3 Focus Techniques for Studying Using Timers

Last Updated: 5th July 2021

Here are 3 techniques than help me to stay focused for longer:

1. Stopwatch:

This was a technique I used a lot during sixth form and I found it particularly effect when I didn’t always know how long I would have to study in each session. I would literally just use the stopwatch on my phone and while ever I was studying I would set it running. I would often set myself a goal for the day, usually 4 hours and try to complete that during my study sessions and after school.

I also found this a very helpful technique to avoid or at least monitor procrastination, as the stopwatch app would be the last thing open before I locked my phone to study and if I unlocked my phone to check social media, I would pause the timer. This meant I could keep track of how much time I actually spent being productive. It also meant that if I reached for my phone to check something I was reminded that I was meant to be studying.

2. Forest (Phone blockers):

Ahh, forest. Everyone’s favourite. Forest is an app that blocks your phone for an amount of time and grows a little pretend tree in order to encourage you to be productive; if you exit the app before the tree has finished growing it dies.

There are lots of apps that use this principle, Forest is just the one I use and I continue to use it because I really like it and I like being able to see my history over time.

I like to use this when I am studying for a few hours in the library or at my desk in the evening. As painful as it is, I just have to force myself to push grow on a 1 or 2 hour tree and then I have no choice but to focus for that amount of time.

I find this to be the most effective technique in terms of getting me to work but I don’t find this sustainable if I need to study for an entire day. I become bored and will just find other ways to procrastinate, including the internet on my tablet or laptop.

3. Pomodoro:

And lastly another popular favourite, the pomodoro technique; where you study for 25 minutes, then take a 5 minute break and repeat. It is advised to do this four times before taking a longer break of around 30 minutes. Obviously these times can be customised and there are hundreds of apps out there to do this automatically for you so I don’t have one in particular to recommend.

My favourite time to use this is on a weekend when I play on studying for the whole day. Although taking this many breaks means you do get fewer hours of work done over a long time, I find this to be much more sustainable when I aim to study for an entire day.

Pro-tip: Smartphones and social media apps are designed to be addictive, and it is very easy for these 5 minute breaks to stretch to much larger times. I have found that, for me, the best thing to do in these quick 5 minute breaks is simple chores such as tidying my room, doing the washing up or cleaning my makeup brushes. If one of these tasks takes longer, for example 15 minutes, then do it over multiple 5 minute breaks. This is much less addictive and you will find it much easier to return to your work. You should also set a 5 minute timer for the breaks so that you don't lose track of time.

p.s. I find all of these techniques useful when completing a challenge such as #100daysofstudy because they automatically track the number of hours that I have spent studying in one day.