In the age of information overload, it’s hard to stay focused while studying. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in high school, college or grad school – blocking out the noise can feel like an uphill battle.
But with the right routine, environment and plan, you’ll find it much easier to concentrate and stay on task. Here are 12+ tips to help you stay focused while you study.
How To Stay Focused While Studying for Exams
If you have an exam coming up, you probably have limited time to study. Whether you’re cramming the night before, pulling an all-nighter or studying days ahead of time, you can use these tips to help you stay on track.
1. Avoid Distractions
Distractions are the biggest threat to your concentration, and they are everywhere.
Your phone
Your friends
Your TV
Your pets
It’s easy to get distracted when you have so much going on around you all the time. Do everything you can to kick distractions to the curb while you study, like:
Put your phone on airplane mode to avoid getting social media notifications or phone calls. Better yet – turn off your mobile device. Set a no cell phones rule for your study period.
Studying in a room without a TV. Sit outside if the weather permits and it’s a peaceful place.
Keep your pets outside of the room, or encourage them to settle down and relax while you study.
Let your friends know that you’ll be unavailable until you’re done studying.
Make it easy to avoid distractions and you’ll find that you’re better able to stay focused on studying for your exam.
2. Set Goals
It’s not enough to just say, “I’m going to study for the test.” If you want to stay focused and succeed in your study sessions, you have to set goals.
What do you want to accomplish during your session?
What material do you want to cover?
Make sure that your goals are:
Specific
Measurable
Time-specific
Attainable
For added motivation, give yourself regular rewards for achieving your study goals.
It’s much easier to stay focused when you have an objective to achieve and a plan to get there.
3. Create a Study Ritual
Staying focused can be challenging, but you may find it much easier to stay on track if you have a study ritual. These are tasks that you do every time you study, and they can help you get into the right state of mind for each session.
A ritual may look like this:
Head to your usual study spot at home (or wherever you normally study).
Set up your space. Gather all of the material you will need for your session.
Block out all distracting websites on your browser.
Set your phone to airplane mode or silent.
Set up any timers that you may be using for your study period.
Grab a glass of water and a snack.
Creating a study ritual doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to help you get into the right frame of mind for studying.
4. Have a Dedicated Study Space
Your study environment will play a big role in your ability to stay focused. Creating a dedicated space for studying will make it easier to cut out distractions and just concentrate on the task ahead.
Ideally, your space should be:
Quiet. Avoid studying in the kitchen or other busy areas (like a coffee shop) where there’s bound to be noise and other distractions.
Comfortable. Studying at a desk or table will give you some space to spread out. Avoid studying somewhere that’s too comfortable, like the couch or a bed. You don’t want to fall asleep in the middle of your study session.
Well-lit. Low-light environments will make you sleepy and strain your eyes. Use a bright desk lamp or an overhead lamp to keep your space well-lit.
Clutter-free. A clean, organized space will make it easier to stay focused. Clutter can be distracting and even stressful, so keep your study space tidy.
Yours. There’s nothing wrong with personalizing your space. Hang inspiring photos, choose colors you love and make your space feel like yours. The goal is to create a study space that you want to be in.
These simple tips can help you stay focused when studying for an exam, but you can incorporate the tips below into your routine, too.
How To Stay Focused While Studying Another Language
Learning a new language is hard. But no matter what combination of learning methods you use, you still need to study. Dedicating time to learning the language is the only way you’ll reach any level of fluency.
But staying on track isn’t easy, especially if you’re already struggling with your studies.
If you’re having trouble staying focused when learning a language, here are some tips.
5. Slow Down
It’s harder to learn a language as an adult. Part of the reason why we struggle with grasping a new language is that we’re trying to cram as much as we can into every single session. And unfortunately, our adult brains tend to over-analyze things, which only makes it worse.
If you want to stay focused and actually retain the information you’re learning, then do yourself a favor and slow down.
Take the time to really absorb and understand each new thing you’re learning, whether it’s a new word or a new grammar rule. It’s much easier to stay focused when you’re not trying to rush from one thing to the next.
Take your time, and only focus on one thing at a time during your study sessions.
6. Study in Short Spurts
Many people assume that you have to study for hours every day to learn a language. You can spend that much time on learning (if you have it), but not everyone can really keep their focus and interest going for that long.
To stay focused, study in short spurts. Aim for at least 20 minutes per day total. That can be broken up into two or three hyper-focused study sessions, or all at once. The key is to break the materials down into manageable chunks.
Short sessions may help with your concentration and keep you from feeling overwhelmed.
7. Gamify Your Studying
It’s easy to stay focused and on track when you enjoy what you’re doing. With language learning – and for many other subjects – it can be challenging to make studying enjoyable. Gamifying your studying may help.
