how to concentrate on doing homework

• Published on September 15, 2022
• September 15, 2022

How to Focus on Homework and Actually Get Things Done: 12 Hacks for Busy Students

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Chances are, you’ve had some days when you felt overwhelmed after a long day at school. You couldn’t imagine doing anything other than plopping down in front of the television, let alone finding out how to focus on your homework. 

How can you overcome the resistance and get it done? How do you get your mind to include this task in your day as well?

With just a few adjustments, you will be able to expand your capacity to concentrate.

Why Can’t I Focus on My Homework?

Countless factors constantly fight for your attention : social media, people, overthinking, and anxiety. All of this can make you feel as though you have little control over your mind. 

If you want to start to focus better on your homework, you’ll need to set your mind up for success. Remove all distractions .

Here are two key principles that can help you be more successful in your studies:

1. Identify the distractions in your surroundings

What are the things in your daily life that take your mind away from your studies? Clearly identifying these distractions can help you understand both the problem and what causes it.

Among our environmental distractions, digital distractions are one of the worst kinds, and according to a number of studies , their effect is on the rise in the classroom.

If you’re looking to gain more concentration and, thus, form better study habits, question your online behavior first and foremost.

2. Limit the use of technology to find focus

What’s the role of social media in your daily life? Have you ever sat down to calculate how social media distracts you from doing the things you should be doing?

When you are wondering how to focus on homework long after you’ve put your phone away, you’re still thinking about the last posts you saw on Instagram. The sound of new notifications can be enough to reroute our attention from the task at hand.

And then comes the information overload, the fear of missing out, and the all-too-common signs of addictive behavior. Technology is affecting your mind more than ever, and it’s taking your focus away.

How to Focus on Homework: 12 Things You Can Do to Be More Indistractible

Here are 12 tips on how to stay focused while completing your homework, taught by superbrain coach Jim Kwik and habit transformation expert Nir Eyal .

• Make a routine
• Set up a study-friendly environment
• Avoid heavy meals
• Organize your study notes
• Tell others to stay away
• Listen to study music
• Set deadlines
• Take brain breaks
• Use discomfort as motivation for productivity
• Use time blocking
• Let go of thoughts that distract you
• Reimagine your task

Let’s look at each study hack in more detail.

1. Make a routine

Routines help you be productive without exerting as much effort. When you have homework to do, a study routine can be the reason you actually sit down, set enough time aside, concentrate, and stay focused until you complete the project.

This process doesn’t need to be complicated: just tell yourself that you will sit at your desk at home once you’re back from school. Put your phone on silent, make an outline of the work that needs to get done, and simply begin with what’s most important.

2. Set up a study-friendly environment

A place for everything and everything in its place. That applies to studying, too.

Lying in bed with your notebook is considered a distraction, as is being in the living room with your laptop while others are doing their activities.

You need an isolated place when you decide to focus on your homework. Make it feel comfortable, keep it organized, keep it clean, and consider putting up some motivational posters or positive affirmations .

3. Avoid heavy meals

It’s not advisable to have a big meal beforehand. Big meals can ruin your focus and make you feel sluggish and lazy because it takes a big amount of time and energy for your body to digest. A snack is okay.

There are also some foods , though, that are just plain bad for your productivity. For example, soda, candy, and fried foods are all full of sugar and have no nutritional value. They make your insulin spike up, but then it crashes very fast, which makes you feel depleted of energy.

4. Organize your study notes

Prioritize your work. Keep lists and place the most important items on top. Then work on the items that you should get done first.

It helps to outline what you need to do, breaking it down into smaller, more manageable steps. Use colors to highlight the essentials . 

This makes it all look much simpler and you’re more likely to actually get started. The brain loves organization and it won’t be so likely to procrastinate when it knows you have a structure set in place.

5. Tell others to stay away

Don’t be afraid to let others know that you’re studying and require some time and space to get your work done. Decide on fixed hours for studying and tell your friends and family members that you won’t be available during that time of the day.

If others respect your study time, you’ll be more inclined to respect it as well. 

6. Listen to study music

There are many tracks out there designed to help your mind focus. Whether you use binaural beats or just instrumental music, the right sounds can really help to tune your brain into a productive frequency.

This meditation is also great to listen to; it puts your mind in a clear, concise, and ready-to-take-on-the-world mode:

7. Set deadlines

Even if your teacher has already given you deadlines for each assignment, set new ones yourself at earlier dates.

This helps you build discipline, learn how to focus on studying, and prioritize every day.

8. Take brain breaks

Frequent breaks actually increase your productivity and focus. You’ll see that after each study session, the brain needs to be engaged with something different —  you need to activate other parts of your brain before going back to your studies so that you can reach top performance.

You can also use the Superbrain Yoga Technique. In the Superbrain Quest, Jim talks about implementing it during your breaks. It goes as follows:

• Massage the left lobe of your ear with your right hand, and the right one with your left hand
• Inhale and squat down
• Exhale and come back up while continuing massaging your opposite ear with the opposite hand
• Keep going for a few minutes

As your body moves, your brain grooves. — Jim Kwik, trainer of Mindvalley’s Superbrain Quest

9. Use discomfort as motivation for productivity

The brain is wired to protect us from danger, and our ancestors needed this function of the psyche to survive. Discomfort is associated with danger, and whenever they felt it, they knew it was time to run away or protect themselves in one way or another.

In today’s world, danger isn’t so imminent. However, discomfort is, and the brain still works to protect us in the same way. 

So why not use it to your advantage?

Once you have this mindset shift, you can see the discomfort that comes with doing your homework as fuel for moving forward, from pain to pleasure. So instead of procrastinating and avoiding the discomfort, just use it as motivation to get things done.

And maybe you can even save yourself a fun activity to do later in the day, so you have something to look forward to.

10. Use time blocking

You can use time blocking and set a specific amount of time for parts of your homework that needs to be done. For example, you block 30 minutes of reading, then another 30 minutes of writing down highlights from the text. 

This method will give you more structure and support you when you need to focus on school work, as you will have a dedicated structured time to do so.

11. Let go of thoughts that distract you

When you need more concentration, but your thoughts keep getting in the way, here’s a fun visualization exercise you can use:

• Before you start working on your homework, close down your eyes and imagine a flowing river in front of you. 
• Now, place every thought on a leaf and let it run down the river while watching it move away from you. 

Do this repeatedly for 5-10 minutes and see how your mind becomes clearer, more productive, and more inspired.

12. Reimagine your task

How can you make the process of doing your homework more fun? Is there any way you can think of to make it more exciting and engaging?

As you introduce play and fun into any task, your capacity to stay focused will increase. So just try out different methods to engage more in your homework. 

For example, what if you made a trivia quest about your history lesson homework? Or what about riddles to make you remember all the characters from the novel you have to read? 

Once you play around with these kinds of games, you might find that focusing on your homework isn’t as boring as you thought it would be.

Unleash the Power of Your Focus

Discovering how to focus on your homework can go beyond schoolwork and actually support you in many other activities you want to do. Concentration is one of the best skills to nurture for your growth.

If you need a little guidance at the beginning of your focusing journey, Mindvalley has it in store for you. 

By unlocking your FREE Mindvalley access , you can check out sample classes from quests that help you develop better focus and study habits, such as Becoming Focused and Indistractable by Nir Eyal and Superbrain by Jim Kwik. You can also immerse yourself in beautiful sounds and guided meditations designed to improve concentration and help you enter the flow state.

The earlier you start, the greater your journey of self-discovery will be. Welcome in.

— Images generated on Midjourney.

Recommended free masterclass for you

Discover Powerful Hacks to Unlock Your Superbrain to Learn Faster, Comprehend More and Forget Less

Join the foremost expert in memory improvement and brain performance, Jim Kwik, in a free masterclass that will dive into the one skill you will ever need — learning how to learn Enroll for free

Alexandra Tudor

Jim Kwik is a brain coach and a world expert in speed reading, memory improvement, and optimal brain performance.

Known as the “boy with the broken brain” due to a childhood injury, Jim discovered strategies to dramatically enhance his mental performance.

He is now committed, through programs like Mindvalley’s Superbrain and Speed Reading Quest , to helping people improve their memory, learn to speed-read, increase their decision-making skills, and turn on their superbrain.

He has also shared his techniques with Hollywood actors, Fortune 500 companies, and trailblazing entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Richard Branson to reach their highest level of mental performance. He is also one of the most sought-after trainers for top organizations like Harvard University, Nike, Virgin, and GE.

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How to Do Homework: 15 Expert Tips and Tricks

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Everyone struggles with homework sometimes, but if getting your homework done has become a chronic issue for you, then you may need a little extra help. That’s why we’ve written this article all about how to do homework. Once you’re finished reading it, you’ll know how to do homework (and have tons of new ways to motivate yourself to do homework)!

We’ve broken this article down into a few major sections. You’ll find:

• A diagnostic test to help you figure out why you’re struggling with homework
• A discussion of the four major homework problems students face, along with expert tips for addressing them
• A bonus section with tips for how to do homework fast

By the end of this article, you’ll be prepared to tackle whatever homework assignments your teachers throw at you .

So let’s get started!

How to Do Homework: Figure Out Your Struggles 

Sometimes it feels like everything is standing between you and getting your homework done. But the truth is, most people only have one or two major roadblocks that are keeping them from getting their homework done well and on time. 

The best way to figure out how to get motivated to do homework starts with pinpointing the issues that are affecting your ability to get your assignments done. That’s why we’ve developed a short quiz to help you identify the areas where you’re struggling. 

Take the quiz below and record your answers on your phone or on a scrap piece of paper. Keep in mind there are no wrong answers! 

1. You’ve just been assigned an essay in your English class that’s due at the end of the week. What’s the first thing you do?

A. Keep it in mind, even though you won’t start it until the day before it’s due  B. Open up your planner. You’ve got to figure out when you’ll write your paper since you have band practice, a speech tournament, and your little sister’s dance recital this week, too.  C. Groan out loud. Another essay? You could barely get yourself to write the last one!  D. Start thinking about your essay topic, which makes you think about your art project that’s due the same day, which reminds you that your favorite artist might have just posted to Instagram...so you better check your feed right now. 

2. Your mom asked you to pick up your room before she gets home from work. You’ve just gotten home from school. You decide you’ll tackle your chores: 

A. Five minutes before your mom walks through the front door. As long as it gets done, who cares when you start?  B. As soon as you get home from your shift at the local grocery store.  C. After you give yourself a 15-minute pep talk about how you need to get to work.  D. You won’t get it done. Between texts from your friends, trying to watch your favorite Netflix show, and playing with your dog, you just lost track of time! 

3. You’ve signed up to wash dogs at the Humane Society to help earn money for your senior class trip. You: 

A. Show up ten minutes late. You put off leaving your house until the last minute, then got stuck in unexpected traffic on the way to the shelter.  B. Have to call and cancel at the last minute. You forgot you’d already agreed to babysit your cousin and bake cupcakes for tomorrow’s bake sale.  C. Actually arrive fifteen minutes early with extra brushes and bandanas you picked up at the store. You’re passionate about animals, so you’re excited to help out! D. Show up on time, but only get three dogs washed. You couldn’t help it: you just kept getting distracted by how cute they were!

4. You have an hour of downtime, so you decide you’re going to watch an episode of The Great British Baking Show. You: 

A. Scroll through your social media feeds for twenty minutes before hitting play, which means you’re not able to finish the whole episode. Ugh! You really wanted to see who was sent home!  B. Watch fifteen minutes until you remember you’re supposed to pick up your sister from band practice before heading to your part-time job. No GBBO for you!  C. You finish one episode, then decide to watch another even though you’ve got SAT studying to do. It’s just more fun to watch people make scones.  D. Start the episode, but only catch bits and pieces of it because you’re reading Twitter, cleaning out your backpack, and eating a snack at the same time.

5. Your teacher asks you to stay after class because you’ve missed turning in two homework assignments in a row. When she asks you what’s wrong, you say: 

A. You planned to do your assignments during lunch, but you ran out of time. You decided it would be better to turn in nothing at all than submit unfinished work.  B. You really wanted to get the assignments done, but between your extracurriculars, family commitments, and your part-time job, your homework fell through the cracks.  C. You have a hard time psyching yourself to tackle the assignments. You just can’t seem to find the motivation to work on them once you get home.  D. You tried to do them, but you had a hard time focusing. By the time you realized you hadn’t gotten anything done, it was already time to turn them in. 

Like we said earlier, there are no right or wrong answers to this quiz (though your results will be better if you answered as honestly as possible). Here’s how your answers break down: 

• If your answers were mostly As, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is procrastination. 
• If your answers were mostly Bs, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is time management. 
• If your answers were mostly Cs, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is motivation. 
• If your answers were mostly Ds, then your biggest struggle with doing homework is getting distracted. 

Now that you’ve identified why you’re having a hard time getting your homework done, we can help you figure out how to fix it! Scroll down to find your core problem area to learn more about how you can start to address it. 

And one more thing: you’re really struggling with homework, it’s a good idea to read through every section below. You may find some additional tips that will help make homework less intimidating. 

How to Do Homework When You’re a Procrastinator  

Merriam Webster defines “procrastinate” as “to put off intentionally and habitually.” In other words, procrastination is when you choose to do something at the last minute on a regular basis. If you’ve ever found yourself pulling an all-nighter, trying to finish an assignment between periods, or sprinting to turn in a paper minutes before a deadline, you’ve experienced the effects of procrastination. 

If you’re a chronic procrastinator, you’re in good company. In fact, one study found that 70% to 95% of undergraduate students procrastinate when it comes to doing their homework. Unfortunately, procrastination can negatively impact your grades. Researchers have found that procrastination can lower your grade on an assignment by as much as five points ...which might not sound serious until you realize that can mean the difference between a B- and a C+. 

Procrastination can also negatively affect your health by increasing your stress levels , which can lead to other health conditions like insomnia, a weakened immune system, and even heart conditions. Getting a handle on procrastination can not only improve your grades, it can make you feel better, too! 

The big thing to understand about procrastination is that it’s not the result of laziness. Laziness is defined as being “disinclined to activity or exertion.” In other words, being lazy is all about doing nothing. But a s this Psychology Today article explains , procrastinators don’t put things off because they don’t want to work. Instead, procrastinators tend to postpone tasks they don’t want to do in favor of tasks that they perceive as either more important or more fun. Put another way, procrastinators want to do things...as long as it’s not their homework! 

3 Tips f or Conquering Procrastination 

Because putting off doing homework is a common problem, there are lots of good tactics for addressing procrastination. Keep reading for our three expert tips that will get your homework habits back on track in no time. 

#1: Create a Reward System

Like we mentioned earlier, procrastination happens when you prioritize other activities over getting your homework done. Many times, this happens because homework...well, just isn’t enjoyable. But you can add some fun back into the process by rewarding yourself for getting your work done. 

Here’s what we mean: let’s say you decide that every time you get your homework done before the day it’s due, you’ll give yourself a point. For every five points you earn, you’ll treat yourself to your favorite dessert: a chocolate cupcake! Now you have an extra (delicious!) incentive to motivate you to leave procrastination in the dust. 

If you’re not into cupcakes, don’t worry. Your reward can be anything that motivates you . Maybe it’s hanging out with your best friend or an extra ten minutes of video game time. As long as you’re choosing something that makes homework worth doing, you’ll be successful. 

#2: Have a Homework Accountability Partner 

If you’re having trouble getting yourself to start your homework ahead of time, it may be a good idea to call in reinforcements . Find a friend or classmate you can trust and explain to them that you’re trying to change your homework habits. Ask them if they’d be willing to text you to make sure you’re doing your homework and check in with you once a week to see if you’re meeting your anti-procrastination goals. 

Sharing your goals can make them feel more real, and an accountability partner can help hold you responsible for your decisions. For example, let’s say you’re tempted to put off your science lab write-up until the morning before it’s due. But you know that your accountability partner is going to text you about it tomorrow...and you don’t want to fess up that you haven’t started your assignment. A homework accountability partner can give you the extra support and incentive you need to keep your homework habits on track. 

#3: Create Your Own Due Dates 

If you’re a life-long procrastinator, you might find that changing the habit is harder than you expected. In that case, you might try using procrastination to your advantage! If you just can’t seem to stop doing your work at the last minute, try setting your own due dates for assignments that range from a day to a week before the assignment is actually due. 

Here’s what we mean. Let’s say you have a math worksheet that’s been assigned on Tuesday and is due on Friday. In your planner, you can write down the due date as Thursday instead. You may still put off your homework assignment until the last minute...but in this case, the “last minute” is a day before the assignment’s real due date . This little hack can trick your procrastination-addicted brain into planning ahead! 

If you feel like Kevin Hart in this meme, then our tips for doing homework when you're busy are for you. 

How to Do Homework When You’re too Busy

If you’re aiming to go to a top-tier college , you’re going to have a full plate. Because college admissions is getting more competitive, it’s important that you’re maintaining your grades , studying hard for your standardized tests , and participating in extracurriculars so your application stands out. A packed schedule can get even more hectic once you add family obligations or a part-time job to the mix. 

If you feel like you’re being pulled in a million directions at once, you’re not alone. Recent research has found that stress—and more severe stress-related conditions like anxiety and depression— are a major problem for high school students . In fact, one study from the American Psychological Association found that during the school year, students’ stress levels are higher than those of the adults around them. 

For students, homework is a major contributor to their overall stress levels . Many high schoolers have multiple hours of homework every night , and figuring out how to fit it into an already-packed schedule can seem impossible. 

3 Tips for Fitting Homework Into Your Busy Schedule

While it might feel like you have literally no time left in your schedule, there are still ways to make sure you’re able to get your homework done and meet your other commitments. Here are our expert homework tips for even the busiest of students. 

#1: Make a Prioritized To-Do List 

You probably already have a to-do list to keep yourself on track. The next step is to prioritize the items on your to-do list so you can see what items need your attention right away. 

Here’s how it works: at the beginning of each day, sit down and make a list of all the items you need to get done before you go to bed. This includes your homework, but it should also take into account any practices, chores, events, or job shifts you may have. Once you get everything listed out, it’s time to prioritize them using the labels A, B, and C. Here’s what those labels mean:

• A Tasks : tasks that have to get done—like showing up at work or turning in an assignment—get an A. 
• B Tasks : these are tasks that you would like to get done by the end of the day but aren’t as time sensitive. For example, studying for a test you have next week could be a B-level task. It’s still important, but it doesn’t have to be done right away.
• C Tasks: these are tasks that aren’t very important and/or have no real consequences if you don’t get them done immediately. For instance, if you’re hoping to clean out your closet but it’s not an assigned chore from your parents, you could label that to-do item with a C.

Prioritizing your to-do list helps you visualize which items need your immediate attention, and which items you can leave for later. A prioritized to-do list ensures that you’re spending your time efficiently and effectively, which helps you make room in your schedule for homework. So even though you might really want to start making decorations for Homecoming (a B task), you’ll know that finishing your reading log (an A task) is more important. 

