Notes

Studying can get boring at times (maybe most of the times) and a student wants to run away somewhere more refreshing to sooth his mind. Although it would be a healthy practice to do so yet if a student keeps running away like this, he won’t be able to sit and study effectively. If I put it the simple way, a student must concentrate on what he is studying or otherwise it will feel boring. Lack of concentration leads to diversions and definitely tempts us to go and try something else rather than continuing what we are doing already.

Building concentration is not as difficult as it sounds but requires a little bit of attention and persistence. And the fact is that studying without concentration is like over burdening yourself with something you don’t deserve because it wastes your precious time and energy for nothing at all. So if you are really committed to study few hours and you want to learn something then why spoil all the fun by a mere problem of lack of concentration. Studying with concentration will make you realize that the stuff you are trying to understand is valuable and worth learning.

The easy part is that following a few simple steps can help you concentrate properly if you pay attention.

Understand the ideas

If you are reading something then don’t just read it. Try to think and guess what it is all about. Ask yourself the very basic questions about it and answer them before going any further. If you can’t answer them yourself then search for it somewhere. For instance if you are trying to understand Newton Laws of Motion then you may want to know

What are Laws and why do we need them?
What is motion?
What does motion mean in practical?

If you are studying Physics then always think of the physical structure and existence of things you read. Try to visualize things and experiment.

Don’t just limit these Laws and theories to definitions and explanations on a paper. They are all practical stuff and are meant to be learned that way. It is not a shame if you don’t know the proper definition of something yet you know exactly how it works but it is something to worry about if you can define things and doesn’t know its physical reality.

What about concentration? Well this is the trick. If you run after catching the ideas out of something, you will hardly get bored because there is so much to know and learn this way. Apparently you will take more time to cover a certain topic or chapter but trust me; if you learn it this way then it is going to stick with you forever because you earned it for yourself.

Avoid distractions

We live in a digital world now and it is very much different than we could ever have imagined just few years back. Technology brought revolution to our life style and routine in many positive ways for our convenience. However there are shortcomings in this revolution that can affect us, especially the students and we need to stay aware of this.

Here is the situation

You are studying with full concentration and interest but suddenly your cell phone beeps. Now it can be a call or text message. You hear it and you want to check it out. It is nothing but some update on Facebook or Twitter or just some Email. You read it and take some time to think over it. You definitely reply accordingly and then you get back to your book. You were just trying to figure out where you were and the cell phone beeps again. You check it again and so the process goes on.

Now think over it. If you put this in a physical way, it is just like sitting in a gathering with friends and holding a book. You try to study and enjoy the party at the same time. Definitely it is never possible. Cell phone connects us to everyone and when you are studying, this doesn’t mean everyone else is studying. It would be unfair to either friends or books if you try to deal with them at the same time.

There is one single solution to this. But first I may ask you a simple question.

Do you try to study when you are enjoying at some friends gathering? Your answer is definitely a big NO. It will be funny if a friend is trying to talk to you and you say

“Wait, I have to read this Law of Gravitation first.”

Not only funny but it will look ridiculous.

Now that I have got you, let me ask you another question

Why do you feel it necessary to reply to some random text message when you are studying with full concentration? Just because books cannot talk doesn’t mean you can take advantage of it.

If you haven’t got it yet then I simply want you to switch off your cell phone while studying or at least ignore it meanwhile. No distractions, no halts in your flow.

With this problem solved, we are still left with one solid reason of interacting with our cell phones and that is in case of emergency. Now tell me when was the last time you actually received an emergency call? Can’t remember? I don’t blame you because it is rare.

So these are special situations and definitely needs to be dealt with.

Cell phone was just a single example that I explained. Other distractions include TVs, PCs, Laptops, and your pet dog. They must all be dealt a