Focus & Concentration: Crash Course Study Skills #5 Video Lecture | Enhance your Study Skills: How to Study and Prepare? - Personal Skills

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Hi, I’m Thomas Frank, this is Crash Course
Study Skills, and with this video in particular,
I want you to promise me you’re not going
to click over to another tab to look at cats.
In exchange I’ll pretend that’s not exactly
what you did during the last four videos.
In all seriousness though, I do want you to ask yourself: when’s the last time you were able to sit down and intensely pay attention to one task for a long time?
If you’re anything like me, this has become
harder and harder to do as we’ve added more
distractions to our lives –
tweets, snaps, messages, browser tabs, cookies
that must be clicked – they’re in endless supply,
while your brain’s ability to resist them is, sadly, not.
So that’s why today we’re turning our
attention to attention itself.
Cue the intro.
[Theme Music]
Before we get into any specific tips, let’s first
answer the question of what attention really is.
Put simply, attention is the process of focusing your cognitive resources on one particular stimulus or source of information while ignoring all others in the environment.
Understanding this definition is important
because there are two main forms of attention.
The first is top-down, or voluntary attention, which
is based on “task demands” like needing to read a
page in a textbook or solve a math problem.
On the other side of the coin you’ve got
bottom-up, or stimulus-driven, attention.
Just like it sounds, this is automatically
focused attention due to stimuli in the environment
– SQUIRREL.
When you use your top-down attention to focus
on something, your brain activates inhibitory
mechanisms to block out competing stimuli.
It can’t do this forever, though; these mechanisms
eventually tire just like the muscles in our body, and this
leads to something called Directed Attention Fatigue.
This is part of what causes you to become
more and more distracted and less able to
focus on your work as time goes by.
Now, the strength of your inhibitory
mechanisms, and hence your ability to focus
on one task intensely, is variable.
It depends on lots of different factors, including:
- Your environment
- Your personal tendency to seek novelty when
faced with a boring or difficult task
- Your interest in the task itself
- Your brain’s current state, which is dependent
on the amount of fuel or food you’ve got, rest,
exercise, anxiety, and a lot of different factors.
- How long you’ve already been focusing your
attention
With that in mind, let’s look at several different things that you can do to strengthen your attention muscle and also give it as much ammunition as it can get to focus well on whatever task you need to finish.
The first thing you need to do is stop multi-tasking.
Many people try to deny it, but your brain
can’t actually do two things at once.
Think of your brain like a single-core processor
in a computer.
These types of processors don’t truly do
multiple things at once –
they just create the illusion of multi-tasking
by rapidly switching from one task to another.
So while you may think you’re simultaneously
watching this video and looking at pictures of cats
– which I did ask you very nicely
not to do –
your computer is actually just jumping
back and forth between each.
But your brain is not good at doing this, which is
why when you switch your attention from one task
to another, you incur a cognitive switching penalty.
Not only do you lose the raw amount of time
it takes to switch from one task to another,
but you also lose the amount of time it takes
for your brain to properly refocus its attention
and get back into the flow of things.
And this can take quite a while, both
because our brains simply take time to
truly focus on a task in the first place,
but also because switching from one task
to another creates attention residue.
As the author Cal Newport explains in his
book Deep Work:
“...when you switch from some Task A to another
Task B, your attention doesn’t immediately follow—
a residue of your attention remains
stuck thinking about the original task.”
This also happens when you switch from the task you’re supposed to be focusing on over to a distraction, and then go back to the task after a few minutes.
As you try to get back into the flow of your work,
you’ll be contending with the attention residue from
that mashup of the Space Jam and Cowboy Bebop
theme songs you just listened to on YouTube.
So, when you sit down and decide to work,
choose one task and make it your only focus.
You don’t have to sit there and work on
it until people mistake you for a hat rack,
but do spend at least 20 or 30 minutes on
it before switching to something else.
Secondly, tailor your environment for better
focus.
Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
Start by finding a spot, either in your room
or somewhere else, that you use ONLY for studying.
By doing this, you’re establishing a
spot for yourself that has just one context,
and context is powerful.
When your location, the people you’re around, and
all the other pieces of your environment point to a
single activity, you’ll be much more likely to do it.
When you’re in the gym, your brain knows
you’re there to work out.
And even if you don’t do it, it won’t be because
you’re sitting there trying to decide between doing
a set of pull-ups anddoing your laundry.
A lot of great artists understand this, and
they deliberately find or create spaces that
are only for work.
Some choose to work in cafes, like
Nicholson’s Cafe in Edinburgh, where J.K. Rowling
wrote much of her first book,
and some create isolated work spaces in their
own homes, like the author Steven Pressfield.
Those examples highlight another
important point, actually – there is no formula
for a perfect study spot.
It would seem like a silent, totally isolated desk
in the basement of a library would put the least
amount of strain on those inhibitory mechanisms,
but as J.K. Rowling can attest, some people
actually work better in a noisy coffee shop.