#2: Use a Planner With Time Labels

Your planner is probably packed with notes, events, and assignments already. (And if you’re not using a planner, it’s time to start!) But planners can do more for you than just remind you when an assignment is due. If you’re using a planner with time labels, it can help you visualize how you need to spend your day.

A planner with time labels breaks your day down into chunks, and you assign tasks to each chunk of time. For example, you can make a note of your class schedule with assignments, block out time to study, and make sure you know when you need to be at practice. Once you know which tasks take priority, you can add them to any empty spaces in your day. 

Planning out how you spend your time not only helps you use it wisely, it can help you feel less overwhelmed, too . We’re big fans of planners that include a task list ( like this one ) or have room for notes ( like this one ). 

#3: Set Reminders on Your Phone 

If you need a little extra nudge to make sure you’re getting your homework done on time, it’s a good idea to set some reminders on your phone. You don’t need a fancy app, either. You can use your alarm app to have it go off at specific times throughout the day to remind you to do your homework. This works especially well if you have a set homework time scheduled. So if you’ve decided you’re doing homework at 6:00 pm, you can set an alarm to remind you to bust out your books and get to work. 

If you use your phone as your planner, you may have the option to add alerts, emails, or notifications to scheduled events . Many calendar apps, including the one that comes with your phone, have built-in reminders that you can customize to meet your needs. So if you block off time to do your homework from 4:30 to 6:00 pm, you can set a reminder that will pop up on your phone when it’s time to get started. 

This dog isn't judging your lack of motivation...but your teacher might. Keep reading for tips to help you motivate yourself to do your homework.

How to Do Homework When You’re Unmotivated 

At first glance, it may seem like procrastination and being unmotivated are the same thing. After all, both of these issues usually result in you putting off your homework until the very last minute. 

But there’s one key difference: many procrastinators are working, they’re just prioritizing work differently. They know they’re going to start their homework...they’re just going to do it later. 

Conversely, people who are unmotivated to do homework just can’t find the willpower to tackle their assignments. Procrastinators know they’ll at least attempt the homework at the last minute, whereas people who are unmotivated struggle with convincing themselves to do it at a ll. For procrastinators, the stress comes from the inevitable time crunch. For unmotivated people, the stress comes from trying to convince themselves to do something they don’t want to do in the first place. 

Here are some common reasons students are unmotivated in doing homework : 

• Assignments are too easy, too hard, or seemingly pointless 
• Students aren’t interested in (or passionate about) the subject matter
• Students are intimidated by the work and/or feels like they don’t understand the assignment 
• Homework isn’t fun, and students would rather spend their time on things that they enjoy 

To sum it up: people who lack motivation to do their homework are more likely to not do it at all, or to spend more time worrying about doing their homework than...well, actually doing it.

3 Tips for How to Get Motivated to Do Homework

The key to getting homework done when you’re unmotivated is to figure out what does motivate you, then apply those things to homework. It sounds tricky...but it’s pretty simple once you get the hang of it! Here are our three expert tips for motivating yourself to do your homework. 

#1: Use Incremental Incentives

When you’re not motivated, it’s important to give yourself small rewards to stay focused on finishing the task at hand. The trick is to keep the incentives small and to reward yourself often. For example, maybe you’re reading a good book in your free time. For every ten minutes you spend on your homework, you get to read five pages of your book. Like we mentioned earlier, make sure you’re choosing a reward that works for you! 

So why does this technique work? Using small rewards more often allows you to experience small wins for getting your work done. Every time you make it to one of your tiny reward points, you get to celebrate your success, which gives your brain a boost of dopamine . Dopamine helps you stay motivated and also creates a feeling of satisfaction when you complete your homework !  

#2: Form a Homework Group 

If you’re having trouble motivating yourself, it’s okay to turn to others for support. Creating a homework group can help with this. Bring together a group of your friends or classmates, and pick one time a week where you meet and work on homework together. You don’t have to be in the same class, or even taking the same subjects— the goal is to encourage one another to start (and finish!) your assignments. 

Another added benefit of a homework group is that you can help one another if you’re struggling to understand the material covered in your classes. This is especially helpful if your lack of motivation comes from being intimidated by your assignments. Asking your friends for help may feel less scary than talking to your teacher...and once you get a handle on the material, your homework may become less frightening, too. 

#3: Change Up Your Environment 

If you find that you’re totally unmotivated, it may help if you find a new place to do your homework. For example, if you’ve been struggling to get your homework done at home, try spending an extra hour in the library after school instead. The change of scenery can limit your distractions and give you the energy you need to get your work done. 

If you’re stuck doing homework at home, you can still use this tip. For instance, maybe you’ve always done your homework sitting on your bed. Try relocating somewhere else, like your kitchen table, for a few weeks. You may find that setting up a new “homework spot” in your house gives you a motivational lift and helps you get your work done. 

Social media can be a huge problem when it comes to doing homework. We have advice for helping you unplug and regain focus.

How to Do Homework When You’re Easily Distracted

We live in an always-on world, and there are tons of things clamoring for our attention. From friends and family to pop culture and social media, it seems like there’s always something (or someone!) distracting us from the things we need to do.

The 24/7 world we live in has affected our ability to focus on tasks for prolonged periods of time. Research has shown that over the past decade, an average person’s attention span has gone from 12 seconds to eight seconds . And when we do lose focus, i t takes people a long time to get back on task . One study found that it can take as long as 23 minutes to get back to work once we’ve been distracte d. No wonder it can take hours to get your homework done! 

3 Tips to Improve Your Focus

If you have a hard time focusing when you’re doing your homework, it’s a good idea to try and eliminate as many distractions as possible. Here are three expert tips for blocking out the noise so you can focus on getting your homework done. 

#1: Create a Distraction-Free Environment

Pick a place where you’ll do your homework every day, and make it as distraction-free as possible. Try to find a location where there won’t be tons of noise, and limit your access to screens while you’re doing your homework. Put together a focus-oriented playlist (or choose one on your favorite streaming service), and put your headphones on while you work. 

You may find that other people, like your friends and family, are your biggest distraction. If that’s the case, try setting up some homework boundaries. Let them know when you’ll be working on homework every day, and ask them if they’ll help you keep a quiet environment. They’ll be happy to lend a hand! 

#2: Limit Your Access to Technology 

We know, we know...this tip isn’t fun, but it does work. For homework that doesn’t require a computer, like handouts or worksheets, it’s best to put all your technology away . Turn off your television, put your phone and laptop in your backpack, and silence notifications on any wearable tech you may be sporting. If you listen to music while you work, that’s fine...but make sure you have a playlist set up so you’re not shuffling through songs once you get started on your homework. 

If your homework requires your laptop or tablet, it can be harder to limit your access to distractions. But it’s not impossible! T here are apps you can download that will block certain websites while you’re working so that you’re not tempted to scroll through Twitter or check your Facebook feed. Silence notifications and text messages on your computer, and don’t open your email account unless you absolutely have to. And if you don’t need access to the internet to complete your assignments, turn off your WiFi. Cutting out the online chatter is a great way to make sure you’re getting your homework done. 

#3: Set a Timer (the Pomodoro Technique)

Have you ever heard of the Pomodoro technique ? It’s a productivity hack that uses a timer to help you focus!

Here’s how it works: first, set a timer for 25 minutes. This is going to be your work time. During this 25 minutes, all you can do is work on whatever homework assignment you have in front of you. No email, no text messaging, no phone calls—just homework. When that timer goes off, you get to take a 5 minute break. Every time you go through one of these cycles, it’s called a “pomodoro.” For every four pomodoros you complete, you can take a longer break of 15 to 30 minutes.

The pomodoro technique works through a combination of boundary setting and rewards. First, it gives you a finite amount of time to focus, so you know that you only have to work really hard for 25 minutes. Once you’ve done that, you’re rewarded with a short break where you can do whatever you want. Additionally, tracking how many pomodoros you complete can help you see how long you’re really working on your homework. (Once you start using our focus tips, you may find it doesn’t take as long as you thought!)

Two Bonus Tips for How to Do Homework Fast

Even if you’re doing everything right, there will be times when you just need to get your homework done as fast as possible. (Why do teachers always have projects due in the same week? The world may never know.)

The problem with speeding through homework is that it’s easy to make mistakes. While turning in an assignment is always better than not submitting anything at all, you want to make sure that you’re not compromising quality for speed. Simply put, the goal is to get your homework done quickly and still make a good grade on the assignment! 

Here are our two bonus tips for getting a decent grade on your homework assignments , even when you’re in a time crunch. 

#1: Do the Easy Parts First 

This is especially true if you’re working on a handout with multiple questions. Before you start working on the assignment, read through all the questions and problems. As you do, make a mark beside the questions you think are “easy” to answer . 

Once you’ve finished going through the whole assignment, you can answer these questions first. Getting the easy questions out of the way as quickly as possible lets you spend more time on the trickier portions of your homework, which will maximize your assignment grade. 

(Quick note: this is also a good strategy to use on timed assignments and tests, like the SAT and the ACT !) 

#2: Pay Attention in Class 

Homework gets a lot easier when you’re actively learning the material. Teachers aren’t giving you homework because they’re mean or trying to ruin your weekend... it’s because they want you to really understand the course material. Homework is designed to reinforce what you’re already learning in class so you’ll be ready to tackle harder concepts later.

When you pay attention in class, ask questions, and take good notes, you’re absorbing the information you’ll need to succeed on your homework assignments. (You’re stuck in class anyway, so you might as well make the most of it!) Not only will paying attention in class make your homework less confusing, it will also help it go much faster, too.

What’s Next?

If you’re looking to improve your productivity beyond homework, a good place to begin is with time management. After all, we only have so much time in a day...so it’s important to get the most out of it! To get you started, check out this list of the 12 best time management techniques that you can start using today.

You may have read this article because homework struggles have been affecting your GPA. Now that you’re on the path to homework success, it’s time to start being proactive about raising your grades. This article teaches you everything you need to know about raising your GPA so you can

Now you know how to get motivated to do homework...but what about your study habits? Studying is just as critical to getting good grades, and ultimately getting into a good college . We can teach you how to study bette r in high school. (We’ve also got tons of resources to help you study for your ACT and SAT exams , too!)

These recommendations are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links, PrepScholar may receive a commission.

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How to Focus on School Work & Stay Concentrated: 18 Tips to Follow

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Every new academic year has unique challenges that make students ask questions like, "Why can't I focus on school work?" It is more complicated than ever to maintain optimum concentration. Some people struggle because they are juggling family time, social activities, and media platforms. Nevertheless, you can focus on homework and finish your tasks efficiently by adopting interest-focusing strategies. These techniques will be helpful in overcoming diversions and concentrating on your schoolwork. You can achieve this by making simple schedule adjustments. In this blog post, we will discuss 18 tips on how to stay focused on homework in a clear and detailed manner. In case you have any questions or need expert assistance, contact StudyCrumb. Our academic writing team will be glad to solve any homework task you are dealing with. Say ‘ help with my assignment ’ and get top-notch assistance.

Why Can't I Focus on My Homework?

The question "why can't I focus on homework?" is popular among students, as numerous things can be distracting when doing assignments. Several hindrances like social networking sites, overthinking and watching digital content continuously demand concentration. As a result, you have little or no control over your thoughts. You must ensure your brain is dedicated to completing the task at hand. Focusing on an assignment may be challenging for many reasons. From my perspective, one of the reasons why I can't focus on school work is experiencing stress or exhaustion. Of course, being bored with the subject itself could also be the cause of why you are not concentrating. Many people find that figuring out the obstacle is the best way of understanding how to get focused on school work. Similarly, eating well and leading a healthy lifestyle is what helps you focus on homework.

Can't Focus on Homework? Find Out All Distracting Facts

Why can't I concentrate on my homework? Is paying attention to my assignments so crucial? Welcome to the new era where distractions are everywhere, and you can't concentrate on homework. How can you possibly finish your schoolwork and focus on it without being interrupted? Something minor, like social media browsing, may not seem harmful initially, but it can hinder studying. Students must learn how to stay focused while doing homework so that they can perform well. Many factors may contribute to these distractions and make you feel like you have limited power over your thoughts. These elements of distraction include the following:

• Fear of failure.
• Electronic devices.

Lack of interest is a common reason why students experience difficulties with concentration. If you aren’t interested in your subject and are looking for an expert to pay for homework , StudyCrumb is the best place to seek for academic help. Let us know the details and we will match you with the best writer in your field.

Tips for Focusing on Homework

You may struggle with focus occasionally as a freshman or a graduate student. One of the obstacles is the question of how to concentrate on homework. It can be challenging when you are thinking about something else. For example, your mind is constantly shifting focus onto your phone, your stomach is grumbling, or you want to lie down and nap. Start by learning how to focus on schoolwork in general by adopting technology as a core part of making you creative. However, technology is responsible for a never-ending stream of diversions that can weaken the will toward education. Check a few tips below on how to focus better on homework while avoiding interference.

1. Provide Quiet and Comfortable Environment

Students should learn how to focus on school at home as a core part of achieving academic success. Using a computer to do your homework staying in a noisy living room environment may affect concentration. To focus on school work, move to a quiet area where you can listen to helpful videos and read books. Make the space cozy, ensure it is also tidy, and maybe use inspirational banners in the room. You will probably have an easier understanding if you minimize distractions when studying. A quiet and conducive environment can optimize the quality of time spent on schoolwork and spare enough hours for free time. This is one of the crucial ways how to stop getting distracted from homework.

2. Prepare Snacks and Water Beforehand

This is another critical method and a sure way how to focus when doing homework. Here, you can learn how to focus on school by consuming water and healthy snacks, including low-fat yogurt, whole-grain bread, and dried fruits. It is not a good idea to eat a substantial meal prior to starting to work on the homework since it takes a lot of energy and time to digest the food. Thus, large meals can make you unproductive. Instead, preparing snacks and water beforehand is one of the easy-to-implement tips to help focus on homework. Water prevents dehydration and helps in digestion. Healthy snacks are a crucial element of a well-balanced diet, particularly when studying for long periods. Easy meals for college students play a critical role in curbing overeating. They also boost energy levels and metabolism and reduce hunger pangs, allowing you to concentrate better on your schoolwork.

3. Provide Silence to Concentrate on Homework

People often need silence when contemplating how to not get distracted while doing homework. Most students wonder why it is so hard to focus on school work in a loud environment. This is because it shifts your mind to what is happening around you rather than concentrating on your homework. Maintaining silence when focusing on school work enables you to absorb information better, remember it, and formulate new questions. You can assess the significance of alternative viewpoints and internalize different emotions and facts. Furthermore, silence allows you to practice deliberate and purposeful communication. It is also necessary to ensure effective use of the time allocated for schoolwork.

4. Organize Your Study Place

Taking an hour or more to arrange your space is helpful when figuring out how to focus on doing homework. If you study in your room, ensure the windows are open for the flow of fresh air. However, remain mindful of outside noise that may become even more distracting. One of the things to help you focus on homework is adequate illumination to help with reading and writing and clearing your mind. Both these preparations can be achieved using music and easy hygiene procedures. If you enjoy classical music, turn it on for the smooth sounds that will help you relax. Spend a few minutes removing dirty things on the desk, table, and study space, including your sitting position. The whole idea of organizing your study space is made to avoid time wastage. Furthermore, great organization boosts concentration and output and helps you avoid distraction.

5. Block Apps and Websites That Can Distract From Doing Homework

Another incredible tip on how to concentrate on school work is by blocking apps and websites that cause distraction. Focusing is undoubtedly tricky if you are completing homework on a laptop. Some apps are beneficial while others are not, especially when you think of what helps you focus on homework and ensure effective use of allocated time. For instance, Screen Time is an app that assists you in avoiding frequent distractions. Avoid apps like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to focus on homework and close any notifications like text messages not to get distracted. By blocking these apps, you will concentrate more on your studies and enhance your workflow. You can run a few applications that support your efficiency in handling schoolwork.

6. Avoid Multitasking to Be Focused on School Work

If you are unsure about how to focus on homework at home, you are in the right place. You should identify different methods so you can concentrate thoughts on schoolwork and optimize the learning process. Focusing on one assignment at a time is another way how to stay focused on school work. Multitasking will reduce your productivity. Avoid watching a video lesson on science while completing your math assignment because you might be losing more than you gain. Before beginning a new task, finish the previous one and concentrate on homework. This enables you to take part in the activity more deeply and stay attentive. In addition, you will retain more knowledge and have less trouble applying the information in the real world if you can focus more on your schoolwork.

7. Choose the Best Time for Homework

As the saying goes, to everything, there is a time and place , and with homework, you need to set the appropriate time and place to work it out. You need to choose designated periods to make yourself focus on homework. Attentiveness to schoolwork may be difficult if the event is not scheduled correctly. Therefore, choosing the most appropriate time to focus on your homework without many distractions is key. The correct perspective in handling assignment deadlines would entail the selection of a timeframe that is best for you. In other words, the time allocation should be uneventful yet scheduled at an appropriate time for maximum efficiency. This means you will consider periods when your mind is fresh and there are minimal distractions to remain productive while focusing on schoolwork.

8. Put Aside All Gadgets

When researching how to do homework without getting distracted, gadgets are considered to be some of the most distracting elements that you can have. Having gadgets around, such as phones, leaves you vulnerable to shifting attention. This entails calls and messages from friends in social media or online interactions. Although gadgets are essential in helping you study, switch them off in order to not get distracted when doing homework. Accordingly, managing screen time must be a central topic when developing ways how to focus on your homework. You will find that without distractions, you can easily set attention to the tasks that matter. Putting off your gadgets often results in higher efficiency and productivity, especially when handling academic tasks.

9. Prioritize Your Homework

As with many other things, priorities are central when getting work done. Schoolwork at home can easily fall into events that are of lower importance. However, eliminating this perspective may be critical when considering how to focus while doing homework. Prioritization is the most effective when planning and scheduling events. Tasks like doing homework should, in this case, be set as the most important and high up on the schedule compared to other events. More time should also be allocated to more urgent events. This allows you to organize your thoughts and ideas while doing your homework without feeling rushed.

10. Plan Your Schedule to Be Concentrated

Students often wonder how to focus more on school work, especially when dealing with time-critical events or when they have a lot on their plate. I have, in several instances, successfully used scheduling when strategizing how to make myself focus on homework. The trick lies in developing a schedule that works for you. The plan, in this case, should operate around all your daily events and take advantage of the free periods. You can therefore complete the tasks that are typically overlooked. Keeping time will be easier with the correct approach to scheduling. You will also make more time for the things that previously fell between the cracks and remain undone.

11. Divide Your Task Into Parts

Undertaking large volumes of work that cannot be well-tracked may seem overwhelming. Being compelled can then make it hard to stay focused. In my experience, the practice of dividing work into parts has been able to help me focus on homework. Breaking down large volumes of tasks enables you to easily keep track of the progress you make and avoid the feeling of being overwhelmed. You can use this as a tip when figuring out what to do when you can't focus on homework. Also, scheduling periodic breaks after completing a stressful section will be helpful.

