Shadowing Practice: How to Study Consistently Without Burning Out - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

In June 2017, in the intense exam term of my second year studying medicine at Cambridge,

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In June 2017, in the intense exam term of my second year studying medicine at Cambridge,

I very nearly quit medical school.

I was completely burned out,

psychologically and physically exhausted in a way that I'd never experienced before.

I couldn't bring myself to do anything,

I didn't want to see anyone,

I was running away from my responsibilities.

This experience left me wondering,

how did I get here?

And how exactly do I get out,

and then ultimately stay out of this feeling?

In the years since that experience,

I've spent a lot of time figuring out how to balance work

and life so that we can study consistently without burning out just to get ahead.

In this video I'll walk you through key evidence-based strategies

that we can leverage to make sure

that we're studying in a way that's both consistent but also sustainable

so that we can reach our goals without crashing and burning along the way.

Ultimately studying is actually meant to bring us up and not bring us to our knees.

So whether you're studying at school,

university or you're working on another project like learning a language,

then this video was made for you.

If you're new here, my name's Izzy,

I'm a Cambridge graduate and a doctor working in London.

This video will be broken up into four main parts,

firstly starting with the principle of energy management in work,

secondly scheduling for sustainability, thirdly we'll talk a little bit about study efficiency optimization and strategies that we can use for that,

and last but not least we'll go through some evidence-based active well-being management practices

so that we can refill our cups so that we're not left running on empty.

I've included timestamps below so feel free to skip ahead to the bits that interest you.

Burnout has been defined in the psychological literature as a state of extreme physical,

emotional and mental exhaustion characterized by a decrease in motivation and performance.

It results from consistently performing at a high level of tension

and stress which eventually can harm both the body and the mind.

So without further ado let's get into the video.

Productive studying can be viewed as a product of three main variables which are time,

efficiency of study techniques and finally and really crucially energy.

This means that time management and learning new study techniques only gets us so far.

We also really need to focus on energy management.

Our well-being directly impacts on our energy levels and

when we burn out it's actually our energy levels that end up tanking to zero.

So even with all the time and effective study techniques in the world,

that won't matter

if you can't even muster up the energy to just put one foot in front of the other

and continue with your studying.

Energy management means firstly actually recognising what our energy levels are

and starting to notice the ebb and flow of energy throughout the day.

The second part of this is learning energy management skills so

that we can figure out what's draining our energy and what re-energises us.

Every single activity we do lies somewhere on the spectrum between very draining

and very likely to burn you out quickly to very re-energizing and likely to protect you from burnout.

Bearing this key principle in mind,

the next step is scheduling.

We'll come back to talk more about this in the specific sections on what to do in our study time

and also in our rest time in sections three and four of the video,

but bearing that in mind,

the next step is scheduling.

We'll come back to talk more about this in the specific sections on what to do in our study time

and also in our rest time in sections three and four of the video,

but bearing that in mind,

the next step in this four-part framework is scheduling.

Scheduling for sustainability means not actually ramming your calendar as full as is physically possible.

We need to protect time for both studying but also for rest.

The framework

that I found the most helpful for this is to actually

firstly notice what my natural energy levels are throughout the course of the day

and then when I naturally feel more energized I'll schedule in my work time

so for example usually first thing in the morning I feel quite energized

but then I'll have a lull in the afternoon

and then again I feel very energized in the like later evening

and later part of the day so that means

that during the morning and the evening

when I naturally feel very energized I can schedule in some study time some work time

and on the flip side during the afternoon

when I feel a little bit more low energy I could maybe take some time out to do some self care practices.

So once you've combined this principle of energy management with scheduling for success and sustainability,

we've got our work time blocked out and also our rest time blocked out.

So what do we do in those times?

And this is the most crucial part of the video.

In my experience, burnout happens especially when we are doing activities that we have to force ourselves to do.

If we think about it for a sec,

this is actually really intuitive because activities

that we love to do burn us out much more slowly

or maybe even just re-energize us versus activities that we hate doing but have to make ourselves do.

This means that the best way that we can transform work

or study into something that's actually energising is by finding the fun in it and learning to enjoy the journey.

So you might be thinking,

well that's easier said than done,

if only everyone could just love what they're doing and make it energising and it's so true,

there's some kinds of work that are actually really hard to turn into an energising activity

but at least we can make it a little bit less draining

and try to find some gems and silver linings around the place that can help keep us going.

These are the steps that I follow when I'm trying to re-energise my work.

The first thing is creating a good study environment.

Ways to do this include clearing up your desk

or making a nice beautiful study environment or even switching it up

and going to a cafe or a library that you find enjoyable and conducive to studying.

A clear desk is literally a clear mind.

There are psychological studies that show

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that a cluttered environment that's visually cluttered actually distracts us a lot more than an environment that's visually sparse.

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I can be a little bit of a hoarder sometimes

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so one book that really helped me was The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.

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I would highly recommend that book

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and it really helped me to learn to let go of belongings

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that I didn't need anymore but just let go of them with gratitude and softness.

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If you're interested in learning more about designing your workspace with these principles in mind

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and also learning how to decide which things to keep and

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which things to let go in your life then I would highly recommend checking out the short form summary of this book.

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I've read both the full book and also the short form summary

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and the summary does a really good job of distilling down the key ideas from the book.

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If you want a free trial

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and 20% off a subscription from short form then you can get that by my affiliate link down below.

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The second tip I'd have is to find a study community,

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so either study with friends or find some online study communities to work with

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or even just an accountability buddy of some form.

