Too often we’ll hear students ask, “Where is all my time going?” and “I don’t have enough time in the week to get everything done” or “I don’t get any time to relax and do things I enjoy.”
So where is your time going? You spend around 30 hours a week at school, over 55 hours sleeping, 14 hours eating so what are the other 69 hours being used for?
One activity that takes up a lot of time is in fact commuting Think about how much time you spend per week commuting. Eg. in the car, on the tram or train, walking to school, going to sport, going to guitar practice etc.
On average: people spend 1 hour a day to and from school, 1 hour travelling to sport or music or other hobbies during the week and 2 hours on the weekend travelling. That’s a total of 8 hours a week. What would you do with an extra 8 hours a week? That is more than a whole school day.
Well you have this extra 8 hours a week, it is simply currently wasted time. You are either twiddling your thumbs, looking out the window, listening to music or on Facebook or Instagram. This is 8 hours can be a contributing factor to getting you closer to your desired grades and maybe even free up some more time to do some of the things you love.
There are ways you can use this time in the form of “soft study”. Soft study just means revision that can be done in a relaxed setting and does not involve time restraints, pressure or writing. These can be activities that help you remember content without rewriting notes and doing hard questions.
One of these methods is flashcards! Flash cards are simply individual facts/figures/definitions/quotes broken down into a portable revision tool. Whether these are on palm cards or electronic flash card are great for the car or train as you don’t have to read big slabs of text and can spend time remembering quotes and definitions. Try quizzing yourself… have the word on one side and the full definition on the other. Can you remember the definition before you turn the card around?
If you don’t like reading while you commute a great alternative is to record yourself reciting your notes using different tonalites to inject emotion into the content and activate the right side of your brain. You can then listen to the recordings while you commute to get some extra revision done instead of listening to music. This is a super easy, convenient and effective way of revisiting your notes without rewriting them.
If you do spend a lot of time commuting, think about what kind of things you can do while you’re on the train, bus or in the car.. Even walking to school. What would you do with an extra 8 hours a week.