12. Make To-Do Lists to Focus on Homework

Lists are a common way of tracking the important events that should be done throughout the day. They can also be helpful when thinking of how to stay focused on homework in college or even in your personal engagements. You may wonder how to stop getting distracted while doing homework using lists, and here is how. Listing all the day's tasks in order of how you would like to undertake them keeps you focused on your goals. The order will help you tackle things individually and shape your focus on the next item you need to work on. Setting goals for each step can also lead to exceptional results in completing homework and minimizing distractions.

13. Use Tools and Apps for Studying

As a student, you must leverage technologies and all available ways to focus on homework. The advantage of studying in the modern schooling environment is that you have a wide array of tools and resources. For instance, mobile apps and games can help you meet the objectivity tasks you may require. They will also help you to get useful time management skills . Many free apps and tools help you to focus on school work at home. For example, scheduling apps offer time management and planning resources that help you get that extra edge in keeping focused. These tools provide alerts to inform you of your tasks and even help manage your progress. In addition to scheduling applications, using PDF annotating apps and tools can be very helpful for studying. Apps like PDF Reader Pro allow you to open, edit, annotate and share PDFs with ease. You can highlight important textbook passages, add notes and bookmark pages to better focus on your homework. 

14. Set a Timer While Doing Homework

Using timers is a great option when you are not able to concentrate on homework. Students who can't focus on school work may benefit from using them to manage their engagement in different daily activities. Timers are mainly instrumental in keeping your attention focused on a specific goal. Productivity timers, for instance, may help keep your focus by holding you accountable for every minute that passes. You know you need to finish a set number of tasks based on the time spent on these tasks. This can be beneficial if you are prone to procrastination or are too busy with other things. Older students wondering how to stay focused on homework in college or tertiary institutions may also use timers to manage their efficiencies. Timing yourself can also help keep pressure on the mind and focus your thoughts. Therefore, make timed tasks a habit.

15. Come Up With Motivation

Motivation greatly helps when you wonder what to do when you can't focus on homework. Sometimes, simple inspiration and goal realignment may be all you need to restore your attention. Motivation comes in many forms and shapes. For instance, using reward systems or adjusting your school goals with personal interests may go a long way. Other options include joining group work discussions that match these objectives and engaging in an exercise that may help keep you motivated. So next time you think of how to focus on schoolwork at home, consider what benefits you may get from developing motivation for your goals.

16. Make Breaks for Better Concentration on Homework

Concentration is part of what can help me focus on homework, and there is a chance you may be severely affected by fatigue. Exhaustion is to be expected, especially when handling challenging course materials. I mostly find that I can't focus on my homework when I am tired. It becomes complicated to focus on homework without getting distracted when exhausted, and the solution I have found so far is taking a break. This helps rejuvenate the mind and generate new energy. Scheduling periodic intervals minimizes stress and allows you to refocus your thoughts. Nevertheless, be mindful and do not take a break that extends for too long.

17. Change Study Spot

You may be curious how a change in the environment affects your ability to concentrate or how to make yourself focus on homework with so many distractions at home. Fortunately, there are standard solutions to these questions as well. If you are wondering how to focus on school work at home, you should move to a different study spot. In a spacious house, you can find a quiet, designated space to set up and do your homework. Having a fixed location with the right environment for concentration may increase your creativity significantly. In smaller houses, getting a place that is secluded from direct distractions may also help minimize the impact these distractions have on your attentiveness.

18. Listen to Music

Changing approach to studying may also be needed to stay focused on homework. Listening to your favorite music can be a great option. This is particularly true if you have considered most of the options shared above and are still wondering how to do your homework without getting distracted. Music to study to is a great way to keep you focused, especially when using headphones to prevent external noise. It is exceptionally effective in stress management. There is a higher chance you may get distracted when doing challenging homework assignments. Music is one of the things that can be used to clear the mind when you are curious about what to do if you can't focus on homework. Symphonies and upbeat music, for instance, help manage stress by boosting the thinking process. It is, however, important to avoid listening to songs playing in the background with lyrics that may be distracting. Instrumentals are, in most cases, the more practical option.

Final Thoughts on How to Focus on Schoolwork

Beyond education, learning to concentrate on your schoolwork might also help you in other pursuits in your life. Among the best abilities for fostering your development is concentration. Various tips are practical when you spend all day and night working on school or college papers and cannot concentrate on your assignment. Stick to these 18 strategies if you want to try and work out how to focus on homework without getting distracted. We have all been through the "how do I focus on my homework" moment occasionally. However, listening to music, organizing your study place, and setting a timer will help you stay focused when doing homework. Make it a routine to read and utilize these tips; you will not regret a single day in your life.

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FAQ About Focusing on Homework at Home

1. why can't i focus on homework for more than 10 minutes.

Gaining strict concentration may be one of the most challenging issues affecting students. Many learners find that they can't focus on homework even when they want. Distractions, exhaustion, and a general lack of interest in the subject are to blame for their lack of focus. In some cases, stress and other emotional distractions may affect a person's ability to focus.

2. How can I train my brain to concentrate on homework?

Fortunately, this problem can be solved by simple discipline routines and habits that enable students to concentrate on homework. Working past the undisciplined mind can be achieved by simply following a strict routine. Scheduling tasks and timelines are some of the ways that can be used to keep your mind set on targeted goals. Turning off all distractions, such as the television and background music, may also help improve concentration levels.

3. How to get my child to focus on homework?

Parents or guardians are often a great source in helping their children stay focused when doing homework. Creating an enabling environment and assisting in doing homework are ways that parents can improve their child's concentration and remain involved in their learning process. Other options, such as helping develop workable schedules for children, are also plausible ways that parents can use.

Rachel R. Hill is a real educational devotee. She prides in writing exceptional general guides while listening to every need of students.

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How to focus while studying: Tips for better concentration

Use this helpful toolkit to finally focus better when studying. You'll learn how to plan effective study sessions and improve concentration.

You may enjoy being a student in your chosen field, but memorizing a stack of lecture notes so that you can pass your exams is another story entirely, especially since there are so many distracting, exciting, and colorful things in the … oh look, a butterfly!

Even top-performing students with ninja-level self-discipline struggle to stay focused while studying. The difference, however, is that they have developed the right study habits that not only get them in their chairs to study but keep them there too.

What’s their secret? How can you better concentrate while studying?

You, my friend, are holding the (virtual) answer in your hands. In this article, we're going to show you:

• How to focus from the start
• How to maintain focus and overcome daydreaming
• How to become a more focused person overall

(Also make sure you check out our guide ' Top mental strategies for studying at home ' if you're required to be productive in an environment that can sometimes be a little distracting #doomscrolling.)

How to focus while studying, from the start

Almost all of the problems associated with an inability to focus while studying fall into one of two broad categories:

• Issues of inertia: Difficulty starting to study
• Issues of daydreaming: Difficulty maintaining concentration when studying

Both have the same frustrating results but can require slightly different approaches to overcome. What you ideally need to do is calm your thoughts and minimize distractions just like you do when falling asleep, only now you're going to unleash 100% of your cognitive powers on learning and remembering!

Here’s how to do that ...

Tip # 1 for focusing while studying: Set up a peaceful, distraction-free "study bubble"

• Set out all your materials , stationery, Diet Cokes … whatever you need to learn. You shouldn’t have to get up for anything once you’ve started.
• Have a word with your family , housemates, cat, parrot, needy indoor plants … whoever you think might be a source of distraction. Explain politely that it’s study time and that you’d appreciate some quiet with minimal interruptions.
• Clear out your inbox . If there are emails that require time-consuming action, write it down on a to-do list so that you won’t forget to take care of it later. The science is clear: Multi-tasking does not actually work !
• Clear your phone of notifications and then turn it on silent so that it can’t ping and distract you. Better yet, leave it in another room. You won’t hurt Siri's feelings, we promise.
• If you’re working off a device, log out of any apps and social media that might send you distracting notifications.
• Optimize your body and brain to study . Go to the toilet, fill up your water bottle, brew a cup of coffee or tea, set out your snacks, and get a good night’s rest the night before. Internal distractions are just as important in putting your mind at ease.
• Knock out any important, potentially distracting tasks before your allotted study time—like paying a bill, feeding the cat, or breaking up with your annoying boyfriend.

Now, you don’t have to do all of the above to prepare your study bubble, but if you’re easily distracted and have a tendency to procrastinate when studying , clearing your proverbial plate can go a long way in helping you focus better.

Tip # 2 for focusing while studying: Set goals and milestones

The key to mastery is consistently devoting time to learning, whether it’s ten minutes or two hours a day. Therefore, your next step towards honing razor-sharp skills of focus is to set study goals or milestones.

Here are three steps to doing that:

Step 1: Skim the material before diving in

Start at the very beginning of the coursework you need to learn and lightly scan through everything, jotting down an outline as you go (think: roadmap). This will give you a 30,000-foot view of your subject AND prime your brain for the harder learning and memorization work to come.

Step 2: Identify your strengths and weaknesses

This will alert you to the sections and chapters you need to allocate more time . The aim is to be prepared, not surprised , when your "weakest" and least favorite topic shows up on your next exam.

Step 3: Break everything down into "bite-sized" study sessions

Now you can break your outline down into manageable daily chunks , depending on the amount of time you can spare each day to study. This isn’t an exact science so don’t be too rigid but make sure you comfortably spread everything out over the days you have left before your test or exam. And remember to devote more study time to your weaknesses!

(You can use Brainscape's free study schedules and exam planners to do this!)

How does all of this preparation help you to focus on studying from the start?

• Memory refresh: Scanning through and reviewing your study notes in order to establish a study plan refreshes your memory and helps to connect the dots on everything you’ve learned during the course or semester.
• A healthy perspective: By establishing that 30,000-foot view of what needs to be done, as well as a plan to get it done, you’ll probably feel a lot less intimidated by the task at hand.
• Motivation: With the study material broken down into smaller, more achievable milestones, you get that delicious “reward-like” sensation far more frequently. Mmm … dopamine . (Also, keeping a finger on the pulse of your study metrics can be a huge motivation because it allows you to visualize your progress toward your goals .)
• Momentum: Because this exercise isn’t memory–or even focus-intensive–it makes it easier to start, even if you have the attention span of a goldfish. And once you’ve overcome that study inertia, the momentum can kick in.

Essentially, you have just succeeded in establishing a powerful and convenient framework for learning. Good job! Now let's look at how you can stay focused while studying and maintain concentration.

How to maintain focus while studying

If it’s not external distractions (the cat, a noisy housemate, or emails plucking at your concentration), it’s internal distractions and the little siren’s song of the voice seducing you away from your books. Either way, staying focused while studying is hard . How can you overcome that particularly saucy daydream about Adriana Lima or Ryan Gosling (or both)?

Tip # 3 for staying focused while studying: Set goals that are appropriate to your mental gear

On some days, it feels like we can cruise through our study material like a Mercedes SLR McLaren 722 on an eight-lane autobahn. On other days, it's like we’re rattling down a potholed country road in an ancient pickup truck.

The trick is to recognize which gear your brain is in and shift your study approach to suit it .

If you're in a high mental gear, plan a long study session and try attacking the areas you’ve been having difficulty in. However, if you’re feeling flakey and easily distracted, shift down and instead, plan a series of short 5 to 10-minute flashcard sessions with frequent study breaks in between and some kind of reward at the end. You'll probably end up studying longer than that if you're on a roll.

The point is to capitalize on the energy you do have and still manage to study productively on the days you find your energy waning. Remember, the most productive people are skilled at managing their energy and attention , and not just their time.

Tip # 4 for staying focused while studying: Vary your learning methods

Everyone burns out after some time. There’s only so much reading and text highlighting you can do before your mind wanders. What can help enormously to re-engage your concentration is a bit of variety , both in your study environment and method :

• Try a change of scenery : Go for a walk or relocate to your local library, coffee shop, or even just a different room in your home.
• Do a round of flashcards : Take a break from your books and try a different study medium altogether, such as studying flashcards in Brainscape !
• Pepper your studies with frequent breaks: Some students follow the Pomodoro Technique , where they study for 25 minutes and then take 5 minutes off. We advise you to use natural milestones as breaks—between chapters or sub-sections—rather than blindly setting a timer that could interrupt you when you're on a roll. Find your sweet spot of time-on versus time-off and give yourself that space to breathe!
• Arrange a study session with a group of peers: This functions as a nice adjunctive method to your regular studying because (1) it holds you accountable, (2) your peers can help you address your weaknesses, and (3) in helping them, you're able to review your knowledge.

Just leave the beer at home.

Tip # 5 for maintaining study focus: Set automated study reminders

Take the guesswork and decision-making out of studying by programming study notifications into your device . You can easily do this with Brainscape, which has study streak reminders : gentle “nags” to keep your daily study streak alive.

To activate, simply go into the menu in the mobile app (left), select Notifications, and then you can then toggle on Streak Reminders (top right). Those will show up as push notifications on your phone’s home screen (bottom right) reminding you to stop what you’re doing and put in a quick study round with Brainscape. You can also customize the time of day you’d prefer to receive your reminders!

Tip # 6 for motivating yourself to study: Gamify your productivity

If you’re the pony, what’s your carrot? Is it chocolate? A 15-minute walk? A 20-minute episode of Modern Family ? Or even an actual carrot? Find what you can dangle in front of your nose as an incentive to complete a study session and then set yourself moving-target goals like “Once I finish making flashcards for this section on criminal law, I’m going to murder that Snickers bar,” or “Once I answer 10 flashcards in a row with perfect confidence, I’m going to go for a 15-minute walk."

Gamifying your productivity essentially requires that you design a reward system that makes studying feel gratifying for your brain. In other words: train your brain like you would a dog. With treats!

Tip # 7: Use the right tools to stay focused while studying!

One effective study tool that rolls all of the aforementioned hacks into one ridiculously good-looking flashcard-based learning platform is Brainscape , which breaks down content-heavy subjects into collections of bite-sized flashcards. These are then delivered to you via the hyper-efficient learning power of spaced repetition , metacognition , and active recall to help you learn twice as fast as any other study technique .

In short, Brainscape is engineered to:

• Make starting studying as easy as tapping a single button , eliminating mental inertia.
• Make learning incredibly accessible , wherever you go, even offline.
• Deliver the content to your brain in a way that is optimized for retention so you get more done in less time.
• Create a fun, engaging, and gamified study experience with tons of learning stats and awards to chase.
• Provide you with detailed study metrics so you can keep a finger on the pulse of your progress.

In other words, if you struggle with staying focused while studying, Brainscape is a powerful study tool that'll get you through any test or exam prep.

Tip # 8 on how to concentrate while studying: Give yourself a chance to reflect

Sometimes you genuinely need to take a break to reflect on your studies, as well as on the things that are distracting you. In fact, if you’re struggling to concentrate, maybe it’s because you haven't given yourself enough "reflective downtime" to process the things that are on your mind, such as an upsetting email, a pressing assignment, or a happy social development.

Opportunities for introspection include long walks, meditation, jogging, swimming, yoga, commuting, peeling potatoes, watching paint dry … any low-intensity activity that allows your brain to wander, daydream, and process. Taking a little study break to reflect, both on what you are learning and on what’s going on in your life is essential to your well-being. It’ll help improve your attention span and you’ll probably sleep better too.

How to become more focused on studying

Studying is a taxing and demanding mental activity so it’s no wonder that it tends to inspire inertia. And then maintaining focus while studying can feel like a constant battle in this digital world, with its constant distractions and slavish devotion to instant gratification.

But after reading all this, (good job by the way!) you should have a comprehensively stocked mental toolkit at your disposal. Now you know how to improve concentration, how to focus, and how to remember what you learn. You have everything you need to smash that exam into the bleachers right there in your he— SQUIRREL!

Cleveland Clinic. (2024, June 27).  Why multitasking doesn’t work . https://health.clevelandclinic.org/science-clear-multitasking-doesnt-work

Cohen, A. (2015, November 25). 3 reasons why snacks are superior to social media for distracting yourself.  Entrepreneur . https://www.entrepreneur.com/science-technology/3-reasons-why-snacks-are-superior-to-social-media-for/253124

McCormick, H. (2024, April 22).  How to Gamify your Productivity – Center for Entrepreneurship . Center for Entrepreneurship. https://cfe.umich.edu/how-to-gamify-your-productivity/

Namba, R. (2024, April 18).  The Pomodoro technique: study more efficiently, take more breaks - Learning Commons . Learning Commons. https://learningcommons.ubc.ca/the-pomodoro-technique-study-more-efficiently-take-more-breaks/

Oliveira, A., Spinola, V., Garrido, D., Teixeira, M. M., Salles, C., & Haddad, A. E. (2023). Influence of learning styles on student performance in self-instructional courses.  PloS One ,  18 (7), e0289036. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0289036

Sörqvist, P., & Marsh, J. E. (2015). How concentration shields against distraction.  Current Directions in Psychological Science ,  24 (4), 267–272. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721415577356

Sutton, J., PhD. (2024, May 23).  Victor Vroom’s Expectancy Theory of Motivation . PositivePsychology.com. https://positivepsychology.com/expectancy-theory/

UNC-Chapel Hill Learning Center. (2024, February 19).  Distractions – Learning Center . Learning Center. https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/take-charge-of-distractions/

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7 Great Tips to Learn How to Focus on Homework without Getting Distracted

• July 1, 2021
• Alexandra Uren

Table of Contents

Staying focused , especially on something as dull as homework, is rarely easy. There’s so many factors constantly fighting for our attention that even staying focused on an engaging task can be difficult!

Whether it’s the lure of social media or the thought of enjoying the sunshine with our friends, it can often feel as though we have no power when it comes to what our minds choose to focus on.

Focusing properly requires both the right mental attitude and the right environment, but even the very best procrastinators can develop a productive study routine.

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Dedicate a Few Minutes to Change

Many students find that getting home and putting on comfortable clothing can help them to focus, as this can help separate the school day from the evening.

It’s also important to allow yourself a break before you get started. You may find a small amount of physical activity or 30 minutes spent doing something completely unrelated to school can give you a little boost of energy and motivation before you start your homework.

Incorporating some ‘fun’ into your after-school study routine can help make the ordeal a little less painful!

Identify the Distractions in your Surroundings

Unless you do your homework in an empty room, it’s likely your home is chockablock full of distractions!

Whether it’s the buzz of the TV, the pop-up notifications on your phone, or the whir of the refrigerator daring you to get another snack, escaping distractions isn’t easy.

Identifying the distractions around you can help you to beat them, as often we don’t even realise that we are being distracted. Once you’ve identified what you find most distracting, remove it from your study space.

Whether you’re tackling math homework or struggling to write an essay, removing your primary distractions will help hugely.

Limit the Use of Technology to Find Focus

It goes without saying that electronic devices are one of the biggest distractions.

While Netflix, Instagram and Deliveroo can bring value to our lives (especially on rainy days!), they are not quite so helpful when you’re trying to work.

