It's easier to waste time if you're surrounded by poor conditions of study. If there are many distractions around you in the form of discomforts and interruptions while studying, you will find that you will have to spend many more hours studying than you would if you weren't bothered by these troublesome conditions. Get rid of these interferences and you will find that you can accomplish more in fewer hours of study time. In order to get rid of troublesome conditions you have to first be aware of them. Some are pretty obvious; others are more subtle. The majors distractions discussed here are: distractions in your study area, distractions by other people and mental and physical self distractions. As you read this section, try to decide which of these potential distractions may be a problem for you and try to plan how you will avoid them.

What Items in Your Study Area Might Be Distracting to You?

Your study table or desk may have many items on it which can draw your attention away from whatever you are studying. Pictures of friends and lovers, today's mail and newspapers, magazines, hand cream, perfume or after-shave bottles, partially filled candy wrappers, milk cartons or cigarette packs are all potential distractors. Move such non-study stuff to a distant shelf where it's out of sight and out of mind. It's much easier to study if you begin with a relatively empty table or desk top. If you have anything on that top, let it be study materials such as a tablet, several pens and pencils, a few blank cards, some colored pens or markers for underlining, a couple of paper clips, etc. However, the main thing you should have on your desk or table are the books and notebooks, flash cards, etc., for the course you are going to be studying during that study hour. Try to have a comfortable desk or table and chair. The desk-table should give you plenty of leg room and allow you to comfortably rest your elbows on the top. The chair should allow you to comfortably place your feet flat on the floor at the same time it gives your back straight, not curved support. If the desk-table or chair that you now have is not adequate, pick up a secondhand one at a garage sale. If you are short on cash you can make your own study table by buying an old flat door without ornaments and ailing it to some "legs." If you are short on space, a folding card table and a straight-backed lawn chair will put you in business.

Lighting can interfere with your studying. If you don't have enough light you may become sleepy and weary of studying. If your light is glaring or flickering, your eyes will feel the fatigue rapidly and you will not feel like studying. You can avoid these problems if you use a non-glare "soft" light bulb of 100-200 watts at a distance of about 4 feet with your book at an angle that gives you the most light on the page.

If you find that you become tired, groggy and headachy whenever you do much eye work, you may want to check with an oculist. However, even before you do that, check yourself out on the fluorescent lights on campus. Most new buildings, including libraries and classrooms, have them. However, some people find them very uncomfortable to work by for long periods of time. If that groggy feeling hits, you might try studying by natural daylight or using a regular home style light bulb lamp and avoid the fluorescents during your long periods of studying.

Some students prefer tensor lamps which offer bright glare-free light which does not flood throughout your entire room. This is a definite advantage if your roommate wants to sleep and you have to stay up and study. Despite this advantage, try not to use the tensor in a dark room very often. The contrast between even this glare-free light and the surrounding darkness may induce sleepiness, if not fatigue, and lower your studying efficiency. Tensor lamps are most valuable for glare-free reading in an already lighted room where contrast is not a problem.

Temperature. If the temperature in your study area is too hot or too cold, you may find it impossible to study comfortably. Being too hot or too cold is often a personal thing in that you may feel uncomfortable when everyone else feels O.K. However, if everyone in the room is also uncomfortable, check with the people in charge to see if something can be done to adjust the thermostatic controls to a more comfortable level.

If you are uncomfortably cold in your dorm, make a habit of wearing sweaters, coats or even long johns (thermal underwear) when you're in your room. Also, shorten your study periods to about 30 to 40 minutes and get up and move around during your break. Sitting for too long tends to make one feel cold. If the dorm will allow it, buy an electric portable space heater and you can be warm as toast even in your shorts. Be sure, however, to keep it away from any papers or fabrics which might burn and do not leave it on when you are not in the room or when you are asleep. If it gets cold at night use an electric blanket.

If you are in a hot climate and the air-conditioning is inadequate or non-existent you can gain relief by buying yourself an electric fan, soaking a T-shirt and shorts in water, putting on the damp shirt and shorts and sitting in front of the fan. Each time the clothing dries out, dunk it again. You will be wearing your own evaporative cooler. Caution! Stop if you begin to get chilled.

