Elizabeth Killinger

christian/wife/mama/grammie/daughter | board member/c-suite leader | MakeItHappen | HandsAndFeet | SolaFortis

[Ihtesham Ali @ihtesham2005]

A community college professor taught the same study skills lecture for 30 years, and the video quietly became one of the most watched educational recordings on the internet.

His name is Marty Lobdell. He spent his career as a psychology professor watching students fail not because they were lazy, but because nobody had ever taught them how their brain actually works under the pressure of learning something hard.

The lecture is called "Study Less Study Smart." Over 10 million views. Passed around in Reddit threads, Discord servers, and university study groups for over a decade. And the core insight buried inside it has been sitting in cognitive psychology research for years, waiting for someone to explain it in plain language.

Here is the framework that completely changed how I think about effort.

Your brain does not sustain focus the way you think it does. Studies tracking real students found that the average learner hits a wall somewhere between 25 and 30 minutes.

After that, efficiency doesn't just decline. It collapses. You're still sitting at your desk, still looking at the page, but almost nothing is going in.

Lobdell illustrated this with a student he knew personally. She set a goal of studying 6 hours a night, 5 nights a week, to pull herself out of academic probation. Thirty hours of studying per week. She failed every single class that quarter.

She wasn't failing because she lacked effort. She was failing because she had confused time spent near books with time spent actually learning. The 25-minute crash hit her at 6:30pm every night. She spent the next five and a half hours sitting in the wreckage of her own focus and calling it studying.

The fix sounds almost too simple. The moment you feel the slide, stop. Take five minutes. Do something that actually gives you a small reward. Then go back. That five-minute reset returns you to near full efficiency. Across a six-hour window, the difference is not marginal. It is the difference between thirty minutes of real learning and five and a half hours of it.

The second thing he taught destroyed something I had believed about how memory actually works.

Highlighting feels productive. Going back over your notes and recognizing everything feels like knowing. But recognition and recollection are two completely different cognitive processes, and your brain is very good at making you confuse them.

You can see something you've read before and feel completely certain you understand it, even when you couldn't reconstruct a single sentence from memory if the page were blank.

He proved this live in the room. He read 13 random letters to his audience. Almost nobody could recall them. Then he rearranged the same 13 letters into two words: Happy Thursday. The whole room got all 13 without effort.

Same letters. Same count. The only thing that changed was meaning.

The brain stores meaning. Not repetition. The moment new information connects to something you already understand, the retention changes entirely.

This is what the cognitive psychology literature calls elaborative encoding, and it is the mechanism underneath every effective study technique.

The third principle was the one that hit me hardest, and the one almost nobody applies.

Lobdell cited research showing that 80 percent of your study time should be spent in active recitation, not passive reading. Close the material. Say it back in your own words.

Teach it to someone else, or to an empty chair if no one is around. The struggle of retrieval is where the actual learning happens. Reading your notes again is watching someone else do the work.

His parting line has stayed with me longer than almost anything else I have read about learning.

He told the room that if what he shared didn't change their behavior, they hadn't actually learned it. It would just live in their heads as something they had heard once and felt good about.

He was right. And most people leave every lecture exactly like that.

The students who remember everything aren't putting in more hours.

They stopped confusing the feeling of studying with the fact of it.

[Oliver Burdick @oliverburdick]

They didn't die for a lie.

[Jonathan Shuttlesworth @JDShuttlesworth]

I can’t overstate how important it is in life to be content with who God made you to be, where God has placed you, and what God has gifted you to do.
The moment you reach beyond those boundaries and start grasping for what doesn’t belong to you, you step onto dangerous ground.

That’s how Lucifer lost his place in heaven—through discontent. He wasn’t satisfied to be the anointed worship leader; he wanted to be the center.
That’s how he worked Eve; by getting her obsessed with the one tree she wasn’t given, instead of grateful for the entire garden she already had.

And that’s how he still ruins lives today: not by taking blessings away, but by convincing people to despise the blessings they already have.

Discontent will always make God’s provision feel insufficient even when you’re standing in a perfect garden.

