How to Focus on School Work (10 Tips That Work!)

How to Focus on School Work

Is it hard for you to pay attention to your school work? Here are 10 tips on how to focus on school work that are actually useful!

Whether you’re a high school student or college student, you’ll be sure to find useful tips worth remembering!

But first, let’s go into some basics…

Why You Should Focus on School Work

Focusing on school work can have a few fantastic benefits for you:

  1. Improve your grades
  2. Boost your mood
  3. Higher motivation for success
  4. Increased confidence
  5. Better self-development
  6. Building of better habits

Learning how to focus on school work is similar to focusing on any other important thing in life.

If you can get better at it while you’re young, you’ll surely be a master at it in the future!

With that being said, let’s get into 10 useful tips that actually help…

How to Focus on School Work

1) Find a Quiet Place

One of the largest factors that stop us from focusing is distraction.

You’ll want a quiet place to get your school work done. It’s nearly impossible to stay focused without it.

Here are a few quiet places you can work at:

  • Your room
  • Your backyard
  • A park
  • The library

One of these places might be naturally louder for you (depending on your home situation and where you live).

As long as you have a way to turn a loud place into a quiet one, you’re on the right path to pure focus.

2) Listen to Lyric-Free Music

Listening to music has a few great benefits for studying:

  1. It promotes more brain activity
  2. It’s relaxing
  3. Helps with memorization
  4. Blocks out extra noise

The only issue is that most music has lyrics, which does the exact opposite of all this.

Listen to lyric-free music to focus on school work. You can find tons of playlists/videos on Youtube that offer studying or reading music.

Listening to something like lofi hip hop beats is also excellent for keeping you focused.

Regardless of what you pick, just make sure it doesn’t have lyrics and isn’t being played super loud in your ear.

3) Study Smarter, Not Harder

Studying smarter instead of harder might seem like a lazy excuse not to study. It’s not… you still need to put in those hours.

However, there is a specifically designed formula to better retain information and not burn out during studying/assignments…

Pomodoro Technique for Studying

It’s called the Pomodoro Technique and here’s how it works:

  1. Work for 25 minutes
  2. Take a 5 minute break
  3. Repeat 4 times
  4. After the 4th cycle, take a longer 30 minute break

The amount of focus you get from this method is insane and will ultimately save you time in the long run!

I recommend setting a timer for the 25 minute cycles (instead of looking at a clock) just so you stay on track. Avoid using your phone during the breaks and instead, go grab water or a snack.

Check out some of these study hacks for more tips to study smarter!

4) Avoid Distractions

Think of distraction as the opposite word of focus. If it grabs your attention, then that means it’s taking it from somewhere else.

Here are a few distractions you should avoid:

  • Turn your phone off for school work that take longer than 30 minutes
  • Put your computer on full screen to avoid opening unnecessary tabs
  • Put headphones on (even if you’re not listening to music
  • Avoid talking to others
  • Keep other electronics and gadgets out of reach

The only way to get in the zone is by continuing to do a task long enough without distractions.

At that point, you’ll forget there were any distractions in the first place!

5) Let in the Light

Did you know that light has a direct correlation to focus? According to studies, the amount of light in a room can affect your ability to pay attention.

Open the blinds, turn on your lights, and up your screen brightness.

If you’ve ever felt more moody/depressed in a dark room, this is the exact opposite reaction to more light.

In other words….

More light = Increased focus, but sometimes higher levels of anxiety.

Less light = Increased relaxation, but sometimes higher levels of sadness.

6) Reward Yourself

Rewarding yourself is one of the best tips for how to focus on school work!

Humans are naturally wired to do better at tasks that incentivize reward. Which is why we study hard for A’s, train hard for gold medals, and work hard to increase salary.

When it comes to getting back on track in college, these rewards can be simple things like giving yourself a piece of candy when you’ve completed your assignments for the day.

Some alternative rewards include playing an hour of video games, hanging out with friends, partying, watching a few Youtube videos, etc.

If it gets you excited, use it as a gift for getting your school work done.

7) Get Enough Sleep

Working on your focus in the moment is great, but what if your focus is stemming from something else?

Getting enough sleep is a proven method to experience better moods, focus, and overall health.

If you can fix your sleep schedule, there’s a big chance that you’ll begin to notice high attentiveness.

Not only is enough sleep important, but better sleep is even more important. Try going to sleep earlier, waking up earlier, and getting in at least 8 hours of sleep.

8) Break Up Your School Work

Before you dive into all your school work, start prioritizing your tasks in order.

This can help you manage your workload, organize your mind, and reduce your anxiety.

Utilize a planner to write down your daily tasks and to split up your school/home work into smaller chunks.

I highly recommend starting with the harder tasks first, since it helps give you more confidence and relaxation as things get easier.

Think of it as washing dishes. If you wash the utensils first, it feels like you still haven’t washed anything.

However, once you wash the big pans and bowls, suddenly the sink looks a lot more empty!

9) Eat and Drink Before Starting

Coming back to basic distractions…

We’ve all been at a point where we’re so occupied with the sounds in our stomach that we can’t even focus on anything that’s going on.

Your body tells you what it needs. If it’s asking for food or water, it’s never going to stop asking until it receives it.

To avoid that, make sure you’re well fed and have water by your side while you’re studying. 

If you’re not super hungry at the moment of working, keep a snack next to you when you suddenly feel the urge to eat.

10) Do School Work with Friends

The end goal here is to be able to complete your school work or memorize what you study.

If you think your friends can help you do that without distracting you too much, then it’s a fantastic way to learn.

If you know your friends are just going to talk the whole time, then it might be best to work on your own.

You know what’s best for yourself at the end of the day. However, working with other hard-working individuals has tons of benefits:

  • Hear everybody’s answers
  • Study faster
  • Makes studying a lot more enjoyable
  • Create long term classmates 
  • Keeps you focused on the objective

Use them wisely!

 

Hopefully you’ve learned how to focus on your school work better after going over these 10 useful tips! Good luck and stay focused!

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions leave them down below. Thanks for reading!

7 Shares:
1 comment
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like