5 Study Hacks to Improve Focus and Save Time

January 31st, 2023

Welcome back to all my readers for another helpful blog post! With midterm season coming up, I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to suggest some ideas on how to truly focus on your study material and maximize the time you have! So, here are 5 study hacks to improve focus and save time:

1. Create a study plan.

Do you ever feel as though you have the intention to study, but maybe you inhibit yourself by procrastinating way too much? Well lucky for you, creating a study plan might  just be the key to stop stalling and start studying. Interestingly, a study by Orbell et al in 1997 hypothesized that people who had implementation intentions would be more likely to actually engage in that behaviour, as opposed to those who had no implementation intentions. In other words, they thought that people who made an outline or a plan on where, when, how, etc., they would carry out their plans were more likely to actually follow through with their plans than those who didn't. To save you all of the terribly interesting details of their study, it turned out that their hypothesis was correct! So next time you know you have to study, try creating a plan on how long you'll take, what chapters or units you'll cover, and maybe what time of the week you'll use to study! 

2. Listen to brown noise.

I'll be honest and say that this one sounds very strange, but I swear to you it will help. Whenever I sit down to get some work done and can't seem to find the strength to put down my phone or stop my mind from wandering, I ALWAYS listen to brown noise. I will warn you, it just sounds like static, but it's much less distracting than music and actually tends to drown out my inner monologue. I promise you, all you have to do is just type into YouTube, "brown noise", and play the 8 hour video for complete and utter focus. 

3.  Get a full 8 hours!

This one will either seem less obvious or all too obvious. If you haven't heard, maybe pulling all-nighters for study sessions isn't the best idea. Getting enough sleep is crucial for so many aspects of life and it is especially crucial for focus. Not only will getting enough sleep prevent you from getting drowsy and needing a nap mid study sesh, sleep has actually been shown to improve and enhance memory! Besides the fact of waking up well rested, rejuvenated, and energized, getting enough sleep might actually help you remember content better for exams!

4. Find a perfect study space.

Although many of us may like to study in the comfort of our rooms, this might actually be inhibiting your ability to focus. If you spend a lot of time in your bedroom to relax, unwind, or just sleep, your brain might actually be associating your room with those practices which can make staying focused much harder. An old trick I learned is to mimic the surroundings of where you will be taking your exam or test. This will help your brain adjust to the environment, to focus better, and to maybe be a bit more inclined to retrieve studied material when in the real-life test scenario. 

5. Nourish your body.

Speaking from experience, I cannot focus on absolutely anything if my stomach is empty. Making sure that you are well hydrated and have at least eaten something before you start studying may reduce the amount of time you delegate to studying by increasing your focus. It also will help the cramps of an empty stomach stop from distracting your focus. 

All 5 of these suggestions are tactics used by yours truly. I promise at least one, if not all, of these tricks will help you to improve your focus and save on the amount of time you spend studying. And if you happen to be skeptical of any of these suggestions, start with the brown noise. I was amazed at how well this works and I strongly recommend it to anyone who struggles to stay focused. Thanks for reading and feel free to send me an email with any comments for this article or suggestions for next weeks article!

-Sam