May God give you grace to be content with what He’s gifted you in, what He’s gifted you with, and where He’s placed you.

May you remain ever thankful for all you have in Christ.

“But godliness with contentment is great gain.”
- 1 Timothy 6:6 (KJV)

[Vala Afshar @ValaAfshar]

Please remember this as you get older - advice from one of the greatest thinkers of all time

[Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson]

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

— John 1:5

[Stay with God @StayWithGod111]

God is so intentional

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Humility is really freedom from ourselves. Those who exalt themselves think that nothing is more interesting than themselves. Yet, those who know they are precious in God’s eyes have greater things of which to boast, and a dignity that shines on its own. #GospelOfTheDay (Lk 14:1,7-14)

[Elizabeth Killinger @ERKillinger]

You were created for a purpose. You make a difference to someone with every word and every interaction every day. Don’t let anyone steal your joy. It’s not theirs to take.

[Elizabeth Killinger @ERKillinger]

❤️#3

[Nature is Amazing ☘️ @AMAZlNGNATURE]

why is the sound of birds chirping in the morning the best thing to ever exist

[Positive Side of 𝕏 @positivesideofx]

This is beautiful! Every family should find a way to live close to one another. ❤️

[Elizabeth Killinger @ERKillinger]

What an honor! I’m so proud of the team at @ReliantEnergy for winning “Best of the Best” in #Houston. Thank you to every single customer who took the time to vote, and every single team member who did their part to #MakeItHappen.

[reliantenergy @reliantenergy]

You’re the best, Texas. Thank you for your support! And thank you for naming Reliant Houston’s best electricity provider!
____
No hay nada como Texas. ¡Gracias por el apoyo y por nombrarnos el mejor proveedor de electricidad en Houston!

[Elizabeth Killinger @ERKillinger]

The @reliantenergy app has been recognized with a Silver Stevie Award, a testament to our team’s dedication to delivering innovative solutions for our customers. We’re thrilled for this recognition – thank you, @TheStevieAwards!

[TeacherGoals @teachergoals]

This is important! 🙌
🌐 https://t.co/leSsDUnQAd

[Elizabeth Killinger @ERKillinger]

Teamwork makes the dream work. #MakeItHappen #YouveGotThis

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Precisely

[Elizabeth Killinger @ERKillinger]

It was an honor to join Pablo Vegas of @ERCOT_ISO, Pat Wood of Hunt Energy Network and Brett Perlman at the @Harvard @HBSCHouston Energy CEO Summit today for a panel on the #Texas electric grid, the future of energy and how we harness our Texas-sized potential to get there. 💡

[Elizabeth Killinger @ERKillinger]

What a fun look back at #rodeo season! @reliantenergy, along with our fellow @RODEOHOUSTON Heritage Partners, had the honor of meeting with the @NYSE to share how we support the #Houston community through meaningful partnerships, like ours with #HLSR.

[NYSE 🏛 @NYSE]

Elizabeth Killinger, EVP at @nrgenergy, joined #NYSEFloorTalk’s @JudyKShaw at NRG Stadium during the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo to highlight the partnership NRG and @reliantenergy have with @RODEOHOUSTON and how it reflects their commitment to community and mission.

[Susie Larson @SusieLarson]

God keeps meticulous records so He can abundantly reward His children. He’s so honored by your heart to worship Him while you wait for Him. He’s making a valiant warrior out of you and teaching you to live loved, regardless of the seasons you walk through.

[Elizabeth Killinger @ERKillinger]

I've loved watching @cityoflubbock usher in a new era of #electricity choice. By welcoming a competitive #energy market, #Lubbock is putting the power of choice and energy innovation into consumers' hands. Read more in @TexasTribune: https://t.co/bHD0HYfel5

[Texas Economic Development @TexasEconDev]

Texas takes home the Governor’s Cup from @SiteSelection for the 12th year in a row! As the #1 state for new and expanded corporate facility projects, Texas is truly the future of business! More here: https://t.co/7CBtJzrNtq