By Katie Azevedo, M.Ed.
You’re exhausted. You woke up early, spent most of the day running from class to class, went to practice, ate dinner in two seconds flat, and now you have to study for tomorrow’s test.
But when you open your notes, you realize you can barely keep your head up or your eyes open.
You’re just so tired!
And like last time this happened, you try to rally for a few minutes, but then somehow fall asleep on your floor anyway.
Whether you’re in high school, college or graduate school, you’re going to find yourself needing to stay awake to do your homework or study when you’re exhausted. Even the students with the best time management skills find it impossible to avoid this situation all the time.
I have another blog post (part 1) that pairs with this one (part 2). In that post, I give you 5 tips for studying when you’re tired that all have to do with tweaking your environment. You can read that post and get those 5 tips here.
However, in this blog post, I’m going to share 6 strategies for how to study when you’re tired that all have to do with strategy. You can stack a few of the strategies together or try out just one at a time to see what works best for you.
How to Not Even Have to Study When You’re Tired
First things first, I’d rather you never need to use any of the strategies below. The best strategy of all is to do all your studying before you’re tired.
When you use spaced repetition and a good study plan (exactly how I teach you to do in SchoolHabits University), there’s really no need to stay up late studying. So honestly, prevention is your best first step.
I work with plenty of students, even at the most competitive colleges, who design their schedules so they can complete all their homework and study during the day. These are the students who can then spend their evenings watching movies.
How Top Students DON’T Study When They’re Tired:
- They used spaced repetition to map out short, frequent and recurring study sessions over a span of at least a week
- They start studying at least a week before tests (longer for bigger exams)
- They take notes that are super simple to turn into study materials, so they can get right to the studying
- They learn material as they go by checking their comprehension daily, asking questions in class, and reviewing their notes (this leads to needing less study time before the test)
How to Study When You’re Tired
The following list contains 6 strategies for handling your study sessions when you’re exhausted. Unlike the tips I shared in Part 1, which are all about environment, these are all about your strategy.
1. Switch from Input to Output
Certain study methods require more energy than others. Contrary to what you might think, using study methods that require more energy has the surprising effect of giving you more energy as you use them.
Input-based study methods are passive, don’t require a lot of energy, make you more tired, and don’t work.
On the other hand, output-based study methods are active (we call these active recall), require more energy, make you more awake, and are highly effective.
Input-based study methods include all the ways we take IN information. Examples include:
- reading
- watching a video,
- listening to an audio lecture
- flipping through slides.
Input methods are important because that’s how we initiate the learning process. But OUTPUT study methods are more effective.
Output-based study methods include all the ways we EXPRESS information. Examples include:
- teaching others the material
- doing practice questions and problem sets
- using the blurting method
- doing a mind map
When you’re tired, it’s tempting to use passive input methods like reading over a textbook chapter. But these methods are not only ineffective, but are also less engaging than active output methods. In other words, you’re more likely to feel tired when using them.
2. Lower the Bar to Starting
The harder a task is, the harder it is to start. And the more tired you are, the harder it is to start anything. That’s why beginning a study session when you’re exhausted can feel nearly impossible.
The strategy here is to lower the bar so starting doesn’t feel overwhelming. This works because when you shrink the size of the task, you shrink the resistance.
How to Do This
- Set a timer for five minutes
- Do one micro-task (make three flashcards, write a one-paragraph summary of your notes, solve two math problems, etc.)
- When the timer ends, decide whether to keep going. Most of the time, you will.
Think about it. If you went into your study session thinking that you had to rally hard for two hours while being exhausted, you probably wouldn’t even start. The idea of doing anything hard for two hours when you’re tired is just too psychologically impossible.
But by telling yourself you’re only going to work for five minutes on a very simple and specific micro-study task, you can psychologically rally because it’s only one small thing.
But the magic is what happens after the timer, because in nearly all cases, you will choose to keep your study session going.
Why is this? Because starting is the hardest part. Task initiation is nearly impossible when you’re exhausted. But once you get over that hump, it’s easy to keep going.
3. Spend Your Time and Energy on the Right Material
When your energy is limited, you can’t afford to spend the same amount of effort on all your material. You need to prioritize where to spend your energy.
In the business world, this is the concept of ROI (or return on your investment).
So what is the material that, if you spend most of your effort learning it, would give you the greatest payoff?
A few questions to ask yourself are:
- What topic is mostly on the test?
- What topic do I understand the least?
- What’s worth the most points?
Spend some time thinking about and answering these questions because the answers will tell you where to put your energy. If you’re only studying for 45 minutes, it makes most sense to spend 30 minutes on the material that is most likely to be on the test and maybe 15 minutes reviewing some of the smaller items.
