>>34329965
The sweet spot for me for heavy reading is four daily hours. I can do six or more without feeling miserable if it's lighter work like solving grammar questions.
Have in mind that everyone has their own limits.
>Switching to another topic helps?
Yes it does, but only so much. Do not expect to study four hours of subject A and study four hours of subject B just as effectively.
>I want to optimize my study.
Noob mistake. Now you are doing research and studying how to study when you should actually be studying.
Don't fall for the noob trap. It will never be perfect on the first time, learn as you do it.

>>34329965
>optimize my studying
Here's a general outline of the optimal study routine. Not all of it will be applicable to all subjects of study.
- Read the textbook a few days before the lecture, noting which sections you have problems with.
- Do some of the problems, noting which ones you have problems with.
- Attend the lecture, taking notes when the professor explains something you had previously had problems with, or introduces something new that wasn't in the textbook.
- Ask questions about any areas you had problems with that weren't addressed by the lecture.
- Visit the professor during office hours to get any further questions answered, or to help you work through problems you're having trouble with.
- Review your scored homework problems to identify areas you're still weak at, and visit the professor during office hours to explain them again.
- Before the exam, re-read the textbook and review all your notes, practice problems, and lab notes and results until you are comfortable with your state of knowledge.
- After the exam, identify areas of weakness and study them again until you have mastered the concepts. Discussion with other classmates who did better on those sections may provide a valuable perspective on the material.

ezpz.

it depends on your capacity and baseline capacity utilization

i found that serious study requires a full time commitment, if you are working and trying to do study on top of that, you wont get very far

>>34330007
Oh let me clarify that what I'm studying is not for academic purposes. I'm not in school currently I just have topics I want to study.
Namely, what I'm doing currently is beginning to study japanese. But in any topic I hear stories of these savants who reach high levels of mastery in short amounts of time. It makes me curious about the nature of learning and studying and what these people do to be such effective learners

>>34329965
No more than 2 hours without a break.
No more than 5 hours on any one subject

>>34330038
>what these people do to be such effective learners
Frequent, regular, repeated exposure to the subject (which you'll notice is the unstated foundation of the program in >>34330007 ). Also the US gov't intelligence services supposedly have a classified program that can make a moderately intelligent person (> 130 IQ) fluent in any one of a number of foreign languages in less than a year. So maybe join the CIA and ask to be a Japanese intelligence analyst.

>>34329965
Depends what your objective is. You can spend 14 hours a day studying, it won't be dense. Studying for analytic skills is different than studying for semantic skills, and that's yet different from studying rote memorization.

Mind you that any kind of learning starts getting holes after a while of not using them, starts on a month, 3 months, bigger gaps after 3 years. The analysis techniques remain but the procedures fade. The semantic information remains but the details like numbers and some interrelations fade if they were more on the memorization side. Memorization is the weakest form of memory. Achievements in operational memory fade after many years.

This comes from experience studying medicine, soft math, japanese, etc. I'm a fucking retard who can't stick with things.

>>34330520
Also, I warn you that, you REALLY don't want to spend your life studying. If you end up knowing too much of topics too broad, you will have a hard time finding surprise in things and you will be unhappy. People will look really dumb as you will always have a better idea of what they're talking about and you will first point flaws in reasoning than laughing at their jokes. If you want to study, have a goal first: Some exam needed for an accreditation, some work skill, but never study hard for curiosity, curiosity is meant to be savored.

As for optimizing, I used to do this: Print out whole chapters in tiny print, 2 pages of large textbook for one page, a chapter should be about 2 or 3 sheets right? Check out the pattern of things you must track: Definition, statistiscs, key findings, whatever the questions in qbanks treat. Use a different marker color for each category. Scan roughly the text to find these parts and color them. ONLY COLOR semantic parts of the sentence, in a way that if rebuilt it would sound like broken english or japanese. Read only the colored parts, form the associations in your brain.

As for analytic skills, you have to write down in english what you intend to do with one or other procedure, give meaning to the shape of a formula or whatever. Work out the steps of a proof and work the steps back from the result so you know what is done when you find one pattern. A lot of algebraic tricks are just bullshit so don't memorize them, you'll need to write them down in a reference notebook.

>>34330590
And for behavior, take rests when tired. Go back to it when you're in high spirits, sleep 10 hours a day, never study at late hours (even though you do focus better), you will replace your childhood memories for worthless workload resources that you won't use if you're fired. Take it easy and take a lot of time to prepare, gather people you like to spend time with and relax frequently, keep them informed of your progress.

I'm envious of you. I wish someone had walked me through it, you have the chance to have both competence and a good life. I feel like I have become a mad demented wizard at this point, that's the bad end.

>>34330602
Thank you, it sounds like your speaking from a lot of experience.
My dream is to be a polymath, because when I was depressed I just started trying things to see what sticks.
As it turns out, I'm at my happiest when I'm constantly learning something new.
Now I'm not even afraid of practicing drawing because it feels like theres such a huge amount of interesting aspects of it to learn. As long as I'm learning something I feel good
But I digress, thank you for your well thought out response

Stoodying is a useless meme
Study reality, that's all there is to it
The limit is in application, not the stoodying, for if it's truly useless with no eventual application then you will forget whatever you stoodied anyway

>>34331529
>studying is a useless meme
You really think so?
As I said I feel the best when im constantly studying something

>>34333691
If you feel best when "studying" and not *actual topic of study or subject of interest* then yes, you are simply using it as a form of escapism