The first day of school is officially here, so what better time to talk about effective studying? While everyone has their preferred time when it comes to prepping for an exam, it turns out that there’s actually a best time to study or learn something new.
According to an Inc. article exploring the work of Dr. Micheal Breus, clinical psychologist and the author of The Power of When, the best time to learn something new is when the brain is in “acquisition mode” – something that generally occurs twice a day. Lucky for our teachers, one of these ranges is between 10:00am and 2:00pm. When it comes to after school studying, the next best time to study is between 4:00pm and 10:00pm.
Luckily, this means there’s a pretty big range of time when your brain is receptive to new information. This is bad news for those of you who prefer to study late at night – or those who usually study early in the morning, if they exist. In fact, the worst time to learn anything, according to Dr. Breus, is from 4:00am to 7:00am. Skip the all-nighter and get some much-needed sleep, instead.
Have you ever done something rash late at night? Apparently you’re in good company. According to Dr. Breus, our decision-making is the worst at night. If you’ve got any big decisions to make, academic or otherwise, wait until the morning when our decision-making abilities are at our best.
