Coaching (2): How to make the most of cracks of time when studying maths

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These reflections came from a discussion about how long should be the blocks of time dedicated to solving problems. First, I said:

- Allocate time to activities rather than to specific goals. For example, decide "today from 5-7 p.m. I will work on the problem set" rather than "today from 5-7 p.m I will solve 3 problems". The first goal is under your control, the second is not. If you do not fulfill a goal, you will feel bad about yourself.

But then again, how long is a reasonable block of time? That is a question without a right answer, in my opinion. But this question came from a student that is working and studying at the same time, so he does not have long blocks of time. 

This reminded me of an old belief of mine:

Belief: I need a long block of time to be able to work on my math homework.

Do you believe that?

Do you have 15 minutes. Can you do some homework with that time? What about 10 minutes? What about 5 minutes?

I thought for a long time that I needed a long chunk of time in a row to be able to accomplish something. Until I actually stopped having that privilege. 

But then, how do you do it?

As always, it is about making the most of time, or rather, avoiding the attitude of "I will do that later, when I have the perfect conditions for it" (I know, I know, rather ironic to hear that from a Spanish person, eh?).

Do not just wait for the perfect conditions where you can sit with your study mates on a solid table with a smoky cup of coffee in front of you. That is great, but you can work under other conditions too:

- Can you try to remember the concepts that were explained in the previous class, just by memory, while you go on the bus?

- Can you revise some particular concept in the five minutes that you have before the start of the class or revise how some particular exercise was solved?

In particular, when it comes to solving exercises, you can use those times in the following manner: even if you cannot write down (because, maybe you are on the bus or waiting in the corridor), read an exercise and try to solve it in your mind without writing it down (actually, this is a good exercise even if you had the means to write). Do you understand well the exercise and all the concepts in it? Have you seen a similar exercise before? How was it solved? Do you know which method you will try to use to solve it, or maybe to solve part of it? What would be the difficult bit? How would you explain the exercise and the solution to someone else?

This keeps your brain going, even if you think about the exercise for 5 minutes, there is something in the brain that keeps going at it. 

So, if you are very tight on time to study maths, this is what I would recommend. And if you are not tight on time, I would recommend it all the same! 

This does not mean that you have to be working all the time, it just means that you do not necessarily need to wait for that perfect long block of time with perfect conditions to study maths.



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