Noise. There are wide differences in the noise levels that students can tolerate and still study. One student will study well only with complete quiet. Another can have his radio and T.V. blasting at full volume, cancelling each other out and enabling him to study. If you happen to be easily disturbed by noises, you can remove some of the din from your study area by using ear plugs. Although some plugs are made of porous solid plastic and soft rubber materials, the most effective noise stoppers are made from relatively inexpensive wax and cotton-like material which is pliable so that you can shape it to your ears. You can purchase them at most drug stores under different trade names. Just ask the druggist for ear plugs or stops to cut out loud noises. If you wear the plugs and recite aloud, you will be able to counteract many of the irritating loud sounds which were disturbing your study.

Music. Is music a distracter? Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't. If it's a vocal and you know the words, you are likely to be distracted and start to mentally "sing along." Even if the music is an instrumental version of a song that you know, it's very likely that you will begin to think about the words to the song and be diverted from your studies. On the other hand, instrumentals which you like but do not know the words to or which don't even have words can be "company" and can aid your studying especially if you are planning a rather long studying session. A useful pattern for long periods of studying is to play some instrumentals or a good F.M. station for an hour, then shut it off for 20 minutes or so and then put it back on. This variation of music, then silence, then music, and then more silence can make long periods of study seem to go by more rapidly. The important thing for you to check is to see whether a particular kind of music is a distracter for you. If you find yourself stopping and listening to the music, or moving your feet in dance steps to it, or humming along or mentally singing along, then that music is a distracter and is slowing up your studying process. However, if it's a pleasant background noise that helps keep your mind awake and alert to what you are studying, then leave it on.

Location. There is some advantage to having one place which you routinely use for study which is free from major distractions. If you use that one place most of the time you will condition yourself to study because sitting in a chair at that location will automatically mean "I am ready to study." Finding that distraction-free location can be a problem. The main library on some campuses has a couple of study advantages. It has more open table study space to spread your things out. It also has some of the booklets that you may need for study. Conversations do go on in the library and they may be a distraction, but usually the library conversation will be much more quiet than most the non-library settings. At some campuses the main rooms the main library are known as places to meet other people. Sometimes this can be a distraction. If this sort of thing keeps you from your work, look for some less frequent used rooms in other parts of the library. Go into the stacks and explore the study spaces there. If the entire main library is a social fishbowl, you may have better luck studying at some of the special libraries around your campus. Possibly libraries in the music department or the chemistry department, the math department or the Engineering College may be more conducive to study than the main library is. Some students don't even think of these libraries as possible study areas because they aren't taking any courses in any of these departments. It's not necessary to be taking courses in these specialties to use these libraries. Any student can use any library on campus to study any subject that he wishes to study. For example, there is nothing stopping you from studying English or American history in the math library.

Some students who have trouble studying in campus libraries have better luck going to a branch of the city public library. If you do this be certain that you check their schedules ahead of time. Otherwise, you may find that you are competing with the Saturday morning kiddie story telling time or something equally distracting.

Most dormitories have study rooms which are to be used only for that purpose. Some dorms are quiet enough so that you can use your dorm room as your primary study area.

There will be some times when even your primary study area will have distractions. For this reason you should hale a brief case or a carrying bag to quickly put your study materials into and split to another study area. In an emergency you may be able to use an improvised study area in an empty classroom, the student union, or even your car on the nicer spring and fall days. Keep that portable study kit ready at all times. With it you can leave many distractions behind as you find a new study location.

How to Deal With People Who Distract You From Studying

Relatives can be difficult distracters for those students who live at home. Parents and brothers and Sisters may not realize how difficult it is for you to study with the family T.V. or their radio or stereo playing. They may want to talk with you or have you meet their friends just when you are settling down to study. If you didn't study much during in high school, they may wonder why you are holed up in your room so much of the time now. What you may need is a conference with them and a general agreement the whenever the "Do not disturb" sign is on your door, the creative collegiate is hard at work so try to leave him alone. Sometimes this works very well. However, if you come from a big family or live in a small house, your room may just naturally be in the middle of a constant stream of people coming and going. In that case do the courageous thing and keep away as much as possible. You may stay at college until just before supper and then right after supper, leave for the branch city library or a friend's house to study until just before bedtime. Explain to your parents that you need more studying time now that you are in college. They win usually understand.