There are lots of language learning apps out there that help you learn and make it fun, too. They also incorporate different approaches, which makes it even easier to concentrate on your studies.
Apps like these are designed to keep you engaged, so you’ll enjoy learning.
How To Stay Focused While Studying at Night
Are you a student focusing on studying at night? It can be difficult to stay on track after a long day of classes and whatever other plans you had for the day. Here are some tips to help you stay focused.
8. Create a Study Plan
If you can only study at night, it may be helpful to create a study schedule. If you have a plan, you’ll be able to stay focused on whatever it is you need to accomplish on your to-do list.
Make a plan for what you want to cover and accomplish, and make sure that you stick to that plan. Block out time in your evening that’s just for studying and nothing else.
9. Listen to Classical Music
Studying at night can be challenging because you’re battle exhaustion and mental fatigue. But listening to classical music may help you stay focused and regain that mental energy you need to get through your session.
Studies have found that listening to classical music can help your brain absorb and retain information more easily. Music can engage your brain in a way that helps you pay more attention and make sense of the material that you’re learning.
Another study found that classical music helped older adults perform better on processing and memory tasks.
So, crank up some Bach and hit the books to improve your focus and the outcome of your study sessions.
10. Make Sure Your Study Spot is a Clean Space
Here’s a quick way to help improve your focus while studying at night – clean things up.
Research has found that clutter and disorganization can drain your brain’s cognitive resources. You’re studying at night when your brain is already tired, so it’s even more important for your space to be clean and tidy.
Clutter is a visual distraction that can lead to cognitive overload and hinder your memory. So, take the time to clean your space before studying to keep your brain in the game.
11. Take a Mental Break
It’s tempting to push yourself to study longer and harder, especially if you’re studying at night and just want to get it done.
But taking regular breaks is important for focusing and retaining the information you’re studying. Schedule in a 5-minute break here and there, or better yet, take a 15-minute break if you’re studying for a long period of time.
Research has found that taking at least a 5-minute break will give your brain a chance to refresh and increase your focus.
How To Stay Focused in College
Study time is even more important in college when your future and career are on the line. But how do you stay focused when you have so many other things going on? Here are some tips.
12. Get Regular Exercise
Make exercise a priority if you want to stay focused during your study sessions. Research shows that short bursts of physical activity can help improve concentration for up to one hour.
Staying active throughout the day can help you stay on track during your study sessions. Try hitting the gym or going for a walk or run before you sit down to study.
13. Get Plenty of Hours of Sleep
Sleep? When you’re in college? Who has time for it?
I know it’s hard to make sleep a priority in college, but it should be one. It’s difficult or impossible to stay focused when you’re dead tired. Concentration goes out the window. Sleep deprivation can severely impair your ability to stay focused, so do yourself a favor and get plenty of shut-eye if you plan to study.
15. Use White Noise to Block Out Distractions
Finding time to study is hard enough. It’s even harder to stay focused if you’re studying in a noisy dorm room or another loud place.
If you can’t find a quiet place to study, grab your earbuds and listen to some white noise. White noise can block out background noise, making it much easier to focus on the task ahead.
Final Thoughts
These tips will help you learn how to stay focused while studying, whether you have an upcoming exam, are learning a new language or are in college. With practice and consistency, you’ll find it much easier to stay on track during future study sessions.
In a world of distractions, staying focused can be a challenge. Even in the workplace, it’s hard to escape social media, text messages and other distractions vying for our attention. Unfortunately, focus isn’t something that comes naturally or easily. Like many other things in life, it’s a skill that you need to learn and improve.
It’s easy for your mind to wander and get lost in distractions when you don’t have a to-do list for the day. At the end of each workday, create a task list for the next day that includes everything you need to accomplish.
When creating your to-do list, start with the most important and time-consuming tasks. Tackling critical tasks and the most time-consuming tasks first will make the rest of your day feel like a breeze. This concept is known as Eat That Frog.
Eat That Frog! is a book written by Brian Tracy that provides helpful tips on how to stop procrastinating and get more done during the day. Tracy suggests doing the most challenging task of the day first so that the rest of the day feels easy and manageable.
We all have that one thing that we dread doing each day, and that dread makes us procrastinate and drag out the day – whether we realize it or not.
By creating a to-do list with the most difficult and important tasks first, you may find it much easier to stay focused and get more done.
You can create a good old-fashioned to-do list on paper, or you can use an online task manager like:
Your team may also have a collab or project management solution that allows individual team members to create their own task lists.
2. Ditch the Multi-Tasking
Many of us pile our plates so high that we wind up trying to juggle multiple things at once. When you’re in the moment, multi-tasking may seem like you’re getting more done, but in reality, you’re probably taking longer to complete each individual task.
