Concentration Tips

@jessmat‌
Not entirely sure Jess! I’ve always been pretty good at reading. My work required that I do the CISI London international investments and securities exams, I did level 1 in 2 days and level 2 in 5 days, just by sitting and hammering it at full pace. I’m thinking that I really should take a few holidays off of work and get back on track. I know I can cover a good 300 to 400 pages if I take a week off, which will more than put me back on schedule. In all honesty though, I’m actually averaging about 10 to 12 pages per hour when you look at productive vs non-productive hours.

Going back to analogies, I used to do 10-pin bowling in a couple of leagues per week and learned the importance of concentration or “being in the zone” mentally there. It’s so easy to suddenly go from bowling 190 to 210 pin (points) games to 120 or worse without feeling like you’re doing anything different. Then you get annoyed with yourself, focus on everything you’re doing wrong and start beating yourself up for performing badly. From there it’s just a slippery slope downhill in terms of your focus, concentration and therefore performance. You’ll probably find you’re doing the same with your studies. You must walk away, break the cycle and come back clean and ready to focus and deliver. Whether that takes 5 minutes or 30, you’re not going anywhere in a negative spiral so have to take the time to break it.

It’s not been long since we both signed up here Jess but I feel I’ve got to know to know you in a short space of time. You’re obviously not only a driven person but very caring as well, and as much as the mods are going to hate me for saying this… perhaps you’re on here a little too much (so am I in all honesty)? There is nothing wrong with helping others, but if it’s at the expense of 30 minutes to an hour where you could be studying, perhaps you need to look at whether your caring nature in helping others is harming your own time and chances of success.

Just my 2p worth. 🙂 

I think it would depend on the person, the length of the break, and the game. 

I actually never used video games as a study break, rather as a reward for finishing my daily studying. This kept me efficient in the time I spent studying, but there are certainly other methods to accomplish this. 

I feel studying shouldn’t come at the expense of some proper sleep. I work a pretty hectic job, and still manage to get some study time. I can attribute this to making sure I get 6-7 hours of sleep, a well-balanced diet that I cook in advance and portion through-out the week. With that said, I do smoke and it does some to help with concentration.

Good luck!

@jessmat, thanks for making me feel better. I was beginning to wonder if everybody hated me for sending you away 😥

@policedog‌ I have to say that sometimes FIFA15 on the playstation wins for half an hour or so and I just have to pull myself away. The books must win or I will find myself at exam day with a big study deficit. I’ve booked some holiday from work though and desperately need it to catch up.

I do think that the forum is double-edged, but it beats playing PS3 as a study break… plus I get to show how crap I am at answering @PassedTense‌ and @exam_whiz‌ level 1 questions 😀

Hi @jessmat, are you on schedule time wise? Tell us more about your study routine so far as it may help knowing how to solve (or reduce) this 🙂

Heya Jess ( @jessmat‌ )

Bit late to the party this time, sorry all.
Sounds like you’ve freaked yourself out a little bit since you did the calculation of pages per day required on that other thread and have a mid-course crisis. If it helps at all, I’m having the same issue and I’m well behind where I wanted to be.

The concentration issues I’m getting are totally transient. One hour I’m on form and I can be cracking through a page every 3 to 4 minutes (15 to 20pages per hour) and then all of sudden I completely lose it. I realize that I’ve read a full paragraph or even half a page and I don’t remember a word it said, quite simply my mind has gone elsewhere and is entirely missing in action. So basically my eyes have followed the page, but my brain hasn’t taken in any of it. I get annoyed and flick back to the start and read it again. Sometimes this can actually happen over and over, 3 or 4 times for a single paragraph as I just cannot get my mind to engage again. At best, given a highlighter and literally highlighting every word and tracking the highlighter, saying every word aloud in my mind (if that makes sense) I can finally get it in, though my productivity drops to 10mins a page (6pph). Otherwise I just have to step away and break the cycle. Make a coffee, have a smoke (for my sins, yes I am one of the unhealthy ones too @malkadhi‌), anything just to reset the pattern.

I’d suggest you do the same. If you cannot even get started, try doing something else for 5 mins. If you need silence, make sure there are no distractions, if you need noise, then put on some music, or change the cd / playlist. If you’re like me and you’re firing and then suddenly derail, then try another room in the house. Get up, shake it out, just disrupt that pattern that’s pulled your brain into absence from what you’re trying to do. Even go and have a shower and try to relax before restarting if you like.

I can relate to not being able to bring yourself to study some days, I’ve had that, in fact I’ve had some really bad days, or runs of them.

Seriously though, we can do this together. I got up at 04:30 this morning, pulled on my shorts and shirt and cracked straight on with the study just to get a few hours in before the kids woke up this morning to try to play catchup, and I’m just about to flip the books open again once I’m done with this message.

Keep strong Jess, we can do this 🙂 

@exam_whiz‌ does video games work for study breaks? I’ve previously heard that video games doesn’t really put you in the best mental shape to resume studies when you’re done with the break….

@jessmat I felt like this around mid-April this year preparing for my June L2 test which comparatively is about 2 weeks from now for your Dec exam.  The way I got through it was to get kind of obsessed with my preparation.  My final 6 or so weeks I developed a routine that I absolutely refused to veer from.  2+ hours every evening after work at least 3 to 4 hours on Sat and Sun were spent in the library.  Starbucks coffee became my ‘Wilson’ of the Castaway-like solitutde that I forced myself into.  You can defintely do this, but you have to turn into a stone cold study machine.  Focus on the highest weighted topics and go hard.  Good luck.

Hey @jessmat‌ , how about a different study environment? 

Pick a new place, either a library, a cafe, work place etc. Whichever you find refreshing with minimal distraction. If it’s near enough to walk there, a breathe of fresh air along the way make help before you focus for a couple of hours.