 meat box isn’t the best way for you to restore your energy. But that’s beside the point. The point is you must do things to keep your spirits up during exams.
You’re asking ChatGPT to give you summaries of different topics and create practice exams for you, which you then do on your computer. Perhaps you steer clear of AI, but you type up your notes on your laptop.
The problem is if you’re working at a computer, you’re more likely to get distracted. As soon as it gets boring or difficult, you’ll find yourself running to the fun stuff (e.g., YouTube).
But there’s another big problem that often gets overlooked by schools that invest heavily in EdTech: the Screen Inferiority Effect. Reading on a screen and taking notes using a keyboard are not as effective when it comes to learning as using pen and paper.
As Dr Jared Cooney Horvath writes in his brilliant book The Digital Delusion:
“Learning doesn’t arise from the brain alone, it emerges from the rhythms, movements, and sensations of our entire physical selves.”
Invest in a printer and a big box of A4 paper. Print out your readings, past exam papers, the unit content section of the syllabus, any important emails, and your exam timetable.
By printing out these documents, you’ll shift from passively skimming to active reading. This will allow you to form a deeper understanding and stronger memories of the content.
Students who study in only one location (e.g., at a desk in their bedroom) sometimes struggle to recall information once they get into the exam.
Why would this be?
It’s because information is context-dependent. That means when we study in the same place, our memories become tethered to that environment.
Mix up where you study. You don’t need to abandon your desk, but don’t make it the only place you study.
Do some flashcard practice at the kitchen table, a past exam paper in the library, and explain a concept to a friend outside under a tree. You get bonus points if you can do a past exam paper in the actual exam venue!
When you practise in different settings, you train your brain to be able to recall information anywhere.
Stress is contagious. If you’re hanging around people who are freaking out about exams (saying things like, “I hardly studied! I’m going to fail!”), don’t be surprised if you start to freak out, too.
Before the exam, keep away from people or anything else (e.g., caffeine, too much sugar, and social media) that triggers anxiety in you. It helps to feel calm, steady, and grounded as you walk into the exam room.
After the exam, don’t waste time ruminating about it with your friends. This is a total waste of your time and energy. You can’t change what just happened. What’s done is done!
Instead, shift your focus to what you can control (e.g., taking a fun rest break and preparing for the next exam).
“Get in, do it, and get out!”
I once met a law student who didn’t read the exam question properly. She was visibly distressed as she told me she missed reading the part that said you had to write only two of six essays.
What did she do?
She wrote six essays in three hours.
This may sound extreme, but mistakes like these are all too common.
Read the question carefully. Take your time. It will be time well spent.
As you read the question, look for clue words such as explain, discuss, and compare. These words have different meanings. They determine the approach you need to take to answering the question. Some students find it can help to rewrite the question in a way that makes sense to them.
Not sure what the difference is between the words discuss and explain?
Use effective study strategies, such as dual coding and active recall, to understand and remember the meaning of each clue word.
No one expects you to be perfect at preparing for and sitting exams. Like any skill, this takes practise.
So, what areas could you strengthen? My advice is to focus on just one area.
If you need more sleep, then make getting to bed at a reasonable hour your top priority. If you want to start using more effective study strategies, spend 20 minutes creating a mind map or doing a past exam paper.
A few simple tweaks to your lifestyle and study habits can dramatically improve your ability to focus and learn, as well as how confident you feel walking into your exams.
Efficiency was the name of the game.
In an attempt to be ‘time smart’, I started ordering my groceries online and having them delivered straight to my door.
Yes, it was convenient.
Yes, it was efficient.
But over time, I saw that this convenience and efficiency came at a cost.
I’m not talking about the $20 monthly subscription fee to the supermarket. I’m talking about the cost to my lived human experience.
Earlier this year, I realised that by having my groceries delivered, I was missing out on a lot of valuable micro-interactions.
I was depriving myself of experiences that made me feel connected to other people and my community.
You may be thinking, “Yeah, big deal, Jane! Don’t you have better things to do with your time than grocery shopping?”
My younger ‘optimised’ self would have thought so. And that’s certainly what the Big Tech companies want you to believe. Big tech wants you to believe that a good life is an optimised life and one that is friction-free.
While I used to think grocery shopping was a waste of my time, I don’t think this way anymore.
Shopping for food in person at your local farmers’ market, bulk food store, or supermarket is an experience worth having. It’s time well spent.
Besides acquiring the best fresh produce and ingredients, the in-person shopping experience offers unexpected micro-interactions.
Here’s an example of what I’m talking about . . .
Last week, I popped into a new supermarket to pick up a few items. I was looking for plant-based sausages, but after going all around the store, I couldn’t find them. I knew I needed help.
I approached a young employee who was busily stacking tubs of hummus in a refrigerator. I asked her if she knew where the vegan products were.
She said, “Oh, I think you’ll find them over here” and then she took off like a rocket. I was practically running with my shopping cart to keep up with her.
I said to her, “Wow, you walk really fast!”
To which she said, “Oh… sorry!”
I said, “No, don’t apologise! I think it’s great!”
