Learning: The Importance of PACING Yourself

It seems like every time you talk to your Student Services Advisor, or one of your Teachers, or your Counselor, they mention PACING.

Am I right?

But...why?? Why is pace such an important part of learning?

In the article The Science Behind How We Learn New Skills, Thorin Klosowski notes:

"When we're picking up a new skill or learning something entirely new, it's easy to binge-learn and obsessively work on it over time. However, that's not always the best idea. In fact, spreading out learning, also known as distributed practice, is thought to be a better way to learn."

Many of us are guilty of "binge learning"...there is even an Urban Dictionary entry:

homework binge

doing the whole week, month or sometimes semester's homework in one night.
often occurs on sunday night

Hey wanna go out tonight?
No im gonna homework binge

Learning is one place where binging

isn't the best option.

As researchers spend more time learning about how we learn, they have concluded that it's similar to building muscle:

If you just walk in the gym and try to pick up the heaviest weight, you won't be able to. But, if you spend time each day doing reps with increasing amounts of weight...you will soon be able to lift the heaviest one!

So...PACE yourselves! Instead of waiting until the end of the week and trying to complete all of your work in one sitting...do some EACH DAY.

Looking for ways to schedule your school work? Check out the post: A 'Bag of Tricks' for Scheduling your School Work!