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Making it into a social activity naturally brings fun and a bit more lightness and ease to what we're doing.

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The third tip is topic balancing and variety.

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This essentially means that you balance out the kinds of activities

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that you're doing and also means that you intersperse mentally taxing topics with ones that are slightly more relaxing to study.

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So for example when I was intensively studying Mandarin on my gap year,

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feel free to check out the video made about it somewhere over here,

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I would start out the day with a very intensive study session with using all my textbooks

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and intensively reading and then after a little

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while I'd switch to a less mentally taxing activity such as watching a tv show in Chinese.

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One thing that helped me at medical school was

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that I would almost compete with myself on these practice paper scores I would get and I would try to gamify it.

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This meant approaching it with less of a serious mindset

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and just trying to lightheartedly compete with myself and work on improving myself and improving my score.

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One important thing during study time is to make sure

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that you're optimizing your efficiency by working on what kind of study techniques that you're using.

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I made a whole video about study tips that I used while I was at Cambridge,

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I'll link that somewhere over here,

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you might want to check out.

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And finally coming to our active well-being practices.

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I feel like the meaning of self-care has been quite distorted by TikTok and social media.

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True active self-care doesn't actually mean going out for drinks at a club or going shopping for new clothes.

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While those things can make us feel good,

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to me true self-care is actually actively prioritising our core needs and making sure that those are met.

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This is to ultimately allow our body and mind to rest

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and recover to support our health and well-being as the absolute foundation of everything else we do in life.

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This means that I prioritise the following things as sacred.

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Firstly, it's sleep.

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Try to go to sleep and wake up at a similar time each day.

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Obviously for me, in my work as a doctor,

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I sometimes have night shifts or long days or I work weekends,

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so this isn't always possible for me,

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but as far as is possible.

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Try to maintain that routine.

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Bear in mind that not everyone needs the same amount of sleep.

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Once you've figured out how long exactly you actually need to sleep for,

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add an extra 30 minutes onto

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that to be your sleep opportunity window to make sure that you have enough time to fully sleep and rest.

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I usually aim to give myself an eight

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and a half to nine hour sleep opportunity window because I'm definitely an at least eight hours a night kind of girl.

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I used to really struggle with my sleep so I've made a full-on video with evidence based sleep tips somewhere over here.

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Secondly is some form of daily movement whether this is going to the gym,

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doing yoga, going for a walk.

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I always try to get in some kind of movement every single day.

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Even just 5-10 minutes can make a huge difference to my mental and physical well-being.

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Number 3 is meditation.

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Meditation absolutely changed my life, no exaggeration at all.

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I genuinely owe so much of who I am today

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and the progress that I've made in my life and over the last couple of years to my practice of meditation.

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Check out a video I made over here about the topic if you're interested.

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Number four is getting daily sunlight and nature.

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We're much more similar to plants than might immediately meet the eye.

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Bright sunlight, especially when viewed early in the morning when we wake up,

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is a very strong signal to our suprachiasmatic nucleus which essentially controls our circadian rhythm.

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This can help to balance our mood and just set us up for a great day.

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While I was studying at Cambridge I used to very frequently

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go to the Cambridge Botanic Garden to just go for a stroll.

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I would often bring my little compact camera along

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and do some like mindful photography in the gardens and look for beauty in the surroundings.

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Going on a walk with somebody else is really nice

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because you can chat

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but equally I loved something about going on solo walks where you could really get into the moment

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and just completely be absorbed in the surroundings and also just in the present moment.

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Number five is making sure that you're fueling your body properly.

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You are literally what you eat,

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so fueling up with good food that's whole foods,

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minimally processed, nutrient dense, low in sugar,

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all of these things can help to make sure

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that we're fueling up our bodies and minds to sustain our energy levels across the day.

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Just to say that this does not in any way mean that treats are banned at all.

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All foods can be enjoyed as part of a healthy balanced diet.

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It's just a matter of quantity and making sure that you're getting enough of those nutrient-dense whole foods as well.

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One of my favourite all-time study snacks was to have a Greek yogurt with some sprinkles of berries on top,

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so blueberries, raspberries, blackberries.

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I don't know about you but when I eat crisps

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or sweets or junk food I actually do notice my energy levels drop

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and I feel a little bit more sluggish in the hours that follow.

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So just tap into that in yourself

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and notice what foods make you feel good and what foods make you feel not so good.

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Studying consistently without burning out really consists of making sure

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that you are taking stock of your well-being and your energy levels

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and that is literally the beating heart of being able to take care of your well-being while studying.

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So overall studying consistently without burning out means

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that we need to learn how to tap into our energy levels and understand how to manage them.

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One important thing to bear in mind is to actually make this all realistic as well

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because let's say you have a study deadline,

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you have an exam coming up at the end of next month,

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it's important to make sure that you start studying early enough

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so that you don't have to cram and do all-nighters and compromise on your sleep and well-being practices.

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So that's just a final cheeky point number five at the very end of the video.

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If you enjoyed this video I think you might like this

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video over here where I talk more about the exact study techniques

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that I used at Cambridge to optimize my study efficiency so I could study smarter not harder.

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So you might want to check that out.

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Thank you so much for watching this video.

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I hope you enjoyed it or found it interesting or helpful in some kind of way.

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Let me know down below if you have any more suggestions on ways

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that you personally have found to study consistently without burning out.

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As always, take care of yourself and remember that the journey is the destination.

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I'll see you in the next video.

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Bye!

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Shadowing Practice: How to Study Consistently Without Burning Out - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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