Focus and effective studying

Japanese
#1

This is a sort of underground and not often talked about topic in language learning, but what are your methods for getting the most effective immersion and studying?
I get pretty good sleep but find myself really easily distracted and using around 10% of my brain when doing Anki and bunpro reps. Furthermore, it is really easy to zone out.

I’ve been recommended meditation and a straight posture and try to do at least 5 minutes a day and am thinking about quitting music altogether when studying (even though I only listen to calm instrumental). I find it hard to focus on one thing when stuff is moving in the background or I can hear other conversations, hence why I often use my noise-canceling earbuds.

What are some out there methods you all utilize? Offball questions like these usually awaken some interesting answers.

TLDR: How do I enter flow state on command and increase my studying effectiveness by being a focus god

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#2

Music might help, but it also might not. It depends on the individual.

Also I found out my focus highly varies by the time of the day, location and task.

For example, reading I try to do it off computer, with an electronic dictionary. If I’m on the computer or phone I might get distracted by something else.

You might want to try changing those variables on how you do it, and see if you see an improvement.

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#3

I’m one of those who find music to be helpful when studying–especially when doing Anki. Flashcards are so mindnumbingly boring that my mind tends to wander. Having music (instrumental) playing while doing it helps take the edge off.

The other thing that makes a huge difference for me is I walk while doing my flashcards (for which I use my phone). The combination of walking along with music helps me to focus better than I could if I was at the computer. You get a little bit of exercise that way, too.

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#4

I might suggest using the pomodoro technique, as it’s been a proven way to help keep focus and get things done. I don’t personally use it anymore, but I’ve used it in the past and I’ve benefitted from it.

Something I might recommend for this is maybe setting an internal timer, and whenever you’ve been on something too long (whatever you feel like is a good time) you fail the card. I personally feel like this is a great way to help stay focused as it puts you in a somewhat stressful situation to where you have to constantly be focused and be prepared to answer right away. I’ve been doing this with my vocab where if I don’t recall the word within 5 seconds I fail it regardless of if I remember the word a few seconds later. This method has really helped to keep me focused while reviewing in Anki. There’s an addon for Anki if you want to try where it times you on each card, and can play an alert when it hits a certain time.

Hopefully that somewhat helps.

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#5

I did pretty much all of my wanikani reviews whilst watching tv and movies. It’s probably a bad habit as far as paying full attention goes, but since you have to type in the correct answer it still just comes down to knowing it or not.

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#6

I use MyNoise for pretty much any time I need to focus on something. I just kind of choose whatever I’m feeling at the moment.

However, recently I’m reading a lot of short horror stories set in late fall/early winter so I’ve been listening to a lot of “fall” ambient sounds. It really sets the mood and makes reading a bit more enjoyable.

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#7

I like to study with no noise at all. I find doing bunpro and wanikani reviews really hard and boring, so try to do no more than about 20 at a time so that I don’t zone out. The rest of the time I practice immersion - reading books and listening to podcasts at my level in Japanese. If I’m interested in the story or speaker, I won’t lose focus. I look up all the new words in a dictionary and write them down rather than using anki. I spend 90% of my study time reading Japanese fiction : ) Good luck with your focus!

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#8

This is something I struggled with for years, but I think there are a few things that helped me.

  1. As josh suggested, the Pomodoro technique works quite well. The pomodoro technique suggests 25 minutes, with 5 minute breaks. If that is too much to start with I would recommend 15. It’s a good way to keep track of studying as well. Without this method, I think most people might convince themselves that they studies for say, one hour. When in reality they were distracted, looking at their phone, among other things.

  2. Quick meditation. I’m not very good at traditional, or even transcendental meditation, but I do use a meditation technique when I lose focus. I put on one relaxing music track I really like, close my eyes and just enjoy the track while taking somewhat deep breathes. For me, it resets my focus to a degree and is helpful when changing tasks.

  3. Gamification. While I don’t do this as much these days, for a long while I used Habitica to build good study habits and I think it really helped. I still gamify my tasks at work and it makes the day more enjoyable.

  4. Find joy in it. I love to sit at my computer and study. In fact, I love it so much i’m willing to do so after I’ve already being in front of another computer for work after 8 hours. Grab a drink, a coffee, a snack. If you have the money, invest in anything that will make your study easier and more enjoyable. A good desk, good lighting, easily accessible resources, a big monitor, or two, a keyboard you actually like to type on. All those small things are important. Not necessarily to make you more jouzu, but to actually enjoy that time getting jouzu. I mean, a Ford Focus and a Maserati will get you to the same place, but I’m pretty sure the drive would be more enjoyable in one over the other.

And overall, I get it man. I’ve struggled with studying and focus for years. I’m still not as good as I would like, but I’ve come a long way. And like you, I probably should work on my sleep more.

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#9

My 2 yen are that there’s big value in just putting in the hours, even if some of them aren’t 100% effective. You don’t need every study session to be perfect, but you do need to keep doing them.

In my case, consistency and discipline are key, more so than having a perfect focus every time. Although if you’re having a LOT of trouble focusing a small break might help a lot too.

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#10

I like background noise when I’m studying, but it can’t be a video or music. Unless the thing I’m studying is a podcast or a video or something, of course! But this is why I get my best studying done in the staff room at work, or with my butt firmly plonked in a Starbucks. Stuff happening around me, but it’s just there, not for me to engage with. If it’s a video I put on in the background I just end up watching it, if it’s music I simply cannot take in whatever I’m studying. Reading on the train is useful for me too.

The one thing that helps with my focus is just consistency. Not necessarily doing huge study sessions, but doing some every day, putting the time aside to do it and keep on it. Like I said, I do my best studying in my work breaks, so I mentally log that as “study time” and not “sit on phone and browse aimlessly” time. Sometimes the studying is talking with a coworker in Japanese, sometimes it’s reading a book, or the news, or just listening to a conversation and trying to parse it. I just try to make sure I do something in Japanese with my spare time, and that helps me keep focus. Perhaps because it’s something different every day more often than not too, haha.

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#11

My first task of each day is to get some reviews done and read a bit in Japanese. Normally I don’t miss days but I may miss a certain task (due to time or something unexpected or I just forgot haha).

When there is a some free time (eg 5 minutes) during the day, I generally try (not always succeed) to avoid social media and just use my phone for reviews + reading or do some reviews on Bunpro on my laptop / PC.

For Anki and Kanji Senpai (its like WaniKani), I do most of my reviews on my phone while standing, walking around or just waiting for something , or in coffee shops. The way I have set it up, I can’t use Anki to review stuff on desktop hehe (nor do I want to). I don’t know why but standing up and just walking about really helps when doing reviews on the phone to keep me focused.

Sometimes I do reviews on my desk but it would be with some paper to write the answers that I got wrong.

Most of my new material learning is done with a glass of wine in the evening while relaxing :smiley: or in coffee shops. I also try to read (and not use my phone as dictionary) most nights before going to bed…

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#12

I just found this website for focus in one of the links on MyNoise, Calmyleon works very good with me, especially how the high ranges are made for focus, highly recommend that.

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#13

Im giving Habitica a try, I already track my habits but gamified may be just what I need

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#14

Hi! I’ve tried Habitica a few years ago. I found it to be, well, too gamified. Many distractions in it to be very effective i think.
Recently, i’m trying Todoist (available on several platforms). Idea is the same: keeping a things of list of things we want to do, but the interface is much cleaner.

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