Mind distraction. Help me and guide me!

Hie........... 13 Things You MUST NOT Do to Concentrate Better Whilst You Study Less is sometimes more. Are your finals around the corner? Or do you have a test coming up? Maybe you want to study better and learn how NOT to fall prey to guilt, frustration, and procrastination. Whatever brings you here today, here’s the bottom line: if you use the points listed below as a guideline, you will have a much easier time studying. And how do I know this? I graduated college with majors in Applied Statistics and Quantitative Finance with an average of 82.2% across all units and a GPA of 6.583/7 (Australian GPA is out of 7). Those aren’t easy majors to do well in. And before you jump ahead to what I already know you’re thinking! “Asians are supposed to be good at math” - well, not this one! In high school my final average for maths sat around 60%. The only difference between high school and college boiled down to how I approached studying. So, here’s 13 things you have to avoid at ALL costs if you want to be able to concentrate when you study. 1. Focusing On Things Outside of Your Control It’s one week until you’re final exam or test, you haven’t even looked at the material that’s covered yet. Oh god, stress overload. Why oh why didn’t I start studying earlier, damn those Netflix marathons! That’s exactly what you DON’T want to do. Instead you need to FOCUS on what you CAN DO and take back responsibility and control over the situation. You still got a week left to work with - use that week as best you can to study and stop freaking out over things that are in the past because it doesn’t help you! 2. Approaching Study as a Chore There’s a BIG difference between HAVING or WANTING to do something. Do you have to study? The truth of the matter is, no, you don’t have to do shit. You WANT to study. No one is forcing you to study and even if they try, you ultimately have the choice as to whether you will study or not. When you approach studying as something you WANT to do it’s a very subtle change that has a profound impact on how well you study. Always remind yourself WHY it is you want to study. 3. Studying without Setting a Clear Goal Do you generally hop into a car and start driving without a final destination? No, I’m guessing that doesn’t happen too often. Knowing where you want to go should be the same deal when it comes to studying. You need to know EXACTLY where you’re going and what you’re going to accomplish during your study session. What specific lectures, chapters, or practice questions are you going to cover? And that brings us to our next point.. 4. Not Utilizing Different Study Methods and Tools Quizzing yourself and recalling answers is a great method for studying multi choice exams. Flash cards help tremendously with memorizing facts. Actually doing problem sets before looking at solution sets helps you learn MUCH more than glancing over the solutions and nodding your head as you pretend to understand the answers. Reach out to other students, your professor or TA for suggestions and help on how to best study the unit material. Studying doesn’t ONLY mean reading text books, highlighting things, and re-reading your notes until it hopefully gets ingrained into your brain (this method rarely worked for me). Depending on what you’re studying for you need to figure out what the best approach to studying it is AND whether it actually works for you. 5. Copying How Other People Study Some people are ‘geniuses’ that can read something just once and remember everything they read. If you don’t have a photographic memory then clearly this method won’t work that well for you. We all have unique strengths and weaknesses - your job is to figure out what yours lie. How do you best learn and study? Are you more visual, auditory, or kinesthetic? Play to your advantage and experiment to figure out what works for you because at the end of the day that’s all that matters. If you find reading lecture slides or textbooks difficult, switch over to audio material by listening to lectures and finding videos online that explain what you’re trying to study. 6. Studying at the Worst Time Much like there are changing seasons in nature, there are also ‘seasons’ for us throughout a day! Instead of Four Seasons however we have what’s called a circadian rhythm. There are periods of time throughout the day when we’re MORE switched on, alert, and able to concentrate. Trying to study after having a big meal is just going to be a struggle! Blood will be flowing to your stomach and digestive system so your brain doesn’t have as much ‘gas’ available to go full throttle. Just think about how you feel after a big Thanksgiving dinner - more than anything you just want to nap. Again, you need to discover what the best times of the day are in order for you to concentrate because circadian rhythms aren’t universal. It’s just a framework and it doesn’t take into account your unique genetics and individual predispositions. Only you can figure that out for yourself. 