Can’t Focus After 2 Hours of Studying? Try These Game-Changing Tips!

It’s midnight, and your desk is piled up with books, notes, and deadlines screaming back in your mind, reminding you continuously about your target. Studying for long hours is often linked to a marathon, which demands endurance as well as strategic planning and mental resilience. Whether preparing for Board exams or competitive exams such as IIT, NEET, UPSC, and CLAT, staying motivated throughout the journey can feel like a Herculean task. Don’t worry, you are not alone, lakhs of students preparing for exams think such things, even if the topper of any exam once during their preparation time had the same thoughts.

The question is what keeps these toppers motivated and helps them crack the toughest exam? Did you know that students who follow specific goal-setting techniques are more likely to succeed than those who don’t? This fact underlines the importance of motivation in a student's life. This blog is designed to help students stay motivated during long study hours. Getting expert insights, scientific research, using psychological strategies, and practical tips from achievers will guide students to achieve their academic goals. We will also explore the reason behind motivation fluctuation, the impact of distractions, and how students can combat them to optimise their study time.

1. What is Motivation?

Walt Disney: "All our dreams can come true if we dare to pursue them."

Motivation is an intrinsic force that drives you to achieve your personal as well as academic goals. It is the main driving force behind every action in our lives. Whether to get up early to maintain physical health or to study hard to achieve academic dreams, all come from the inner voice of motivation.

a. The Science Behind Motivation:

Motivation is a multifaceted concept which has intrigued scientists and researchers for centuries. It is that driving force of our inner self that propels us to take action and pursue our goals. But how do we get motivated? What is the science behind it? If we get these answers, we can provide valuable insights into how to sustain it during long study hours.

b.  Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic Motivation:

This type of motivation gives us inherent satisfaction and internal rewards, as this comes from within. When we are intrinsically motivated, then work is not a burden for us, as it becomes enjoyable, interesting, and personally fulfilling. For instance, a student who loves to read books enjoys it as it is not to get grades, praise, or any reward, but it is purely for the pleasure the books bring to his life. According to a study in the Journal of Educational Psychology, intrinsically motivated students tend to achieve higher academic success.

Extrinsic Motivation:

Extrinsic motivation refers to engaging in an activity that gives us external rewards such as grades and recognition. For instance, preparing for competitive exams to get a high-paying job and other facilities. Although extrinsic motivation can be effective, it can't be a reason for motivation in the long run.

But why does motivation fluctuate or dip during the long study sessions for students?

According to the research published in  Psychological Science, motivation operates in cycles. Initially, we are excited about the work, but as we move further, the task becomes monotonous and we lose our focus. This phenomenon is known as “task aversion” and typically remains for 45 minutes to an hour of continuous input of any work you are doing. So this is the main reason why we lost our focus; understanding this pattern is the key to overcoming it. Other than this, various other factors, such as a combination of psychological, neurological, and environmental factors, play a crucial role in waning motivation. Let’s have a look at them one by one:

2. Psychological factors:

1. Goal Gradient Effect: As we start a new task and prepare for this with our maximum efforts, we feel excited, but as we spend some time on it, the initial excitement fades away. Again, when we come closer to achieving our goals, we feel motivated and excited for the result of our hard work.

2. Procrastination: When we decide to do something, if it is started with an immediate effect, then only we can move further. If we delay the task, we may lose the motivation for that work. Procrastination evolves due to fear of failure in the task, perfectionism, or feeling overwhelmed by that work.

3. Neurological Factors:

• Dopamine Effect: Our brain has superpower to control our actions, it releases dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in staying motivated. When we achieve any small task, it releases as a reward and drives us to take another action. However, over time, the brain becomes less responsive to dopamine as we feel the task monotonous, which leads to decreased motivation.
• Mental Fatigue: Prolonged periods of concentration can lead to mental fatigue, and we feel exhausted, which makes it harder to stay motivated. When we focus for a longer period or we are stressed and tired, our brain’s prefrontal cortex, which is the governing agent of thoughts, decision-making, and maintaining focus, becomes less efficient.

