While studying is a task for some, the others execute it quite perfectly. It is hard and well, not healthy too to just sit and study for hours on end. It can take a toll on your body and brain, resulting in losing focus. There are some courses that require you to study more than the others. While some others ask for you to jog your brain and work on those creative skills. Studies need your full attention and focus. Moreover, a will to continue what you step foot into is of utmost importance. Here are some handy tips to stay dedicated and focused to your studies especially in those times during your examination.
Why Do We Lose Focus?
In our study material, there is always that subject that gets into the system like morphine. It spreads quickly, gets a grasp on us, and well we get gets us real cozy and we know it very well. Then there are those ones that make us go entirely mad, we can’t understand an inch of it. These are the main reasons that make us lose focus. When this focus gets derailed, there comes a feeling of an inferiority complex, a complex that makes the subject feel as if it’s unattainable.
Losing focus because of this is quite common. Another one are the distractions that play their role. It is the interplay of concentration, focus and dedication, and motivation that makes you excel in studies. The excellence that comes along with these is remarkable and should be the goal.
Your interest is one other thing that comes into play too. A fascination with the subject builds up interest levels and keeps you curious as well. If you like the subject, it embeds into your system on its own. But when this notorious study material is a pain somewhere, keep some tricks and tips up your sleeve in such cases.
5 Tips to Stay Focused
Some tried and tested tips, when you need that focus and all you can think of the new Joker movie release this Friday are :
1. Concentration > Remembering
In the Indian school system particularly, the habit of reinforcing one to mug up stuff all the way from the beginning is such a terrible habit that it has made us Indians a firm believer of cramming. The benefit? Zilch. Crammed up stuff only remains in the short term memory and if it isn’t brought to practice in real life, all the rote memorization will go down the drain. The use? Zero again.
Why not adopt a different approach altogether? Try to read and reread. There is a difference between re-reading and mugging up. When you go through Content over 3 to 4 or even more times, the clarity of that idea in your thoughts will, to some extent start becoming clearer. If you find what you are reading, clicking somewhere in some part of your, then it will stick. If it is a totally alien concept, then just use tricks of mnemonics or colored flash cards to trigger in some memory.
2. Peer Tutoring
In our Bachelor’s curriculum of Education, maybe it was the third semester to be exact, that we were being taught how to teach. No teacher is just thrown over directly to a class full of pupils, there is a system for this too, called microteaching. It was developed by AW Dwight Allen and is based on the principle of “teaching and re-teaching”. A potential/pupil teacher teaches his fellow classmates any subject of his/her choice. Besides learning how to teach, a major thing that I gained out of it is my concept or base of the subject to teach building up and growing strong.
Similarly is the case when your classmates and you teach each other. In the process this teaching and learning, firstly there is an interest rate and a minuscule amount of competition that strikes. This boils inside the urge to learn, making your mind open to opportunities. In this method, you learn and teach, gain and give to each other.
3. Adopt a Different Approach
It is my favorite method to go with. As for me, when I am stuck in a foxhole with my subjects, I try to scan my way of learning. Try to see if your way has been in action for a long and what is approach a subject at hand is demanding. It is obvious that a practical subject will need more practical, hands-on work to grasp the content. But what if it fails? Try the sensory approach. Learn by appealing to the senses. See audio and video clips, touch stuff, and get those motor skills in action. Maybe even combine all of these together to form the perfect blend.
I am going to use a lot of Education related psychology here. Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory, step 1 which is the Sensorimotor Stage, clearly shows how a child begins to get going about in the world through his senses. Likewise, you could try bringing your senses in too for a tango. Who knows they might be just the twist your studies needed.
4. Throw Them Books Away
Coursebooks are the most overrated thing in a curriculum. Somebody apparently who I can’t vaguely remember said that books are servants and not become the master.
It cannot be denied that books serve a key purpose as a major teaching aid. But that’s what it should be. A TEACHING AID. Students especially, make it their mission to mug up or just go by the books. Look outside it too. A whole network of technology awaits. If studying for hours on end, then just staring at a book like a zombie might not make the cut. Be tactful, make notes, stickons, and use a white or blackboard. Study smartly and use all the trustworthy resources.
5. Try and Break It Down
Your brain will program itself into thinking that the material or the syllabus to be covered is less. Yes, this technique is some psychological deceit that you execute on yourself. The point? Well, nothing! A trick is just supposed to be a trick to get your way. Over here, when you break the content into considerably small parts, the subject matter to be covered appears small or less in number and you don’t get panic attacks just by looking over the sheer number of things to go through.
Try a few or all of these tricks together. Will they help? Yes, if you believe them to. This is another psychological concept of mind mapping. Leave it to be discussed later. But do check out the hintsoflife.com for some quirky read.