It’s best to limit the use of technology when you’re trying to focus. Put your smartphone on silent and tuck it away somewhere so that you’re not tempted to look at it.

If you really can’t do without it, tell yourself that once you’ve completed your first task, you’ll allow yourself 5 minutes to reply to any important messages.

Create an Environment that Breeds Creativity and Productivity

The right environment is key. A busy room with siblings playing video games or the TV turned up is only going to distract you.

Your work environment should be quiet, organised and spacious. Let as much natural light in as possible and clear your desk so that you have space to work.

Some people like to listen to some background noise while they are working, be it the hum of the radio or focus music.

Others prefer complete silence. Take some time to determine which environment works for you.

It’s also important to take regular breaks. Taking 5-minute breaks between each task can help you to stay alert and fresh.

Make a Study Plan & Prioritise your Tasks

If you’ve ever had so much to do that it feels pointless even getting started, a study plan is key. Divide your homework assignments into sections, and prioritise them by due date.

A piece of math homework due in for the following morning should be completed first, while the essay due for the next week can be lower down on your to-do list.

Use a planner to write down all your assignments, as well as the date they are due. Break any large projects into smaller sections.

Avoid Heavy Meals

Eating a heavy meal before you start work can interfere with your focus. If you’re too full, you’ll start to feel drowsy and find it harder to concentrate. But being hungry can also cause your concentration to falter!

It’s important you feel satisfied and content , and lots of sugar is unlikely to help.

Snacking on nourishing food before you begin studying will help you concentrate for longer, and prevent you from getting distracted by your rumbling stomach!

Try snacking on blueberries, nuts, wholegrain bread, and ensure you drink plenty of water.

Try a Focused Based Meditation

Sometimes, try as we might, we simply can’t get into the right headspace for studying. Whether it’s due to anxiety , stress or simply boredom, a change of tack is often needed!

A focus-based meditation, like mantra , can help you clear your busy mind, prepare you for study time and helping you to concentrate for longer.

MindEasy has a huge range of mindfulness meditation courses to help clear your mind, ease anxiety and put you in a fresher, more productive mindset.

Whether you’re worrying about the future or feeling anxious about your day at school, a short meditation can help melt away your worries so that you’re better able to focus on the task in front of you.

Organise your Study Notes

A clear desk and well-organised notes is immensely satisfying, and it’s especially important to be organised if you’re preparing for tests and exams.

You’ll be able to access the notes you need faster, without wasting precious revision time looking for things!

Using folders, highlighters and calendars can help you to stay organised when your homework starts to get on top of you.

Group your notes together by subject, then by topic. Many students find colour-coding their notes can help with organisation.

• Staying focused can be exceedingly difficult, especially with so many distractions surrounding us at any given moment.
• It’s important to divide up the school day and your evening. Change out of your school uniform, and allow yourself a 30 minute break before you sit down to tackle your homework.
• To start, identify any distractions (such as your smartphone!) and remove them from your desk.
• Allow plenty of natural light into the room, and try to stay away from noisy and distracting siblings!
• Make a study plan and prioritise what you’re going to do first. Allow yourself a short break once you’ve completed each task.
• Snack on nourishing, healthy food such as blueberries, nuts and wholegrain bread.
• A focus-based meditation can help you to clear your mind and get into the right mindset.
• Staying organised is key; group your notes into each subject, and then each topic.

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How To Focus When Studying, Even When You’re Tired

Feeling tired, hard to concentrate, or just simply sleepy when it comes to studying? You’re definitely not alone.

​We all have had those days where our brains feels numb and drained, only to remember that we still have more studying to do. Joy.

So here are 14 tried-and-tested, practical yet sustainable ways on how to focus when studying, no matter how tired you feel.

1. Study in a brightly lit room

Setting up the right environment is your first step to effective study sessions.

The type of light matters. Studying in a room with natural light sources (e.g. near a window) does wonders on keeping you focused and alert, even in the afternoon. Studies have shown that people that had exposure to day light (vs. artificial light) in the day tend to stay alert for longer in the evening. 

For night time studying, make sure your environment is sufficiently bright, and don’t just rely on one lone light source, if possible.   

2. Don’t get too comfortable

Getting too comfortable is a recipe for drowsiness, not something you want when learning new concepts!

Here are a couple of easy ways to minimize that:

• Wear “work clothes”, not pajamas for studying : Dressing for success matters. While it isn’t necessary to wear suits or office clothing, it is harder to fall asleep in them vs. your comfy sleeping attires. 
• 87% of them reported higher energy levels, 
• 87% of them felt more energized,
• 75% felt healthier,
• 71% felt more focused,
• 66% felt more productive,
• 62% felt happier, and
• 33% felt less stressed
• Study in an ideal room temperature of 22C (72F) : A  2017 study  shown that excessive heat negatively impacts exam performances and likely to disrupt the learning process in the long term. Make sure you factor this in when setting up your ideal study environment for maximum efficiency.

3. Remove all distractions before studying

Eliminate digital distractions :

• Switch your phone to silent, especially with no social media notifications. 
• If you need to study with a computer, make sure you close all your tabs relating to other websites and social media. The only web browser you are allowed to open is the one related to chapter you’re learning about now.

Remove yourself from potential family-related distractions, if you can:

• This may entail putting a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your (closed) door, and/or wearing headphones (music is optional). Anecdotally, I’ve found that wearing headphones without any music on has the effect of forcing me to focus better, while at the same time allows me to hear  some  (loud) noise, which could be crucial if it is an emergency.

4. Study with other like-minded people

Studying in a group can be a double-edged sword, as it can quickly descend into a chatting session with zero productivity. 

That said, studying with another person with the same goal could be useful for motivation and keeping each other going, just like a gym buddy. 

It can be tough to find the right study partner, but if you do find one, it can work wonders on your concentration to see someone else working as hard to achieve their goals. Make sure you continue to evaluate your ability to focus if you decide to join a group.

5. Drink enough water

A common mistake people make is to think that drinking coffee helps perk them up to keep working. It doesn’t. 

​ It gives you that very short term one-off boost and sends your productivity crashing later: not a great long term solution . Water is what your body really needs when you’re tired, as dehydration forces your body to work harder, gives you pounding headaches and increases your mental exhaustion. 

So drink up! You’d be surprised how little you drink only when you try to match up to the daily 1.5-2 litre recommendation. I find the easiest way to implement this is to have a large bottle near me full of water that I sip as the day goes along whenever I feel like a break for a minute or two.

While you’re at it, washing your face, brushing your teeth or having a quick shower will work wonders in refreshing you from your sleepy state, so you can keep going. Plus they are completely natural and good for you too!

6. Have a balanced diet and avoid heavy meals

By now you’d have known that we’re huge proponents of  eating proper food for best performance .

Avoid highly processed food such as sugary cereals, sodas and instant noodles. Remember not to have heavy meals before studying, it’s a recipe for sleepiness!

Fuel your body and mind with natural, nutritious food balanced with protein, carbohydrates, vegetables and healthy fats for sustained energy throughout the day. You are what you eat.

Pro tip:  remember to bring along revision friendly healthy snacks (e.g. apple, granola bar, unsalted nuts, water etc) so you can keep your brain energy levels steady and maintain focus. 

7. Study consistently and keep optimizing your routine

Study when you’re most alert : Our bodies run on roughly a 24-hour internal clock called circadian rhythm, which regulates feelings of sleepiness and wakefulness over a 24-hour period.  On average, most of us show the following pattern in energy levels (with a few exceptions):

• Mid morning – peak alertness and energy, 
• A “post lunch slump” up to 3pm,
• An increase in alertness up to around 6pm,
• A gradual decline in alertness for the rest of the evening and up to the early hours of 330AM
• Then a gradual increase in energy levels up to mid morning, and the cycle repeats.

Therefore, for most of us, if you’re  studying in weekdays with a full time job , it may makes sense to get up earlier to get 1-2 hours of studying done before heading to work. 

For night time study, exercise  moderately  for 10 min beforehand : This refreshes the body and mind so you can stay focused for the next few hours. Yet, it doesn’t over stimulate you such that it affects your night time sleep. Time to whip out those dusty kettle bells, perhaps? Or simple jumping jacks will do. Not a 30 min run though. 

Remember to take regular study breaks : Specifically a 10-15 min break after a 45-50 min study cycle. Many studies have shown that productivity increases when students take frequent breaks. It keeps you motivated and have something to look forward to, while giving your brain a quick rest. Go for a walk (see #8), do some chores, have a snack, or just to chill out and listen to music for a bit – take your pick.

8. Go for a walk (or just get up and move)

Getting some fresh air and sunlight outside will make you feel more energetic and less moody.

The benefits of a walk goes beyond simply being more effective at studying. Walking for 30 minutes a day is equivalent to taking a “magic pill” that combats ageing, relieves depression and prevents early death.

It also improves the ability to think and reason, increases energy levels and reduces fatigue.

​It sounds counterintuitive, but exercising actually boosts energy and focus. Instead of sitting there forcing yourself to work/study more when you know your focus isn’t there, take a little break by during some  stretching and light exercises by your desk for 10 minutes  – it’s all about  studying efficiently  anyway. A great plus about exercise is that they help you  sleep better  too.

9. Chew some gum

Studies have shown that  chewing gum while studying or during exam improves your memory and concentration . 

Now that’s  way  better than using stimulants like coffee, with no negative impact on your sleep quality and keeps your internal body clock in check (see #7). And mind you, I’m saying this as someone who enjoys coffee, a lot (see #8). 

10. Limit caffeine beverages. Avoid energy drinks and alcohol

Coffee (or any other caffeinated drinks) can be extremely effective if used sporadically , not a daily habit.

Too much caffeine has long term negative impacts : More than 400mg, or 4 cups of brewed coffee a day is likely to cause insomnia, inability to focus, increased anxiety, headaches and fatigue that can disrupt your body’s natural circadian rhythm (see #7).

Limit caffeine to mornings only, if you must have them daily : This ensures that the caffeine has sufficient time to go through your body and not impact your sleep quality at night.

Avoid energy drinks (and alcohol) for studying : Energy drinks have increasingly become a source of caffeine overdoses. Too much of these stimulants and chemicals can cause dependence, dehydration, insomnia, heart palpitations and/or an increased heart rate. I think the reasons for alcohol are more obvious 🙂

11. Still tired? Try switching topics or tasks (temporarily)

When you’re feeling tired, and nothing has been entering your brain for the last 15 minutes, it may be worth switching to an easier task or topic to keep the studying momentum going.

With an easier topic to absorb, this maintain your productivity and keeps you on track with your study plan. Save the trickier chapter for next morning, when you should naturally be at your peak level of concentration. 

12. Take a 20-30 minute power nap

I am a big advocate of power napping, specifically 20-30 minutes at maximum. It is my secret productivity weapon. I used this technique frequently after lunch  when studying for the CFA exams on the weekend , in addition to a full time job. I feel completely refreshed and ready to go for a minimum time investment – much better than caffeine, in my view.

This observation is supported by many studies that have found that power naps boost memory, cognitive skills, creativity, and energy level. You’ll need to practice this, as you may find yourself a little groggy and wanting more sleep the first few times.

13. Don’t ever do an all nighter

It’s not worth it. No matter what.

Studies have shown that the effects of lack of sleep have been compared to being as dangerous as drinking alcohol.  Sleep deprivation is just bad for you  and definitely not sustainable.

Nor is it effective in the long run, as it will take you at least more than 1 day to feel normal again (messing up your internal body clock, remember?). That math alone tells you it’s a bad decision. 

14. Finally, do you have enough sleep?

The amount of sleep each of us needs varies, but age is a big factor. As a general guide, adults aged 18-64 generally need 7-9 hours according to National Sleep Foundation.

​If you’ve tried out all the previous 13 tips and strategies in vain to improve your study focus and stay awake, it may be time to question whether you have had enough sleep in the first place. If you do have 7 hours sleep and still feel exhausted, it’s time to  audit your sleep quality and how you can sleep better .

Like good diet and exercise (see #6 and #8), sleep is a critical component to overall health. It’s worth evaluating the bigger picture and craft a sustainable long term approach to your studies to improve your chances of success. 

And that starts by taking care of yourself. 

Which strategy do you find most effective in increasing your study focus? Do you have more tips to add? Share with us in the comments below! 

Meanwhile, you may find these related articles useful:

• 8 Simple Steps To Balance CFA Studies And Your Work
• 13 Easy Desk Stretches To Do For Better Posture
• How to Sleep Better, Be More Alert and Maintain Study Focus
• How to Use Coffee Productively for Your CFA Exam Studies
• How to Study Effectively: Proven Techniques That Work for CFA, FRM and CAIA Exams

36 thoughts on “How To Focus When Studying, Even When You’re Tired”

Thank you so much for the informative article. I’ve always had issues with studying when I feel cold, I won’t concentrate when my toes are frozen. That optimum 22° seems reasonable for studying.

Well I have an exam tomorrow and am having headaches am trying to read but it’s not entering please what can I do

What I do is I get a blanket and I sit down on my couch. Then I grab my book and start reading, if I feel like I am going to fall asleep when I should not because I need to keep reading I will walk around and eat something so I am more pumped up. I sometimes fall asleep when I am reading and it is because I get too comfortable on my couch. You need to sit up straight under a bright light so you will not lie down and fall asleep.

Hope this could help!!!

Very helpful tips thanks so much

I am tired Tired of myself Tired of this life I hate my life I don’t know what to do I just want to close my eyes

trust me, i am there too but giving up only makes it worse…

Believe that you can do it Never say never❤️💚

HEY , HOW ARE YOU NOW?

I don’t know what is going on in your life. However, I am sorry the way you are feeling and I am sorry that things are tough right now. I hope things get better soon. 🙂 Remember, there is always hope (even if it may not feel like it) and there are those willing to help if you need it. You are loved, always. 🙂 (Pslm 17 & 139). I really do hope things get better soon. 🙂

Stay strong, Do not give up and keep moving forward. You got this! 🙂

I hope you are fine and positive now

You should never say that because it will make you think worse. Even when I think that way I just ignore it and move on. I do not tell anyone what I was thinking and I will hate it now if I think that way.

Mabey have some candy or sweets, maybe it will boost your happiness

Wow, that is a good advice

Huh!feeling demotivated all the time tried focusing on the goal but again on the same path of demotivation lack of confidence.

That’s a good one!

I am tired of this life I have autism eds and pots I am suffering mentally and physically since I was born. It is bad luck I am extremely unlucky. it is very very unfortunate. I hate this life I want to sleep

I make planner for my studies but I follow for one or two days only I am not consistent I work hard but nothing effective and efficient things are happening. Please give me some suggestions for consistency to my studyies .

We help however we can, but it is on you to be disciplined and consistent. No tips on the internet can help if you’re not willing to see it through yourself. Good luck!

Try sheduling a less intense planning that you will actually stick to. It’ll eventually be better to study just for half or 2 thirds of what your “ideal” study time would be, but do it everyday, than to alternate between slumps and cramming. For that I suggest methods like flowmodoro or animedoro, that you can search up on google, to try and devote at least some time to studying even though you have fun on the side.

I don’t remember anything I learn and I feel tired and sleepy after studying for an hour or 2,can I please get any help… Cause I have a pending exam to write and that’s my last chance..

Take some deep breaths Florence, I think you’re feeling a little overwhelmed and need some rest. Come back to your studies after sufficient rest or else it is not effective anyway!

Omg so guys I make myself such a promising timetable and then I just end up going only 1 or 2 topics and not even finishing them. IT IS SO ANNOYING WHEN I HAVE OVERDUE WORK. Is anyone in the same situation as me? I have my bio and physics end of years tomorrow and I have not completed either of them. I AM SO DUCKING LATE FOR EVERYTHINGG URGH.

Im in “classe préparatoires” Where all the students are worth as much as a human can do, but here im not studying at all and feeling sleepy all the day even when i sleep 8 hours, and i can not focus at all, once i open the book i fall asleep, im really tired of myself 💔

Hi Misaky, hang in there! It’s not just about getting enough sleep, although that’s a big factor. Try having the same routine everyday, making sure you incorporate exercises as well to stay fresh and keep things varied/interesting.

I study 6 hours efficiently daily but after that it is not possible to concentrate the whole day. Please help

Ok nice but when it continued writing i get tired can u have any solution for that

As a student i have to study for at least 16 hours, yes i do that and i have no problem in it, however i have 2 exam on the same day and usually i never slept in the afternoon however i feel sleepy around 3 after lunch so do you have any insights for that?

Hi Akshay, first off, I personally don’t think studying 16 hours a day is productive nor sustainable. We are after quality study hours here, and a long run approach. Your issue here would simply be setting up a schedule that is sustainable for at least 6 months without burning out. So if you’re sleepy in the day, I’d suggest that you check if you have sufficient sleep in the first place (#14). If not, review/adjust your schedule to make time for sleep. If you have enough sleep to begin with, it may be just an after lunch fatigue – which could be having too big a meal, or mid afternoon energy slump, of which a brisk 10 minute walk outdoors (#8) may freshen you up.

Awesome 👍😄 It helps me so much…. thank you 🤗

You’re welcome! 🙂

I’m still tired, after all of that. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- I need help, mentally. :c

Hey Emily, *virtual hug* How are things going? Let me know, venting helps!

Aw thanks, glad you found it useful Jennifer! It’s definitely useful for anyone studying, or just need to focus working for a long period of time really 🙂

Amazing post and very helpful as well to all the college students. I would like to share it with my sister and my colleagues who are pursuing higher education.Keep sharing such great tips.

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9 Science-Backed Ways to Stay Focused on Your Schoolwork

These focus strategies for students are proven to peak your concentration.

Do you find it hard to focus on homework? Do certain subjects make your mind drift off to other things? If you want to know how to focus on schoolwork, we've studied the science behind keeping your concentration and have discovered some keys to success! These research-backed focus strategies for students will help you concentrate and even boost your productivity.

Determine Your Learning Style

If you're not engaging your brain in the right way, it can make it hard to focus and understand the material. This can lead to anxiety, which can further distract you. The first step in honing your attention on schoolwork is determining the best ways for you to absorb the information.

• 6 Easy Ways to Cure Senioritis & Finish Senior Year Strong
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• Fun Listening Activities for Middle School Kids They'll Tune In For

Most people fall into one of three main categories - visual, auditory, and tactile. If you want to find out your learning style, there's a simple self-assessment to determine where you land. Studies show that this information can help you study smarter .

Have a Designated Study Space

While the kitchen table may seem like an obvious place to study, this large space may not do you any favors. First, it's in a communal area, so it's likely there will be a lot of foot traffic in the room. Second, this is also the place where dinner will soon be served.

This will bring an abrupt stop to what you're doing and it will force you to pack up your stuff and get reorganized later. This can shatter your focus, especially if you're in the middle of reviewing a difficult concept. Research shows that by having a designated space to study , students can focus better on their work.

Remove Distractions

Once you've found your designated study space, it's important to get rid distractions in order to get the most out of your study time. This, of course, means turning off your phone and the television, but it can also mean other external diversions like large messes. Keeping a clean work area helps students to better maintain their focus and improve their productivity.