We arrived at the plant-based sausages, I thanked her, and she sped off again.
This brief social interaction probably lasted less than 60 seconds, but it made my day. It got my heart rate up and put a smile on my face.
I felt inspired by her young person energy. It also dawned on me that I could probably push myself a little harder in my next workout session.
I’m not exaggerating when I say my life was enriched by this tiny social interaction. Had I just ordered my plant-based sausages online, I would have missed out on this joyous experience.
This experience got me thinking about why I love talking to complete strangers so much. Unless I encounter a total grump, I usually always leave the interaction feeling better than before.
I was curious. Had any research been done on this?
It turns out quite a bit!
Dr Gillian Sandstrom has written a book that explores the many benefits of talking to strangers. It’s called Once Upon a Stranger: The Science of How “Small” Talk Can Add Up To a Big Life.
In an interview, Dr Sandstrom explains some of the benefits of talking to strangers. She states:
“The first benefit that we’ve found consistently is just that it puts you in a good mood. When you talk to a stranger, you usually walk away feeling a bit happier and more connected, which we know is so important for humans.
Another thing from the research is that we tend to learn more than we expect to when we talk to strangers. It brings novelty into our life, makes our life richer. There’s research about how well-being can arise from not only happiness, purpose, and meaning, but this third source: psychological richness. I think talking to strangers gives you richness, because it brings novelty and learning and those kinds of things into your life.”
Famous author Kurt Vonnegut understood this psychological richness that came from talking to strangers out in the world (not online).
He could foresee the problems associated with technology back in 2005 (well before social media, online shopping, and generative AI became widely adopted).
In a PBS interview, Vonnegut tells a story about going to the shops to purchase a single envelope.
Before leaving the house, his wife says to Vonnegut:
“You’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet?”
Vonnegut continues the story, telling the PBS interviewer:
“I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope.
I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don’t know…
And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don’t realize, or they don’t care, is we’re dancing animals. You know, we love to move around. And, we’re not supposed to dance at all anymore.”
The ‘Computer people’ Vonnegut referred to are the Tech bros of today. They have designed apps that have made us addicted, isolated, and lonely.
But we don’t have to go down this path. We have a choice.
Instead of choosing convenience, efficiency, and comfort, we can choose real contact with the world and people.
This is why I am resisting using AI. It’s why I don’t use any social media. It’s also why I have now gone back to buying my groceries in person and avoid the self-service checkouts as much as possible (even if it means waiting in line for five minutes).
Sometimes the checkout person is dead tired and doesn’t want to talk (which is fair enough). Or I’ll try to strike up a conversation and the other person doesn’t want to talk (this is rare, but it does happen).
You also need to be careful about who you choose to strike up a conversation with. Some people can be dangerous and unhinged, but in my experience, most people are kind and friendly.
If you have concerns about ‘Stranger Danger’, Dr Sandstrom suggests:
“Choose a situation that feels safe, such as a public place in broad daylight with plenty of people around.”
She goes on to add:
“In my life, instead of being a danger, strangers have been game changers.”
I couldn’t agree more.
Even if you do end up talking to someone who is a grump or not in the mood for a chat, you’ll learn something about yourself and the human experience.
By resisting the pull to be efficient and by seeking out micro-interactions, your life will be a whole lot richer. As Kurt Vonnegut once said: “We are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anyone tell you any different.”
The other day, I was getting my haircut when my hairdresser told me something her 15-year-old son had said. His words took her completely by surprise. He said:
“Mum, I need to try harder this year.”
I hear those words a lot. Try harder.
I hear them from students who want to do better at school and from teachers who are trying to motivate students (“You need to try harder”).
But what does it actually mean to “try harder”?
The problem is that this advice is too vague and abstract.
If you don’t have a clear picture of what ‘trying harder’ looks like, you’re in dangerous territory because you’re attempting to motivate yourself towards an abstraction.
In the book Tiny Habits, Professor BJ Fogg explains the problems associated with motivating yourself to achieve a vague goal. He writes:
“You’ve probably seen a well-meaning public-health poster in the doctor’s office that shows lots of colourful vegetables with the headline: EAT THE RAINBOW!
At first glance, you think: Yes, I need to eat better food. But then you’re not sure what practical steps to take. How much green and how much red? That means salad and apples, right? It can’t mean mint ice-cream and red licorice, can it? You are motivated to “eat the rainbow,” but maybe you don’t know how. You feel frustrated and end up being a little hard on yourself.”
I didn’t want my hairdresser’s son to feel frustrated and annoyed with himself. He clearly had good intentions.
I asked my hairdresser, “What does trying harder look like for your son? If he’s trying harder, what is he doing?”
She said she wasn’t sure. So, I kept asking questions.
“Does it look like him sitting down and testing himself with flashcards before a test? Taking notes in class? Listening to the teacher instead of chatting with his mates?”
The answer was clear. She said, “Listening to the teacher! He needs to start listening to his teachers.”
I also mentioned that it would help if he learnt his teachers’ names (you’d be surprised how many teachers tell me their students don’t know their names).
