The 'Innocent' Study Habit That's Quietly Draining Your Brain — and What I Do Instead

I used to believe, like many students and parents, that studying longer meant learning more. I found myself watching teenagers in exam season: bent over books, highlighting whole paragraphs in bright neon, rereading the same pages until their eyes glazed. It looks productive. It feels productive. But over time I realised this habit—passive rereading and marathon, uninterrupted study—was not just inefficient; it was slowly draining real brainpower.

This idea isn't new to me. The Times of India piece on healthy study habits rightly reminds us that sleep, movement breaks and structured study rhythms preserve brainpower and stave off burnout 7 healthy study habits that keep burnout away. A forum post I saw recently also points out that a practice which looks harmless can quietly sabotage learning (DailyEducation) Study habit that looks innocent but is slowly draining brainpower.

But let me be specific: the most common “innocent” habit I see is passive repetition—rereading and highlighting for hours on end, often without testing recall or taking real breaks. Add to that the belief that cramming (long, continuous stretches) will somehow knit the material into memory. Instead, it creates mental fatigue and poor retention.

Why passive rereading drains you

• Passive review offers low retrieval effort. The brain doesn’t have to work hard to recognise information on the page, so it doesn’t build durable memory traces.
• Marathon sessions amplify cognitive fatigue. Attention wanes; recall becomes shallow; subsequent study sessions feel harder despite the time spent.
• False confidence grows. Highlighted pages look “covered,” but recognition is not the same as recall. You think you know it until a blank test proves otherwise.

What really works — and what I recommend

I prefer approaches that force the brain to retrieve and organise information. These are the practices I adopt with learners and that I’ve championed on my platforms:

• Active recall: Close the book and answer questions from memory. Use flashcards, self-quizzing, or short written summaries without peeking. Retrieval is learning.
• Spaced practice: Revisit topics with increasing intervals. Spacing breaks the illusion that one marathon session suffices.
• Interleaving: Mix related topics within a session rather than doing one subject for hours. This builds discrimination and deeper understanding.
• Short, frequent breaks: Follow a focused rhythm (for many, 50–10 or even 25–5), and use movement in the break to boost blood flow and reset attention — advice echoed in that Times of India article 7 healthy study habits that keep burnout away.
• Sleep and nutrition: Sleep consolidates learning; food and hydration sustain attention. Don’t trade sleep for one more hour of passive rereading.
• Make it active and social: Test each other, explain aloud, or generate short quizzes and swap them with classmates. The act of explaining exposes gaps and cements knowledge.

Technology as a force-multiplier — how I’ve applied this idea

Years ago I began building tools and ideas around the belief that active testing— not passive repetition—accelerates learning. On My-Teacher I encouraged students to generate mock tests and share them with peers; the generated exams force retrieval, provide instant feedback, and dispel the false comfort of a highlighted page Board Exams : How to score 100 /100. Students who used these mock tests shifted away from passive study to repeated, timed retrieval—exactly the habits that preserve brainpower.

I also urged teachers and parents to push students toward questions that make them think beyond rote content — to ask richer, curiosity-driven questions in class and at home For a Creative Child : Questions Beyond Syllabus. Those questions change study from a memorisation marathon to a cognitive workout.

The core idea I want to stress here is this — take a moment to notice that I had brought up this thought years ago. I had already predicted that passive study would fail many students, and I had proposed practical solutions then: structured, test-driven practice; AI-generated mock tests; and teaching that privileges questioning over rote notes. Seeing how students repeatedly fall back into the same passive habits now feels like a validation of those earlier insights, and it renews my urgency to promote active methods and the tools that support them.

Practical, quick checklist you can use today

• Replace one hour of passive reading with: 30 minutes active retrieval + 10 minutes review of mistakes + 20 minutes of a different subject.
• Generate one 20-question mock test for yourself on a chapter, take it under timed conditions, and email the results to a friend or teacher for accountability (you can do this on platforms like My-Teacher) Board Exams : How to score 100 /100.
• Use the 50–10 or 25–5 rhythm; during breaks, stand up and walk for 3–5 minutes.
• Sleep 7–9 hours; treat sleep as study-time because consolidation happens then 7 healthy study habits that keep burnout away.

A final, personal note

I love the energy of students who want to do well. But I worry when that energy is channelled into strategies that look industrious but yield little. If you are a teacher, parent or a student, watch for the glow of highlighted pages and long, silent nights—they are not reliable measures of learning. Instead, reward efforts that require mental effort: retrieval, explanation, and disciplined spacing.

When we redesign study habits around how the brain actually learns, we reclaim mental energy. That energy then becomes the fuel for curiosity, creativity and sustained performance—not just a series of exhausted late nights.

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Regards,
Hemen Parekh