Research shows that trying to do more than one task at once can really hurt productivity, especially if they are complex tasks. The more complex the tasks, the more time you lose when switching your focus.
If you have a habit of multi-tasking, it may be making it harder to remain focused at work. Rather than trying to do it all at once, try staying laser-focused on one task at a time. Remember that to-do list you created? Go through each item one by one. Try to avoid phone calls, text messages and other distractions while you’re accomplishing each task.
When you can put all of your focus and effort into one task, it will be much easier to get the job done faster and more efficiently.
3. Plan Your Day
Creating a to-do list is a great first step and can help you stay focused on just one task at a time. But it’s also helpful to plan out your day.
For example, you may work for three straight hours before taking a 20-minute break or stopping for lunch. Break your day into chunks and plan what you’re going to get done during each chunk.
When you have your days mapped out, it’s much easier to stay on track. And if you do lose focus or fall off the bandwagon, you know exactly where you left off and what you need to do next.
Planners are helpful for mapping out your day, but you can also use Google Calendar or any other online calendar to plan your days.
4. De-Clutter Your Workspace
Looking for tips on how to stay focused working from home? Start by looking at your workstation. Is it cluttered or disorganized? If so, it’s time for a little spring cleaning.
Even if you’re working at an office, co-working space or out on the road, it’s important to make sure that your workspace is clutter-free and organized.
Why? Because clutter can lower your productivity and even lead to procrastination or avoidance strategies. In other words, clutter is distracting. For some of us, it’s downright stressful.
The brain likes order. When your space is disorganized and chaotic, it drains your brain’s energy and makes it harder to focus. Research has found that removing clutter from a home or workspace makes it easier to process information, focus and get things done.
Getting organized is easier than you think. Here are some tips:
If your desk is cluttered with files and paperwork, invest in a filing cabinet or file folder holder. Desk organizers can also store papers and files neatly on your desk.
Limit the knick-knacks on your desk to just one or two.
Keep the items that you use most often within reach of your dominant hand.
Use shelving to display personal items and free up desk space.
Store pens and pencils in one convenient place.
Ditching the clutter and organizing your space will make it easier to stay on task and get things done more efficiently. If you’re having trouble letting go of things, try going slowly and removing just one item at a time until your space becomes more manageable.
5. Create a Productive Home Workspace
Many people are looking for tips on how to stay focused while working from home. Even if you’ve been working from home for a while, you may be struggling to be productive. It’s easy to get distracted by chores or other people in the house.
If you’re working from home, it’s important to create a space that promotes productivity instead of hindering it.
Here’s how:
Establish a dedicated workspace in your home. This could be a separate room or a designated corner of your kitchen, living room or bedroom. Having a designated space for work will make it easier to get into that mindset and stay on task.
Keep it quiet. Choose a peaceful space in your home to work. Noise and distractions will only make it harder to get things done. For example, working at the kitchen table when the kids or your partner are getting ready to leave for the day will make it nearly impossible to stay focused and get things done.
Make sure your workstation is clean and organized.
Give yourself a view of nature if you can. If you can’t work near a window, try adding some greenery.
Allow in as much natural light as possible.
Your home work environment should help you stay productive and focused. Try a few of these tips or sit down and consider your ideal work environment. Create a space that you look forward to coming into and one that helps you get into that focused, “flow” state.
6. Set Clear Goals
If you have tasks or projects that you need to complete, make sure that they are clear. Clarifying your goals and daily tasks can help you stay on point and create a plan of action.
Your goals should:
Be clear, specific and concise
Have an expiration date
Have a way to track your progress
Whatever you need to accomplish, make sure that you set clear and specific goals. Doing so will give you a clearer picture of what needs to be done and how you’ll get there.
7. Schedule in Distractions
It’s virtually impossible to completely eliminate distractions from the workplace. Whether it’s chatting with co-workers or getting engrossed in that cat video your friend sent you, distractions are everywhere.
To set yourself up for success, schedule in distractions. Use some of your break time to check your phone, call a friend or hop on social media. For this to work, you need to be dedicated and strict.
8. Establish Boundaries
If you want to stay focused at work, it’s essential to establish boundaries. By setting boundaries, you allow yourself to stay on task without distractions, like phone calls, a chatty co-worker or emails asking for an update on another project.
Here are a few ways to establish healthy boundaries in the workplace:
Say “no” to things. If you continue to pile more onto your plate, you’ll never get anything done.
Block off time on your schedule for tasks. During that time, ditch the distractions and stay focused only on the task at hand.
