This article is entirely dedicated to those who are studying. One of the most frequent questions is,
“I’m studying and my mind is distracting all the time—how do I focus on studying well today?”
Let’s discuss this distracting mind. Also, this article is going to provide you with a few tips that you can practice while studying to help focus your mind on study.
Daydreaming and Common Struggles
While you’re studying, have you ever found yourself daydreaming? Sometimes we sit down to study, we turn our book on, and start to study—and after a few minutes, what happens to us? We just get distracted, right? We just start daydreaming. It is very difficult, and it’s very hard to focus our mind on studies because we live in a world where there are many distractions.
So what can we do about this distracting mind, and how can we focus our mind on our studies? Well, there are certain things that you can do, and one of them is maintaining a note with a list of distractions.
Tip 1: Write Down Your Distractions
When you become distracted, this is something that you rarely get to hear. So, let’s say you’re studying, you turn over the book, and you start studying—and sometimes the same thing happens. What is that? Daydreaming.
Okay, it’s okay—let it happen. Once you know and once you identify that you are daydreaming, and once you find yourself daydreaming, what you have to do is take a pen or a pencil and a blank piece of paper and write down that thought that distracted you.
For example, while you’re studying, sometimes we think about food a lot. So what you have to do is write it down: “I got distracted by thinking about Biryani.” Something like that. Or sometimes we become distracted thinking about past experiences, the things that happened in the past. So what do you have to do? Write it down—jot it down on paper.
Why This Works
Now, why should we do this? Because most of the time, we are not aware of what we are thinking when we become distracted. When we daydream, we don’t know what is going on in our mind. We don’t know what we are thinking—we just jump into that stream of thoughts and flow down with it.
So what do you have to do? When you write that thought on a piece of paper, it’s like you’re identifying that thought. You’ve caught that thought and identified it: ” this is what makes me distracted. This is what makes me unfocused on studies.”
Then there’s a physical thing that you can see, and you can see that it is something that is physically distracting you. So what do you have to do? Write down your distracting thoughts. Then you’ll have a good understanding. When you do this for a little while, what you can find is there’s a pattern of distractions. That means we become distracted by a few recurring thoughts—and they are the thoughts that come again and again to our mind. So what do you have to do? Write them down. That is the first tip.
Tip 2: Remove Distractions
Second tip: identify what makes you distracted and then be brave enough to remove all those distractions.
Be brave enough to remove the distraction. There are triggers that make us distracted. Let’s say, for example, our mobile phone. Let’s say you’re studying, and there’s a mobile phone on the desk. Each and every time it rings or a notification appears, what do you do? You take your mobile phone and check what it is.
So, a mobile phone is not distracting you—it is a trigger for your distraction. A trigger is just a trigger until you give it the power to distract you.
So what do you have to do? Physically, by force—sometimes it’s very difficult—you have to be brave enough to remove that distraction. If your mobile phone is distracting you, be brave enough to remove it. If your laptop or any technical device is distracting you, be brave enough to remove it.
Sometimes, we have to use this technology—sometimes you have to use your laptop to study. So what do you have to do while you’re doing it? Be much more disciplined and much more aware of what you’re thinking and what you’re doing with it. Use it only for what you want. While studying you can’t use it however you want, but while studying, use it only for what you need.
So the second tip is to be brave enough to remove the distractions. If something is distracting you, you have to remove it.
Tip 3: Take Breaks
Do not study for long, long hours continuously. I can still remember when I was studying and when I was at home—I used to make schedules and timetables to study for two or three hours continuously. You know, it was not productive. So what can you do? You can study for short time intervals—maybe, let’s say, 25 minutes. You can use 25 minutes to study, and then take a little bit of a break, and then study again.
So do not study for long, long hours—just take a break, refresh yourself, and then come back again to study. That is another thing that you can do.
Tip 4: Meditate Before Studying
It is the most important thing and the most awesome thing: to practice a little bit of meditation before studying. Meditate before every study session. Let’s say you studied for 25 minutes and took a break, then came back to study.While you’re taking that break, sometimes you do certain things that make your mind even busier. So what do we have to do? We have to just settle down and make our mind focus.
To do that, we can use a little bit of meditation before every study session. Just sit down on your chair and close your eyes. The easiest thing that you can do is to watch the flow of your breath—in-breath and out-breath. When you practice calming meditations like breathing meditation, which is one of the easiest meditations. You help your mind calm down and settle. Then your mind will be ready to study.
Conclusion
So these are a few simple things that you can do and practice while studying. Use these things and use these tips to make your studies more productive.