Pay Attention to Your Needs Before Studying

Don't forget about internal distractions as well. If you're hungry, thirsty, tired, or stressed, it can also obstruct your ability to concentrate. Obviously, if you are hungry or thirsty, there's a quick fix, but if you are tired, take a nap.

The key is to rest for the perfect amount of time - 10 to 20 minutes . Less than this and you will feel groggy. Much more, and you'll not only feel fatigued, but you'll also struggle to get back to sleep at night.

For those who are feeling stressed about their assignment, simply take ten minutes to stretch and then ten more to practice mindful meditation . This practice requires participants to let go of the past and focus on the present. Remind yourself:

• You can only control what is right in front of you.
• Previous struggles in this subject don't dictate how you will do moving forward.
• Your instructors designed this schoolwork to help you better understand the concepts.
• If you continue to struggle, there are other resources to tap into so that you can grasp the specific topic.

Set the Mood

Did you know that listening to classical music while you study can help to hone your concentration and even absorb information more effectively? However, not all melodies are effective. Experts recommend that students "skip over large orchestral pieces, particularly those with a dynamic that ranges from whispers to booming cannons." These can actually cause more distraction.

Instead, they recommend elevator-style music that provides a consistent and relaxing background melody. We also advise that you snag some noise-canceling headphones to listen to these instrumental tunes. These can help to further remove distraction and keep you focused on the task at hand.

Set Specific Work and Break Times

Sometimes, the hardest part about staying focused is having the feeling that the period of study will never end! You can only cram so much information into your brain at one time. Thus, set a timer and then put it in a drawer. When it goes off, take a break!

Want to perform better? Follow the 52-17 rule ! Research has found that this is an ideal work-to-break ratio. When setting alarms, work for 52 minutes and then take a productive 17 minute break.

What is a productive break? One that doesn't distract your mind too much. This means avoiding your phone and the television. Don't check your email or social media either. Instead, have a snack, stretch, go outside, meditate, nap, complete a quick chore , or set goals for the rest of your day. These activities can help you de-stress, stay positive, and concentrate better when you get back to work!

Fuel Up to Better Your Focus

Food for thought? No, really, eat your breakfast! There's a reason everyone says it's the most important meal of the day. Studies show that it can boost short-term memory and improve your attention . If you really want better brain power , snag some walnuts and a smoothie that contains berries and leafy greens! These can also work as a great study snack.

• Find More Great Brain-Boosting Foods

Get Moving Before Work Times & During Breaks

Need even more of a brain boost? Get moving! Research shows that by working out for 20 minutes before a big study session, you increase blood flow to the brain . This enhances concentration and memory.

Focus Better by Fidgeting

If you find that your focus is fading during your 52 minute study window, grab a fidget toy! Yes , that's right. Fidget toys are a great tool for getting out nervous energy , lowering stress, and keeping your concentration on the task at hand.

• 6 Ways to Cure Senioritis

Find Focus Strategies for Students That Work Best for You

Everyone is different. If you find that some of these tips help, but you still have moments of distraction, consider changing the scenery of your study space. Try standing or sitting cross-legged style on the floor, brightening your workspace, or moving your study session outside . Figure out what works best for you and stick to it to have success in high school and beyond!

How to Focus on Homework and Stop Procrastinating

It happens every day. There’s the ever-piling list of things to do.

You can continue to sleep in, but it won’t disappear. And while we know you don’t want to hear it, every decision you’re making now impacts your future. Better grades mean more opportunities after high school.

We know completing homework can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. There are a few easy changes you can implement now to start seeing improvements today. Check out the tips below.

Tips to Focus on Homework

Tip 1: exercise first.

Studies show that cardio-based exercises boost your memory and thinking skills. Cardio based means doing something that accelerates your heart rate. This can include jogging, riding a bike, playing a sport or anything you like to do that’s fast-paced.

If you exercise right before starting schoolwork, it will get your blood flowing. This will help your brain become more active and ready to focus on homework.

Tip 2: Set a Routine

With the benefit of flexibility in online schooling comes the need for discipline. As Donald Mitchell, assistant principal in an online high school, stated:

“To be successful in your courses…create a daily schedule for yourself.  Remember, you are required to spend at least three hours on each course that you are assigned on a daily basis.”

In other words, it can be easy to fall behind. But it’s also easy to stay on track if you stick to a schedule.

How to Make a Schedule:

• Get a planner, or use a free online application. A planner is still the best way to stay organized.
• Think about your week; include every plan. Write everything you want and need to do that week. Do you want to fit in some time to skateboard? Great! Schedule it in. Just remember: Try to be active right before starting coursework!

“If you are a night person, then be a night person.  If you know you only like to work online for 30 minutes at a time, then plan breaks between your 30 minutes.” – Mrs. Lauree Russell, online math instructor.

• Stick to your schedule. Things happen, and you might have to adjust your schedule. But stick to it, even when it’s time to do something you’re not looking forward to. If you decided to start that project Tuesday at 2 p.m., that’s when you need to do it.
• Keep writing out your weekly schedule It takes work and a lot of upkeep, but stay motivated. Don’t fall behind on that planner.

When planning, try to do schoolwork about the same time every day, in a familiar location. It will do wonders for your brain! It won’t take long before your brain automatically recognizes that it’s homework time. Then you won’t have to take as long to get started.

Tip 3: Be Prepared

If you have to stop what you’re doing to go grab a snack or a notebook, you’re going to get distracted. Ms. Sarah Gamble, executive director of academics for an online high school, suggests you do the following:

“Have all the materials you need to work ready to go before you start each day,” said Ms. Gamble. “Keep a list of your teacher’s and guidance counselor’s phone numbers, note taking materials, your daily schedule, a glass of water and you are ready to go. This will keep you from getting distracted when you have to leave your work to go find something.”

Tip 4: Establish a WorkSpace

We’re not saying you have to go to the store right now and drop hundreds on a desk, chair and supplies. Your workspace doesn’t have to be traditional. But it does need to be a set place in order to better focus on homework.

Maybe that place is an office in your home. Or perhaps you have a fuzzy bean bag in your room that you love. Whatever you choose, make it a habit, and make sure you’re comfortable to work. After all, that bean bag might be comfy to relax in, but might not be best once you have a laptop and notebook to juggle.

“Make sure your chair is comfy, your computer screen is at eye level and your favorite items are next to your computer,” said Mrs. Russell. This can be items like photos, music, lotion, candles or a favorite soda.

Online high school instructor Amber Day also suggests that you separate your workspace and your sleep space.

“If you do homework in your bed where you sleep, it’s likely going to make you want to take a nap rather than do math homework,” said Ms. Day. “Go somewhere you know you won’t get distracted (or leave) until you finish homework. Make that your routine and doing homework there will become as natural as taking a nap in your bed is.”

For more tips on organizing your workspace, head to this blog post .

Tip 5: Remove All Distractions

 A distraction is anything that deters you from working on courses. This can range from music to your loud little brother.

Let’s take a moment to talk about those smartphones. They’re more detrimental to your homework than you might think.

A study showed that having your phone on silent isn’t enough. Small disturbances like a screen notification could increase errors in your work. It also could prolong the time it takes to complete assignments. Here’s why:

As a researcher from the study stated, “Although these notifications are generally short in duration, they can prompt… mind-wandering, which has been shown to damage task performance” ( PsychCentral ).

Even just being aware of a missed call, an unread text or another notification causes your brain to lose focus on homework. It knows there is something else to do, and it wants to get it finished now.

We recommend setting all smart devices (phone, tablet, etc) in another room. If you are able to forget about it, you will likely finish your homework quicker and make fewer mistakes.

“Turn off your phone, video games, and yes, even your annoying little brother,” said Mrs. Russell. “You might need to consider moving your laptop in a private space or a closet if necessary (smile).”

It’s also best to ask your friends and family not to disturb you during homework.

“Talk to your friends and family about how they can support you,” said Mrs. Benjamin-Baker. “If you work on schoolwork from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. each day, tell your friends not to text or call during this time.”

Tip 6: Take Notes

Studies show that physically writing on a notebook improves your memory. So if you want to do better on homework and exams, try writing down notes.

“Although we use computers for everything, you are more apt to remember something if you write it down. Write words, draw pictures, use color! Anything you do that will allow you to touch  what you are learning will help!” – Sarah Gamble, executive director of academics.

Tip 7: Take Breaks

The beauty of online school is that you can take breaks whenever you need. Do you have a hard time staying focused for long periods of time? Then break it up. Try studying for 30 minutes at a time. Remove all distractions and set a timer.

Once the 30 minutes is up, take a 15-minute break, but do something active! Get up and move around, go for a run. Just do something that isn’t sitting.

After 15 minutes, you can return ready to focus on homework. See if you can increase to 45 minutes before taking your next 15-minute break.

Tips to Stop Procrastinating 

So, now you know what to do in order to clear your mind and stay focused on your homework. But actually starting is the hardest part, right? If you’re needing motivation, try these tips.

Tip 1:  Create Rewards to Stay Motivated

If you know you have six assignments to complete in a day, then set aside a small reward for each.

“Know your weaknesses and turn them into rewards,” said Mrs. Benjamin-Baker. “If you like to surf YouTube videos or SnapChat with friends, then reward yourself with these activities AFTER you complete your schoolwork, but not until then.”

 Tip 2: When you get bored, get up and move

As Mrs. Russell said:

“Take a short break and turn on your favorite YouTube music video and have a dance fest. Getting your blood circulating will help your brain and spirit.  Nothin’ like rockin’ out to your fave music! Now this is the way to do homework, right??!!!”

By breaking up coursework with small, fun tasks, your brain will have more positive associations. This might help you dread starting less.

Tip 3: Reach out to your guidance counselor

Your guidance counselor’s job is to help you with your academic struggles. If you are having trouble starting coursework, reach out to your counselor for help. They are state-certified and dedicated to you.

To learn more about iSucceed’s guidance counselor, head to this blog post .

Coursework is never easy, we know. But by following the tips above, it can become less stressful, and you will (hopefully) be able to focus.

We’ll leave you with one last quote:

“I am here to tell you that you have the power to be as successful as you want to be. Never let others dictate who you are destined to become!” – Donald Mitchel, assistant principal

• Students, do you have tips to focus on homework? Share with us in the comments below!

Join the discussion 3 Comments

thanks I love u

you are too good. thanks

This will help me so much! Thank you! I recommend keeping small fidgets that won’t distract you nearby to keep your hands busy while reading or thinking.

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Daniel Wong

30 Tips to Stop Procrastinating and Find Motivation to Do Homework

Updated on June 6, 2023 By Daniel Wong 44 Comments

To stop procrastinating on homework, you need to find motivation to do the homework in the first place.

But first, you have to overcome feeling too overwhelmed to even start.

You know what it feels like when everything hits you at once, right?

You have three tests to study for and a math assignment due tomorrow.

And you’ve got a history report due the day after.

You tell yourself to get down to work. But with so much to do, you feel overwhelmed.

So you procrastinate.

You check your social media feed, watch a few videos, and get yourself a drink. But you know that none of this is bringing you closer to getting the work done.

Does this sound familiar?

Don’t worry – you are not alone. Procrastination is a problem that everyone faces, but there are ways around it.

By following the tips in this article, you’ll be able to overcome procrastination and consistently find the motivation to do the homework .

So read on to discover 30 powerful tips to help you stop procrastinating on your homework.

Enter your email below to download a PDF summary of this article. The PDF contains all the tips found here, plus  3 exclusive bonus tips that you’ll only find in the PDF.

How to stop procrastinating and motivate yourself to do your homework.

Procrastination when it comes to homework isn’t just an issue of laziness or a lack of motivation .

The following tips will help you to first address the root cause of your procrastination and then implement strategies to keep your motivation levels high.

1. Take a quiz to see how much you procrastinate.

The first step to changing your behavior is to become more self-aware.

How often do you procrastinate? What kinds of tasks do you tend to put off? Is procrastination a small or big problem for you?

To answer these questions, I suggest that you take this online quiz designed by Psychology Today .

2. Figure out why you’re procrastinating.

Procrastination is a complex issue that involves multiple factors.

Stop thinking of excuses for not doing your homework , and figure out what’s keeping you from getting started.

Are you procrastinating because:

• You’re not sure you’ll be able to solve all the homework problems?
• You’re subconsciously rebelling against your teachers or parents?
• You’re not interested in the subject or topic?
• You’re physically or mentally tired?
• You’re waiting for the perfect time to start?
• You don’t know where to start?

Once you’ve identified exactly why you’re procrastinating, you can pick out the tips in this article that will get to the root of the problem.

3. Write down what you’re procrastinating on.

Students tend to procrastinate when they’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

But you might be surprised to discover that simply by writing down the specific tasks you’re putting off, the situation will feel more manageable.

It’s a quick solution, and it makes a real difference.

Give it a try and you’ll be less likely to procrastinate.

4. Put your homework on your desk.

Here’s an even simpler idea.

Many times, the hardest part of getting your homework done is getting started.

It doesn’t require a lot of willpower to take out your homework and put it on your desk.

But once it’s sitting there in front of you, you’ll be much closer to actually getting down to work.

5. Break down the task into smaller steps.

This one trick will make any task seem more manageable.

For example, if you have a history report to write, you could break it down into the following steps:

• Read the history textbook
• Do online research
• Organize the information
• Create an outline
• Write the introduction
• Write the body paragraphs
• Write the conclusion
• Edit and proofread the report

Focus on just one step at a time. This way, you won’t need to motivate yourself to write the whole report at one go.

This is an important technique to use if you want to study smart and get more done .

6. Create a detailed timeline with specific deadlines.

As a follow-up to Point #5, you can further combat procrastination by creating a timeline with specific deadlines.

Using the same example above, I’ve added deadlines to each of the steps:

• Jan 30 th : Read the history textbook
• Feb 2 nd : Do online research
• Feb 3 rd : Organize the information
• Feb 5 th : Create an outline
• Feb 8 th : Write the introduction
• Feb 12 th : Write the body paragraphs
• Feb 14 th : Write the conclusion
• Feb 16 th : Edit and proofread the report

Assigning specific dates creates a sense of urgency, which makes it more likely that you’ll keep to the deadlines.

7. Spend time with people who are focused and hardworking.

Jim Rohn famously said that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

If you hang out with people who are motivated and hardworking, you’ll become more like them.

Likewise, if you hang out with people who continually procrastinate, you’ll become more like them too.

Motivation to do homework naturally increases when you surround yourself with the right people.

So choose your friends wisely. Find homework buddies who will influence you positively to become a straight-A student who leads a balanced life.

That doesn’t mean you can’t have any fun! It just means that you and your friends know when it’s time to get down to work and when it’s time to enjoy yourselves.

8. Tell at least two or three people about the tasks you plan to complete.

When you tell others about the tasks you intend to finish, you’ll be more likely to follow through with your plans.

This is called “accountability,” and it kicks in because you want to be seen as someone who keeps your word.

So if you know about this principle, why not use it to your advantage?

You could even ask a friend to be your accountability buddy. At the beginning of each day, you could text each other what you plan to work on that day.

Then at the end of the day, you could check in with each other to see if things went according to plan.

9. Change your environment .

Maybe it’s your environment that’s making you feel sluggish.

When you’re doing your homework, is your super-comfortable bed just two steps away? Or is your distracting computer within easy reach?

If your environment is part of your procrastination problem, then change it.

Sometimes all you need is a simple change of scenery. Bring your work to the dining room table and get it done there. Or head to a nearby café to complete your report.

10. Talk to people who have overcome their procrastination problem.

If you have friends who consistently win the battle with procrastination, learn from their experience.

What was the turning point for them? What tips and strategies do they use? What keeps them motivated?

Find all this out, and then apply the information to your own situation.

11. Decide on a reward to give yourself after you complete your task.

“Planned” rewards are a great way to motivate yourself to do your homework.

The reward doesn’t have to be something huge.

For instance, you might decide that after you finish 10 questions of your math homework, you get to watch your favorite TV show.

Or you might decide that after reading one chapter of your history textbook, you get to spend 10 minutes on Facebook.

By giving yourself a reward, you’ll feel more motivated to get through the task at hand.

12. Decide on a consequence you’ll impose on yourself if you don’t meet the deadline.

It’s important that you decide on what the consequence will be before you start working toward your goal.

As an example, you could tell your younger brother that you’ll give him $1 for every deadline you don’t meet (see Point #6).

Or you could decide that you’ll delete one game from your phone for every late homework submission.

Those consequences would probably be painful enough to help you get down to work, right?

13. Visualize success.

Take 30 seconds and imagine how you’ll feel when you finish your work.

What positive emotions will you experience?

Will you feel a sense of satisfaction from getting all your work done?

Will you relish the extra time on your hands when you get your homework done fast and ahead of time?

This simple exercise of visualizing success may be enough to inspire you to start doing your assignment.

14. Visualize the process it will take to achieve that success.

Even more important than visualizing the outcome is visualizing the process it will take to achieve that outcome.

Research shows that focusing on the process is critical to success. If you’re procrastinating on a task, take a few moments to think about what you’ll need to do to complete it.

Visualize the following:

• What resources you’ll need
• Who you can turn to for help
• How long the task will take
• Where you’ll work on the task
• The joy you’ll experience as you make progress

This kind of visualization is like practice for your mind.

Once you understand what’s necessary to achieve your goal, you’ll find that it’s much easier to get down to work with real focus. This is key to doing well in school .

15. Write down why you want to complete the task.

You’ll be more motivated when you’re clear about why you want to accomplish something.

To motivate yourself to do your homework, think about all the ways in which it’s a meaningful task.

So take a couple of minutes to write down the reasons. Here are some possible ones:

• Learn useful information
• Master the topic
• Enjoy a sense of accomplishment when you’ve completed the task
• Become a more focused student
• Learn to embrace challenges
• Fulfill your responsibility as a student
• Get a good grade on the assignment

16. Write down the negative feelings you’ll have if you don’t complete the task.

If you don’t complete the assignment, you might feel disappointed or discouraged. You might even feel as if you’ve let your parents or your teacher – or even yourself – down.

It isn’t wise to dwell on these negative emotions for too long. But by imagining how you’ll feel if you don’t finish the task, you’ll realize how important it is that you get to work.

17. Do the hardest task first.

Most students will choose to do the easiest task first, rather than the hardest one. But this approach isn’t effective because it leaves the worst for last.

It’s more difficult to find motivation to do homework in less enjoyable subjects.

As Brian Tracy says , “Eat that frog!” By this, he means that you should always get your most difficult task out of the way at the beginning of the day.

If math is your least favorite subject, force yourself to complete your math homework first.

After doing so, you’ll feel a surge of motivation from knowing it’s finished. And you won’t procrastinate on your other homework because it will seem easier in comparison.

(On a separate note, check out these tips on how to get better at math if you’re struggling.)