Communicate your values and priorities. Maybe you’ve decided to stay focused on important tasks from 2-3 pm each day. Let your co-workers know that you will be unavailable for phone calls, emails, or chats for that hour. You may still need to be available for your boss or unexpected emergencies, but you’ll eliminate unnecessary distractions.
9. Keep Your Web Distractions in Check
If you spend your day working at a desk from an internet-connected desktop or laptop, it’s not always easy to stay focused. After all, you have a million distracting websites right at your fingertips. Of course, it doesn’t help that we all have smartphones that can just as easily connect us to those distracting websites.
So, how do you keep your web distractions in check?
Turn off Wi-Fi – if you can. You can’t get lost in a sea of web distractions if you can’t access the internet.
If you need an internet connection for work, you can use tools like Cold Turkey or SelfControl to block certain websites while you’re working. Just create a list of websites to block, and you’re well on your way to working distraction-free.
It’s much easier to stay focused and on track when you’re not constantly tempted to find a distraction online.
10. Limit Social Media Use
Worldwide, people spend an average of 2 hours on social media. It may not seem like a big deal to check Facebook, Instagram or Twitter while you’re doing a menial task like answering emails. However, those few minutes add up throughout the day. And if you get stuck down a rabbit hole, you may find yourself on social media for 10-20 minutes at a time.
If you want to be a more productive worker, limit your social media use at work.
Some of you may have the discipline to do this without any help. For the rest of us, there are blockers that will limit your access while you’re at work.
Some of the most popular social media blockers are:
Freedom. Available for Windows, Mac, iOS, Chrome and Android, this app can be used on virtually any internet-connected device. The only downside is that it has a monthly subscription fee.
RescueTime, which works as either a browser plug-in or an app. RescueTime tracks the amount of time you spend on sites, programs and documents. But it can also block certain websites for a set period of time. Plus, you get access to other productivity tools like goal-setting, and it integrates into Calendar or Slack.
FocusMe is another app that works on Windows, Mac and Android. It allows you to create your own routine for web browsing, work and more. You can even set productivity goals. Of course, it also blocks distractions. Even if you try to delete an app or stop the timer, FocusMe will continue to block distractions.
If you’re struggling to stay off social media during the workday, one of these apps may help.
11. Start A Meditation Practice
If you’re having trouble staying focused at work, start a meditation practice. Meditating first thing in the morning can help you get started on the right foot and with the right intention.
Over time and as you master the practice, you may find that it’s much easier to stay focused without needing additional tools or technology to block distractions.
In fact, research has shown that even brief periods of mindfulness meditation can help improve attention. And Italian neuroscientist Giuseppe Pagnoni’s study found meditators are better able to control wandering thoughts and prevent them from spiraling out of control.
Pagnoni looked at brain scans of experienced meditators and those who had never meditated. Compared to novices, those who were experienced meditators had increased stability in the ventral posteromedial cortex (vPMC) area of the brain, which is linked to wandering and spontaneous thoughts. In other words, they were better able to stop distracting thoughts from becoming all-consuming.
In the workplace, being able to control your wandering thoughts would be an advantage.
In general, living more mindfully can help you stay more focused while potentially curbing stress and anxiety.
12. Stay Active
Most of us lead sedentary lives. We work desk jobs, and we drive everywhere. All of that pent-up energy can make it hard to stay focused.
Exercise is crucial to both your mental and physical health. In addition to helping maintain a healthy weight and body, exercise can help you stay more focused at work.
Research has shown that moderate and high-intensity physical activity can help improve concentration, memory and problem-solving. You can get these effects from just one workout, and the results last for up to two hours.
Along with better focus, you can enjoy higher energy levels.
Exercising before work can help you take advantage of the focus-boosting effects of exercise, but you only need a few minutes to see a difference. So, if you can’t get in a workout before you start your day, a brisk walk on your lunch break can help.
If you get 15-minute breaks throughout the day, you can also use this time to stay active and help boost your focus when you get back to work.
13. Break Down Big Projects into Bite-size Tasks
When a big project lands on your desk, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed by it all. Those feelings of being overwhelmed can cause you to procrastinate and make it hard to concentrate on work.
To make more significant projects feel more doable, try breaking them down into bite-size tasks. You can do this by breaking the project down into:
Phases
Parts
Categories
From here, you can then break each one down into tasks. Start by:
Identifying tasks
Determining which tasks are priorities
Setting deadlines for completing these tasks
By setting deadlines for your tasks, you ensure that your project moves along at a steady pace. At the same time, you feel rewarded and motivated each time you check a task off your list.
It becomes more manageable and less overwhelming when you break a big project down into bite-size tasks. Yes, the entire project may be a big undertaking, but you can certainly handle each individual task.
