7 Tips and tricks to stay focused during online learning

Creating the perfect workplace ergonomics is important to maximise productivity.

The last thing you would want is incessant distractions or an uncomfortable, unorganized work environment. This ranges from being distracted by your TV, your pet, and even bad lighting.

What you can do is to arrange your work zone and relaxation zone in such a way that they do not overlap.

This will help to minimise potential noise and distractions and will do wonders for your overall attention span and productivity.

We all have been there - doing our last-minute revisions and frantically burning the midnight oil to catch up on our school work.

However, it rarely works out and even if it does, we are left feeling exhausted and rather unmotivated for the next semester to come.

Research has shown that keeping a healthy routine has far-reaching psychological benefits, including boosting brain productivity and alleviating insomnia.

By maintaining a consistent timetable for your online learning classes as well as revision, you’ll be able to consistently keep pace and build discipline.

This will allow you to study more effectively and score better during examinations, allowing you to graduate on time and with better grades to better reach your career aspirations.

Often underrated, you’ll be surprised how much brain breaks and physical exercise can help enhance your overall work performance.

That 20 minutes of walk or run in the park helps to stimulate the release of dopamine and serotonin, and these brain chemicals play an integral role in regulating your mood.

Familiar with the term ‘Runner’s high’? It is the rush of endorphins that your body experiences after a good sweat and it triggers a positive feeling in the body.

Even practising less strenuous activities like yoga can help with mental realignment and rejuvenation, boosting creativity and focus afterwards when you get back to work.

Physical activity alleviates your stress levels with these feel-good hormones, allowing your brain to stay sharp and refreshed.

Setting a self-checklist is one of the most efficient ways of prioritizing and delegating your tasks at hand. It can get pretty hard to keep track of the work assigned with incessant incoming tasks and when deadlines start to overlap.

Setting small goals daily and accomplishing them can psychologically help you achieve a sense of accomplishment, as well as, feelings of satisfaction and happiness.

When your brain recognizes a completed task, it releases high levels of dopamine.

This helps to sustain your motivation and keep your eyes on the prize. Never underestimate the power of celebrating small wins!

It can be tempting to wrongly prioritize your relaxation time over work. A to-do list can help to alleviate such ill-discipline and serve as a reminder to keep focused.

While blended learning might seem here to stay, online learning arrangements are only temporary! In the meantime, why not tap on virtual resources available to learn more about what to expect from our destination country once you can fly over?

This can include picking up a language that is commonly spoken in your destination country or coming up with a bucket list of the landmarks to visit when you finally get to travel over.

Understanding the destination country’s local culture and customs is also a great way to fully immerse in the whole studying abroad experience!

More importantly, it helps you to better respect and understand your fellow students and peers better.


Just because we are in the middle of a pandemic, doesn’t mean we can’t connect with our peers and professors online! Everyone craves social interaction at times.

Getting well-acquainted with the people who are embarking on the same journey as you can bring a multitude of benefits.

Whether it’s building good rapport for a smoother sailing project collaboration or asking help from your professors to better grasp an academic concept, such diplomatic ties could go a long way towards enhancing your overall University experience.

Don’t forget to network around too! You never know what kind of exchange of ideas and advice you can get from just engaging in a dialogue with a classmate or professor.

Always remember that there is always something you can learn from an encounter or experience.

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Regular daily exercise, a healthy diet, coupled with having a healthy sleep schedule, is the ultimate combination in helping to keep your physical and mental health at optimal levels.

The optimal time for our body to recharge is between 11 pm to 3 am, where we experience more NREM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep. This contributes to the restoration of our body and senses, thus it’s advisable to keep yourself from burning the midnight oil.

High-quality sleep means uninterrupted deep sleep. By the same token, it’s highly advisable to completely turn off your phone or have it on the ‘Do Not Disturb’ Mode.

This can help minimize radiation and the blue light that your phone emits, so they do not interfere with your brain's sleep pattern.

Don’t underestimate these simple tips! They can make drastic, positive changes to your retention rates during lessons and the overall quality of your life!

Here at IDP, we match students to their ideal educational institutions according to their academic goals and dreams as well as help guide you through the process of online learning in the new normal.

Whether it’s choosing a study destination, course selection, or budgeting, our education counsellors are here to provide you with tailored advice.

Take the first step towards your future and book an appointment with our IDP counsellors today!