18. Set a timer when doing your homework.

I recommend that you use a stopwatch for every homework session. (If you prefer, you could also use this online stopwatch or the Tomato Timer .)

Start the timer at the beginning of the session, and work in 30- to 45-minute blocks.

Using a timer creates a sense of urgency, which will help you fight off your urge to procrastinate.

When you know you only have to work for a short session, it will be easier to find motivation to complete your homework.

Tell yourself that you need to work hard until the timer goes off, and then you can take a break. (And then be sure to take that break!)

19. Eliminate distractions.

Here are some suggestions on how you can do this:

• Delete all the games and social media apps on your phone
• Turn off all notifications on your phone
• Mute your group chats
• Archive your inactive chats
• Turn off your phone, or put it on airplane mode
• Put your phone at least 10 feet away from you
• Turn off the Internet access on your computer
• Use an app like Freedom to restrict your Internet usage
• Put any other distractions (like food, magazines and books unrelated to your homework) at the other end of the room
• Unplug the TV
• Use earplugs if your surroundings are noisy

20. At the start of each day, write down the two to three Most Important Tasks (MITs) you want to accomplish.

This will enable you to prioritize your tasks. As Josh Kaufman explains , a Most Important Task (MIT) is a critical task that will help you to get significant results down the road.

Not all tasks are equally important. That’s why it’s vital that you identify your MITs, so that you can complete those as early in the day as possible.

What do you most need to get done today? That’s an MIT.

Get to work on it, then feel the satisfaction that comes from knowing it’s out of the way.

21. Focus on progress instead of perfection.

Perfectionism can destroy your motivation to do homework and keep you from starting important assignments.

Some students procrastinate because they’re waiting for the perfect time to start.

Others do so because they want to get their homework done perfectly. But they know this isn’t really possible – so they put off even getting started.

What’s the solution?

To focus on progress instead of perfection.

There’s never a perfect time for anything. Nor will you ever be able to complete your homework perfectly. But you can do your best, and that’s enough.

So concentrate on learning and improving, and turn this into a habit that you implement whenever you study .

22. Get organized.

Procrastination is common among students who are disorganized.

When you can’t remember which assignment is due when or which tests you have coming up, you’ll naturally feel confused. You’ll experience school- and test-related stress .

This, in turn, will lead to procrastination.

That’s why it’s crucial that you get organized. Here are some tips for doing this:

• Don’t rely on your memory ; write everything down
• Keep a to-do list
• Use a student planner
• Use a calendar and take note of important dates like exams, project due dates, school holidays , birthdays, and family events
• At the end of each day, plan for the following day
• Use one binder or folder for each subject or course
• Do weekly filing of your loose papers, notes, and old homework
• Throw away all the papers and notes you no longer need

23. Stop saying “I have to” and start saying “I choose to.”

When you say things like “I have to write my essay” or “I have to finish my science assignment,” you’ll probably feel annoyed. You might be tempted to complain about your teachers or your school .

What’s the alternative?

To use the phrase “I choose to.”

The truth is, you don’t “have” to do anything.

You can choose not to write your essay; you’ll just run the risk of failing the class.

You can choose not to do your science assignment; you’ll just need to deal with your angry teacher.

When you say “I choose to do my homework,” you’ll feel empowered. This means you’ll be more motivated to study and to do what you ought to.

24. Clear your desk once a week.

Clutter can be demotivating. It also causes stress , which is often at the root of procrastination.

Hard to believe? Give it a try and see for yourself.

By clearing your desk, you’ll reduce stress and make your workspace more organized.

So set a recurring appointment to organize your workspace once a week for just 10 minutes. You’ll receive huge benefits in the long run!

25. If a task takes two minutes or less to complete, do it now.

This is a principle from David Allen’s bestselling book, Getting Things Done .

You may notice that you tend to procrastinate when many tasks pile up. The way to prevent this from happening is to take care of the small but important tasks as soon as you have time.

Here are some examples of small two-minute tasks that you should do once you have a chance:

• Replying to your project group member’s email
• Picking up anything on the floor that doesn’t belong there
• Asking your parents to sign a consent form
• Filing a graded assignment
• Making a quick phone call
• Writing a checklist
• Sending a text to schedule a meeting
• Making an online purchase that doesn’t require further research

26. Finish one task before starting on the next.

You aren’t being productive when you switch between working on your literature essay, social studies report, and physics problem set – while also intermittently checking your phone.

Research shows that multitasking is less effective than doing one thing at a time. Multitasking may even damage your brain !

When it comes to overcoming procrastination, it’s better to stick with one task all the way through before starting on the next one.

You’ll get a sense of accomplishment when you finish the first assignment, which will give you a boost of inspiration as you move on to the next one.

27. Build your focus gradually.

You can’t win the battle against procrastination overnight; it takes time. This means that you need to build your focus progressively.

If you can only focus for 10 minutes at once, that’s fine. Start with three sessions of 10 minutes a day. After a week, increase it to three sessions of 15 minutes a day, and so on.

As the weeks go by, you’ll become far more focused than when you first started. And you’ll soon see how great that makes you feel.

28. Before you start work, write down three things you’re thankful for.

Gratitude improves your psychological health and increases your mental strength .

These factors are linked to motivation. The more you practice gratitude, the easier it will be to find motivation to do your homework. As such, it’s less likely that you’ll be a serial procrastinator.

Before you get down to work for the day, write down three things you’re thankful for. These could be simple things like good health, fine weather, or a loving family.

You could even do this in a “gratitude journal,” which you can then look back on whenever you need a shot of fresh appreciation for the good things in your life.

Either way, this short exercise will get you in the right mindset to be productive.

29. Get enough sleep.

For most people, this means getting 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night. And teenagers need 8 to 10 hours of sleep a night to function optimally.

What does sleep have to do with procrastination?

More than you might realize.

It’s almost impossible to feel motivated when you’re tired. And when you’re low on energy, your willpower is depleted too.

That’s why you give in to the temptation of Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube videos more easily when you’re sleep-deprived.

Here are ways to get more sleep , and sleep better too:

• Create a bedtime routine
• Go to sleep at around the same time every night
• Set a daily alarm as a reminder to go to bed
• Exercise regularly (but not within a few hours of bedtime)
• Make your bedroom as dark as possible
• Remove or switch off all electronic devices before bedtime
• Avoid caffeine at least six hours before bedtime
• Use an eye mask and earplugs

30. Schedule appointments with yourself to complete your homework.

These appointments are specific blocks of time reserved for working on a report, assignment, or project. Scheduling appointments is effective because it makes the task more “official,” so you’re more likely to keep the appointment.

For example, you could schedule appointments such as:

• Jan 25 th , 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm: Math assignment
• Jan 27 th , 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm: Online research for social studies project
• Jan 28 th , 4:30 pm – 5:00 pm: Write introduction for English essay

Transform homework procrastination into homework motivation

Procrastination is a problem we all face.

But given that you’ve read all the way to here, I know you’re committed to overcoming this problem.

And now that you’re armed with these tips, you have all the tools you need to become more disciplined and focused .

By the way, please don’t feel as if you need to implement all the tips at once, because that would be too overwhelming.

Instead, I recommend that you focus on just a couple of tips a week, and make gradual progress. No rush!

Over time, you’ll realize that your habit of procrastination has been replaced by the habit of getting things done.

Now’s the time to get started on that process of transformation. 🙂

Like this article? Please share it with your friends.

Images: Student and books , Homework , Group of students , Consequences , Why , Writing a list , Organized desk , Gratitude

January 19, 2016 at 11:53 am

Ur tips are rlly helpful. Thnkyou ! 🙂

January 19, 2016 at 1:43 pm

You’re welcome 🙂

August 29, 2018 at 11:21 am

Thanks very much

February 19, 2019 at 1:38 pm

The funny thing is while I was reading the first few steps of this article I was procrastinating on my homework….

November 12, 2019 at 12:44 pm

same here! but now I actually want to get my stuff done… huh

December 4, 2022 at 11:35 pm

May 30, 2023 at 6:26 am

October 25, 2023 at 11:35 am

fr tho i totally was but now I’m actually going to get started haha

June 6, 2020 at 6:04 am

I love your articles

January 21, 2016 at 7:07 pm

Thanks soo much. It’s almost like you could read my mind- when I felt so overwhelmed with the workload heap I had created for myself by procrastination, I know feel very motivated to tackle it out completely and replace that bad habit with the wonderful tips mentioned here! 🙂

January 21, 2016 at 8:04 pm

I’m glad to help 🙂

January 25, 2016 at 3:09 pm

You have shared great tips here. I especially like the point “Write down why you want to complete the task” because it is helpful to make us more motivated when we are clear about our goals

January 25, 2016 at 4:51 pm

Glad that you found the tips useful, John!

January 29, 2016 at 1:22 am

Thank you very much for your wonderful tips!!! ☺☺☺

January 29, 2016 at 10:41 am

It’s my joy to help, Kabir 🙂

February 3, 2016 at 12:57 pm

Always love your articles. Keep them up 🙂

February 3, 2016 at 1:21 pm

Thanks, Matthew 🙂

February 4, 2016 at 1:40 pm

There are quite a lot of things that you need to do in order to come out with flying colors while studying in a university away from your homeland. Procrastinating on homework is one of the major mistakes committed by students and these tips will help you to avoid them all and make yourself more efficient during your student life.

February 4, 2016 at 1:58 pm

Completely agreed, Leong Siew.

October 5, 2018 at 12:52 am

Wow! thank you very much, I love it .

November 2, 2018 at 10:45 am

You are helping me a lot.. thank you very much….😊

November 6, 2018 at 5:19 pm

I’m procrastinating by reading this

November 29, 2018 at 10:21 am

January 8, 2021 at 3:38 am

March 3, 2019 at 9:12 am

Daniel, your amazing information and advice, has been very useful! Please keep up your excellent work!

April 12, 2019 at 11:12 am

We should stop procrastinating.

September 28, 2019 at 5:19 pm

Thank you so much for the tips:) i’ve been procrastinating since i started high schools and my grades were really bad “F” but the tips have made me a straight A student again.

January 23, 2020 at 7:43 pm

Thanks for the tips, Daniel! They’re really useful! 😁

April 10, 2020 at 2:15 pm

I have always stood first in my class. But procrastination has always been a very bad habit of mine which is why I lost marks for late submission .As an excuse for finding motivation for studying I would spend hours on the phone and I would eventually procrastinate. So I tried your tips and tricks today and they really worked.i am so glad and thankful for your help. 🇮🇳Love from India🇮🇳

April 15, 2020 at 11:16 am

Well I’m gonna give this a shot it looks and sounds very helpful thank you guys I really needed this

April 16, 2020 at 9:48 pm

Daniel, your amazing information and advice, has been very useful! keep up your excellent work! May you give more useful content to us.

May 6, 2020 at 5:03 pm

nice article thanks for your sharing.

May 20, 2020 at 4:49 am

Thank you so much this helped me so much but I was wondering about like what if you just like being lazy and stuff and don’t feel like doing anything and you don’t want to tell anyone because you might annoy them and you just don’t want to add your problems and put another burden on theirs

July 12, 2020 at 1:55 am

I’ve read many short procrastination tip articles and always thought they were stupid or overlooking the actual problem. ‘do this and this’ or that and that, and I sit there thinking I CAN’T. This article had some nice original tips that I actually followed and really did make me feel a bit better. Cheers, diving into what will probably be a 3 hour case study.

August 22, 2020 at 10:14 pm

Nicely explain each tips and those are practical thanks for sharing. Dr.Achyut More

November 11, 2020 at 12:34 pm

Thanks a lot! It was very helpful!

November 15, 2020 at 9:11 am

I keep catching myself procrastinating today. I started reading this yesterday, but then I realized I was procrastinating, so I stopped to finish it today. Thank you for all the great tips.

November 30, 2020 at 5:15 pm

Woow this is so great. Thanks so much Daniel

December 3, 2020 at 3:13 am

These tips were very helpful!

December 18, 2020 at 11:54 am

Procrastination is a major problem of mine, and this, this is very helpful. It is very motivational, now I think I can complete my work.

December 28, 2020 at 2:44 pm

Daniel Wong: When you’re doing your homework, is your super-comfortable bed just two steps away? Me: Nope, my super-comfortable bed is one step away. (But I seriously can’t study anywhere else. If I go to the dining table, my mum would be right in front of me talking loudly on the phone with colleagues and other rooms is an absolute no. My mum doesn’t allow me to go outside. Please give me some suggestions. )

September 19, 2022 at 12:14 pm

I would try and find some noise cancelling headphones to play some classical music or get some earbuds to ignore you mum lol

March 1, 2021 at 5:46 pm

Thank you very much. I highly appreciate it.

May 12, 2023 at 3:38 am

This is great advice. My little niece is now six years old and I like to use those nice cheap child friendly workbooks with her. This is done in order to help her to learn things completely on her own. I however prefer to test her on her own knowledge however. After a rather quick demonstration in the lesson I then tend to give her two simple questions to start off with. And it works a treat. Seriously. I love it. She loves it. The exam questions are for her to answer on her own on a notepad. If she can, she will receive a gold medal and a box of sweets. If not she only gets a plastic toy. We do this all the time to help her understand. Once a week we spend up to thirty minutes in a math lesson on this technique for recalling the basic facts. I have had a lot of great success with this new age technique. So I’m going to carry on with it for now.

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Homework Help: 11 Tips and Hacks for Focusing on Homework

With lots of other things to be seeing or doing, getting your homework done can quickly slide down your list of priorities. We’ve all had times when we’d rather be doing anything else than work, but it’s important to stay focused on the bigger picture and get it done.

This guide is full of tips to help you remain focused and motivated when it comes to your homework.

11 Ways to Focus on Your Homework  

It’s easy to lose focus and motivation when trying to finish a piece of homework. Next time you feel your mind wandering, try some of these 11 tips and tricks for regaining focus.

1. Get rid of distractions  

There are so many distractions in the modern world. Look around your room and you’ll find plenty of things that could take your attention away from your homework, whether it’s a TV, laptop, tablet, smartphone, games console or books.

In the past, you could have got home from school and, without agreeing to meet your friends in the park later, you’d be unlikely to speak to your friends and classmates until the next day – but today they’re just on the other end of a phone.

Focusing on homework means removing the potential for other things to catch your focus. Whatever it might be - switch it off, put it out of sight, it will be there when you’re finished.

2. Tell family and friends you’re not available  

If your family and friends don’t contact you, the chances of you becoming distracted when doing your work reduces. At school during the day, let your friends know you’re busy doing some work that evening. That way they won’t send you messages asking you to the park or to come online on the Xbox or PlayStation.

The same goes for parents and siblings. Let them know what time you plan to be working and ask them not to disturb you at this time. That way they can plan around you, making sure your evening meal doesn’t come within this time for example.

This can also be used as a motivator to work hard. Are your friends playing video games tonight? Are they having a kick around in a local park? You don’t want to miss out, but your homework needs to be done. Get your head down and finish it, using the possibility of joining your friends as your motivator.

3. Use productivity apps

There is one significant hurdle to the idea of removing distractions like your phone and TV. Some devices, like your laptop or computer, are necessary for doing your work. You can’t just throw these in a draw and ignore them, but there are still things you can do to reduce the distractions these provide.

With an app like Cold Turkey or Freedom , you can block certain websites for hours or days at a time, meaning you can stay away from distracting websites or social media networks until the job is done. In Freedom’s case, this can extend to apps on your smartphone or tablet too.

There are plenty of options out there but, to give another example, try Mindful Browsing . It’s a little less harsh than straight-up blocking websites, instead aiming to calmly nudge you back to what you should be doing.

4. Set out a routine  

Without clear structure and organisation, it can be easy to put off doing work, thinking you’ll return to it later. A good routine is one of the first steps to increasing productivity – and this takes very little effort to put in place.

This can take any form of your choosing. You can draw up a detailed schedule, with subject breakdowns, checklists, and free slots for breaks, or you can just keep it all up in your head. Have an idea of how much time you’ll need to do what you need to do and plan the rest of your evening around the time you’ve allocated.

The form that your routine or schedule takes isn’t important, what counts is sticking to it.

5. Reward yourself 

A great idea for giving yourself greater motivation is to set out some rewards. We’ve already mentioned one option – joining your friends for some fun – but there are plenty of other things you can do to motivate yourself.

Set up a system whereby you complete an hour or so of work, then gain a small reward. This can be anything from a drink, a snack, or even just a 10-minute break. These small things may appear insignificant, but they are a great way of breaking down one big homework session into smaller, more manageable chunks.

6. Take breaks 

Even if it isn’t directly a part of a rewards system, breaks are incredibly important. You might think that reducing the time you’re working by five or ten minutes will result in less work being done. However, by allowing yourself to escape for just a few minutes, you’ll actually increase the rate you work at.

Those five minutes away give your mind a rest and keep you fresh and focused when you get back at it. Just make sure you don’t let your break stretch too long. Before you know it, an hour has passed and it’s harder to get back on track.

7. Try some music 

Some people find that music is one of the best ways to remain focused on what they’re doing. There are two reasons why this might be the case. First, music activates both the left and right sides of your brain. With both sides activated, some studies have found that learning characteristics like memory are improved. Secondly, music is also a stress reliever. Unburdening yourself from stress and anxiety allows you to remain focused on your work.

If you’re going to give this a try, there are a few things to keep in mind. Classical music is considered to work best, but something soothing and without lyrics is a must. Ambient or nature-based sounds are good too – just something with a steady tempo that keeps you calm.

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How to Avoid Distractions While Studying

Last Updated: June 24, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Ashley Pritchard, MA . Ashley Pritchard is an Academic and School Counselor at Delaware Valley Regional High School in Frenchtown, New Jersey. Ashley has over 3 years of high school, college, and career counseling experience. She has an MA in School Counseling with a specialization in Mental Health from Caldwell University and is certified as an Independent Education Consultant through the University of California, Irvine. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 825,456 times.

You know you really want to get good grades. Your parents have put the pressure on, or you promised yourself you would do better. But you keep getting distracted! If you work to find a focused mindset, establish a study schedule , and choose the right place to study, you can cut out the distractions you have control over and minimize the ones you can't stop completely.

Easy Tips for Better Focus

• For example, if you have a biology exam coming up that covers three chapters, you don't have to cram everything into one study session. Try focusing first on the parts that give you trouble, like that subsection on the Krebs cycle. Also try making notes and flashcards as it helps.

• Turn off notifications on your devices. (If your device has the “Do not disturb” mode, try using that.) Better still, turn them off completely.
• Don't take calls or texts. Turn off your phone if you are able, or at least keep it on silent and away.
• If you can't stop this distraction, look into apps or browser plugins that can block social media, certain websites, or any other specific outlets that pull you away from studying. [4] X Research source

• Moving around a bit, such as by taking a brief walk, will be most beneficial.

• If you do this consistently, you should find that you gradually spend less and less time being distracted.

Hacking Your Study Schedule

• For example, you might decide to study biology for an hour on Monday night, followed by an hour of English. Then, on Tuesday afternoons, you study Math for two hours.
• If you are studying around other people, post your schedule so they will know when it's not ok to distract you.

