Focusing While at Home

Tips to Improve Your Academic Focus

Do you study with your phone by your side?  Do you alternate between checking Instagram, TikTok, VSCO, and texts while studying? If so, you are not the only one.  Researchers found that young adults concentrated an average of five – six minutes before being distracted by technology (Rosen, Carrier, & Cheever, 2013).

Why does this statistic matter?  Why should you care about the average time young adults in a research project focused before checking social media?  These statistics are important because researchers (Feng, Wong, Wong, & Hossain, 2019; Junco, 2012; Rosen, Carrier, & Cheever, 2013) also found a negative correlation between the amount of distractions and academic performance.  This means that the more distracted you are while studying, the more likely that you will earn lower grades.

Now that you see research-backed evidence that distracted learning is detrimental to your academic performance, what can you do?  You can create a strategic approach to studying and improve your grades (Chen, Chavez, & Gunderson, 2017).  What strategies can you employ to improve your studying?

 

Consider the following:

    • Remove the distractions. What does this mean exactly?  Put your phone on silent and in your backpack.  Turn off the television.  Study in a quiet room.  Find a place where you can truly focus.
    • Take a break. Once you have settled into a quiet place, focus on your course materials for 15-20 minutes and then allow yourself a quick break to check back in with social media, texts, etc.  Reward your focused learning with something you enjoy doing.  By alternating a study session with a social media check-in, you can take the time to focus on your schoolwork without compromising your social media interests.
    • Set goals. Before you sit down for a study session, think about what you would like to accomplish. Be specific.  Would you like to memorize 30 definitions?  Would you like to apply a mathematical formula successfully in 10 practice problems?  Set specific, measurable goals for your studying and then use your time to work toward those goals.
    • Be mindful.   As you study, be mindful of how you are feeling.  Would your learning improve if you took a quick walk?  Are you staying hydrated?  Are you taking the time to eat a healthy meal?  Take care of yourself as you study to maintain your focus.
    • Set a schedule. Make the time to study.  Create a schedule for yourself and stick to it.  Look at your calendar and schedule time each day for your academics.  Then, follow this schedule.
    • Break larger projects into smaller tasks. It can often be overwhelming to begin working on a large project.  If you have a big project, break the project into achievable, smaller tasks.  It is easier to stay focused on smaller tasks than one bigger, overwhelming project.
    • Use your resources. If you are struggling with your academics, use the resources available to you. If you are having difficulty writing a paper, use the Writing Center.  If you are having trouble with your math homework, talk with a math tutor.  When you are struggling academically, it is often easy to get distracted.  However, if you use the resources available to you, it will be easier to focus on the task at hand.
    • Reward yourself. Studying is hard.  College courses are difficult.  Learning many of these concepts can be challenging.  After you’ve accomplished your goals for the day, reward yourself.  Spend some time doing what you enjoy so that you are ready to study again during your next scheduled study session.

 

 
The above strategies and techniques may help you to stay focused on your learning.  By employing specific study strategies, you may the learn the material and improve your grades.

 

 

References

Chen, P., Chavez, O., Ong, D., & Gunderson, B. (2017). Strategic Resource Use for Learning: A Self-Administered Intervention That Guides Self-Reflection on Effective Resource Use Enhances Academic Performance. Psychological Science, 28(6), 774-785.

Feng, Shihui, Wong, Yip Kan, Wong, Lai Yin, & Hossain, Liaquat. (2019). The Internet and Facebook Usage on Academic Distraction of College Students. Computers & Education, 134, 41-49.

Junco, R. (2012). Too much face and not enough books: The relationship between multiple indices of Facebook use and academic performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 28(1), 187-198.

Rosen, L., Mark Carrier, L., & Cheever, N. (2013). Facebook and texting made me do it: Media-induced task-switching while studying. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(3), 948-958.