The Right time to study.

A couple once visited me asking me for advice on their son. “ My son is very lazy. He doesn’t get up in the morning. I want him to wake up at 4 am and study. How do I do that?” asked the distressed father.

Easy. I told him.  Let him sleep.

The father was confused. When would his son study then? I told him that there are 24 hrs in a day. Why do you insist on the time when he is at his lowest? He said that he had been doing it all his life.

His son was 15 years old. So my next question was that if he felt so strongly about it, why didn’t he inculcate that habit from childhood.

His wife sheepishly explained that he was their only son. Since the pressure was not much in the childhood, they allowed him to sleep longer.

I told them that now is not the time to experiment.  Let him follow his biological clock. Let him study whenever he is comfortable. If you now wake him up at 4 am, he will only sit there like a zombie and nothing would register in his mind.

The parents stood up grimly and went in search of a better advisor.  I forgot the incident until I met the father after six months.  He was a gentleman. He confessed that it happened exactly the way I had predicted. They woke Chetan every morning  at 4am and soon he was lagging in his studies.

When they went to the school, the class teacher too advised them to allow the child to study at the time he was comfortable.

Chetan was lucky. He had a very intelligent teacher.  Else a good student’s career would have been sacrificed on the altar of his parents’ obsession.

I have nothing against waking up in the morning. In fact, it is the best time to study because of the peace. But our habits are formed during the childhood.  Once we are in the College, it is hard to change them. Unlike our school days, time is limited. With so many social activities, games, watching movies, TV etc. which take away a lot of our time, we have to use our limited time intelligently.

Hence we should use the most productive time to study.  Ultimately what matters is the result.

So Folks, don’t spend too much time on mulling over the right time to study. 

Every time is the right time to study. It depends upon your comfort.