14. Make Sleep a Priority
A lack of sleep or poor quality sleep can make it hard to stay on track. After all, sleep deprivation makes you feel groggy and sluggish. Your reaction time isn’t on point, and your brain, essentially, turns to mush.
Research shows that sleep deprivation has a negative effect on cognitive function. So, when you try to stay focused on a task at work, it feels like you’re trudging through mud.
To stay focused and on task, make sleep a priority. Aim to get about eight hours of sleep each night, and do your best to wake up and go to bed at the same time every night.
It’s not always easy to remain focused at work, especially if you have to deal with noisy distractions and a pile of tasks each day. These tips can help you learn how to focus on work, so you can get more done and waste less time.
In a world of distractions, staying focused can be a challenge. Even in the workplace, it’s hard to escape social media, text messages and other distractions vying for our attention. Unfortunately, focus isn’t something that comes naturally or easily. Like many other things in life, it’s a skill that you need to learn and improve.
It’s easy for your mind to wander and get lost in distractions when you don’t have a to-do list for the day. At the end of each workday, create a task list for the next day that includes everything you need to accomplish.
When creating your to-do list, start with the most important and time-consuming tasks. Tackling critical tasks and the most time-consuming tasks first will make the rest of your day feel like a breeze. This concept is known as Eat That Frog.
Eat That Frog! is a book written by Brian Tracy that provides helpful tips on how to stop procrastinating and get more done during the day. Tracy suggests doing the most challenging task of the day first so that the rest of the day feels easy and manageable.
We all have that one thing that we dread doing each day, and that dread makes us procrastinate and drag out the day – whether we realize it or not.
By creating a to-do list with the most difficult and important tasks first, you may find it much easier to stay focused and get more done.
You can create a good old-fashioned to-do list on paper, or you can use an online task manager like:
Your team may also have a collab or project management solution that allows individual team members to create their own task lists.
2. Ditch the Multi-Tasking
Many of us pile our plates so high that we wind up trying to juggle multiple things at once. When you’re in the moment, multi-tasking may seem like you’re getting more done, but in reality, you’re probably taking longer to complete each individual task.
Research shows that trying to do more than one task at once can really hurt productivity, especially if they are complex tasks. The more complex the tasks, the more time you lose when switching your focus.
If you have a habit of multi-tasking, it may be making it harder to remain focused at work. Rather than trying to do it all at once, try staying laser-focused on one task at a time. Remember that to-do list you created? Go through each item one by one. Try to avoid phone calls, text messages and other distractions while you’re accomplishing each task.
When you can put all of your focus and effort into one task, it will be much easier to get the job done faster and more efficiently.
3. Plan Your Day
Creating a to-do list is a great first step and can help you stay focused on just one task at a time. But it’s also helpful to plan out your day.
For example, you may work for three straight hours before taking a 20-minute break or stopping for lunch. Break your day into chunks and plan what you’re going to get done during each chunk.
When you have your days mapped out, it’s much easier to stay on track. And if you do lose focus or fall off the bandwagon, you know exactly where you left off and what you need to do next.
Planners are helpful for mapping out your day, but you can also use Google Calendar or any other online calendar to plan your days.
4. De-Clutter Your Workspace
Looking for tips on how to stay focused working from home? Start by looking at your workstation. Is it cluttered or disorganized? If so, it’s time for a little spring cleaning.
Even if you’re working at an office, co-working space or out on the road, it’s important to make sure that your workspace is clutter-free and organized.
Why? Because clutter can lower your productivity and even lead to procrastination or avoidance strategies. In other words, clutter is distracting. For some of us, it’s downright stressful.
The brain likes order. When your space is disorganized and chaotic, it drains your brain’s energy and makes it harder to focus. Research has found that removing clutter from a home or workspace makes it easier to process information, focus and get things done.
Getting organized is easier than you think. Here are some tips:
If your desk is cluttered with files and paperwork, invest in a filing cabinet or file folder holder. Desk organizers can also store papers and files neatly on your desk.
Limit the knick-knacks on your desk to just one or two.
Keep the items that you use most often within reach of your dominant hand.
Use shelving to display personal items and free up desk space.
Store pens and pencils in one convenient place.
Ditching the clutter and organizing your space will make it easier to stay on task and get things done more efficiently. If you’re having trouble letting go of things, try going slowly and removing just one item at a time until your space becomes more manageable.
5. Create a Productive Home Workspace
Many people are looking for tips on how to stay focused while working from home. Even if you’ve been working from home for a while, you may be struggling to be productive. It’s easy to get distracted by chores or other people in the house.
If you’re working from home, it’s important to create a space that promotes productivity instead of hindering it.
Here’s how:
Establish a dedicated workspace in your home. This could be a separate room or a designated corner of your kitchen, living room or bedroom. Having a designated space for work will make it easier to get into that mindset and stay on task.
