I have had some success with Pomodoro timers. Honestly now that I am older I am resorting to trying to reduce my digital presence (which is funny because here I am lurking on lemmy avoiding work) and doing a lot on paper. Printing out worksheets, handwriting things, putting my phone in a drawer where I can’t randomly pick up and get distracted for an hour. Its a rough start but its helped a little.

there’s a lot of factors for me:

• diet, if i’m on a sugar rush or binge i can’t focus
• activation energy and flow state, if i can just start and make progress i know i can slip into a more focused mode. if i’m constantly flicking between work and distractions i’ll stay distracted.
• environment, i discovered i work much better in a cafe around others compared to just in my room. bonus points if there’s a friend who i can sit with.
• having a plan, just studying for the sake of studying doesn’t work for me. knowing what i want to achieve and having mapped out what i need to do to get there helps me focus. it lets me know how far i’ve come - and feel good about that.

hope that gives some inspiration!

I don’t stay focused and I know this. When I was studying for a board exam I used Anki flashcards that I made and added mnemonics to. I then would do my bedtime routine, plug in my phone and do 15-30 mins of studying EVERY night. This made things easier for me. I’d try studying during downtimes in my day, but would quickly get distracted by work and other things. A little reward at the end of study sessions like being able to check social media or what not was helpful.

Coursera has a “Learning How to Learn” course that goes over a lot of that stuff too. I haven’t finished it yet, but so far it’s been good.

When I REALLY struggle, I try the pomodoro timer, because then I can console my brain with the promise of a break soon. 😬

By being stressed about finishing what I have to study by the given deadline. If said deadline is far away, there’s no hope.

Sometimes I’d break down what I have to do into a schedule that would span several days, or even weeks. I would then have this schedule as my goal: if I don’t do enough today to reach my goal, I won’t have enough time to finish what I have to study by the deadline.

A couple of things I do.

I think the top of this list is making sure that I’m exercising regularly, eating balanced meals, and getting enough sleep. This helps set me up for success with studying - I’m less restless, it’s easier to focus and process information – and all of that together helps me feel less demotivated when I hit a roadblock.

In terms of tools - meds for sure, having snacks and water at my desk so I don’t need to get up, I also have visual timer on my desk - so I can visibly see how much time I’ve spent studying (or being distracted lol)

before I start studying, I try to (but honestly need to get better at) setting reasonable goals – listing out what I need to do, describe the steps it will take to get the task done, write out how long it will take (v helpful with time blindness), and choose what I will be doing during that study session.

If I feel overwhelmed/stressed/dont want to do all of that, I have flashcards that I go through instead – I used to use anki but i’ve switched over to remnote and i’ve been enjoying that so far

sometimes I’ll put on some binueral beats (which I typically describe as pseudoscience that works) – and i think the noise just helps stim my brain a little bit or sometimes the noise just reminds me that I should be working.

and don’t forget that we’re prone to hyper focusing! it’s not sustainable to work for 6 hours straight without getting up, eating, drinking water - those sprints might feel good but we end up feeling exhausted from them the next day.

I knew a guy that did 1h per day of offline work (no Internet on his computer for that 1h). Kind of requires that you download all your materials. A side effect is that if people around you know you are doing this they also leave you alone for that one hour.

But ultimately it is about self awareness - as soon as you become aware you are procrastinating or dozing off you need to scream at your brain to go back to doing what you said you would do. After all what kind of person would not keep his word to himself … (yes mind tricks and self shame work too).

this has only worked for me a few times but during lectures id open a Word doc and type out anything worth noting

I mean this is literally note taking but it took me way too long to figure out lol

also sometimes id focus so hard on taking notes that I missed the next thing my professors talked about ADHD strategies really are just a bag of pros and cons and its frustrating

Adderall

I was going to ask you the same thing! Jk. Well I do love listening to youtube videos on the topic I’m trying to learn while driving or doing chores around the house. Finding an app that has relevant flashcards or exercises to learn the topic is fun.

I have to literally isolate myself from anything that can distract me. I’ve noticed that pressure from a looming deadline helps, but that’s not very healthy. What really gets me is the motivation to actually study, but I have been getting some good results with putting those ambient music or sounds on noise canceling headphones. For motivation, it’s hard. The mindset of “might as well” seems to work but is hard to get into the habit of doing. I have long commutes to school and if I’m bored I might as well look over my notes on my phone then be bored. Sometimes I just have a “blah day”, which is literally a day I just won’t get anything productive done if I don’t have to. And that’s ok, we tend to burn out quickly so it’s good to listen to our bodies. But I hope this helps!