5 tips and techniques to improve efficiency when working

Keeping your focus at the highest possible level is never easy, but follow these simple guidelines and you too could be 100% productive, 100% of the time!

Staying focused and productive is a question that puzzles teachers, students, bosses and employees all in equal measure. Every person is different, but here are some simple techniques that you can use to try and keep yourself on-task and learning quickly. The best thing? Master these skills as a student and these techniques could stay with you for the rest of your life. Forget just helping you get your homework done, this could help you land that dream job in 10 years time!

Pomodoro Technique

First up is a personal favourite of mine… the Pomodoro technique. This simple technique helps you to split your time into manageable chunks with regular breaks. Start with 25 minutes of focused work, followed by a complete break for 5 minutes. Repeat this 5 times, then take a 30-minute break. Then repeat if you can… The whole block lasts for 3 hours which is a huge amount of time to revise for, but the longest you’ll ever work is 25 minutes, and anyone can concentrate for that long!

This is particularly effective when your breaks are away from the place that you revising. Stretch your legs or make a cup of tea to clear your mind. Improve it further still by switching between subjects either every 25-minute block or every 3-hour block depending on how you work best.

Revision Guides

This one is brilliant for GCSE students. Textbooks for the GCSEs are chunky, and notes over the two years of study can sprawl into multiple folders or many, many workbooks. Revision guides in comparison are relatively slim and yet they still contain all of the information you need to pass a test with full marks… amazing! They are designed to grab your attention and draw your eye to the most important information so make good use of them. They are interspersed with short questions that test your knowledge but also help to keep you more focused than if you were just reading your notes.

Get Active

Staying active during exam season is vital. You don’t have to run a marathon, but you’ll want to stay fit, healthy and happy. Taking a walk every day can be enough to raise your heart rate and provide you with valuable endorphins that will provide a bright spark to your day.

Dedicated Work Area

Not everyone has this luxury, but if you can set aside a place in your school or home where you do your work it will help in two ways. Firstly, when you go to that desk or area you will be telling yourself it’s time to focus. It’ll be set up and ready with all you need to get down to revision, and hopefully, it will be devoid of distractions.

Secondly, it means when you leave that area you’re telling yourself it’s time to relax. The brain is like a muscle. After you work it out, you need to rest it. If you keep working it out without rest eventually it won’t get any bigger. Setting boundaries is vital to maintain your focus and mental health. Having quality breaks is essential.

De-digitize

Most of our revision these days involves computers, iPads or phones. This is fine, but most of our social activities also include some element of screen time and this can be problematic. You need to make sure you get away from screens on a regular basis.