It's back to school time, and in addition to spending time with our seniors who are doggedly working away on their college essays, we've been meeting with underclassmen looking forward to the upcoming school year. When asked about their future goals, we commonly hear our underclassmen saying, "to study better" or "to get more sleep." 

It became such a familiar refrain that I decided to talk to several students that seemed to have successfuly managed their work outside of school, despite juggling a lot of other things. These were students that played two sports, led multiple clubs, played an instrument, and still earned fabulous grades. The key to their success: focus. Through trial and error, they'd discovered the difference between multitasking and switch-tasking. 

What is switch-tasking? I was at a conference recently, and the presenter gave us the following exercise. Draw two horizontal lines on a piece of paper. Have someone start a timer. Next, write "I am a great multitasker" on the first line. Then, write the numbers one through twenty on the line below. Easy, right? It took me about fifteen seconds. Now we will try it again. Get a new piece of paper. Draw two more horizontal lines. Have someone time you again. This time I want you to complete the exact same exercise, but this time by putting down one letter from the sentence on the first line and one number also in sequence on the lower. So "I" would start on the top line with "1" below. Then "A" and "2". Keep going. 

I A M...

1 2 3...

It should be easy - right? But it isn't. In fact, the second exercise takes most people twice the time to complete as the first exercise, if not more. Why? Because each time you switch from the letters to the numbers, your brain has to think about it. You have to reorient yourself to the correct sequence each time you go back and forth. And your brain isn't as good at that!

Imagine that you are working on a history paper. You are in a groove, churning out paragraph after paragraph of pretty good stuff. You're flipping back and forth between your textbook, your notes, and your screen. You may even have music softly playing in the background. You're multitasking, and it's working. Why? Because your focus is on a singular task. Yes, your brain makes small switches as you go from screen to text, or page to page, but it's relatively good at that. 

Ping. You get a text. Maybe even related to your history paper! But that doesn't matter -- your brain must switch-task. And once you go back to your assignment, it needs to start all over again. 

Neuroscientists have studied switch-tasking and estimate that once we are distracted from a task, it takes us 25 minutes to fully return to the first task. You don't have that kind of time!

So, let's go back to my super-multitaskers. What are their study habits? They compartmentalize tasks so that they can fully focus on them one at a time. They complete their calculus problem set before having a snack. They read that chapter for AP Literature and have their phone charging in the other room. They're not watching Netflix; they're not checking Snapchat. Some are able to concentrate with music playing, but most cannot. If they need background noise, they prefer white noise such as a fan. 

It's a new school year. Why not try a new approach to your studying as well?