Keep it quiet. Choose a peaceful space in your home to work. Noise and distractions will only make it harder to get things done. For example, working at the kitchen table when the kids or your partner are getting ready to leave for the day will make it nearly impossible to stay focused and get things done.
Make sure your workstation is clean and organized.
Give yourself a view of nature if you can. If you can’t work near a window, try adding some greenery.
Allow in as much natural light as possible.
Your home work environment should help you stay productive and focused. Try a few of these tips or sit down and consider your ideal work environment. Create a space that you look forward to coming into and one that helps you get into that focused, “flow” state.
6. Set Clear Goals
If you have tasks or projects that you need to complete, make sure that they are clear. Clarifying your goals and daily tasks can help you stay on point and create a plan of action.
Your goals should:
Be clear, specific and concise
Have an expiration date
Have a way to track your progress
Whatever you need to accomplish, make sure that you set clear and specific goals. Doing so will give you a clearer picture of what needs to be done and how you’ll get there.
7. Schedule in Distractions
It’s virtually impossible to completely eliminate distractions from the workplace. Whether it’s chatting with co-workers or getting engrossed in that cat video your friend sent you, distractions are everywhere.
To set yourself up for success, schedule in distractions. Use some of your break time to check your phone, call a friend or hop on social media. For this to work, you need to be dedicated and strict.
8. Establish Boundaries
If you want to stay focused at work, it’s essential to establish boundaries. By setting boundaries, you allow yourself to stay on task without distractions, like phone calls, a chatty co-worker or emails asking for an update on another project.
Here are a few ways to establish healthy boundaries in the workplace:
Say “no” to things. If you continue to pile more onto your plate, you’ll never get anything done.
Block off time on your schedule for tasks. During that time, ditch the distractions and stay focused only on the task at hand.
Communicate your values and priorities. Maybe you’ve decided to stay focused on important tasks from 2-3 pm each day. Let your co-workers know that you will be unavailable for phone calls, emails, or chats for that hour. You may still need to be available for your boss or unexpected emergencies, but you’ll eliminate unnecessary distractions.
9. Keep Your Web Distractions in Check
If you spend your day working at a desk from an internet-connected desktop or laptop, it’s not always easy to stay focused. After all, you have a million distracting websites right at your fingertips. Of course, it doesn’t help that we all have smartphones that can just as easily connect us to those distracting websites.
So, how do you keep your web distractions in check?
Turn off Wi-Fi – if you can. You can’t get lost in a sea of web distractions if you can’t access the internet.
If you need an internet connection for work, you can use tools like Cold Turkey or SelfControl to block certain websites while you’re working. Just create a list of websites to block, and you’re well on your way to working distraction-free.
It’s much easier to stay focused and on track when you’re not constantly tempted to find a distraction online.
10. Limit Social Media Use
Worldwide, people spend an average of 2 hours on social media. It may not seem like a big deal to check Facebook, Instagram or Twitter while you’re doing a menial task like answering emails. However, those few minutes add up throughout the day. And if you get stuck down a rabbit hole, you may find yourself on social media for 10-20 minutes at a time.
If you want to be a more productive worker, limit your social media use at work.
Some of you may have the discipline to do this without any help. For the rest of us, there are blockers that will limit your access while you’re at work.
Some of the most popular social media blockers are:
Freedom. Available for Windows, Mac, iOS, Chrome and Android, this app can be used on virtually any internet-connected device. The only downside is that it has a monthly subscription fee.
RescueTime, which works as either a browser plug-in or an app. RescueTime tracks the amount of time you spend on sites, programs and documents. But it can also block certain websites for a set period of time. Plus, you get access to other productivity tools like goal-setting, and it integrates into Calendar or Slack.
FocusMe is another app that works on Windows, Mac and Android. It allows you to create your own routine for web browsing, work and more. You can even set productivity goals. Of course, it also blocks distractions. Even if you try to delete an app or stop the timer, FocusMe will continue to block distractions.
If you’re struggling to stay off social media during the workday, one of these apps may help.
11. Start A Meditation Practice
If you’re having trouble staying focused at work, start a meditation practice. Meditating first thing in the morning can help you get started on the right foot and with the right intention.
Over time and as you master the practice, you may find that it’s much easier to stay focused without needing additional tools or technology to block distractions.
In fact, research has shown that even brief periods of mindfulness meditation can help improve attention. And Italian neuroscientist Giuseppe Pagnoni’s study found meditators are better able to control wandering thoughts and prevent them from spiraling out of control.
