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Implementing Good Study Habits: Studying While Limiting Technology Use

97% of teens use the internet daily, and 46% admit they are constantly online. As technology continues to develop and evolve, it has an increasingly large presence in our lives. But that may not always be a good thing, particularly in the education sector.

As phone addiction continues to affect young people, the impact that technology - particularly cell phones - has on student learning is beginning to show. Different studies have shown that phones distract students even when not in use. In fact, this 2017 study suggested that smartphones impact our work significantly simply by being left next to us on our desk, and this distraction is proportional to how physically close the phone is to us.

Result of "desk", "pocket", and "other room" proximity effect on participants' work.

Additionally, studies have shown that "surprises" can and do interrupt brain cognition, making it harder to recall and retain information. Checking social media, texts, or other phone notifications falls under this category of "surprises".

With all of this information pointing large red arrows to the theory that phones are bad for students and studying, it's no surprise teachers are working to ban cell phones in classrooms. Unfortunately, I myself admit that my use of technology is non-zero when I am studying. As we are currently learning in my college psychology course that studying while limiting technology use is an effective studying method, I wanted to find out for myself whether or not I study better without using my phone. I also wanted to see how easy it would be for me to do this and to suggest any tips or tricks I might have from undergoing this experiment.

The Experiment:

I studied for my economics midterm in two 30-minute periods: one with free phone access and one without. For one of these 30-minute periods, I filmed an unbroken time lapse of my studying with my phone to make sure I didn't have access to it.

The Hypothesis: Studying while restricting phone usage will help me study better.

The Goals: The goal here is to find out whether or not I study better without my phone. I will rank on a scale of 1-5 the truth of the following statements:

My distractions were reduced while studying without my phone.

I was able to retain more information while studying without my phone.

I was able to engage deeper with my study material without my phone.

Studying without my phone helped me reflect upon the material better.

Ready...Set...Study!

Shown above is the full, unbroken 30-minute time lapse of my phone-free studying.

The Results

Let's begin discussing my findings, starting with ranking the aforementioned statements.

My distractions were reduced while studying without my phone. 5

I was able to retain more information while studying without my phone. 4

I was able to engage deeper with my study material without my phone. 4

Studying without my phone helped me reflect upon the material better. 3

I definitely, definitely noticed a huge increase in the quality of studying that I got done without my phone. I felt much more efficient with my time, and knowing that I finished a big chunk of phone-free studying also made me feel good. Restricting my phone usage also led to me gaining a deeper understanding of the material I was reviewing. Topics that I might've glanced over or absentmindedly jotted notes for suddenly made sense to me, and I didn't feel so frustrated or lost when studying for this midterm.

With the phone-free studying session, I found I covered just over one chapter of material. With the phone-allowed session, I covered less than half of one chapter. Additionally, I could confidently tell you what material I covered during the phone-free session, but I'm not even sure what I covered during the phone-allowed session, and I just finished it. That alone probably speaks for the difference in quality of the two study sessions.

Challenges

I can confidently say that I reached for my phone several times during this study session. I have a bad habit of playing video essays in the background while studying, which splits my attention and introduces endless distractions. This bad habit definitely stuck its nose out during the phone-allowed study session. Since I completed the phone-free study session before the phone-allowed study session, I tried to go back to phone-free studying after completing my two periods of studying, and found it incredibly hard to. Knowing that my phone was right next to me was just too tempting.

Practical Tips

Studying without technology sounds great in theory, but how feasible is it?

For me, I found that having my phone next to me just made it way too tempting to go on it. Plus, you probably are physically attached to your cell phone at almost all times of the day. Below are some tips that might make it more feasible to study without technology:

Ask a friend to take temporary custody of your phone.

Make friendly bets with study buddies about who can stay off their phone the longest. Winner gets a free coffee!

Take time-lapses of yourself studying to make sure your phone is occupied with something else.

Set aside chunks of designated tech-free studying time in your calendar.

Consider printing out study materials to decrease your reliance on technology while studying.

Stay analog: invest in a physical planner to keep things tech-free!

Conclusion

With social media and technology ever-present in our lives these days, it's incredibly difficult to do anything technology-free, especially studying. However, I feel as though making this conscious technology-free effort is worth it for the quality of studying you get in return.

In the future, I will definitely make efforts to study without using my phone. Unfortunately, I am a bit worried about keeping myself accountable. To do so, I will try to film more time-lapses of myself studying, as I found that was a good way to assure that I didn't use my phone for social media or texting.

Disclaimer: I used ChatGPT to assist me with this project. I had the basis of this project formulated in my head and requested ChatGPT to add some more talking points in order to develop this post more. I then researched the talking points ChatGPT offered to make sure they were accurate and factual.