Friends and Attractive People Will Often Distract You

If you meet a friend during a ten-minute study break and he invites you to a night of good cheer and socializing, you will have lost another good night's study unless you can learn to politely say “No, I'd like to go with you but I can't tonight. How about next Saturday instead?” There are a large number of interesting social activities going on campus every night of the week to compete with your study time. Unless you pick and choose your social activities, you may become a full-time socializer and flunk out. By being selective, you can avoid this trap. If somebody who is very attractive and interesting to you gives you the big smile, follow the lead because you aren't going to get much studying done with that kind of distraction keeping your attention. Chalk it up as an interesting evening in which you studied nothing but that individual. Then decide where you are going to make up the lost study time in that week's rough schedule. A motivating thought may be that if you flunk out you may lose contact with this wonderful person.

Roommates and "Neighbors" Will Sometimes Distract You

If your roommate has buddies visiting at all hours and prefers classical music to study by, while you prefer to study alone with popular music as a background, you will have to come to some understanding with your roommate. Most dorms will give you about a week's trial period with a roommate. It's a good idea to learn as much about each other's social and study habits as you can in that time. If some differences come up that seem important, mention them right away and see what compromise can be arrived at. If your roommate is a non-cooperative slob ask for a different roommate.

“Neighbors.” the people in the rooms around your room, are another problem. Many modern dormitories and apartment buildings have little sound proofing in them. Some of your neighbors may consider your entire building to be a perfect echo chamber for their stereo equipment. The first thing you can do is politely tell them you are trying to study and ask them to please lower the noise level. The second thing you can do is to complain to the management, i.e., the floor advisor or the dorm director. If that doesn't work find out who the director of all the dorms at your college is and see him about the problem. If the "neighbors" are still pesty, find some other location for your primary study area.

Cellphones Can Distract You

Most of the time students are happy to hear the phone ring. Occasionally when they are deeply involved in studying it becomes an interruption. One way to handle this is to have somebody else intercept calls for you and take the message, get their name and phone number and tell them that you will call them back in about an hour. Then use your study break to return the call. If the phone is a constant interruption you may decide to study in a different area where there is no phone. However, if you are stuck with the phone and don't want to answer it, simply switch it to silent mode.

How You Can Overcome Your Own Mental Self Distractions

Intruding thoughts can be bothersome. Sometimes when you sit down to study you may find yourself thinking about all kinds of things that have nothing to do with the subject you are trying to study. You may think of several things that you have to do that day. You have to pick up your dry cleaning, remember to get your mother a birthday card, remember to pay your dormitory bill, remember to get your car greased etc. Sometimes these thoughts recur because we want to be certain that we get them done that day and we are subconsciously afraid that we win forget to do them. In order to stop these interfering thoughts, simply jot them down on a piece of paper and slip it in an obvious place where you won't forget it. Now your mind can be free from these thoughts and you can concentrate on studying.

Another thought distraction pattern that can be controlled is the situation where you are studying biology and find yourself repeatedly thinking about ideas for your term paper for sociology. There are two ways to handle this. First, you can simply jot down the thoughts about the sociology paper as they come to you and put them aside, returning to your recitation of biology. Second, if the creative sociology thoughts keep coming, stop studying biology and spend the time working on the sociology paper until you exhaust your temporary burst of creative ideas on sociology.

If you have to get the biology done because you are having a quiz the next day, constant recitation of the biology is the best way to keep the sociology ideas out. The way to do this is to recite your biology material after each paragraph or even after each long sentence rather than trying to read an entire page or section before reciting. It's almost impossible to mentally or verbally recite biology and still be thinking about something else like sociology.

Daydreams can be distracting. You may find yourself repeatedly daydreaming as you try to read through a 20 page assignment. If this happens, stop reading and take a 10 minute break and change your goals. Instead of trying to do the 20 pages at one setting, set your goal of reading the first half page using verbal summary recitation after each sentence or paragraph. After you have completed the half page take a five minute daydream or general break. Then go back and read and recite the second half page. Then repeat the daydreaming or general break for five more minutes. Then recite read a full page before your next break. Continue to alternate between reading a page or two and taking a five minute break. At the end of a couple of hours you will be surprised at how many pages you have read.