Creating the Perfect Study Space

• Most people like a place that is neither too cold nor too warm.
• A study space shouldn't be loud. Some people prefer a place that is absolutely quiet, others like a little background noise.
• If you are often distracted by studying, choose a seat that faces a wall rather than a window, hallway, or other seats.

• You can also message your friends, tell them when you're studying, and ask them not to disturb you during that time.
• If your home environment is always too noisy and you can't study anywhere else, a pair of earplugs, ear defenders or noise-cancelling headphones should block most (if not all) of the noise out. Playing a calm "white noise" background track through headphones can help you to focus on your studies while also masking even more noise around you if you find music too distracting.

• The music should be fairly quiet.
• Choose music that has no lyrics so you'll be less likely to become distracted.
• Consider listening to “white noise” tracks for background noise instead of music.

Study Schedule Template

Supercharge Your Studying with this Expert Series

Expert Q&A

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Reader Videos

• If you study at home and are constantly bothered by parents, pets, and siblings, move to a place that's away from them, but where you're still motivated to study. Thanks Helpful 21 Not Helpful 3
• If you mostly get online distractions, consider using a site blocker Thanks Helpful 10 Not Helpful 1

Tips from our Readers

• Set a timer for 20-30 minutes and work hard with no distractions for that time. When the timer goes off, get up and take a five minute break to check your phone, use the bathroom, etc. After the short break, set the timer again. Working in short increments keeps you motivated to continue working and helps you focus for short bursts rather than trying to exert yourself constantly.
• According to a recent study, classical music is not the only type of music that helps you concentrate. Any type of music which you love will help bring about the focus you need while studying. Then again, you have to make sure the songs or tunes don't distract you.
• Have a goal. Remind yourself about that goal and the hard work that you need to put in to get it.

• ↑ Ashley Pritchard, MA. School Counselor. Expert Interview. 4 November 2019.
• ↑ https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/take-charge-of-distractions/
• ↑ https://carrington.edu/blog/how-to-avoid-distractions/
• ↑ https://success.oregonstate.edu/learning/concentration

About This Article

To avoid distractions while studying, start by prioritizing your to-do list and making a plan for your study session. Then, turn off your phone, close your emails, and use a browser extension to block websites that you frequently use to procrastinate. If you have a lot of studying to do, create a study schedule and stick to it. However, remember to switch between subjects every 2 hours, and take study breaks every 45-60 minutes to stay focused and energized. Try studying somewhere away from home, like a quiet library or a nearby coffee shop, which can help you stay on task. For tips on getting into and staying in a focused mindset, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Focus on Homework: 9 Tips for Teens

Do you find it tough to concentrate on your homework? The more you stare at the assignment in front of you, the more your attention slips away… We’ve been there, and we know how frustrating it can be. The good news is you can turn things around. Completing assignments will be a breeze once you learn how to focus on homework better!

Why You Can’t Focus on Homework

If you’re asking yourself, “Why can’t I focus on homework?” trust that you’re not alone. Many students are wondering the same thing. Teens like you face a unique set of challenges when it comes to concentrating on assignments. That’s why the key to learning how to focus on homework is identifying why you can’t . 

Here are some examples: 

• Outside distractions

One of the most common causes of poor homework focus is outside distractions. We live in a world of buzzing phones, endless notifications, and social media sirens calling our names. It’s no wonder concentrating on homework feels like a battle!

• Homework pileup

Figuring out how to focus on homework would be much easier if you only had one assignment. But that’s not the case. You have multiple tasks from multiple classes competing for your attention. When the homework piles up, the struggle is real.

• Lack of interest

Sometimes, homework issues are due to a lack of interest. Concentrating on homework is hard enough when you’d rather be doing something else. But staying engaged can seem impossible when the subject matter doesn’t interest you. 

Though brain fog typically affects adults, teens like you aren’t immune. Potential causes of brain fog include lack of sleep, poor nutrition, and everyday stress. It can make you feel like your brain is lost in a thick mist. 

• Neurodivergent features

If you’re neurodivergent , there’s a difference in your brain that affects how it works. You have different strengths from your neurotypical peers but also different challenges. In some cases, like with ADHD, it’s especially difficult to stay focused on homework. 

9 Tips for How to Focus on Homework

At this point, you should have a clearer understanding of why concentrating on homework is so challenging. The next step is learning how to focus on homework better . To make things easier for you, we’ve compiled some practical advice. Whether you’re dealing with a mountain of tasks or the distractions of the digital world, the tips below can help. 

1. Fuel Your Body. 

Did you know that snacking can help you focus better? It’s true! Your body needs fuel to do everything, including study. That’s why you should drink plenty of water and eat the right foods to improve concentration . Some good options include blueberries, nuts, seeds, leafy greens, and dark chocolate. 

Also, try to avoid eating heavy meals before study sessions. These can make you feel sluggish. Worse, they can cause your concentration to drop. 

2. Schedule Your Homework Time. 

Another tip for how to focus on homework is to schedule it. You can establish a routine by blocking out time to complete assignments every day. When the time rolls around, you’ll be able to slip into the homework mindset much easier. Of course, things may pop up and force you to reschedule. That’s okay; just try to stick to the same time the best you can. 

Some additional ways to stay on track and focused include the following:

• Set an alarm for homework time. 
• Tell others you’re studying to avoid interruptions. 
• Dedicate time for each assignment. 

Applying these time management techniques can go a long way.

3. Create a Good Study Environment.

When it comes to focusing on homework, the right environment can make all the difference. If you don’t have a dedicated study spot already, create one! Ideally, it should be well-organized, free of distractions, and full of elements that promote concentration. It could be at the desk in your room or at a table in the library. Ultimately, it’s whatever works best for you. 

Sitting down in that spot should let your brain know it’s time to activate study mode. 

4. Use Technology to Your Advantage.

In some cases, technology can make it harder to concentrate on homework; in others, it can make it easier. It’s all in what you use and how you use it. For instance, scrolling through TikTok on your phone isn’t a good idea. But using apps and tools designed to improve focus can be. 

Here are a few suggestions: 

• Wear noise-canceling headphones. 
• Listen to classical, lo-fi, or focus music. 
• Use quizzes, study guides, and flashcard tools.
• Block distracting websites and apps.

When used correctly, technology can help you get into the zone! 

5. Take Regular Breaks.

Do you try to power through your homework without stopping? You may be doing more harm than good! Taking regular breaks is recommended. Getting up from your chair, stretching, and just giving your brain a rest can be beneficial. It lets you come back with fresh eyes and renewed focus. 

6. Embrace Your Learning Style.

Not everyone learns the same way. There are visual learners, auditory learners, tactile learners, and reading/writing learners. Part of figuring out how to focus on homework is embracing your unique learning style. That way, you can engage your brain better. 

Determine which learning style fits you , and go from there. You can improve your concentration and retention by changing how you do your homework!

7. Get Outside Help.

When you’re struggling to focus on homework, sometimes it helps to have support. You may not need a tutor, just someone to hold you accountable. For those with ADHD, this is where “body doubling” comes into play. It’s a practice where you do a task with another person. It sounds pretty straightforward, but it can be very effective.

There are other ways to enlist outside help, too. You can have a family member quiz you or find a study buddy. You can even find an online study community to help you stay on track!

8. Tackle One Task at a Time.

As touched on earlier, having multiple assignments makes it harder to concentrate. But that’s why you need to tackle them one at a time. Make sure to finish a task before moving on to the next. In fact, set aside all other assignments until you’re done. If they’re out of sight, you can focus better on the one in front of you. 

9. Motivate Yourself with Rewards.

Motivation is another factor in learning how to focus on homework. If you’re working toward something, you’re more likely to stay in the zone and finish your task. Consider rewarding yourself by watching an hour of your favorite TV show once you’re done for the night. You can even sprinkle in smaller rewards after each assignment!

Start Improving Your Focus!

Staying engaged when doing homework is tough, but it’s not impossible. Matthew 19:26 says, “… with God, all things are possible.” If you remember this and apply the tips above for how to focus on homework, you’ll be much better off. So, start improving your focus today! And don’t be afraid to reach out to your teachers, parents, or peers if your struggles continue. 

Are you thinking about getting outside help with homework? Check out the Tuesday Study Buddy program available from our God, Games, & Geekery community !

Because differences are our greatest strength

10 tips for staying focused when learning from home

By Henry Lang

Just like most of y’all, I’m struggling with remote learning (and having ADHD  doesn’t make things any easier). In college, I’m studying to be an educator, so I thought I’d share some tips for staying focused when learning at home.

1. Make your study space cozy and clean.

Keep your computer screen clean, too. Close any distracting browser tabs. (Check out the free OneTab Chrome App to save those extra tabs for later.)

2. Switch up your study spots.

Your location influences how you process information. Even a slight change can be refreshing. Experiment with matching locations to specific tasks. I like to do math at the kitchen table and watch lectures on the couch.

3. Do a “brain boost” whenever you find yourself drifting.

Take a walk around the block, do some jumping jacks, stretch your limbs, and shake out any muscle tension in ways that feel comfy.

4. Hydrate!

Your body naturally performs better when you’re fully hydrated. Keep a water bottle on your desk. I still forget to pick up the purple plastic bottle sitting right in front of me, so I also stick a Post-it reminder on my notebook and computer screen.

5. Keep lists.

Making to-do lists for school, work, and other goals is a must for me. I’m much less likely to miss pesky homework deadlines when they’re all stored in one place.

6. Play around with sound.

Some of my friends like to listen to classical music while they study. When I’m taking an online quiz, I turn on a fan to cover noise from my neighbors. If you don’t have a fan, search for “ambience sounds” on YouTube.

7. Find a creative outlet.

Whether you’re learning new ukulele chords, doodling in a notebook, or keeping a journal, having an outlet for self-expression matters now more than ever.

8. Learn a new skill to balance your studying.

What’s something you’ve been meaning to learn? Finger spelling, knitting, computer coding, a trending TikTok dance. (I only tripped twice while learning the “Say So” routine!) Pick a new skill that excites you and set reasonable goals to keep up your progress. When you’re finished, try teaching a friend.

9. Stay connected with family and friends. 

Having conversations with loved ones can be refreshing during isolation. Consider reaching out to old friends to catch up, too.

10. Promote community care.

Other people who are struggling right now could use your support. I’ve been volunteering to do maintenance for neighbors who need extra hands. I’m also joining other students in sending emails to advocate for my school’s service workers to be paid.

Responding to my neighbors’ needs reminds me how lucky I am to be a part of my community right now.

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When you’re working and studying from home, there can be more than a few distractions. Here are 5 ways to help you stay focused during work or study time.

Des Sinkevich

Apr 28, 2020

Staying focused when you’re working and studying from home isn’t always easy. You may find yourself unsure of the best way to balance everything on your plate. Maybe you’re bored, anxious, or just plain tired . It happens to everyone, especially during a time when there aren’t many options for getting a change of scenery to refresh your brain. Instead of beating yourself up for seemingly spending more time daydreaming than working, try these five tips to stay focused.

Tricks to stay focused while working and studying from home

While being able to work and study from home comes with a ton of benefits, there are some distinct challenges, too. Home offers comfort and snacks, but also distractions like chores, family, pets, television, and the easy possibility of taking a lunch time nap. These distractions can be hard to resist, but some habits can help you strengthen your ability to focus on the tasks at hand.

• Have a dedicated work/study space. This is advice you hear all the time. The reason it’s so often repeated is that it actually works. Having a certain space in your house dedicated to your job and your studying is essential to shifting your brain from relaxation mode to work mode. If you have the room, turning a space into an office can be your best bet, but not everyone has that option. Instead of a home office, try studying and working in the same space everyday. Whether you’re working from the kitchen table or your bedroom, making it a habit to use that specific room can still get you into work and study mode.
• Stick to a schedule. When you’re working and studying at home, your to-do lists and schedule can start to blend together. You might start getting in a little studying during work hours or vice versa. This habit can work well for a short time, but it can lead to more distractions. During work hours, you’re thinking about the school project you need to finish. When you’re studying, you’re more focused on what you have to get done for work. Making a clear schedule and sticking to it can help you stay focused on the job at hand. If you work 9 to 5, for example, focus solely on your tasks for the day. After 5, you can hit the books.
• Avoid multitasking during the workday or your study time. Since you’re at home, it’s tempting to make the most of the time you have. Throwing in a load of laundry on a work break or cleaning the kitchen in between textbook chapters feels like you’re efficiently multitasking, but it can provide more distractions. Instead, focus on one thing at a time. Your chores will be waiting for you when you’re done, so concentrate on your job or your studies as much as possible.
• Turn off distractions. Checking your social media pages, watching a favorite movie in the background, or constantly checking your phone for text messages can make it hard to focus on what you need to get done. Whenever possible, avoid these distractions while you’re working. Put your phone in a drawer or turn it to silent mode so you don’t notice notifications. Scroll through Facebook only on scheduled breaks. It can be tough at first, but once you’re in the habit of pushing away distractions, you’ll find yourself getting a lot more done!
• Remember that you don’t have to be perfectly focused all the time. When you’re working at home, or studying, it can feel like you have to always be laser focused. Afterall, you’re able to do your job and study from home—you should be much more productive than normal, right? But thinking that you have to be perfect and productive 100% of the time can be its own kind of distraction that can lead to some anxiety. It’s important to remember you’re human and you need breaks. You’re not always going to perfectly focus and that’s okay! Taking a day off to refresh isn’t being lazy—it’s focusing on your mental and physical well-being. Don’t be ashamed to say you need time away! After a day off, you’ll come back even more productive than before.

Connect with other students for study tips on the Student Community.

Penn Foster students are experts on balancing work, studies, and family time. If you’re struggling to focus on your tasks, aren’t sure what the best study method is, or just want to connect with others who are going through the same thing, the Penn Foster Student Community is your best resource. You can connect with students and alumni, get tips and tricks for work/life balance, and more.

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How to Concentrate When You're Working at Home

Tips for concentrating and focusing on work..

Posted March 18, 2020 | Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

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Many of us are attempting to work from home, perhaps with kids jumping around. If you're struggling to concentrate, here are some tips:

1. Understand the evolved basis of why it's hard to concentrate when facing threat and uncertainty.

Anxiety and uncertainty make us feel on edge. They're states of high alert. If you think in evolutionary terms, being able to easily redirect our attention away from the threat and deeply focus on other topics and tasks would not have been helpful for our survival. Therefore, under conditions of threat and uncertainty, we're wired to find it hard to redirect our attention and get absorbed thinking about safe topics (e.g., read a fun novel or a dense document for work).

In evolutionary terms, your on-edge, hyper-alert feelings and your distracted cognitive state are a feature, not a bug.

2. Recognize that you're missing the cues that help you concentrate.

I work from home all the time. Therefore, I have routines of working that help trigger my ability to concentrate. My brain knows that me sitting in bed and opening my computer means I'm about to do a couple of hours of writing and/or reading studies.

If you typically work in an office, the routines and cues you have at work that signal to your brain that you will be starting a session of concentrated work (like taking the elevator up to your office) aren't there. This is another factor that is likely to be making it hard for you to concentrate and focus on work.

3. Consider not attempting to work at 100 percent. Sixty percent might be more realistic.

Some of your cognitive and emotional resources right now are being utilized coping with the fact that we're all facing a pandemic. It's quite unrealistic to think that the equation will look like this:

You at 100%, minus whatever cognitive and emotional resources you're using coping with coronavirus = you're still at 100%.

People in emergency response roles may be able to operate at close to 100% because they're conditioned and trained for this, and because they're directly focused on immediate needs. If you're doing knowledge work unrelated to the crisis, your caveperson brain is probably pretty confused about why you're asking it to carry on as if nothing is happening.

Pick your own number for what you expect your functional capacity to be, but don’t pick 100%.

4. Try easing into work with some admin tasks rather than attempting your hardest work first.

If I'm having a hard time settling down to concentrate on hard work, especially if I've been avoiding it, I often find the easiest way is to use straightforward tasks to help settle me into it. If you're having a hard time concentrating, try easy, straightforward tasks for 30 to 60 minutes first.

5. Don't try to predict whether you'll have a productive work session.

I've learned from tracking my productivity that the state of mind I start my work in doesn't determine how my session of work goes. If I'm feeling anxious or vulnerable, it usually just takes me a bit longer to find my rhythm but I'm still just as likely to do good work. If you can get started with your deep work, then your conditioned cues associated with being in a concentrating state (as opposed to those that kick it off) will tend to take over. It might take 15 to 30 minutes after you start deep work to feel like it's going well. This is similar to how, if you go for a run when you’re not feeling like it, you’re likely to start feeling good after a few minutes.

For instance, if you write reports for your job and you've written hundreds of them, then once you get into the flow, your brain knows what order you typically write the different sections in, etc., and that conditioning will take over.

6. Give yourself a good recovery period after working.

If you've successfully concentrated on deep work for a couple of hours, give yourself some good recovery. If you have kids at home, your recovery may need to be with your children. For instance, one of my recovery routines is to draw with my child once a day. We usually cut a picture from a magazine for inspiration. We've also been practicing camping with a tent in the backyard, complete with marshmallows etc. Other options are things like jigsaw puzzles or baking. Don't think you need to escape your kids to relax. Try creative activities with them.

This 20-minute restorative yoga routine is one of my go-to's for when I need heavy-duty recovery. Restorative yoga is quite different from exercise-orientated yoga. It's basically supported lying down. Sometimes my kid will do it with me. Sometimes she'll jump on me while I'm trying to do it!

7. Don't watch or read news for hours and hours each day.

Since coronavirus is a fast-moving story, it's understandable that you might want to be watching or reading coverage of it for a couple of hours a day. However, watching and reading 3, 4, 5, or 7 hours a day, as some people are, is excessive.

Excessive news exposure will not help you concentrate on work.

8. Ignore messages that you should use your time at home to be hyper-productive.

If you'd like to do some projects while you're at home, that's fine. If you'd like to read some books you've been trying to get around to forever, that's fine. If you'd like to declutter your linen cupboard, that's fine: Do what helps you. However, don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself to get things done beyond what you have to, if that does not feel helpful.

Sometimes it's more useful to resist messages that the solution to any crisis (personal or communal) is to be hyperproductive.

Facebook /LinkedIn image: Yuganov Konstantin/Shutterstock

Alice Boyes, Ph.D., translates principles from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and social psychology into tips people can use in their everyday lives.

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Trump’s economic plans include proposed tariffs, tax cuts and no taxes on tips. Details are scarce

Delegates watch during the Republican National Convention Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R-VA., speaking during the first day of the Republican National Convention, Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Rep. Byron Donalds, R-FL., speaks during the Republican National Convention Monday, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)

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Follow AP’s live coverage of the investigation into the Trump rally shooting and the Republican National Convention.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The first night of the Republican National Convention kept its official focus on the economy Monday even after Saturday’s shooting at a rally in Pennsylvania in which former President Donald Trump was injured.

