5 Study Hacks to Help You Focus and Concentrate Better
Holding a book all day doesn’t mean that you will get good marks. You may find yourself constantly looking at your watch, or even falling asleep while reading. If you have ever experienced this, then you would know that it is quite frustrating.
Fortunately, we have a few studying hacks you can use to get the most out of your study sessions by focusing better on the topic or task at hand:
- Understand what distracts you: Before you work on your concentration, you need to know what are your distractions. Students might be struggling with internal and external distractions. External distractions, such as background noise, family members or friends talking near you, traffic noises, family and friends looking at you, and action in the room can easily be tackled by positioning your study desk correctly (facing a wall, for example) and wearing noise-cancelling headphones while you study.
Internal distractions might include thinking about a past mistake you did or studying one subject and thinking about another one at the same time. You might also be worried about what will happen if you fail the exam. Thinking too much can interfere with your actual performance. You need to train your mind using time-tested concentration techniques suggested by CrunchGrade tutors!
- Avoid paralysis by analysis: Many students do not know how to get started because they think too much and get overwhelmed by all the information and emotions. They get stuck inside their heads and fail to notice the important details right in front of them.
Our online tutors suggest that the best way to counter too much thinking and not getting anything done is by setting an alarm for every half an hour. When the alarm sounds, take a stock of what you have done in the last 30 minutes. This review process will keep you alert and help you focus on the task at hand better.
2. Find the balance: Some students make the mistake of focusing on one subject and neglecting the others. Others get too engrossed in studying one aspect of a topic or an idea and fail to process new information or other aspects related to it. This might be a good technique if you are a research scholar but in school, you need to temper your focus.
Tutors at CrunchGrade recommend you fight this tunnel-vision approach by making a detailed study plan with specific goals to achieve each day, each week and each month. Simply knowing what you need to complete today will help you from spending too much time on one topic. This will help you focus on all the subjects equally and not let any one of them suffer.
3. Fight the anxiety: School students may get anxious for many reasons – doing badly on a test, bullying by classmates, getting scolded by parents or teachers etc. These anxieties can significantly interfere with your concentration and focus. If your heart rate increases or develop a lump in the throat or get an upset stomach when you have to go to school or study a specific subject, you will need to tackle it first.
The first step in solving this problem is identifying the source of anxiety. If it is test-related, then you need to start preparing for it well in advance so that you have ample time to revise all the topics. If the source of anxiety is something else, like fear of failure or public speaking, you need to address that issue first.
Sometimes, you may need to take the help of a professional, such as a mental health counsellor, to help you get over your anxiety and practice relaxed and effortless concentration.
4. Use Mind-Body Techniques (MBTs) to improve your concentration: Experiment with different mind-body techniques to see which ones work for you best. There’s a wide range of MBTs to choose from, such as self-hypnosis, meditation, relaxation, visual imagery, group support, cognitive-behavioural therapies (CBTs), yoga, tai chi, qi gong, and even arts therapies (like dance, music, or other visual and performance arts).
Our tutors recommend using a combination of different techniques to get the best results. For example, you can use meditation to calm your mind and then use self-hypnosis or CBTs to train your mind to focus on one task at a time.
We hope that these study hacks will help you focus and concentrate better so that you can achieve better grades in your exams. If you need any help with your studies, please feel free to contact us. We will be happy to assist you!