Speaker 1: In this video, I'm going to share with you six unique and secret tips on how to stay 100% focused while studying. If you don't know me, hi, my name is Han. I'm an engineering grad from Columbia University. Let's just get straight into it. Tip number one, don't study just for the reason of getting ahead of the schedule. Let's say you have an assignment due in four days and you plan to allocate one hour each day, totaling four hours of studying. On the first day, you found yourself at your desk, start studying, prepare some snacks, and allow yourself to check your phone a couple times. After an hour of what you thought was studying, you realize you've only completed 20 minutes of work. You reassure yourself that's okay because you still have three days left. The next two days follow a similar pattern. So on the last day, you're forced to prime three hours to finish the assignment. So instead of squandering the first three days and ended up studying more than four hours in total, it's better to schedule a four hours dedicated studying session on the last day. This way, your motivation will be way stronger and your focus will naturally become better. I'm not saying that you should procrastinate, but if you keep doing the first three days studying session in this example, it can give you a negative experience of studying. This condition your brain to think that it's okay to not focus and daydream while you're studying, which can lead your overall attention span decrease. You want to be productive and focused whenever you study. If you already have the urge to leave the video or shift your attention away, you should probably improve your focus by watch until the end of the video. Number two, someone is judging you for being lazy. Go to a public space like a coffee shop or a library and choose a person nearby. Imagine that they're judging you whenever you're on your phone, have bad posture or daydreaming. I know this may sound like a joke, but I swear it works. I just perform better when someone is watching me. We all dress prettier outside than at home because we do care about other people's opinions, even strangers. When I'm at a coffee shop studying, every time my attention wanders away or I start scrolling on my phones or just daydreaming in general, I will look at the person and think, oh, oh, they're judging me. Tip number three, don't focus on completing the tasks. It's very difficult to stay focused when you're studying a foreign subject. So instead of focusing on completing the tasks, focusing on some specific skill that you do find interesting or fun. For example, when I'm creating this YouTube channel you're watching, if I have the mindset of, oh, I need to finish this video because after I post it, my channel will blow up. No, I don't care about that because there's no guaranteed result. If I keep thinking like that, I will never post this video. However, I know for sure if I'm putting into effort of making this video, my scripting skills or filming skills and just overall video making skills will for sure improve. I know my time will not be wasted and the overall process is just more enjoyable. And we sometimes have the mindset of, oh, if I can just get through this, then I will be free. One thing I realized that is I never had any troubles playing video games or watching TV shows because I genuinely found it so interesting and engaging while I'm doing those things. So imagine you're writing an essay that you found the topic is very boring, focus on a specific skill or two such as researching or learning new vocabularies, then you can make it a game. Challenge yourself to use five more new words or to learn five more new facts. This way you will be way more engaged and focused while you're writing the essay because you genuinely do care and you're having fun. Tip number four, get rid of external distractions. Take a picture of your study space and see what some distractions are there that you didn't even realize and clean them. It might be old notes, coffee mugs, or a bunch of cords. Only leave pens and study materials you need. When your desk is clear, your mind is more clear. For the love of God, just put your phone away and turn off the notification button. Sometimes it's just the act of habits of checking your phone. So just put them away so it's harder to reach. And every time you want to leave your desk, it's a reminder of that you're getting distracted. Tip number five, get rid of internal distractions. Focus only one thing at a time and take care of the rest beforehand. Make a list of things that are on your mind before starting the study session. Write them down and plan to address them in the future. If there are other unfinished tasks lingering around back in your mind, they can cause anxiety and prevent you from truly relaxing and focusing on your study. For example, if you have both math homework and chemistry homework today, instead of straight jump into studying math homework, you should have a look at the chemistry homework, estimate how long it probably will take you. If you take only two hours, then you know when to put that time block on your calendar to take care of it later. This way, when you try to study your math homework, you will fully invest in the math homework. Tip number six, have a reward that you will get after you finish the task as motivation. For example, you can hang out with your friend or watch another episode of K-dramas once you finish your homework. Write the reward down somewhere visible so that whenever you get distracted, you will see it as a reminder and motivation to go back to studying. I usually prefer to study earlier in the day. If I finish my to-do list, then I'm free to relax for the rest of the day. So if I keep sitting in front of the desk and just not doing any work, I know it's going to delay my reward of having the rest of the day off. If you want to study more efficiently and faster, check out my video here. Hope this video is helpful. And thank you so much for 35,000 of you. I will see you soon.