5 Ways to Keep Your Mind Active in NS
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It started when a teacher made a casual remark.
She said “You’d better find something to do in NS so your brain doesn’t rot” (shocking, I know).
I’d never thought about it like that before, but after going to school for 11 years straight, the focus of life was going to move from academics to military training. Just like that.
My teacher’s remark concerned me so much that I went to ask for my seniors' experiences and indeed, they said that studying again in university would be less arduous if I continued exercising my mind in NS.
This is why I have compiled this list of ways to continue learning new things while in NS. Hopefully it’s useful for someone out there.
1) Listen to Podcasts
I recently got into podcasts, but they are a great way to explore a topic you’re interested in while you’re doing mundane tasks like commuting or doing the laundry. As you can probably tell from my recommendations below, I’m more intrigued by philosophy and business, but there are podcasts out there for every niche, you just need to discover what suits you.
Most people probably don’t listen to podcasts because they think they aren’t “auditory learners” and will fall asleep halfway through the episode. But I think the key to listening to podcasts is to really consider and question all the information the podcast hosts are communicating. That’s how you keep your mind active while listening to podcasts. Many seniors told me they started listening to podcasts during their NS years, so maybe you should try it out too!
Here are some of my favourite podcasts:
2) Read Books or Listen to Audiobooks
In the same vein as listening to podcasts is reading books!
Again, there may be some people who think they aren’t good at reading because they haven’t touched a book in forever, but I honestly think books are a great way to learn new things, discover yourself or just get lost in a good story.
When reading, I have found that the process matters the most. That’s why I don’t believe in apps that aim to summarise books and give you the key insights. I have tried those apps out for myself before, but the true meaning of the books are lost on me because of how summarised the messages become. Reading is a process that trains your patience and mental capacity. That’s why it's ideal for keeping your mind active in NS!
Also, if you don’t like reading books, you might want to consider listening to audiobooks instead!
Here are some of my favourite books of all time:
Flowers for Algernon (for new fiction readers)
Man’s Search for Meaning (for new non-fiction readers)
Spring Snow (for japanese literature lovers)
The Tyranny of Merit (for philosophy lovers)
3) Take Online Courses
This might take more time than listening to a podcast or reading a book, because most courses are multiple hours long and require you to watch numerous videos and do a plethora of hands-on exercises, but with determination comes great results.
Especially if it’s a new topic or skill that you’re really interested in mastering, taking online courses is a very worthy investment of your time and money! It might help you score a few more internships in the future too, especially if you have taken online courses from companies such as Google, Meta or Amazon, who offer online courses with certificates for technological skills (especially with the AI buzz going around now).
I think it’d be weird to have “favourite online courses of all time”, but I personally have used Coursera, Udemy and Google Skillshop before and they are all quite good!
4) Learn a New Language
Definitely the hardest out of everything on the list for me, learning a new language might seem simple enough at first, but it actually requires a lot of time and effort. Much more than a typical online course. It’s especially hard for languages that you can’t find someone to converse with you in, because you may not be able to practise it as much. (Even learning your mother tongue, like Hindi or Chinese might already be hard!)
But I think for many people, learning a new language is on their bucket list, and from my experience, it sure is fun at first. Eventually, it gets to the point where the grammar rules become painful to master, but that just tests your perseverance and dedication (no great deed was easy to accomplish)!
Also, I highly suggest not just relying on language apps such as Duolingo or Babbel, but instead, creating your own notes for learning the grammar and flashcards for learning the vocabulary, along with an actual textbook.
At least, when I was learning German, I found that I was learning way faster by reading a textbook and writing notes in a journal along with making flashcards as compared to just using Duolingo (although I did find it quite cumbersome to spend hours making the flashcards manually, which is why I switched to using AI-generated flashcards).
5) Pre-Study for University
Well, this one’s pretty obvious. To keep your mind primed and active for university, you might as well just start studying for university.
Even if you don’t know what course you want to study yet, if I were you, I’d definitely consider studying something like basic college-level mathematics if you have an inclination for the sciences or something like basic philosophy if you have an inclination for the humanities.
You could just buy a college textbook off Shopee or Carousell and go off that, or find someone to sell you their university notes. Either way, the key is to not worry so much about what to study, but just find a starting point as soon as possible and start learning new things. Even if you don’t end up studying whatever you pre-studied, that knowledge might still come in handy later. The key is to keep your mind active by constantly learning (I think the best way is through spaced repetition) during your NS period.
Personally, I find that it is really hard to retain information after studying it for the first time, so I use AI-generated flashcards to revise content daily. You might want to try that out too! Hopefully this list was useful for you, all the best in NS dude!
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