Pagnoni looked at brain scans of experienced meditators and those who had never meditated. Compared to novices, those who were experienced meditators had increased stability in the ventral posteromedial cortex (vPMC) area of the brain, which is linked to wandering and spontaneous thoughts. In other words, they were better able to stop distracting thoughts from becoming all-consuming.
In the workplace, being able to control your wandering thoughts would be an advantage.
In general, living more mindfully can help you stay more focused while potentially curbing stress and anxiety.
12. Stay Active
Most of us lead sedentary lives. We work desk jobs, and we drive everywhere. All of that pent-up energy can make it hard to stay focused.
Exercise is crucial to both your mental and physical health. In addition to helping maintain a healthy weight and body, exercise can help you stay more focused at work.
Research has shown that moderate and high-intensity physical activity can help improve concentration, memory and problem-solving. You can get these effects from just one workout, and the results last for up to two hours.
Along with better focus, you can enjoy higher energy levels.
Exercising before work can help you take advantage of the focus-boosting effects of exercise, but you only need a few minutes to see a difference. So, if you can’t get in a workout before you start your day, a brisk walk on your lunch break can help.
If you get 15-minute breaks throughout the day, you can also use this time to stay active and help boost your focus when you get back to work.
13. Break Down Big Projects into Bite-size Tasks
When a big project lands on your desk, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed by it all. Those feelings of being overwhelmed can cause you to procrastinate and make it hard to concentrate on work.
To make more significant projects feel more doable, try breaking them down into bite-size tasks. You can do this by breaking the project down into:
Phases
Parts
Categories
From here, you can then break each one down into tasks. Start by:
Identifying tasks
Determining which tasks are priorities
Setting deadlines for completing these tasks
By setting deadlines for your tasks, you ensure that your project moves along at a steady pace. At the same time, you feel rewarded and motivated each time you check a task off your list.
It becomes more manageable and less overwhelming when you break a big project down into bite-size tasks. Yes, the entire project may be a big undertaking, but you can certainly handle each individual task.
14. Make Sleep a Priority
A lack of sleep or poor quality sleep can make it hard to stay on track. After all, sleep deprivation makes you feel groggy and sluggish. Your reaction time isn’t on point, and your brain, essentially, turns to mush.
Research shows that sleep deprivation has a negative effect on cognitive function. So, when you try to stay focused on a task at work, it feels like you’re trudging through mud.
To stay focused and on task, make sleep a priority. Aim to get about eight hours of sleep each night, and do your best to wake up and go to bed at the same time every night.
It’s not always easy to remain focused at work, especially if you have to deal with noisy distractions and a pile of tasks each day. These tips can help you learn how to focus on work, so you can get more done and waste less time.
Approximately 98% of universities offer online classes, and roughly 50% of professors approve of virtual schools. The pandemic helped create a cosmic shift in the way people learn, but one issue remains: how to stay focused during online school.
And when I use the term “school,” this can mean:
Online classes for:
K – 12
College
Work
Online courses
Corporate training / education
Any type of distance learning
Unfortunately, many ways to stay focused in school don’t translate to online learning. For example, paying attention in class is easier for many people because an instructor will make sure they’re not on your phone, running to the refrigerator to grab a snack, playing video games or petting their dog.
Virtual classes give you a lot of freedom, but if you think back to your education, you’ll often find no one really teaches you how to stay focused while studying.
In fact, you never really learn how to learn.
If you want to learn how to learn, there’s a great, free class on the subject on Coursera called: Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects. Barbara Oakley does a fantastic job instructing the class, and I’ve personally enjoyed it.
However, today we’re going to hone in on how to pay attention in online classes. We’re going to go through tips to stay focused, how not to get distracted during online school and actionable methods that you can apply to your learning today that will make a dramatic difference in your learning.
How to Stay Focused During Online School Using 9 Simple Hacks
1. Create a Dedicated Study Space
Online students are slowly retraining themselves on how to learn virtually. Want to know how to stay focused on studies? Create a dedicated space. Think of your actual class environment. What does it have?
A desk or some place to take notes and open a book
Organization, primarily because the desk is empty
No clutter
Ideally, you’ll want to pick a room or space in your home where you have everything you need to learn. Notebooks, pencils, pens, organization tools and not much else. Your space should be clear of clutter and have the main goal of making it easy to learn.
If your space is cluttered, your mind will be cluttered.
2. Set Daily Schedules
Many people never truly learn how to stay focused in class because they allow themselves too much freedom. For example, a student in high school isn’t likely to create a strict class time, which includes:
Class schedule
Study schedule
Instead, they’ll give themselves little time to focus on schoolwork, cram everything in at the last minute and hope for the best.
Unfortunately, a lot of students do well with this last-minute hustle.
