How would you maintain a full focus for a period of 6 hours?

[RttPtt]

Context: I have about 4 months to prepare for my final exams from upper secondary school (matriculation examination). The exam for each subject lasts for 6 hours, and that's when I want to have every braincell working on full capacity. Currently on a normal day I have some trouble focusing for more than 90 minutes at a time, and I feel like that might negatively effect my performance.

Question: Do you have any tips or techniques on how to maintain a full focus during the exam? For example what to eat the day prior, or during the exam? Do I stock up on coffee during the exam? How should I aim to reach a flow state? Adderal? A water fast beforehand? Keto diet? Take short meditation breaks? Smoke a bowl during the exam and just ask DMT entities for the correct answers?

Any insights are appreciated.

[Michael569]

Start to study early in the day, as your cortisol peaks, you have the highest attention span. DO 2 hours before breakfast, then take cold shower, breakfast, meditation and carry on till lunch. Then go for a jog or some workout to give the mind a break and stimulate neurogenesis. Then after lunch, take another cold shower and crack on. Altogether don't study more than 6-8 hours a day and take regular breaks. 

Make sure not to skip sleep but rewind the crucial bits an hour before sleep, this promotes the conversion of short term to long term memory in the hippocampus. Don't sleep less than 7.5 hours to give yourself all the REM and non-REM peaks. If you feel sleepy in the morning, sleep more the next day. Sleep is crucial for that memory conversion. The most crucial of all the things on the list of cognitive improvement. 

Start off with a coffee and then maintain the level with green tea. You can add a ginkgo extract to the mix. Make sure to minimize added sugar, any energy gels and all that crap, will suck out the energy from you. Don't eat a lot of simple carbs like potatoes and white pasta but get something with high fibre. 

I wouldn't touch Adderall unless you are desperate. 

[Striving for more]

15 minutes ago, Michael569 said:

Altogether don't study more than 6-8 hours a day and take regular breaks. 

Why can't you study 10 / 12 /14 hours some days? 

Why not? 

Yes doing that every day is burn out ... but say you have an injury & can't leave the house, you really motivated to learn stuff, surely you can do an extra 4-6 hours if say you change the topic, or to something less intense but still learning, say not career based but something else, like learning a language.

I'm asking because I want to be able to study 12 or 14 hours on days like this, studying multiple topics for multiple purposes 

[Tetcher]

Just keep your focus on the relevant material. Are you the one who decide what you think about or not ?

Also thinking of "ways to keep focus" are already parasite thoughts that take you away from the subject. 

[Opo]

6 minutes ago, Striving for more said:

Why can't you study 10 / 12 /14 hours some days? 

Why not? 

Yes doing that every day is burn out ... but say you have an injury & can't leave the house, you really motivated to learn stuff, surely you can do an extra 4-6 hours if say you change the topic, or to something less intense but still learning, say not career based but something else, like learning a language.

I'm asking because I want to be able to study 12 or 14 hours on days like this, studying multiple topics for multiple purposes 

After a while nothing I read stays but if it does for you then go for it. 

[Michael569]

15 minutes ago, Striving for more said:

Why can't you study 10 / 12 /14 hours some days? 

your brain cannot focus for that period of time and still retain information unless you are on enhancing drugs. Your dopaminergic circuits need to get recharged after such an extended period of focus. This is very individual but the peak focus starts to come down after 2-3 hours and you only get one or two of those per day. Don't take that as a limiting belief, if you can go for longer by all means do. 

15 minutes ago, Striving for more said:

I'm asking because I want to be able to study 12 or 14 hours on days like this, studying multiple topics for multiple purposes 

it'll probably produce a lot of confusion. It may be better strategy to focus on one subject for a period of time and then switch to next such as doing subject 1 for 2 weeks then take a break then switch to subject 2. It will be easier to memorise information related to each other (e.g. only study biology) then cross reference and study biology for 2 hours then engineering for 2 hours then astrophysics for 2 hours. At the end of the day the retention will be 5%

[integral]

The right way to study is to review your notes 10 min before a class starts, always every class with out missing. I did this starting college through university, never studied a single day, prefect memory. 

Also dont open the note book, practice recalling everything, review every page in the minds eye, including all the math formulas and answers. A test is about recall, there for studying is about practicing recall, not reading notes. Also do everything in your head, solving math or physics questions. 

Doing this everyday incrementally builds up speed, it becomes effortless. 

Edited May 4, 2021 by integral

[Grateful Dead]

17 hours ago, RttPtt said:

Smoke a bowl during the exam and just ask DMT entities for the correct answers?

gotta try this ?

17 hours ago, RttPtt said:

Currently on a normal day I have some trouble focusing for more than 90 minutes at a time, and I feel like that might negatively effect my performance.

I think that's normal, at least for me it's also the case... dont worry to much about it, when you are in a high pressure situation you will have much more focus power then usual.

great tips by @Michael569 !!

Diet is definitely a key point to stay focused for long periods, I eat very little if I have to do something like that.

Adderall or Amphetamines in general are great for studying for me but not so good for the actual exam since you have to be creative and your mind should be kind of fluid. When I take stimulants my mind becomes very mechanical and I can't access everything I know.

[RttPtt]

@Michael569 Man, I followed your routine and I'm on fucking fire. Usually on saturdays I just sit back and pick my nose but yesterday I studied for something like 9 hours! I've never felt this good, this is my new default routine from now on. Thanks man, you really changed my outlook.

[Michael569]

@RttPtt ?

[Godhead]

@Michael569 why all the cold showers? 

[Michael569]

7 hours ago, Godhead said:

why all the cold showers? 

keeps you awake I guess

[Village]

I wouldn't. And I certainly wouldn't use drugs or stress my body with cold showers and the like in order to manage to glue myself to the chair for so long. It really just sounds like sacrificing your body to fit in the system of modern life.

[RttPtt]

@Village You wouldn't what exactly? And for the record I threw the adderal in there as a half-joke  nothing wrong with cold showers though?

And what else would I do than study? Honestly. That is a crucial step in pursuing my life purpose, I want to get to a really specific uni that's challenging to get to. It makes me feel happy and satisfied at the end of the day, knowing that I did everything I could to get closer to my vision. Also, I go to the gym so I'm not completely throwing away my physical health, even though I definitely could benefit from exercising more.

I'd rather be satisfied, happy and moderately healthy, than feeling like I'm not using my full potential in terms of my LP while being super healthy.

[Village]

@RttPtt I wouldn't try to focus on something for 6 hours straight and instead go outside and live life. Then again, you said it makes you feel happy and satisfied, so may it bring a smile to your lips and a song to your heart. But does it, truly? Or is it the idea of achieving your life purpose that excites you? I'd be curious to investigate it, because evidently pursuing it for 6 hours straight gets exhausting and makes you look for something else out there.

[RttPtt]

@Village I think you're being too vague, what do you mean by going outside and living life? And you're right in a sense, I don't particularly enjoy studying the things I do right now, and it definitely is exhausting, but in a good sense. I feel like I used my energy for a good cause. I'm only doing it to get to uni, 1 year left.