Know how to stay focused for long hours

 Our minds are known to wander off even as we struggle to stay focused on studying. Whether it is doodling in the margins of a notebook or simply staring at a wall, we tend to drift away while trying to study – studying for longer hours can especially get very tricky.

At the same time, it is necessary to put in lots of time to learn and understand concepts. These tips can help you concentrate on your studies and stay focused for long hours.

List your distractions

The first step is to know what is distracting you from your studies. Take some time to think and identify the distractors. After recognising your distractors, take a sheet and make a list of these. If you know the root cause of the issue, you can do a better job at managing your priorities.

Manage distractors

A very common distractor is social media. It often becomes difficult to manage time on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, where one can endlessly scroll through photos, videos and messages. An ideal way of dealing with this is using timers on the media apps. If this does not seem helpful, you can also try deactivating your account, or temporarily deleting the app.

Unwind with games

Spending time playing games, indoors or outdoors, can help boost your study sessions. While playing games is a good way to unwind and reset your mind, make sure that they don’t come in the way of your study schedule and end up becoming another distractor.

Take breaks

The human mind gets dull if it works for too long without sufficient breaks. In order to make sure that you remain productive throughout your session, take ample breaks in between. One particular technique suggests that you should study for 25 minutes, and then take a 5-minute break to refresh yourself. This way, you get work done and you get mental refreshers too. The technique also recommends that after the fourth cycle of studying, you should take a longer break, generally lasting 10 to 15 minutes. During these breaks, you must not work on anything related to your studies. Vice-versa, during the study period, all your focus should be on the material you’re studying. This method is effective only if these two guidelines are followed very strictly.

Change subjects

Last, but not the least, a change of pace can help you remain refreshed. Studying one subject for too long can get monotonous and your brain may not even soak all the information. If you switch up subjects every once in a while then you will be able to focus better. For example, after studying Current Affairs, you can take up a Quant Topic. This will keep you interested and prevent your mind from wandering off.

Miscellaneous

Apart from these, it’s necessary for you to maintain a good sleep schedule. Sleep deprivation tends to reduce the attention span. Instead of staying up late to study, do your best to finish it in the day time. Try to eat healthy foods, like fresh fruits and vegetables to avoid laziness and lethargy. Sitting at a desk for too long can also hamper concentration; an hour of exercise will help keep your blood flowing. The most important thing is to have confidence that you can do it. As long as you stay motivated, you can stay focused.

Intermittent Fasting - less of a diet, more of a lifestyle.

Fasting has been in India’s culture since forever. Women and Men of India (mostly women) have

been fasting for religious purposes in the form of Vrat and Roza. In recent fame is the new

fasting trend called Intermittent Fasting. Doctors and nutritionists claim this to be less of a diet

and more of a way of living.

Unlike other weight loss techniques, intermittent fasting is not about “what” you eat, it is about

“when” you eat. It is effective when the individual is keeping in mind the amount of calories they

intake, but only in a decided time frame .This technique is proven to help in weight loss and

better our cardiac health. It was discovered in the 1940s while conducting laboratory

experiments on animals. Scientists found out that, when being kept on a calorie restriction (CR),

the animals tend to live longer. This is how they found out that consuming less calories than

being burnt can easily shed weight and help in anti-ageing.

What exactly is IF?

Nutrition advisor Baneet Kaur said, “In simple words, IF is eating at only specific times of the

day and fasting the rest of the time. It is different from starving, because during starvation we are

forcing ourselves not to eat even when we are hungry. During the fasting period of IF, one can

consume some recommended drinks like water, apple cider vinegar, herbal tea and black coffee.”

This method of staying fit has many variations in the time periods. Some of the popularly known

methods are :

1. Alternate day fasting - A method when you fast for 24hrs and then consume food the next

24hrs. According to Healthline, If you’re following a modified Alternate Fasting fasting

approach, you’re also allowed to eat about 500 calories on fasting days, or 20–25% of your

energy requirements.

2. 16:8 way of fasting - This is the most commonly adopted method of IF. In this method, you

fast for 16 hours and intake your meals of the day within the time span of 8 hours. Your dinner

can be at 7 PM and you can break your fast in the morning at 11 PM or 12 PM. During the

fasting period you can opt for carb-deficit drinks and some nuts to munch on.

3. 5:2 way of fasting - this method came to fame when a British journalist Michael Mosley

served as an evidence of the advantages of this method. In this routine of IF, a person is eating a

normal diet on 5 days of the week and fasting on the weekend. It is popular as people prefer 2

days fasting over 5 days fasting. As exciting as it sounds, it is very difficult to control the urge of

not intaking any amount of sugar or carbs during those 2 days.

Benefits of Intermittent fasting and how celebrities have adopted it.

Even though following IF can take a week to adapt to, the benefits are worth waiting for. Not

only does it enhances a person’s physical health, it also helps your mind to rejuvenate. “ IF can

help in Insulin Regulation, better metabolism, boosting human growth hormone (HGH - helps in

lean muscle mass building), helps promote autophagy (the process through which dead cells are

removed), helps in Anti-Ageing and moderates cholesterol.” says Nutrition Advisor Baneet

Kaur. “In addition to this it also helps in your cognitive abilities and longer memory retention”,

she added.

No wonder celebrities like Alia Bhatt, Malaika Arora, Jacqueline Fernandes and comedian Bharti

Singh have chosen this path to stay fit and lose weight. For Alia’s debut film, the actress had to

shed 16 kgs and her nutritionist gives the whole credit to IF. Malaika Arora is finest at

maintaining her figure even at the age of 48 and apart from yoga, she follows the method of IF.

According to her, Intermittent fasting is the “easiest” way to lose weight. Bharti Singh is singing

praises of IF after she has conceived her first child this year in April. She said that the only way

she could lose weight and conceive is by eating only at specific times and managing her calories.

It would not be false to claim that intermittent fasting is the Gen Z way of staying healthy. Due

to its numerous advantages, it is being practiced by the majority of the population to get over the

obesity epidemic we are in due to change in lifestyle.