Unfortunately, we cannot improve on having greener eyes or being taller, but we can work on concentration. Not everyone wins the lottery
Some lucky people have an innate ability to concentrate on their tasks effortlessly. Others, however, have to constantly remind themselves that the flies flying around them are not that interesting. Life is unfair: what takes one person four hours to study takes another ten, because they are constantly distracted. But not all hope is lost: the ability to concentrate can be trained even if we have been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder like ADHD.
A good place to concentrate
We have talked in other posts about
eTítulo and how important it is to have a suitable study space and how to set it up, but we will remind you again because it is really important. If we have trouble concentrating when studying, we must do everything possible to remove from the room anything that could distract us, such as the television, pets, game consoles, mobile phones, noisy family members, etc. We must be aware that we are going to study and that we will check WhatsApp later. But having a study space is not just about creating a distraction-free zone, it is about making our brain know what will be done there and not let it wander. If we have a place where we only study, it will be easier for us to enter that mode of total concentration.
Concentrate with noise? No way.
Noise is one of the most distracting factors. Listening to background voices, the neighbor's construction works, or even our favorite music will constantly take us away from the task, so we must try to silence them. Obviously, we cannot make our family stay quiet until we finish college, nor can we ask the neighbor to postpone their kitchen renovation. What we can do is turn off the music, silence our phone (and vibration), and buy good earplugs. That feeling of isolation is ideal for increasing our concentration.
Mandatory breaks
We must take breaks. Even if we have reached that magical state where the only thing on our mind is what we are studying. It is essential that we rest for about twenty minutes every two hours to avoid exhausting the brain. We can either ask someone to remind us or set an alarm, but we cannot study for five hours straight without a break because no brain can handle that. If we are honest with ourselves, out of the five hours we have been sitting, how many have we actually been productive? Concentration also tires us out, and in order to concentrate for five hours, we need to rest at least once in between.
Meditation
It sounds a bit zen, but several
studies have shown that meditation is very good for the brain. It is not about becoming mystics (unless we feel like it), because it has nothing to do with that, but about observing our thoughts from the outside. If we dedicate a few minutes a day to meditate, we will be more focused and less stressed during exams. There are many forms of meditation, we just have to find the one that works best for us and use it regularly.
Exercise always
Physical exercise activates our brain and makes us feel good. Balanced. Juvenal said it:
mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind in a healthy body). Taking advantage of a break to go for a run or swim some laps in the pool will make it much easier for us to concentrate on a less entertaining task when we return.
Good news: video games help with concentration
Obviously, we are not recommending playing video games during exam season, but during the rest of the year, yes. Action games, where we have to pay attention to many things at once, stimulate our ability to concentrate. They train it.
The last-minute rush
People who have trouble concentrating tend to leave everything for the last minute because the stress of feeling that there is not enough time to finish increases concentration. They do not do it consciously, but somehow they have learned that they perform better that way. They are right, their concentration increases, but the consequences of leaving everything for the end are sometimes disastrous, and constantly subjecting oneself to that level of stress is not healthy either. It is essential that if this is our case, we get organized, set firmer schedules, and allow ourselves more time to study. If we need to be on the verge of a deadline to focus on the task, we can set our own different deadlines that help us have that end-of-the-world feeling, but in small doses so that we do not have a heart attack or run out of time for real.
Multiple senses for better concentration
It is not difficult for us to concentrate on a movie or a video game, not only because they are much more entertaining than memorizing the Constitution, but also because we engage more senses. If we only use sight, it is easier to get distracted than if we use both sight and hearing, for example. The more senses are involved in any activity we do, the easier it will be to concentrate on it. That is why reading out loud, recording ourselves and listening while we read, and similar techniques can help us keep our minds from wandering to more entertaining places.
It is easier to concentrate in a group
Studying in a group and taking turns asking questions is not only much more fun than studying alone, but also healthy competition forces us to concentrate on the task. If we can convince a couple of friends to join us, we will see that the results are better than expected. Games that improve concentration Not only video games help us, but also sudoku, chess, checkers, or any strategy game that requires anticipating moves are good training to increase our concentration. Let's not forget that, even if we do not have great innate concentration, we can learn to have it. We just have to train and be disciplined, and in a short time, we will see good results.