Remembering a teacher’s name, staying focused on what they have to say, resisting distractions, taking notes and reading your textbook may sound easy, but these are skills that require continuous practice.
If you’re not used to doing them, they can feel hard.
Even with years of practice under my belt, understanding new ideas still feels hard. These days, reading feels like weightlifting for my mind!
After getting my haircut, for the next 24 hours, I kept thinking about those words “try harder”.
Something was bugging me about it because I felt it wasn’t helpful to tell yourself to “try harder”. . . and then, like a bolt of lightning, the answer hit me: my hairdresser’s son doesn’t need to try harder. He needs to focus on doing a few specific hard things.
By ‘specific hard things’, I mean concrete behaviours he can do right now (or at a specific point in time) to improve his understanding of his school subjects.
For example, if he wanted to start a home study routine, here are some concrete behaviours I’d recommend he try:
These are just a few behaviours that come to mind when I think about “trying harder” with your studies.
Doing these concrete behaviours just once won’t make you go from good to great. But you’ll be surprised by how much meaningful progress you can make in a single, effective study session.
We live in a world where comfort and convenience are increasingly normalised. We expect things, including learning, to be easy.
You don’t have to cook (thank you Uber Eats).
You don’t have to move (thank you car).
You don’t have to experience boredom (thank you social media and Netflix).
You don’t even have to use your brain anymore (thank you ChatGPT and Claude).
By outsourcing tasks that require physical and cognitive effort, we may save time, but there are hidden costs.
People are losing their skills, destroying their health, and atrophying their brains, all while being flooded with unhealthy levels of dopamine. I’d even go as far as saying that people are losing their lives and what it means to be human.
In every moment, we have a choice: we can do the easy thing that gives us a quick dopamine hit, or we can do the hard thing that gives us a slow and healthy release of dopamine.
When you wake up, you can scroll on your phone or do some physical activity.
At the end of the day, you can order takeaway that is engineered to light up the reward pathways in your brain, or you can prepare a healthy homemade meal.
When you’ve got a spare 30 minutes, you can watch some YouTube or go for a walk outside.
You can use ChatGPT to write your essay, or you can use your brain and build your skills.
You can talk to an AI chatbot and have a friction-free relationship, or you can organise to meet up with a friend.
Every time you choose the hard thing over the easy thing, you build your confidence. You can trust yourself to do hard things and survive them. Over time, as you build your skills, those hard things don’t feel as hard as they once did.
For instance, if the Internet goes down and you’re not dependent on ChatGPT, you know you’ll be okay. You can rely on yourself to think and entertain yourself (thank you brain).
This is why I’m committing to doing hard things this year. I’m challenging myself, and I know I’ll be better for it.
Just to be clear, I’m not talking about self-harm or inflicting extreme pain on myself.
I’m referring to activities that bring up a cringey discomfort and make me think, “Ahhh, I don’t want to do this!”.
These include activities that require sustained focus and/or mental and physical effort, such as writing an article, going for a run, riding my bike to the shops, and meditating.
The simplest way is to ease into doing those hard things. Turn those hard things into tiny habits.
Here is a list of tiny habits for hard things I’m focusing on doing:
Some of these things may not seem like much, but all of these behaviours require mental and physical effort. Remember, there’s a much easier alternative: sitting, tapping, swiping, and scrolling on your phone.
For instance, I don’t need to chop vegetables and cook my meals. I could eat out or order food to my door. This would save me time and effort (cooking my meals can feel like a part-time job).
But I know I would suffer at some point (physically, mentally, and financially).
Chopping vegetables and cooking take effort, but it helps me cultivate calm. When done with a focused mind (not listening to podcasts or talking on the phone), I really enjoy these activities.
If I were to outsource these activities, I’d be going backwards, because I’d most likely lose my valuable cooking skills over time.
Similarly, writing articles like this one feels hard. But hard doesn’t mean bad. It’s satisfying to focus my mind, wrestle with ideas, and write.
Many of us mistakenly believe that an easy life is a better life. But it’s not. A life where you are constantly pursuing pleasure and taking the easy path can lead to anhedonia.
Anhedonia is the inability to experience pleasure in things that were once pleasurable (e.g., a homecooked meal or a sunset). Some people describe it as life in greyscale.
It turns out the more pleasure we pursue, the more pleasure we need and the more pain we experience.
It may sound counterintuitive, but pursuing hard things makes you feel more motivated and more positive about life.
As humans, we want to challenge ourselves. We’re wired for it.
Psychiatrist Dr Anna Lembke encourages us to take on difficult, even painful, activities as a way of “aligning our primitive wiring with our modern ecosystem”. She writes:
“We are survivors. We’re wired for struggle, especially of physical nature. Yet we live in a world in which we’re largely insulated from pain. And not just pain, but also discomfort of any kind. Everything is supplied to us at the touch of a finger. Now we struggle just to get up off the couch. Our modern ecosystem incentivizes inactivity. Inactivity breeds lethargy. Lethargy breeds anxiety and depression. We must fight against this.”
So, forget trying harder. Work out a few hard things you want to do and focus on doing them instead.
