“Focus is the ability to say no to things.”
Steve Jobs
This is to paraphrase Steve Jobs, one of the most successful visionaries of recent times. He changed the world as we knew it in more ways than one. So, if you want to find out how to focus on homework, you can take some things from him.
Like for example the quote above.
If you say no to anything not related to your homework, then you win more than half the battle. You’ll have most of your mental bandwidth to dedicate to your homework and similar things.
Extrapolating the lessons further, you’ll also find out how to focus on school. We’ll be talking about all of that right here.
It’s Easier for Some Students to Do Their Homework, but How?
When you go to your class (and this is true for everyone by the way). You’ll positively find some students who are extremely consistent with their homework.
You must realise that they are indeed doing something right. And you can take a page out of their book into your own. But we’re going to go far beyond that, so that you can have the right tools that will allow you to focus.
One thing that we should honestly mention in this context that focussing has already been an ever-ongoing task.
Like, you decide you want to focus as you feel the need to. And in your head, you have both an emotional as well as a logical case for such a decision.
That focus you’re able to muster is only a temporary thing, which you’re likely aware of as you’re reading this article.
How to Focus on Homework like Smart Students
You might think that smart students are better at this because of their ability to solve questions better.
But that isn’t the case most of the times.
Where they excel is to put themselves in a situation that is more conducive to them getting their task done.
What does that mean.
It can start from listening more carefully to what the teacher is teaching in class. Then asking the right questions about the subject as they have the opportunity. All the way to devising creating ways of solving problems and everything in between.
They also have figured out how to focus during a test, so that they can answer questions and score better.
As you’ll see when we list the action steps, that they are already doing some of them.
But if you do exactly what they’re doing, it will be difficult to do better. So, we’ve listed more than that to help you with your homework and overall studies.
3 Things Smart Students Do to Successfully Complete their Homework Every Time
Here’s how the smart students in your class approach their homework and consistently finish it.
Take notes right after the lecture is over
Taking notes is a no-brainer when it comes to getting the most you can out of a lecture. But there’s a right way to do it and a wrong way.
Usually, students attend a lecture with pen and paper right by their side for that purpose only. And they take notes as the lecture progresses.
That’s not the right way.
We know that our brains are good at focussing on only one task at a time. But listening while taking notes goes against that and leads to less attentiveness towards the lecture. As a result, the comprehension will be poor.
What the smart students do is listen to the lecture with full attention, then take the important notes right as it ends. This involves a greater degree of mental effort which is very much worth it.
Careful listening and recall of the information as they are taking the notes is what imprints the information in the mind. This makes it a lot easier for the student to complete their homework.
Complete homework at the beginning of study session
There will always be a lot to do in a study session, but smart students prioritise properly.
Now if you hold off your homework for later in the study session, then the likelihood that you will complete it goes down.
With this approach, smart students are able to consistently finish homework. And talking about recall once again, they learn the subject in a better way. Thus fulfilling the true purpose of having homework to do.
Seek out extra resources if they are stuck
There will always be things that you will find difficult to do. Smart students use such scenarios as opportunities to learn the subject better.
With the internet at hand, they Google the answers and explanations and thus clear their doubts. They also don’t shy away from calling up people who can help them with that.
Thus, you can see that they keep in mind the goal of completing the homework and learning the lesson from it.
So you can see that they show a great degree of commitment when it comes to homework. But now we’ll show you how to focus on homework in the best possible way.
How to Focus on Homework by Making 4 Changes in Your Approach
Now it’s no secret to you how the smartest students in your class have figured out how to focus on homework.
Here, we’re going to show you 5 changes that you can incorporate into your study sessions. With these, you’ll be able to put yourself into a situation to have the most focus while doing your homework.
Find the Quietest Place in your Home
A noisy place is arguably the worst when it comes to getting your mind to focus. And that’s the first step that you need to take care of.
This can be any spot in or outside of your house where there will be minimum noise. Once you find a place like this, you’ll have to make it your own. Best if that be your own room, where you can ensure there won’t be any kind of disturbing noise.
And tell people in your home that you’re working on your homework.
But you can go a step further and use a whitenoise machine to block out any distracting sound.
It’s nothing but a collection of all the frequencies that our ears can hear played in random order. And all of them are at the same amplitude, which makes it a flat sound profile.
This works fantastically to drown out any and every background noise which prove to be distracting.
Once you have arranged for this step, you can adopt the next one.
Put a Strict Stop on Anything Distracting on the Internet
This is one of the biggest challenges of our modern times, and gets the best of us. Non-stop entertainment is with us in our pockets 24*7, and students are most vulnerable to this.
If you’re tempted to check any notification on your phone, or want to visit some website for entertainment. That will create a lot of problems for your focus.
The best thing to do is to block all of these off. That way you won’t even have to think about not doing it. Therefore no distractions from that end, and you get to preserve the limited amount of willpower for studies.
You can use one of the great many website / app blocking tools available, of which BlockerX is a great option. Thus making it easier for you to focus on your homework.
Go For a Run Right Before you Start
Research in sports science has unveiled the positive effect that aerobic exercise has on learning.
To put it simply, if your brain gets a better supply of oxygen, then it will function better. Beyond that, by performing some kind of aerobic exercise, like running, you expel a lot of pent up energy.
If you want to figure out how to focus on homework, then this’ll be one of the best starting points.
The best thing about this is that there will be both immediate as well as long-term positive effects. You can pick any kind of aerobic exercise that you see fit and enjoy the benefits on the go.
The Smart Break Technique
There are many ‘how to focus on homework’ instructional that suggest taking breaks in between the task. That way you’ll be able to maintain optimal levels of focus.
But keeping fixed blocks of time after which you must take a break is pretty rigid an approach.
That’s why you should take breaks whenever you’re stuck at a point in your homework. Just keep in mind that the minimum time block is 20 minutes. After that you can take a call depending on your quality of focus.
If you don’t feel the need to get up, then don’t and focus on finishing your homework.
Be strategic with your breaks and in that time, walk around for about 5 to 10 minutes. This will free up your mind for the next round of focus.
Wrapping up..
You now know effective ways of how to focus on homework that will help you. Start with these and see how they are working for you.
Sometimes it can get difficult to focus. But you can fall back on these to make sure you’re able to complete your homework. And be sure to put your twist if you have any to modify these methods to your need.
We’ll be happy to hear from you how these have worked and what other methods you’d suggest.
Feel free to do that in the comments below.
