Techniques To Boost Your Focus

Need to maximize your study time? Do you need to implement strategies to learn better? Getting yourself to focus on studying is the first step. Study skills are nothing if you can’t focus.

Boosting your focus on studying is important for those who combine work and/or family with their studies or are returning to school after many years. It takes a lot of willpower and discipline.

The techniques analyzed below will help increase your motivation to study and focus to achieve your goals.

Filter the information you receive

We live in a world saturated by information. From political and economical news and cultural events, movie premieres, gossip and rumors, to developments in our immediate environment and, of course, social networks and other mass media. We are bombarded by all of the information that surrounds us our focus can suffer because of it. 

If you want to focus on studying you have to take steps to filter the information that you receive and clear your mind. You must isolate yourself from receiving external information to the same extent that you need to focus. This means not going on social networks, watching TV or listening to the radio, or reading magazines and newspapers since all those distractions will help you procrastinate.

Do not expect to feel like studying

If you have to study, you have to study, whether you feel like it or not. We often think that everything must be done for pleasure and enjoyment. Nope. Regardless of how unexciting it may seem to you, get to it and do not give it anymore thought.

Do not submit to the limiting ideology that everything in life is about enjoying and expect to always feel stimulated to work. If that is the case you will only succumb to the myriad of distractions that you find around you.

Focus on your goals

Remember each morning that you have great reasons to study: your goals. You are studying for something and will only get it if you study. Each time you study, you are taking a step towards your goals.

Think every morning: how can I move towards my goals today? Forget about what you want to do at that moment, and think about what you can enjoy when you reach your goals.

First study, then relax

It takes more than study time to take in knowledge. The information is absorbed and becomes part of you when you relax. So, resting is essential after studying. You need to rest to absorb the information. So getting just a few hours of sleep is not effective.

You have to insert moments of relaxation into your study sessions. Take a few minutes to move every 30 minutes, and take a 20 minute break every hour and a half to rest and relax in order for the information settle in your brain. Close your eyes and allow what you have learned to be absorbed.

Study before bed

Some research claims that sleeping after studying may improve our ability to remember what has been previously studied and consolidate what has been learned. This has a lot to do with what we explained in the previous section. Reading before bedtime can also do wonders in strengthening the long-term memory.

But this does not mean you have to steal time from sleeping. Depriving yourself of sleep to learn significantly decreases the knowledge obtained up to three days later.

Eat well and exercise

Studying does not mean you have to forget about keeping your body healthy. Eating well and avoiding excess caffeine and alcohol is essential to high performance in studying. Foods rich in essential fatty acids are good brain foods, and seem to help stimulate memory and recall.

Exercise is also good for the brain, as an extra supply of blood and oxygen to the brain is achieved, which can improve brain function.