If a researcher walked up to you right now and asked you to identify your favorite place to study, what would your immediate response be? Your home? Somewhere on campus? A busy café in the heart of town or a remote log cabin?

Have you ever considered your preferences for your physical surroundings when you study? What does your perfect study environment look like?

In the following video, Mark Montgomery, an educational consultant and college admissions expert, reminds students that while their image of college may be much about socializing, they will ideally spend a good portion of their time studying.

Distractions and Multitasking

“Multitasking”—doing several things simultaneously—has become a common word for describing what many of us do every day in the modern world. Our busy lifestyles and our ever-present devices suggest that many of us have become multitasking experts.

But is multitasking real? Is it possible to do several things at the same time? Can we actually check Instagram, watch television, read a textbook, and write a paper at roughly the same time . . . productively?

Evidence suggests that multitasking is not, in fact, possible. Psychology research shows that we can attend to only one cognitive task at a time.^[1] What we call multitasking is actually just switching back and forth between tasks quickly. This isn’t necessarily a problem, but we lose time with each switch. The loss may only be one-tenth of a second, but the time adds up. Think about your own experiences.

Becoming More Productive

The perceived need to multitask is driven largely by the technology takeover of recent years. Smartphones, email, social networking, Instagram, Twitter... all make multitasking seem both necessary and possible. They all require switching in and out of a line of thinking. With these technologies, we face constant information overload and distraction.

How can we become more productive with our time and energy, given our tendency to multitask?

1. Try “batch processing”: Have set times during the day for checking and responding to emails.

2. Use concentrated time: Block off time for working on just one task. You may need to turn off your phone.

3. Do what’s most important first: Make goals for the day and accomplish them. The sense of achievement can help you resist anxiety-driven multitasking.