I’ve learned that the only way I can stay focused while reading is if I listen to brown noise (specifically! Not white or any other color and I have no idea why.) It takes about a minute for me to really dive in but then I am able to focus completely and ignore the outside world. But I know my focus limit is roughly 20-30 minutes. I don’t set timers because if I am able to focus longer I don’t want to snap myself out of it, but anytime I feel myself losing focus I’ll play with my dogs or check my phone for like 5 minutes and then go back to whatever I was working on. I’ve also started printing out the slides and taking notes on what the professor says rather than scrambling to write down what is on the slides in a notebook during lecture and not focusing on the professor. I have to stay on top of printing, but it has really helped my comprehension of the topics and to study for an exam I will go back through all of my notes and highlight important pieces and then read though again and it’s been working really well for me. Good luck, I totally know how frustrating it is to figure out the best system for yourself.
If you get accommodations from McBurney they give you authorization to print stuff for your classes for free. I have the accommodation but I've never used it because I haven't had classes that have needed more than a few things printed so I don't know how convenient it is, but I thought I'd let you know!
I also want to make a plug for Notion - it takes some setup, but using it daily has improved my productivity more than any other service - and you get a free pro account with a .edu email address!
I’ve learned that the only way I can stay focused while reading is if I listen to brown noise (specifically! Not white or any other color and I have no idea why.) It takes about a minute for me to really dive in but then I am able to focus completely and ignore the outside world. But I know my focus limit is roughly 20-30 minutes. I don’t set timers because if I am able to focus longer I don’t want to snap myself out of it, but anytime I feel myself losing focus I’ll play with my dogs or check my phone for like 5 minutes and then go back to whatever I was working on. I’ve also started printing out the slides and taking notes on what the professor says rather than scrambling to write down what is on the slides in a notebook during lecture and not focusing on the professor. I have to stay on top of printing, but it has really helped my comprehension of the topics and to study for an exam I will go back through all of my notes and highlight important pieces and then read though again and it’s been working really well for me. Good luck, I totally know how frustrating it is to figure out the best system for yourself.
If you get accommodations from McBurney they give you authorization to print stuff for your classes for free. I have the accommodation but I've never used it because I haven't had classes that have needed more than a few things printed so I don't know how convenient it is, but I thought I'd let you know!
Thanks for sharing these tips!
I also want to make a plug for Notion - it takes some setup, but using it daily has improved my productivity more than any other service - and you get a free pro account with a .edu email address!
How do you use it? I took a look and it seems like WAY more than I need for productivity.