However, if you can’t focus on online classes, it’s eventually going to lead to poor study habits. You should create a schedule that works well for you, and your schedule can even evolve. For example:
Monday: Class from 9am to 10:30am; Study time from 6pm to 7pm
Tuesday: Class from 10am to 10:30am; Study time from 3pm to 4pm
One of the best things about remote learning is that focus time can often revolve around your schedule. Sure, if you have strict class start times, you may have less freedom to choose when to go to class, but you’ll always have the freedom to study on a schedule conducive to your type of learning.
You need to get to bed on time, wake up on time and remain consistent. In fact, studies show that your brain works to store external stimuli when you sleep. If you’re not sleeping enough, you’re hindering your brain’s ability to store the information you learn.
3. Create Daily Checklists
Many teens want to know how to stay focused in high school, and one of the best methods is to make daily checklists. If you’re in college, university, taking an online class for leisure or work or anything else, these same to-do lists will work great.
Simply:
Create a list of things you need to get done
Sort your list by each task’s priority
You may list everything from making coffee before class to mental breaks, study breaks, showering, etc.
If you have a daily checklist of all of the major tasks that you need to complete, it will make your day – and learning – much easier.
4. Block Background Noise
If you’re at home and hear someone else in the house talking or watching their favorite television show, it’s going to be very distracting for you. White noise is an excellent option because it will block noise so that you can focus on learning.
However, you need to find a way to block background noise for yourself.
Learning styles are different, so you may find that you’re best able to block noise with:
Earphones
Noise blocking headphones
Classical music
White noise
Simply find a way to ignore the noise and focus on your academic success.
5. Use Offline Tools
Education really has two parts:
Instruction
Studying
Your professor or teacher may spend an hour teaching you a subject that you study for four hours on your own. A major issue when people learn how to focus on online school is that they do everything online.
By everything, this means that they take all of their notes online, study online and go to class online.
If the Internet is down for a few hours, they shrug and just skip the day’s learning. You should be utilizing offline tools to help you study, too. A few of these tools are:
Physical notebooks
Books
Stored media (offline mode)
In fact, a 2009 study suggests that handwriting may provide better recognition and recall than typing. Brain imaging seems to back this theory, too. So, if you’re taking notes online, it may be beneficial to start writing these notes out for better recall and also to use them offline, too.
How To Focus on Online Classes by Eliminating Distractions
When first researching how to stay focused during online school, it was apparent that time management and eliminating distractions would be crucial to your success. As someone that has been running a business from their house and learning online for over 10 years, I have a lot of firsthand experience on distractions.
And while I don’t have an answer for a needy dog wanting to play catch midday, I do have a few great, personal tips on eliminating distractions for long periods of time.
A few of the tips that work well for me to get rid of distractions are:
6. Create a No Person Allowed Space
Distractions are often associated with notifications on your phone, but some of the main distractions exist right in your home. For example, dogs, kids, parents, spouses and everything in between can become a distraction.
Actually, procrastination plays a major role in these distractions, too.
If you don’t want to log into your online class, you’ll decide it’s a great time to go ask a random question to anyone in the house.
However, you’re just putting off the inevitable and will need to go back to studying eventually. One method that works wonders for getting rid of distractions when studying is to make your designated study area your own space.
No one is allowed in this space while you’re studying.
Put a sign on the outside of the door. Lock the door. Do whatever it takes to keep other people from distracting you while you’re learning online.
7. Block Non-essential Notifications
Notifications on your phone, and to a lesser extent your computer, are going to be very distracting. The average person receives over 63 notifications a day, and if you’re trying to get anything done, you’ll quickly find that your productivity rate plummets from a single notification.
A few ways to block notifications are:
Turn your phone on airplane mode
Turn off all notifications
Use an app
Turn on Do Not Disturb Mode
Blocking notifications will allow you to focus on online courses and school.
8. Block Distracting Websites
One of the best tips for how to stay focused at workalso applies to learning online: block distracting websites. There are numerous, technical ways to do this, but one of the easiest methods is to use a browser extension.
If you don’t see the browser you use listed above, you’ll surely find equivalent options available.
9. Block Social Media Channels
Social media wastes 145 minutes of people’s time per day. Imagine your boss or teacher telling you that you need to spend 2 hours and 25 minutes of your day doing more work. Instead, you’re losing this same amount of time on social media.
Using the same extensions above, you’ll want to block all, non-essential social media channels.
By non-essential, we mean any social media channel you’re not using for school or your course. Additionally, you’ll want to shut off notifications on your phone or simply turn it upside down while you’re studying.
Figuring out how to stay focused during online school or classes takes a lot of time and effort. Everyone has a different attention span and learns in their own unique way. However, the tips above are a good starting point that you can build off to find your own ways to stay focused when learning online.