4. Environmental Factors:

• Distractions: The Environment plays a crucial role in focusing and concentrating for a long period. A noisy or cluttered environment can make it difficult to focus, which leads to a loss of motivation.
• Social Interactions: It is quite important to be surrounded by a positive social environment, as it can boost your motivation and inspire you to move confidently in your academic journey. Negative interaction can have a reverse effect on you and create a disturbance.

Overall, there are many factors that drag us behind in achieving our goals, but developing strategies to overcome these factors will help us to be motivated in the long term of time.

5. Strategies to Keep Motivation High:

Low motivation can have several detrimental effects, which can impact various aspects of our lives. Students who are feeling demotivated for any reason struggle with procrastination and a lack of initiative, which leads to lower quality of work. Moreover, low motivation can increase stress and anxiety and later on lead the individual towards depression. It is important to keep your motivation high during the entire academic journey. Let’s see what strategies should be used to be motivated :

• Break Down Your Study Time :

Studying for a longer time is the need of the hour when you are preparing for competitive exams such as UPSC, CLAT, IIT, NEET, and CAT. As you have to cover a vast syllabus in a limited time duration. Consequently, students push their boundaries and force themselves to study 12-14 hrs a day. Sometimes more than this, they cut their sleeping time, and eating time as well as stop socialising, which are the basic needs of anyone. Is it going to help them? No, soon they feel exhausted as they can’t continue the same routine for a longer period. Always remember, the Competitive exams journey is a marathon, so keep moving instead of running. So, how to stay motivated and keep studying without feeling exhausted? There are many methods to stay focused for longer, which help guide you throughout the academic journey. Let’s see a few of them.

1. Pomodoro Technique: It was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. This time-management system divides long study sessions into short intervals, typically lasting 25 minutes, followed by short breaks.

How It Works:

• Students need to set a timer for 25 minutes while studying, which motivates them to study with full focus.
• After 25 minutes, they can have a break of 5 minutes as a reward for their continuous focus.
• Students need to complete four Pomodoro intervals, and they can have a longer break of 15-30 minutes in which they can do other activities.

Why it Works:

• Prevents burnout: This technique helps students to focus for short bursts, which saves their energy and keeps them concentrated for a long period.
• Boosts productivity: After focusing continuously for 25 minutes, these short breaks of 5 minutes encourage the brain to reset and start fresh, reducing the chance of fatigue.
• Encourages consistency: Small, manageable tasks feel less overwhelming and help students stay motivated to complete the whole task.

• Various researchers suggest that taking small, frequent breaks can increase overall productivity. These small breaks help to maintain mental clarity and focus over a long period.

   

  ii. The PQ4R Method: The most challenging task for students is to understand and retain the exam-related material. The PQ4R method is a strategy which is designed for students to improve their grasping power and retention capabilities. It stands for Preview, Question, Read, Reflect, Recite and Review. Let's see what is the breakdown of this method and how it works:

• Preview: Before starting to read, first of all, students should skim through the material to get an overview of the content. Check the headings, subheadings, illustrations, and summaries to get a sense of what they are going to learn.
• Question: It is important to frame the questions based on the subheadings and headings that students preview. This will help them to focus and provide them with a purpose to read.
• Read: When we have questions in our mind, our brain becomes curious to seek the answers, which motivates us to read. It is important to take notes and highlight the key points to focus more on the topic.
• Reflect: Think about what you have read and how it relates to what you already know. To retain it longer, it is important to make connections and understand the deeper meaning of the material.
• Recite: Summarise the information that you have learned in your own words and recite it out loud. This will help to reinforce your understanding and memory.
• Review: After reading the whole material, it is crucial to go over the material again, along with the notes and summaries you have prepared earlier. Answer the questions you initially formulated to ensure you have grasped the content completely.

By following the PQ4R Method, you can stay focused for longer periods, enhance your comprehension, and improve your overall study effectiveness.

           iii. The Eisenhower Matrix:

It is also known as the Urgent-Important Matrix, which is an effective time management tool. Students preparing for competitive exams or board exams need to prepare in a limited time for the exams. This technique helps to prioritise tasks based on their urgency and importance. Named after Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States, renowned for his time management skills, this matrix categorises tasks into four quadrants.