Daydreaming can be prevented by avoiding trying to read a full week's assignment in one night. Give yourself some variety and study a sequence of different subjects. If you have three hours to study it's better to divide the three hours into smaller units of 30 to 40 minutes each allowing you to study a greater variety of subjects and prevent boredom and daydreaming. For example, for the first 50 minutes you might read and recite 15 pages of your sociology text and then take a 10 minute break. Next spend 30 minutes reviewing and reciting from your week's notes for English. For the next 20 minutes read and recite five pages of biology and then take a 10 minute break. Spend the final hour jotting down notes on cards for the history paper which is due next week. By covering a variety of subjects in short study segments of time, reciting as you go, you will have little difficulty with intruding thoughts and daydreams.

What to do About Personal Problems That May be Keeping You From Studying

If you feel worried and anxious, or depressed, or angry and frustrated, you are not going to be able to study very effectively. Sometimes you may get so wrapped up in your problems that no solution seems possible. If you get that feeling, find someone with whom you can talk and get a new look at your problems. A dorm staff member, e.g., a graduate student floor advisor, wing assistant, or the dorm's director or head resident may be able to help you. These people are often trained or in training as counselors. Also, most colleges have counseling centers where you can make an appointment and see a counselor who will listen and help you get a better perspective on some of the problems that are bugging you. If you are uptight, one way to loosen up is to express your deep feelings of hurt and distress to someone who will listen but neither condemn nor approve what you have done. Once you get your feelings out in the open you are better able to look at them more objectively, and gradually you can consider some alternative plans of action which will enable you to solve the problems and avoid becoming tangled in them again. See a college counselor (not your class advisor). He can help you through the rough spots towards a solution no matter how complicated or confusing your problem may be to you at that moment. Once you see some solutions coming, the problems will no longer interfere with your studying.

How Physical Self Distraction Can Hurt Your Study Efficiency

Physical fatigue can be a distraction. If you try to study directly after engaging in a long period of strenuous exercise or other physical exertion you will probably be unable to concentrate because of your weariness. When you are tired and seem to be making only plodding progress, take a half hour nap before beginning your studies. If you are in the library simply pile up your books into a comfortable heap and put your coat or sweater on top or them as a cushion and snooze for a half hour. After your nap, take five minutes to go to the rest room and splay some cold water in your face and you will be ready for another hour or two of study you get tired again repeat the nap. No one in the library will bother you because they see students resting this way all of the time.

Eating too much at one meal or skipping a meal altogether can lower your efficiency. Avoid eating a big meal just before you have to concentrate, because it will tend to make you feel sleepy. Either eat a lighter meal or plan on taking a short nap after the big one. Waiting too long to eat is also a mistake. It's very easy to get involved in your school activities and studying and suddenly realize that it's 3 p.m. and you haven't had anything to eat since 8 a.m. You may not have noticed it, but your efficiency for the last couple of hours before 3 p.m. was less than it would have been if you had had even a small meal or a sandwich at noon.

Sitting for too long a period of time can lower you studying efficiency. If you sit too long your legs may “go to sleep” and you will begin to feel "loggy" and tired. When you take a 10 minute break after each 50 minutes of study, make it an active break. Get your blood circulating. Take a short vigorous walk through the library or outside if the weather permits. If you are at home or in your dorm, get up and do a solo dance or calisthenics to some fast music. Some short vigorous activity every hour will nuke you feel much more alert and ready for more studying.

Lack of sleep makes for inefficient studying. It’s easy to get into the habit of studying late at night when everyone else is asleep. The danger is that this may become a habit of getting about 4 hours of sleep each night. Unless you make up the sleep you missed during the day, you will be subtly getting yourself set up for real trouble. It’s subtle because the cumulative effects of lack of sleep come on so gradually that you may not even notice them at first. Lack of sleep means trouble because your body’s resistance to illness is impaired. If a stiff case of the flu hits you after a week of poor sleep, it may be twice as hard for you to shake its effects as it would be if your body had had normal rest. Lack of sleep also promotes hair-trigger emotional sensitivity. You may become easily irritated and enraged or tearful over minor incidents. There is also the possibility of developing a living pattern of dependency on stimulants to stay awake and sleeping tablets to go to sleep. Most of all, your studying efficiency will decrease. You will find yourself putting in more hours to accomplish what you could do in much less time with more sleep.

Although there are a great number of possible distractions to keep you from studying efficiently, both in your surroundings and within yourself, there are ways to overcome all of them. By being aware of which distracters are bothering you and affecting you studying, you can take action to improve the situation. Excusing yourself from studying because of distractions is not going to improve your grades—overcoming the distractions just might!