The reluctant learner

Midt på natta.

Ja, det er nå man visstnok skal benytte tida til å sove for å lade opp.

Men noen av oss (studenter) er aktive nattedyr. Noen ganger er det til og med produktivt. Lese og skrive midt på natta, fordi da er det få andre som er våkne og kan distrahere.

Men, som tittelen sier, fortsatt motvillig. Av diverse grunner gikk jeg plutselig til innkjøp av en bok i studieteknikk. Du vet, man burde begynne å kunne sånt etter fem år ved universitetet. Men nei, man har god trening i mange ting, deriblant å skjule det faktum at man faktisk ikke har lest. Det har jeg fått nok av.

Allikevel, reluctant as always:

"The Six-o'clock-in-the-Evening-Enthusiastic-Determined-and-Well-Intentioned-Studier-Until-Midnight is a person with whom you are probably already familiar. At 6 p.m. the student approaches his (or her) desk, and carefully organizes everything in preparation for the study period to follow. Having everything in place, he next carefully adjusts each item again, giving him time to complete the first excuse; he recalls that in the morning he did not have quite enough time to read all articles of interest in the newspaper. He also realizes that if he is going to study it is best to have such small things completely out of the way before settling down to the task at hand.

He therefore leaves his desk, browses through the newspaper and notices as he browses that there are more articles of interest than he had originally thought. He also notices, as he leafs through the pages, the entertainment section. At this point it seems like a good idea to plan for the evening's first break - perhaps an interesting programme between 8 and 8.30 p.m.

He finds the programme, and it inevitably starts at about 7 p.m. At this point, he thinks, 'Well, I've had a difficult day and it's not too long before the programme starts, and I need a rest anyway and the relaxation will really help me to get down to studying...' He returns to his desk at 7.45 p.m., because the beginning of the next programme was also a bit more interesting than he thought it would be.

At this stage, he still hovers over his desk, tapping his book reassuringly as he remembers that phone call and text meddaging to his two fellow students which, like the articles of interest in the newspaper, are best cleared out of the way before the serious studying begins.

The phone call and texts coming back and forth, of course, are much more interesting and longer than originally planner, but eventually the intrepid studier finds himself back at his desk at about 8.30 p.m.

At this point in the proceedings he actually sits down at the desk, opens the book with a display of physical determination and starts to read (usually at page one) as he experiences the first pangs of hunger and thirst. This is disastrous because he realizes that the longer he waits to satisfy the pangs, the worse they will get, and the more interrupted his study concentration will be.

The obvious and only solution is a light snack, but as more and more tasty items are linked to the central core of hunger, the snack becomes a feast.

Having removed this final obstacle, he returns to his desk with the certain knowledge that this time there is nothing that could possibly interfere with the dedication. The first couple of sentences on page one are looked at again... as the studier realizes that his stomach is feeling decidedly heavy and a general drowsiness seems to have set in. Far better at this juncture to watch that other interesting half-hour programme at 10 p.m., after which the digestion will be mostly completed and the rest will enable him really to get down to the task at hand.

At midnight we find him asleep in front of the TV.

Even at this point, when he has woken up by whoever comes into the room, he will think that things have not gone too badly, for after all he had a good rest, a good meal, watched some interesting and relaxing programmes, fulfilled his social commitments to his friends, digested the day's information, and got everything completely out of the way so that tomorrow at 6 p.m..." (Tony Buzan, The Buzan study skills handbook).