• In the first quadrant, students have tasks that are both urgent and important and require immediate attention to achieve their goals.
• The second quadrant consists of tasks that are important but not urgent, for instance, creating a study schedule for the exam period is crucial but can be done later.
• The third quadrant contains tasks that are urgent but not important, often requiring immediate action but not contributing significantly to long-term goals, and can typically be delegated to others, for instance, responding to non-critical messages or emails from classmates.

• Lastly, the fourth quadrant includes tasks that are neither urgent nor important, and they are only for distraction or disturbance. It is crucial to recognise these and eliminate them. For example, browsing social media or watching videos unrelated to studies, which is nowadays a huge distraction.

  By using the Eisenhower Matrix, individuals can focus on what truly matters and manage their time more effectively.

• Set Clear, Achievable Goals

Studying for an hour with a goal is more productive than studying for hours without any goal. Students must have a clear vision and objectives which quickly sap their motivation. If your goals are not clear, how would you measure your progress as engaging in studies for hours becomes a daunting task.

Tips for Setting Effective Study Goals:

To effectively achieve study goals, it is crucial to break them into smaller and more manageable tasks, as we have discussed in the Pomodoro technique. Use SMART goals, make sure they are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, which can enhance a student’s productivity. For instance, setting a goal of memorising 20 new words in the next 35 minutes is easier to manage than reading the whole book. Furthermore, it is important to keep checking your progress by using a journal or checklist as these small achievements will boost your confidence and also increase performance. Remember that goals that are challenging yet achievable enhance the productivity of students.

• Use Rewards to Reinforce Positive Behaviour

Rewards are powerful motivational tools that strengthen our study habits and help us to persevere through longer hours of study. After achieving a small milestone, if we reward ourselves, then our brain gets positive feedback, which helps us to sustain motivation and engagement. To use this technique of reward effectively, consider implementing small rewards for short-term goals; for instance, after every 30 minutes or hour of focused studying, treat yourself to a short walk.

If students complete a long-term goal like completing geography in 10 days without any distraction, then larger rewards are appropriate. Research published in NeuroImage supports this approach, as it found that rewarding oneself for task completion activates the brain's reward centre, further enhancing motivation and engagement.

• Create a Study Routine and Environment That Enhances Focus

For the students, it is paramount that they have a fixed study schedule and an optimised environment, as it will increase their motivation during long study sessions. When we follow a routine then our body and brain rearrange their biological clock accordingly and establish a rhythm, and condition our brain to associate that time. Another thing that plays a pivotal role in the focused study is the dedicated space, which is well-lit, organised, and equipped with all the necessary materials. Changing the atmosphere refreshes our mood and makes us feel relaxed ultimately we get motivated and more focused.

• Maintain Physical and Mental Health for Sustained Energy

As we all know, "A healthy body has a healthy mind," so it is vital to maintain physical and mental health. For achieving a goal in life, your body and mind should be in top shape, as neglecting your health can lead to a drop in motivation. Students need to do light physical exercise daily or take a walk to take a break from continuous study. Exercising daily enhances our focus as it increases blood flow to the brain, improves cognitive function, and reduces stress. Eating nutritious foods that fuel your body and mind is essential for your long-term health. Additionally, get enough sleep for memory consolidation and better performance. Research from Harvard Medical School shows that exercise and proper nutrition can significantly enhance brain function and improve memory retention, making long study hours more productive.

• Embrace Mindfulness and Meditation

Embracing meditation and mindfulness can help to stay focused and improve mental clarity. Meditation helps to improve focus, reduce stress, and enhance retention power, ultimately helping students to remember and understand the study material more effectively. The benefits of mindfulness include lowering stress levels and anxiety, as this activity acts on the parasympathetic nervous system. Moreover, mindfulness increases grey matter density in our brains, which improves attention span and memory retention. In a study published in Psychological Science, researchers found that just 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation per day could significantly improve focus and cognitive flexibility, key aspects of staying motivated during long study sessions.

