I spent 3 hours studying last night and realized I learned absolutely nothing. How do you break the illusion of productivity?

I sat down with highlighters ready, tabs open, and pages of neat notes. By midnight, I was convinced I had mastered the material and situation got depressed.

Then I closed my laptop, grabbed a blank sheet of paper, and tried to explain the main ideas out loud and thinking too much.

Nothing. I could not even summarize the first chapter without looking back.

I realized I had just spent three hours passively copying text and fooling myself into feeling productive. Reading is not the same as retaining.

Starting today, I am ditching passive highlighting and forcing myself to test my memory as I go, even if it feels tough.

I am very curious to know about your thoughts and personal stories that how your single habit helped you actually retain what you study?