7. Setting Yourself Up for Failure in Bad Environments If you took a native plant from the Outback of Australia and planted it in Antarctica, do you think it would survive? Highly unlikely. This is why you need to be selective about where and whom you choose to study with. Environments where you’ll get distracted, interrupted, or tempted to do anything other than study is going to wreak havoc on your ability to concentrate. Make sure when you study with others they’re serious about studying and aren’t there to just goof off and socialize. Also make sure you hide your phone out of sight and put it on airplane mode so you aren’t tempted by it. 8. Studying like a Mad Man You need frequent breaks to be able to concentrate. When your concentration starts to falter and you are continuously re-reading things, it’s time for a break. Trying to study longer in such a state doesn’t benefit you at all. You take MUCH longer to cover the material and it doesn’t even register - it also prolongs the time you need until you’re able to concentrate again. By taking a mini break then coming back to study, you’ll ‘refresh’ your ability to concentrate. I recommend doing something physical during your break such as walking around, getting fresh air or doing pushups. While we’re on the point of breaks… Refrain from pulling all nighters whenever possible (they never helped me much as I’d forget most or all of what I stayed up all night to study), especially if it’s the night before an exam or test. Studies show lack of sleep has a detrimental effect on your memory and sleep itself is necessary for consolidating what you’ve learned. Make sure you get enough rest and that you sleep well. Make sure you get enough rest and that you sleep well. No, that wasn’t a typo. I repeated that sentence twice because it is THAT important. 9. Finishing Study Sessions without Reflecting Yes you should do a quick review of what you covered in the last 20 to 60 minutes of studying but beyond that, you should reflect to learn more about how you best study. What happened during the session? Did you get distracted at all?Did you find yourself losing concentration throughout the session - why was that? What topics did you struggle with and what do you need to keep working on? You need to take note of what worked and what didn’t work throughout your study session so you can make use of that knowledge in the future. 10. Misconstrued Views towards Study and Concentration Studying and the ability to concentrate are SKILLS. Yes, you heard me right! These are skills you should work on, hone, and craft over time because they will only serve you well far into the future. By improving your study skills you essentially learn how you best learn and this will pay dividends in any other endeavor you take up in life. The ability to concentrate is a skill that is unfortunately becoming rarer with the advance of technology and on demand distractions. It can be easily trained through meditation and other activities that require one to focus for a prolonged period of time (reading, chess, intense sports etc). I’m a big advocate for meditation as students can greatly benefit from it with all the stress they tend to put on themselves! 11. Cutting Off Social Ties You don’t necessarily want to be a party animal when you go full study mode, yet you don’t want to go full hermit and isolate yourself from everyone. Meeting and talking with friends for 30 minutes to an hour a day or every other day won’t hurt you and will most likely help you concentrate better when you do eventually get back to studying. Meet up with friends that give off positive vibes and leave you feeling like you have even more energy than before you hung out with them. You can bring this energy back to studying and you’ll be able to concentrate easier and most likely better than if you hadn’t met up with your friends at all. 12. Remaining Sedentary You WANT to be exercising regularly! Especially when you need to study harder, longer, and smarter. After you’ve spent a few hours studying take a longer break and go for a run, hit the gym, or play a sport with some friends. This WILL help you concentrate easier and allow you to study better. That’s a fact. 13. Eating Junk Food What you put in is what you get out. Shit in = Shit out. It’s as simple as 1 + 1 = 2. Enough said. The 13 points listed above is broken down into two sections: (1) how you should study and (2) external factors that affect how well you study. The points dealing with how to study have been structured with the beginning, middle, and end in mind. Before Studying (Beginning): 1. Focusing On Things Outside of Your Control 2. Approaching Study as a Chore 3. Studying without Setting a Clear Goal Whilst Studying (Middle): 4. Not Utilizing Different Study Methods and Tools 5. Copying How Other People Study 6. Studying at the Worst Time 7. Setting Yourself Up for Failure in Bad Environments 8. Studying like a Mad Man Finishing Studying (End): 9. Finishing Study Sessions without Reflecting 10. Not Viewing Study and Concentration Correctly Important External Factors Affecting How Well You Study: 11. Cutting Off Social Ties 12. Remaining Sedentary 13. Eating Junk Food What are you waiting for? There’s a test or exam waiting for you to ABSOLUTELY DEMOLISH it. Use points 1–10 above as your guideline and START STUDYING NOW!