This ensures that you’re not wasting any of your precious time or energy on material that won’t give you a big payoff on the test.
4. Study in Micro Sprints Instead of Long Blocks
I rarely ever recommend studying for more than 45 minutes at a time without a break. Sure, there’s a case to be made for studying hard material in multiple 25- to 45-minute study sessions back-to-back, but those should always be interrupted with strategic breaks.
However, when you’re exhausted, I suggest keeping your study sessions between 15 and 25 minutes. You can stack multiple sprint sessions back-to-back if needed, but again, with an intentional break in between.
The benefit of doing study sprints instead of study marathons when you’re tired is that it forces you to lock in for that short amount of time on high-payoff material.
You can do better quality studying in 25 minutes if you set a timer, lock in, and focus intently on the right material (see strategy three), versus forcing yourself through a 60-minute study session where you’re spending half the time zoning out and reading the same page 11 times.
If you find yourself losing focus before 25 minutes are up, shorten your sprints to 15 minutes.
A key part to this strategy working as intended is that you have to get up and move in between each sprint. Stand, jump, walk around, do a few air squats, go up and down the stairs several times – just whatever you do, don’t sit or lie down.
5. Increase Physiological Awakeness
Before you try to power through a study session on fumes (which doesn’t work), give your body a reason to wake up.
There are specific things you can do to trigger a very real physiological shift in your awake state. In other words, you can awaken your body and become more alert without caffeine and without willpower alone.
How to Do This:
Splash cold water on your face or take a quick cold shower. Cold water triggers an immediate stress response that increases your heart rate and cortisol. Both of these hormones make you more alert.
Do 2-3 minutes of intense movement. Jumping jacks, burpees, a fast walk up and down stairs. Don’t just do a casual stretch; do something that’s physically uncomfortable. Exercise increases blood flow to your brain and releases norepinephrine, which increases alertness and focus.
Hack your breathing. Breathwork has been around for thousands of years and can be a helpful tool when we’re trying to relax or become more energized. Bellows breathing is a strategy known for increasing alertness, which is exactly what you want when you’re trying to study when tired. To do it: Inhale through your mouth and exhale through your nose at the same speed. Repeat 10 times. (Go here for a more thorough explanation of the strategy.)
Get bright light in your eyes. Step outside or sit near a bright light source. Light signals to your brain that it’s time to be awake by suppressing melatonin and boosting alertness.
Move while studying. Stand and use a whiteboard during your study session, instead of slumping in a comfortable chair. Put your laptop on a stationary bike and study while slowly moving your legs. Maybe pace around the house or building when you’re testing yourself with flashcards. It’s impossible to fall asleep doing any of these things.
The key here is that you’re not just hoping you’ll feel more awake. You’re doing something specific to your body that produces a noticeable change in your alertness level.
6. Know When Going to Sleep Is the Smarter Move
Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is stop studying and go to sleep. I know that sounds like the opposite of advice you’d expect from a study skills coach. But hear me out.
When you are truly exhausted, you can’t encode (learn) information effectively. That means that you’re not actually studying. You’re just sitting in front of your notes, burning time and feeling miserable while doing so.
In those moments, it’s best to just go to bed and set a timer to wake up a little earlier to finish studying in the morning.
Signs it’s time to go to sleep:
- 20 or more minutes have passed and you’ve retained nothing
- You’re re-reading the same paragraph multiple times
- You physically cannot keep your eyes open
- You’ve tried tips 1-5 and nothing is working
Sleep is when we consolidate memory. In other words, the material you studied earlier that day — or over the past week if you’ve been using spaced repetition — actually gets locked in and processed while you’re asleep. Cutting that consolidation window short as you stare blankly at your notes is not worth it.
What to do instead:
- Set an alarm 25-45 minutes earlier than usual
- Go to bed
- Review your highest-priority material in the morning when your brain is fresh (see tip 3)
A 30-minute focused review session in the morning (when you’re more rested) will always outperform a two-hour study session the night before when you can hardly keep your eyes open and aren’t retaining a darn thing.
This is why prevention (mentioned at the top of this post) is so important. If you’re consistently having to choose between sleep and studying, that’s a scheduling problem.
Final Notes and What’s Next
The six strategies above will get you through tonight. But if you’re finding yourself in this situation more often than not, that’s your sign that something upstream needs to change.
The students I work with in SchoolHabits University rarely study exhausted. They have a system, one that tells them exactly how to plan their study sessions, space them out, and learn material long before the night before the test.
If you want that — the system, plus live coaching where you can ask me your specific questions and get real feedback — SchoolHabits University is where that happens. Check it out here.