Speakers argued that Trump would fix inflation and bring back prosperity simply by returning to the White House as president. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin lamented, “Tonight, America, the land of opportunity, just doesn’t feel like that anymore.”

But Trump has released few hard numbers and no real policy language or legislative blueprints, and most of the speakers Monday didn’t get into details either. Instead, his campaign is betting that voters care more about attitude than policy specifics.

What to know :

• Trump’s big entrance: Trump joined the convention to thunderous applause as musician Lee Greenwood sang “God Bless the USA.”
• Night 1 speakers: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke early in the night , followed by Sen. Tim Scott , Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem , Teamsters president Sean O’Brien and model Amber Rose.
• Biden’s interview: Biden told NBC News that it was a “mistake” to say he wanted to put a “bull’s-eye” on Trump, but argued that the rhetoric from his opponent was more incendiary.

Trump says he wants tariffs on trade partners and no taxes on tips. He would like to knock the corporate tax rate down a tick. The Republican platform also promises to “defeat” inflation and “quickly bring down all prices,” in addition to pumping out more oil, natural gas and coal.

The platform would address illegal immigration in part with the “largest deportation program in American history.” And Trump would also scrap President Joe Biden’s policies to develop the market for electric vehicles and renewable energy.

Democrats and several leading economists say the math shows that Trump’s ideas would cause an explosive bout of inflation, wallop the middle class and — by his extending his soon-to-expire tax cuts — heap another $5 trillion-plus onto the national debt.

The Associated Press sent the Trump campaign 20 basic questions in June to clarify his economic views and the campaign declined to answer any of them. Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt insisted that Trump best speaks for himself and directed the AP to video clips of him.

By contrast, Biden has an exhaustive 188-page budget proposal that lays out his economic vision, even as his campaign had increasingly devolved before Saturday’s rally shooting into questions about his age and whether he should remain the nominee after a self-defeating June 27 debate.

A recent analysis by the Peterson Institute of International Economics showed that deporting 1.3 million workers would cause the size of the U.S. economy to shrink by 2.1%, essentially creating a recession.

What to know about the 2024 Election

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• We want to hear from you : Did the attempted assassination on former president Donald Trump change your perspective on politics in America?
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Stephen Moore, an informal Trump adviser and economist at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, said Trump is unique in that he’s already been president and voters can judge him off his record in office.

“You want to know what he’s going to do in his second term, look at what he did in his first term,” Moore said.

Democrats have argued that Trump would be more extreme in his second term, using his own remarks to say he would put independent federal agencies under his direct control and use the federal government to settle scores with his perceived enemies. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint is a template for what a second term would look like, they argue, a claim that Trump has disputed.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Butler, Pa., on Saturday, July 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

But Moore said he believes that Trump would be pragmatic in office and focus on the needs of business to drive economic growth.

“There is an idea that it’s going to be like slash and burn — I don’t think it’s going to be a radical agenda,” Moore said.

Some of Trump’s plans have gotten bipartisan backing. Both of Nevada’s senators, Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez Masto, are Democrats who would like to ban taxes on tips paid to workers, even as the Biden White House favors a higher minimum wage for tipped workers.

Companies do like Trump’s ideas to cut regulations and further lower the corporate tax rate from 21% to 20%. The tax rate had been 35% when he became president in 2017. Democrats, by comparison, want a 28% corporate tax rate in order to fund programs for the middle class and deficit reduction.

But Trump has also floated huge tariffs that he says would protect U.S. manufacturing jobs. Biden preserved the tariffs on China that Trump introduced and went a step further by banning exports of advanced computer chips to China.

Companies generally dislike tariffs — which are taxes on imports — because they can raise costs, which are then likely borne by consumers. An analysis by the economists Kimberly Clausing and Mary Lovely found that Trump’s tariffs would cost a typical U.S. household $1,700 a year in what would effectively be a tax hike.

Trump’s tariff plans could worsen inflation as a result, even though the Republican says in videos that he would reduce inflation. It’s unclear how Trump would lower inflation, which peaked in 2022 at 9.1% and has since eased to 3% annually.

“The tariff issue is extremely important — and people are not paying enough attention to the magnitude of the Trump tariff policy, what the consequences would be,” said Clausing, a former Biden Treasury Department official and professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

But tariffs might be more of a political winner than an economic strategy, according to a research paper earlier this year by the economists David Autor, Anne Beck, David Dorn and Gordon Hanson. The research found that the tariffs during Trump’s first term did not increase employment, but the tariffs did help Trump politically in the 2020 election in the industrial areas that lost jobs to China and other countries.

Clausing noted that Trump is proposing tariffs on more than $3 trillion of imports, a 10-fold increase over what he did in his first term. She noted that the tariffs could make it more expensive to bring in the raw materials that U.S. factories need while also raising prices for consumers already struggling with high inflation. She said she wants people to understand the risks Trump’s economic policies could pose before it’s too late.

"“I think people will notice when everything gets wildly expensive,” she said. “This is going to be a huge disaster.”

Border security takes center stage at RNC. Here's the actual data under Trump, Biden

Former President Donald J. Trump wants to "make America safe once again." That was the theme of Tuesday's  Republican National Convention as border security, drug trafficking, and crime took center stage .

"We are facing an invasion on our southern border − not figuratively, a literal invasion," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Tuesday night. "Look around you. This arena holds about 18,000 souls. Now imagine 639 arenas just like this filled to the brim."

Americans are showing increasing concern around immigration issues, a Gallup Poll from February showed. For the first time in a decade, Americans said immigration is the most important issue facing the country. A separate survey by the  Pew Research Center  showed that 80% of Americans said the government is doing a "bad job dealing with the large number of migrants at the border."

How have Trump and President Joe Biden each approached concerns about border security? Here's what we found:

Border encounters hit a record high

The Trump administration promised "the largest deportation effort" in U.S. history if elected again.

During his presidency, about 935,000 non-residents were deported, while there had been about 340,000 such deportations under Biden through February, NBC News reported , citing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

U.S. Border Patrol encounters have increased over the past decade. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, border encounters primarily included people apprehended while illegally entering the country, according to USAFacts , a nonprofit that provides analysis on U.S government data.

Under the Trump administration, the Border Patrol began expelling migrants without giving them the opportunity to seek asylum. This action was carried out under a public health provision called Title 42.

When Biden first took office, he vowed to reverse some of Trumps strict immigration policies, including turning away unaccompanied minors who arrived at the U.S. border without a parent or guardian. His administration temporarily kept Title 42 until it expired in May 2023.

Since taking office, the number of people taken into custody by the U.S. Border Patrol under the Biden administration reached a record high, averaging 2 million people per year, according to the Washington Post.

How much money does the U.S. spend on border security?

Last year, the Biden administration said its budget allocates nearly $25 billion for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

You can keep up with the USA TODAY Network's live coverage of the 2024 Republican convention and watch the livestream here.

Ex-Secret Service special agents explain why countersniper who saved Trump's life may have lost crucial seconds

• Trump's life was saved by a Secret Service countersniper assigned to Saturday's detail.
• But the shooter still managed to kill one rallygoer and injure two others before he was taken out.
• Experts said heat, staffing, and a focus on a nearby tree line may have cost crucial seconds.

The Secret Service countersniper who narrowly saved the life of former President Donald Trump may have lost crucial seconds because of factors including the extreme heat, a lack of antisniper backup, and a likely focus on a nearby tree line, a former special agent told Business Insider.

"This countersniper made an amazingly quick decision and clearly saved Trump's life," Bill Pickle, the former special agent in charge of Al Gore's vice-presidential Secret Service detail, said.

"Our guys are the best shots in the world. That's what they do," Pickle said.

"And within a second of the moment this kid opened fire, the CS guy shot him," he said, using Secret Service shorthand to refer to the countersniper deployed at Saturday night's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

"But someone will blame that CS and the spotter and say, 'If only he had been two seconds faster in spotting the shooter,'" the former special agent said.

"The real question may be: If there were more antisniper eyes on that building, could this have all been avoided?" he added.

How did the countersniper team not see the shooting suspect sooner?

Pickle said one area of focus for investigators would be how the shooter managed to get on top of the building without authorities taking notice.

"The other question is: Why wasn't this roof secured, and were there agents or law enforcement in there checking IDs?" he added.

"How did this kid figure out a way to get out on the rooftop and slither across that rooftop?" Pickle said. "He low-crawled across the roof on his hands and knees, and he pushed the weapon ahead of him just like in the military."

But even if they see a shooting suspect quicker, countersnipers may not always have the ability to act immediately when they spot a threat, Anthony Cangelosi, a former special agent who directed the Secret Service's technical-security advances for presidential candidates, said.

"You either have to make a decision: 'Do I take a shot? Or do I not take a shot?'" Cangelosi told BI.

"What if you find out, 'Oh, I just killed a 20-year-old kid who loves the protectee, and he couldn't get in the venue, and he just wanted to get up on that roof?' No one wants to be in that position," Cangelosi said.

Cangelosi said the Secret Service team at the event should have a "site plan" that would include a layout of the area and the surrounding buildings.

The would-be assassin fired at least three rounds from a rooftop 150 yards from where Trump was speaking. He killed one rallygoer and critically injured two others before being shot dead by a yet-to-be-identified Secret Service countersniper who was positioned on another rooftop.

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One bullet grazed Trump's right ear , bloodying his face.

"This kid, at 150 yards, made a great shot," Pickle said Sunday of the would-be assassin, his voice grim. "I don't know the specifics of whether he used optics, meaning a scope on his rifle," he told BI.

"But even with optics, it takes somebody with training to aim at somebody's head from 150 yards away and you actually hit the edge of the head," he said.

"That's not a lucky shot," he added. "That's a guy who actually shot before."

The FBI identified the shooter as Thomas Matthew Crooks , 20, of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania. The FBI said it was still investigating a motive.

But for now, it's clear that at least three things may have factored into the several-second delay between when Crooks was seen crawling onto the roof and when the CS team saw and shot him, Pickle said.

The decision on how many antisnipers to deploy may prove the most critical factor, he said.

"Someone made a decision that that number of countersnipers was sufficient," he said. "And obviously, in hindsight, they were wrong because there was a kid who was able to get up there on that rooftop and pull the trigger three times at least."

How many CS teams were deployed?

Staffing decisions would have been made at the Secret Service's headquarters in Washington, DC, based on whatever agency personnel on the ground recommended after a several-day investigation of the site, Pickle said.

"An advance team actually does a lengthy survey, where they look at everything and then recommend what they need," he said.

"But if they're stretched for resources, headquarters can say we can only get you one team out there. And that's not unusual — if you don't have it, you don't have it," Pickle said.

"It always boils down to resources," he said. "And if it's not a resource problem, and the money was there, then it's still an allocation-of-resources problem," he said — meaning someone underestimated the forces needed to keep Trump safe.

Regardless of how many snipers were present, the Secret Service typically has "360-degree coverage" of an event where a sitting or former president is speaking, Cangelosi said.

Another factor is the weather.

"The CS guys would probably say: 'We were up there for four hours in 100-degree heat, and if we had another team up here or drone support, this wouldn't have happened,'" Pickle said.

The team may also have been focusing on a nearby tree line, seeing it as the primary risk.

"You're looking at everything that would hide a potential assassin," Pickle said.

"The first assumption is that if I'm a bad guy, I'm going to hide. Human nature is such that I'm going to be scanning the rooftops to make sure they're empty, but then I'm going to be focusing on that tree line because you think the bad guy is going to be hidden," Pickle said.

"You don't think the bad guy is going to be out in the open," he said.

Interagency squabbles and intense public scrutiny are forthcoming

Once the would-be assassin opened fire, "everything that happened up there was textbook and the way it should have happened," Pickle said. The CS team returned fire, long-gun-toting counterassault agents in black jumpsuits and helmets rushed the stage, and business-suited agents at the rally platform hurried Trump offstage.

"But why wasn't he identified seconds sooner?" Pickle asked of the shooter.

"Was it caused by exhaustion from being on a 100-degree roof for four hours? Was the CS team watching the heavy foliage there, which arguably was the best place to hide?" he said.

"An open roof is not the best place to hide. If he climbed out onto an open rooftop, he was prepared to die," he added.

"The worst nightmare for the Secret Service has always been a lone gunman who hasn't been announcing his views publicly and is ready to die," he said.

Pickle said Saturday's attack would be dissected for years to come and "will be in the training syllabus forever."

"It's going to be a circular firing squad," Pickle said of the interagency finger-pointing and conspiracy theories that will play out as the attempted assassination is scrutinized by the FBI, Congress, and the press and public.

Cangelosi told BI that "a lot of people talk and things just travel" within the agency after an event of this magnitude.

"We all want answers, and we want them as quickly as possible, but it's going to take some time," Cangelosi said. "You know the Secret Service; they're professionals. Mistakes are made. They're going to remedy them."

Watch: How the Secret Service protected Trump after 'screwing up'

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Narcissism Is a Trait That’s Hard to Shake, Study Says

Here’s how to recognize it and cope with the narcissist in your life.

By Christina Caron

If you’re hoping that the narcissist in your life will change, a new study suggests that you may have to wait a very long time. And even then, you might see only a small difference.

The research, which was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin on Thursday, analyzed 51 studies with more than 37,000 participants — mostly from North America, Europe and New Zealand — to explore how narcissism changes over a person’s life span.

Although the researchers found that, on average, narcissism gradually declined as people aged, “the results show that this decline is not as large as one might hope,” said Ulrich Orth, the lead author of the paper and a professor of developmental psychology at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

The declines in narcissism took place over the span of decades.

“When you look back at how a close friend behaved 20 or 30 years earlier, you might notice the change,” Dr. Orth said. “Still, the average decline was at most of moderate size, so you wouldn’t expect that people’s level of narcissism changes fundamentally.”

The study also found that if people had higher levels of narcissism than others when they were children, then this was also usually true when they reached adulthood.

The research featured subjects who were mostly white and lived in Western cultures, and a number of the studies included in the analysis had low numbers of adults who were 65 or older, all of which makes it difficult to generalize the results.

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Biden campaign swaps Trump criticism for unity after shooting

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Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Nandita Bose; additional reporting by Steve Holland; Writing by Heather Timmons; Editing by Will Dunham and Richard Chang

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US hits former Israeli military sergeant with visa restrictions

The U.S. has imposed visa restrictions against a former Israeli military sergeant for his alleged involvement in gross violations of human rights in the occupied West Bank, including an extrajudicial killing, the State Department said on Wednesday.

BREAKING: Rep. Adam Schiff calls on Biden to withdraw from the presidential race

Biden turns focus on Trump's rhetoric: ‘I’m not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election’

In a new interview with NBC News anchor Lester Holt on Monday, President Joe Biden defended his language in the lead-up to Saturday’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, saying his rival’s rhetoric is the real problem.

Some Trump allies have alleged Biden and other Democrats fomented hostility toward Trump that they claim contributed to the shooting, including Biden’s telling donors on a private call recently that it is “time to put Trump in a bull's-eye.”

Biden said it was a “mistake” to use the word, but he dismissed the larger criticism, telling Holt it was merely a figure of speech and saying Trump is the one who has mainstreamed violent rhetoric. 

“I didn’t say ‘crosshairs.’ I meant ‘bull's-eye.’ I meant focus on him. Focus on what he’s doing. Focus on — on his — on his policies. Focus on the number of lies he told in the debate. Focus on — I mean, there’s— there’s a whole range of things. Look, I’m not the guy that said. I want to be a dictator on day one. I’m not the guy that refused to accept the outcome of the election. I’m not the guy who said that wouldn’t accept the outcome of this election automatically. You can’t only love your country when you win. And so the focus was on what he’s saying and, I mean, the idea.”

Asked whether he has done “a little soul searching” since the assassination attempt about any rhetoric that might unintentionally incite someone to violence, Biden said the threat from his opponent is too stark to ignore.

“How do you talk about the threat to democracy, which is real, when a president says things like he says? Do you just not say anything ‘cause it may incite somebody?” Biden asked rhetorically.

“I have not engaged in that rhetoric," Biden continued. "My opponent has engaged in that rhetoric.”

It's a different tone than the one he struck Sunday evening in an Oval Office address , when he called on all Americans to "lower the temperature" of political rhetoric and to work together to stop viewing political opponents as enemies.

Alex Seitz-Wald is a senior political reporter for NBC News.

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Secretary Mayorkas Delivers Remarks at White House Press Briefing

Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas delivered the following remarks at the White House Press Briefing in Washington, DC.  Thank you very much, Karine. Good afternoon.  At the very outset, I want to echo what President Biden said last night: Our entire Administration is grateful that former President Trump is okay. Our hearts and prayers are with the family of Corey Comperatore. We pray for the full and swift recovery of those who were injured on Saturday.  We are thankful for the heroic agents of the United States Secret Service who so quickly and bravely responded to the threat at Saturday’s campaign event.  We unequivocally condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the violence our nation witnessed that day. Such acts are unacceptable in our country and in our democracy.  Both President Biden and former President Trump are constantly the subject of threats. We are in a heightened and very dynamic threat environment. The United States Secret Service – we, including the FBI and our other partners across the federal government – take the threats very seriously and adjust security measures as warranted. Maintaining the safety and security of the President, the former President, and their campaign events is one of our most vital priorities.  In light of this weekend’s events, the President has directed me to work with the Secret Service to provide protection to Robert Kennedy, Jr.  Both prior to and after the events of this past weekend, the Secret Service enhanced former President Trump’s protection, based on the evolving nature of threats to the former President and his imminent shift from presumptive nominee to nominee. This includes enhancements related to securing the former President during the Republican National Convention this week.    I cannot discuss specifics of the protection or the enhancements made, as they involve sensitive tactics and procedures. I can say, however, that personnel and other protective resources, technology, and capabilities have been added.    At the RNC, we have steadily increased the implementation of significant physical and technical enhancements at every protective venue in support of protectees, including miles of anti-scale fencing, screening technology, and tactical support. We are also leveraging strong relationships across the law enforcement community, including agents and officers from Homeland Security Investigations, the Transportation Security Administration, and state and local law enforcement agencies, all of whom have been deployed at the convention.    Since the attempted assassination of former President Trump, we across the government are focused with urgency to understand how it happened. At President Biden’s direction, an independent review of the incident will be conducted – one that will examine the Secret Service’s and other law enforcement actions before, during, and after the shooting, to identify the immediate and longer-term corrective actions required to ensure that the no-fail mission of protecting national leaders is most effectively met.  The men and women of the Secret Service have one of the most solemn and difficult jobs in government. Their work involves tremendous sacrifice, risk, and bravery. We saw those qualities in action on the stage at this past Saturday’s event.  With respect to the tragic event of Saturday, the FBI is leading the criminal investigation, which is ongoing. An independent review will be conducted to understand the facts regarding protection of the event and make findings and recommendations accordingly. I will therefore not be able to comment on the facts subject to investigation and review at this time.  With that, I will take your questions. 

• Secretary of Homeland Security
• Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
• U.S. Secret Service