Regain focus while studying, because it will only burn you out in the end. College students’ attention spans are substantially declining after the effects of COVID and the rise of social media platforms with 10-60 second videos as content. There is no question that students today have the world’s answers at their fingertips, but with this potential knowledge comes a potential distraction.
While phones may be the root of this distraction, studies show that students may experience a lack of focus due to overcompensating during their study time. Or in other words, cramming until the last minute for a test or studying for an extended consecutive amount of time with no breaks can be detrimental to the student’s focus and the overall quality of their work.
So how does a student regain focus through a productive study break?
When speaking with a professional tutor and teacher Gerron Lewis, an electrical engineering major at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, Lewis touched on his experiences with studying, the importance of lists, organization, and breaks on both sides of education.
As a student, Lewis says, “It starts with a plan. It starts with a list. I’ll start a new list of stuff I need to do out of nowhere.”
Gerron says that he loses the most focus on an assignment or study session when he is worried about all the other things he has to do during the day and doesn’t plan.
Along with his studies, Lewis is an after-school teacher at FAMU Developmental Research School and a tutor at the Jackson Davis math center on FAMU’S campus.
He states that he takes the same organizational planning approach when working with students. When asked what the best study-to-work ratio was for his students, Lewis said, “The best thing to do is to work on the subject in bursts of productive time, then I give my student ten to fifteen-minute breaks to make sure they can recharge. I make them set a timer on their phone since that is our biggest distraction. When the timer goes off, they can check their phone”.
When looking in depth at what activities would be helpful during the study break, Kyler Andrews, a second-year computer science major at FAMU, stated that the break mostly happens on the phone in his generation.
Still, he believes that while a phone is the most common or convenient break, it is not the most beneficial. Andrews says, “My most beneficial breaks are when I can focus on another task without electronics involved.”
Every school system implemented some physical and artistic activity in adolescence, making them a priority.
Working on a creative artistic hobby or physical activity could be the difference in overall retention during breaks and loss of focus when coming back or during the assignment.
Andrews said that using his study breaks to create designs for his clothing brand BOWYA and breaks where he played basketball felt more productive as a study break. “I felt more productive and energized. I felt ready to return and study.”
Even with phones and social media, the perfect study break may not exist. Sometimes the best break is a pause from work, meditation, walking outside, exercising with friends, or creative endeavors to help regain focus while studying.
No matter how you spend your time doing your study break, it is a practical academic necessity, and taking them could change the outcome of your academic success.
Regaining focus on the tasks can be challenging, but the focus depends on the student and their discipline.
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