So you might need to experiment a bit before
you find the context that works best for you.
In general, though, the fewer things that
are competing for your attention, the better.
Thanks, Thought Bubble.
Once you’ve chosen your spot, prepare
it for your current task by putting away
anything non-essential.
This includes removing books and supplies
that are unrelated, closing any tabs or programs
you don’t need, and putting away your phone.
When you’re doing this, it can also be helpful to
break your current task down into smaller chunks
in order to decide what’s essential to have out.
The act of writing a research paper is a
good example here;
if you just think, “I have to write a paper,”
and then prep your study space for that
task, then you’ll have the internet open the
whole time so you can do research.
But in reality, you can break that task
down into several phases – brainstorming,
researching, drafting, and editing.
And once you do that, you’ll realize you
only need the internet for that research phase.
During all the other ones, you can close it
and cut its potential for being a distraction.
All those cats are still gonna be there later,
I promise.
Also, anticipate potential distractions that
might come up and try to get ahead of them.
Maybe put your phone on do not disturb so no one
can text you, or tell your friends you’re studying and
ask them not to bother you for a while.
Anything you can do to mitigate future distractions
will help you to stay focused and finish your work faster.
Once your study environment is established,
the next area you should look to improve is
your actual ability to focus.
As we talked about before, your attention
is like a muscle; it’s something you can train
over time to get stronger.
One of the best ways to do this is by learning
to resist cravings for novelty.
These are the sudden urges you get to check
Snapchat or watch video of a corgi jumping into a
lake while you’re working on your English homework.
You get these cravings because, by default,
your brain doesn’t like boredom or hard work.
But the strength of these cravings is set
by how often you give into them.
Our actions create habits and expectations
in our brains, and these become hard-wired
patterns of behavior.
And this means that every time you give into
that craving for a distraction, you’re ingraining
that decision as a habit.
Luckily, you can also train the opposite behavior.
By acknowledging a craving for novelty, and then
deliberately ignoring it and getting back to work,
you start to build a tolerance for boredom and wean
yourself off of that need for constant stimulation.
As you do this, your ability to focus on your
work strengthens.
You’re building that attention muscle.
Now, doing this is easier said than done – especially
at first.
However, there are tools you can use to give your
brain some extra firepower in the early stages.
Apps like Cold Turkey and StayFocusd can block
distracting websites entirely, while a tool like Forest
encourages you to ignore your phone by letting you
grow virtual trees.
And when you don’t need a tool like the
internet for your work, disconnecting it eliminates
its potential for distraction entirely.
Of course, even with training, your brain’s
ability to focus still diminishes over time.
Unlike computers, which are built to run all the time
as long as they’ve got a steady supply of resources,
our brains operate on a cycle of work and rest.
Your circadian rhythm, which governs your
sleep and wake cycle, is the best example – but
it also applies on the smaller scale as well.
After a certain amount of work, you need to
take a break.
Now the amount of time will vary from person to
person, but a good guideline to use is 25-30 minutes.
Once you’ve spent that long on a task, if
you feel your attention waning, take a break
for a few minutes.
Stand up, stretch, walk around a bit – maybe
get some water.
During these short breaks, it’s important
not to switch to another task or get involved
in something distracting,
as you don’t want to create that attention residue
that makes it harder to get back into your work.
After a few work sessions with these short
breaks in between, you can then take a longer
break to recharge.
And during these longer breaks, it’s fine
to switch to something easier or do something
fun for a little while –
as long as you’re planning in advance when
these breaks will happen.
That way, you’re deliberately choosing when to
work and when to indulge in distractions, rather than
letting your mind be ruled by cravings for novelty.
Now, as time goes on, you’ll probably find
that you can go longer and longer before
needing a break.
This is a good sign that you’re building
those attention muscles.
But realize that you’ll always have a limited
amount of focused energy you can expend in a day.
Eventually, you’ve got to call it quits
and go relax for a bit.
And relaxation isn’t the only thing your
brain needs.
To keep being able to focus and improve
long-term, you need to take care of your
brain’s biological needs as well.
We often think of the brain as this non
physical, ethereal realm that isn’t bound by the
same limitations of our bodies.
You know, “mind over matter” and all that stuff.
But your brain is still part of your body,
which means that it needs plenty of sleep, nutrients,
and exercise to work at peak efficiency.
So if you’re still struggling to focus,
look at your health habits.
Make sure you’re getting at least 7 hours of
sleep per night, eat healthy, and try to exercise
once a day, even if it’s just a short walk.
These things all take time, but – to quote
Deep Work once again: High Quality Work =
(Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)
Taking care of your brain will allow you to
focus more intensely when you do decide to work.
Of course, making that decision to start
working isn’t always easy,
which is why next week we’ll be tackling what is
probably the biggest problem students struggle
with, which is procrastination.
I’ll see you then.
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If you're looking to improve your study skills further, you might like this lecture from Professor Monisha Pasupathi, called Cognitive Constraints on Learning, which expands on how attention affects your learning experiences.
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