By Sakshi Gupta:
When I sit to study, I find myself out of my chair after a concentration of half an hour on just 2-3 pages. This is because, we, the students of today are hemmed in distractions.”THEY” range from cell phones to Facebook messages, from noise of the surroundings to the music which seems to please while studying.
Their are many distractions available for Generation ‘Y’.The most prevalant is the internet. While it earlier seemed to be a pool of knowledge for the students, now it has become an amalgam for failure and intolerable behaviour of the students. It is the Internet which has made access to those people whom you never thought you would talk to by introducing Facebook, MySpace, Instant Messenger and many other such distractions. Students today tend to be multi-tasking especially when it comes to studying. Listening to the hot favourite songs and texting on cell phone are two of the most common distractions available in a student’s life.
Among those in that same age group who did other things while studying, many reported relatively passive diversions. Eighty-four percent said they listened to music as a side activity, 47% watched TV and 22% watched a movie. But teenage respondents also enjoyed multi-tasking with things that required active participation, the poll found, including talking on the phone (32%), going on the Internet (21%), instant messaging (15%), sending or reading e-mail (13%), text messaging (13%) and playing a video game (6%).
A recent experiment at UCLA suggests that being distracted also changes how we remember information. Video games have been quiet an alluring side acticity for people of all age group, but it has been observed gaming stresses the mind and there is a lot of mind exercise required in it.
To study with concentration, a few steps must be followed:-
1. Remove Distractions: Students must find themselves a congenial place which is free from distractions such as noise and must be serene enough.
2. You need to utilize the time of the day which suits you the best, in which you feel fresh and can easily grasp whatever you study. Researchers have proved that 60 minutes study at morning is equivalent to 90 minutes study at night.
3. You need to focus on the ongoing task and it must be given the utmost priority. We should try and keep ourselves away from the distractions. For instance, you must study for the time you had previously decided without peeping into your notifications on your Facebook account.
4. Set Goals: You must decide before we sit to study that for how long you have to study and what all is it that we have to study.
5. Positive attitude: Tell yourself that whatever you do will be your absolute best. Don’t say ‘I can’t do it’ or ‘it must be perfect’.
6. Rest/Stretch time: Take short breaks, and get up and walk around. When we move, blood is pumped around the body and more oxygen is sent to the brain.
7. Changing the subject: It’s better not to concentrate on the same subject for too long. You will absorb more information if you change subject or topic every one to two hours.
8. Reward yourself: Give yourself an incentive. By having something to look forward to when you finish your work, you are more likely to get stuck in.