How to keep focus and concentration
while studying from home
Students always learn more about their subjects studying at their homes. The reason being self-study forms the majority of the learning experience. Schooling is but the tip of the iceberg. And what better place to self-study than home?
Home is the best place to study since one has complete control over one’s surroundings. Apart from power, one will always feel most comfortable at one’s home alone.
A student would be able to write lengthy assignments at-home in comfort.
Some of the best home tasks are often writing essays at home.
Keeping all this in mind, what are the best ways to maximize studying efficiency at home?
Enumerated below are the ways one can keep focus and concentration while learning from home -
- Maintain a proper sleep schedule
Most students have atrocious sleeping habits. Hence students should maintain a fixed routine to go to bed and wake up.
And often, the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep gets disturbed by ill-timed alarms. REM sleep is essential because it stimulates specific brain areas. This stimulation is critical in learning and making or retaining memories.
So one good way to ensure REM sleep doesn’t get disturbed is to analyze one’s sleep cycle. Alarm clock applications generally come with a sleep cycle analyzer these days. These alarms will wake one at the moment of least REM sleep within a specified interval before the alarm. Thus, improving cognitive abilities like concentration and focus.
2. Baby steps
“Slow and steady wins the race,” as the proverb goes. The best way to improve studying at home is to be consistent in learning.
Learning anything is a lot like a chemical reaction. Anything done in a giant step in a short time is, more often than not, reversible.
So is studying. Cramming large volumes of information in short durations is counterproductive. Anyone can always forget most of the knowledge learned due to minimal retention.
Hence, studying should resemble an irreversible chemical reaction.
Consistent study of small volumes of information should happen daily. Learning should spread over a long duration of time, accounting for several days or more.
This dedication ensures the retention of knowledge as opposed to pulling an all-nighter.
3. Set realistic goals
Start small. Go big or go home doesn’t work here. When already home!
The focus should be on quality over quantity.
“One technique practiced a hundred times is better than hundred techniques practiced once.”
The same applies to studies. Cover a good part of the syllabus with thorough
preparation. Instead of covering the entire syllabus in an obsolete and incompetent manner.
4. Create a to-do list
Before setting to study, it would of immense help to envision what you have decided to learn. In the whole course of the day. Jot down the list of topics set for study.
But most important is the sequence of the lessons to study. It is best to start with subjects that are similar and then branch out to differing curriculum.
For example, do study subjective theories together.
As opposed to mixing it up with mathematical/practical syllabus.
It is also helpful to start with topics one finds easy and then moving on to the complex subjects. A confidence boost will develop from finishing off the more straightforward lessons. This gradual progression enables you to tackle the problematic syllabus later.
5. Doodle
Yes, doodle, draw, scribble. Whatever helps in visualizing a problematic concept. Certain
subjects like human anatomy are often challenging to visualize.
Hence it is best to draw it to learn it. In the home, you can have all the creative
liberty and material needed. Since at home there isn’t any need to lug all the drawing instruments and colors everywhere.
6. Use a constructive visual aid
Watch videos of concepts, use flashcards, and use 3D models for understanding. These visual aids are helpful in every stream.
Especially steams, which range from medical to architecture to engineering. It is best to see videos of a concept studied. If it is anatomy, to understand shape, structure, and function, for example.
7. Customize a blueprint of understanding -
Use mnemonics to learn a set of data. It is convenient to use mnemonics to remember sequences and lists of names.
Device a phrase to string an entire list of things. The same way middle school taught students how to memorize the planets.
8. Summarize
Recapitulation is one of the essential steps to recall vast volumes of information.
Write down all the keywords. Associate each keyword to a set of contextual understanding needed.
In this way, several dozen pages could get reduced to a few pages like a map of keywords. This type of learning is a subjective experience unique to each individual.
9. The science of reductionism
Every concept is capable of getting broken down to its basic fundamental core values.
One of the efficient ways to do this is by using analogies. Try to find and understand the similarities in the mechanics of any process.
Whether it is medicine, engineering, or architecture, there is always a similarity. All these fields have a fundamental commonality in the underlying philosophy.
For example, the biological mutation is like spontaneous radiation. Unpredictable.
Also similar is the design philosophy of human anatomy to engineering and architecture.
Understand using more than one approach to any concept. Visualize subjective descriptions with dimensions, ratios, geometry, and measurements.
10. Judicious use of technology
The year is 2021. Technology has become integrated to a reasonable extent with traditional studying. There are countless applications available online to study any structural design in 3D. Same with flashcards.
Today there is no need to pore over several dozen heavy tomes to study. Digital versions of all books are available. One could access all information on one’s mobile phone or tablet computer.
Moreover, the internet is a source of free knowledge. And it is also teeming with quiz applications one can use to test one’s skills. Learn from many sources. And train using several applications to sharpen critical thinking faculties.