• Stay Accountable to Someone or Something

Enduring long study hours can become increasingly challenging and frustrating when faced alone. For this, students must have a companion to whom they can be accountable, as it is a powerful method of staying motivated. You can choose a study partner, a mentor, or a productivity app that helps you throughout this phase. Group study also helps to clear your doubts, think differently about the same problem, review notes, and have breaks together. If you don't have such partners, you can also take help from accountability apps like Habitica, StickK, or Beeminder to track your progress and make commitments to others or yourself; some of these apps involve a financial stake if you fail to meet your goals.

• Learn from Failures

"Failures are the pillars of success" is a powerful reminder of the importance of embracing failure as an integral part of the learning process. With this mindset, you can learn from your failures a valuable lesson that can lead to improved performance and resilience for the next attempt. Opportunity to analyse what went wrong, and identify areas where to work more, this cycle of reflection and adaptation helps us to grow stronger and more capable. Learning from failures means showing yourself the truth and leading towards the right track to achieve your goals.

• Track Your Progress

While studying for long hours, it's paramount to track your daily progress, as it gives you tangible evidence of your hard work. For instance, if you keep studying history and taking notes, at the end of the month, you will forget how much you have covered the syllabus, where you are having difficulty, and which topic you have to focus on more. If you are using a progress journal or application, it will guide you by identifying patterns in your study habits, highlighting how you can improve and what needs to be adjusted. This awareness helps you refine your approach, ensuring that you make the most of your study sessions. By addressing these challenges head-on, you can develop problem-solving skills and resilience, which are essential for academic success.

6. Mastering Long Study Hours with Ease:

It is quite overwhelming to study massive, detailed, and intricate books, which are filled with facts and data without any visuals. Here comes the role of smart and active way of learning methods, which offer an effective way to engage with study materials. These active methods transform long study sessions into productive and enjoyable experiences. Moreover, actively participating in the learning process helps in better retention of information and makes your study session less monotonous. Here are some strategies to help you harness the power of active learning during your study sessions.

i. Summarising:

After studying a topic, if you summarise it in your own words, it helps reinforce the material and identify any gaps in your understanding of the topic. Moreover, summarising the topic means again processing the information and presenting it concisely, which ultimately helps you to make it easier to remember.

ii. Teaching Others:

After reading the lesson and preparing the notes, if you teach your friend or your study partner the same thing, it will help you retain the information for a long time. For instance, the topic of antibodies and antigen interaction in Immunology is quite difficult to remember as it has a huge list of MHC proteins, but using the teaching method, you deeply learn the topic and make clear all the doubts of your friend, as teaching someone is learning the concept again.

iii. Using Mnemonic Devices:

Using tricks and techniques such as creating acronyms, rhymes, or visual images to remember complex information can ease your study as well as save you time. For instance, HOMES: To remember the Great Lakes of North America: Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior.Using funny tricks to recall the lengthy periodic tables in Chemistry or revising the complex Mathematical formulas. Mnemonics make recall easier and can be especially useful for memorising lists or sequences.

iv. Self-Quizzing:  

Asking questions while reading the material is the best way to delve more in the material. This can include both factual questions, such as when World War II occurred?  Analytical questions like Why did the French Revolution occur? What are the reasons behind it? Questioning helps to develop critical thinking skills and understand the material on a wider and deeper level.

v Discussion Groups:

When we discuss the things we learn, it lasts for a longer time as we have learned from different perspectives and covered an in-depth analysis. It is a good idea to make a group of studious students who dedicate themselves to discussing complicated topics and make them easy to understand.

vi Retrieval Practice:

After reading and preparing notes, it is crucial to regularly recall the information without looking at your notes. This will improve your retention power and enhance your ability to retrieve information during exams.

vii Self-Testing:

Regularly test yourself on the material you've studied. This could be through practice exams, flashcards, or quiz apps. Self-testing helps reinforce your memory and identify areas that need further review. Incorporating these active learning methods into your study routine can make long hours more effective and engaging, leading to better comprehension and retention of the material.

