Techniques to Help You Avoid Distractions While Studying

Distracted boy playing with his cat instead of doing schoolwork

If you are a student, you have probably experienced that studying often takes much more time than planned. It is easy to get distracted by noises, other people and especially phones and social media. This can be very frustrating and lead to unnecessary time spent on studying, and less time for other activities. Fortunately, there are different techniques to help you avoid distraction, and this article provides some useful tips.

Put your Phone Away

Phones and social media are well known time thieves and scrolling through Instagram or TikTok seems tempting when we get bored. So how do we manage to not check our phones when studying gets difficult or boring? The most obvious solution is to put your phone in a different room and turn it on silent. In this way, checking your phone requires more effort. Other measures that make the threshold for checking your phone a little higher could have a good effect. Many students use the app Hold that gives you points you can exchange in gift cards as a prize for not checking your phone. Such tools can make leaving your phone alone a little easier, but essentially the key is to resist the temptation to check your phone.

Pomodoro Technique

Studying often seems more manageable when it´s only for a short time period. Therefore, a good idea is to decide to study for a defined time period followed by a short break. The Pomodoro technique is built on this idea. You set a timer for 25 minutes, and work until the time is up before you take a 5-minute break. After having repeated this, you take a longer break. This technique forces you to remember taking breaks, which makes you concentrate better when you start studying again. The technique can be customized if you prefer studying for shorter or longer periods.

Quiet Environment

Your study space should give you enough peace and quiet to fully concentrate. Try not to expose yourself to distractions like fellow students, visual impressions, traffic, or other disturbance. Try to find a quiet space, where nothing more interesting than your studies is going on. A noise-cancelling headset is a good alternative if you don't have access to a quiet study space.
There are several steps that will help minimize distractions that prevents you from studying efficiently. As you get into good habits, you lay a solid foundation for your future as both a student and an employee!