Preparing for exams can be a very stressful time in a student’s life. You need to be focused and put in a lot of effort during this time. As important as it is to manage time during exams, it is also essential to take breaks. A breather of 10-20 minutes every 40 minutes can benefit you in several ways.

Now, let’s understand how to take effective study breaks to boost your overall productivity.

Importance of taking breaks

Breaks between study sessions can have many positive effects on your brain.

• Stress buster: Long and intense study sessions can make you stressed and frustrated. A study break stimulates your mind and acts as a stress buster.
• Concept organizer: Study breaks provide enough time for organizing the learned concepts. This curtails ambiguity in relating to topics and helps in better understanding .
• Memory improver: A break during study sessions revitalizes your brain cells. This helps in correlating the new information with old ones and improving your memory.
• Productivity booster: Taking a break during your study sessions induces increased attentiveness, and helps you grasp more information in less time.

How can you make sure that study breaks contribute to your learning process? Here’s a list of effective study break tips and ideas.

Tips to take effective breaks

• Power of good nap: A refreshing nap rejuvenates the brain cells. This helps in collecting, processing, and storing information. According to a study conducted by The Wall Street Journal in 2013, 10-20 minutes is the ideal duration for a power nap. But a rest period of 60 minutes is suitable for students who are attempting to memorize facts, dates, and other crucial study material. On the other hand, a longer nap of 90 minutes boosts your creativity.

• Exercise and Meditation: Convenient and old-fashioned physical activities such as running, jumping jacks, squats, or incline pushups produce neurons that can calm your already-stressed-brain. Additionally, meditation can reduce your exam anxiety and boost your overall physical and mental health. According to a Harvard study, meditating for 27 minutes every day (on average) eases your school-related anxiety, re-energizes your body, and reboots your mind.

• Take a walk: Studying in the same place and sitting in the same position can tire you out. In such cases, take a walk. No, we don’t mean around the library or in the same study space. Go outside and breathe fresh air. Moving your body can help you regain your concentration and help you study much better.

• Express through creativity: Working hard for a long time can be exhausting. To avoid this, take some time to indulge in creative activities like colouring, drawing, a quick dance-off, or any short DIY activity. These kinds of short breaks provide a healthy distraction, make you feel less stressed and help you stay focused.

Now you know how to take an effective study break. Practise these tips and let us know how it helped you in your exam preparation in the comments.

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