7. Techniques for Deep Learning

There is a major difference between memorising the content and understanding it deeply. When you spend time and energy to thoroughly understand the content, you will retain it for a longer time. Various techniques help us to understand the course material deeply. Let’s see a few of them:

i. The Feynman Technique:

This technique is named after the popular physicist Richard Feynman, who guides the students on how to master any complex topic. The technique involves choosing a complicated topic and explaining it in a clear, straightforward way, as we teach the children in schools. Identifying the areas where the explanation is not clear by revisiting the source material. By breaking down the concept into easy terms, this technique highlights the areas of weakness and reinforces comprehension through active learning methods.

ii. Spaced Repetition: 

If we review any facts, data, or any tricky formula at increasing intervals over some time, then we can learn it or retain the information for a long period. This is a psychological spacing effect, which indicates that information is better memorised when reviewed at spaced intervals. To implement this technique, students should break down the lengthy material into small parts and start to review it, slowly increasing the intervals. For instance, 50 vocabulary words can be separated into a set of 10 and can be repeated after 1 day, 3 days, 1 week, and then a month by using flashcards. This process leverages the increasing intervals between reviews to solidify the material in your long-term memory. Using a tool like Anki can automate the scheduling of these reviews and help track your progress more efficiently.

8. Leveraging Visual Aids for Enhanced Learning:

Visual aids can enhance understanding and retention by presenting information in a more engaging and easily digestible format. Here are some types of visual aids:

i. Mind Mapping: 

Mind mapping is a powerful technique that helps students to organise information in a map form and make complex information more manageable and easier to understand. For instance, energy regulations in the Krebs Cycle in Biology can be easily memorised by visual diagrams that organise the information hierarchically; here, the central idea of energy exchange can be branched out into related topics and subtopics. To create the mindmap of any topic, start placing the central idea in the middle of the page, then draw the branches from the main idea to different topics. If needed, you can add sub-branches for subtopics. To make the mind map more engaging, use colours, images, and symbols to highlight key points and show relationships between different concepts. This approach not only makes complex information more understandable but also aids in memory retention and creative thinking. Let’s see a mind map of healthy living to understand how this visual technique works to make us learn complex topics.

ii. Charts: 

We can revise the whole lesson in a very concise way with the help of bar graphs, pie charts, and line graphs, as these can be used to easily represent quantitative data trends and patterns. We can easily compare the information and analyse it with its help it. For instance, remembering the water cycle can be easily accomplished with a pie chart.

iii. Diagrams: 

Diagrams, such as flowcharts and Venn diagrams, are valuable tools for illustrating processes, relationships, and comparisons. They are particularly useful for visualising complex concepts or systems in a more comprehensible manner. By organising information visually, diagrams make it easier to understand and retain key ideas.

Conclusion

"Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside you that is greater than any obstacle." – Christian D. Larson. 

Motivation isn't something that can be given or borrowed from others. True motivation comes from within. If you rely on external sources for motivation, it’s merely a superficial boost. Believe in your inner drive and let it fuel your journey towards success. Students often feel challenged to be motivated for a long study session. In this blog, we have discussed scientifically proven tips and techniques to guide the students in their academic journey. By understanding the intricacies of motivation and incorporating these insights into your study routine, you can unlock your full potential and achieve your academic goals. Remember, motivation is not a constant state but a dynamic force that can be nurtured and sustained with the right approach. So, lace up your mental running shoes and embark on your study marathon with confidence and determination. Success is within reach, one motivated step at a time.

Staying motivated during long study hours doesn't have to be an uphill battle. By applying strategies such as using the Pomodoro technique, setting clear goals, rewarding yourself, optimising your study environment, prioritising physical and mental health, embracing mindfulness, and staying accountable, you can keep your focus and energy high. Motivation may ebb and flow, but with these evidence-backed tips, you can navigate the lows and push through to success. Remember, studying is not just about how long you study, but how effectively you use that time. With the right tools and mindset, you can turn those long hours into periods of intense productivity and growth.