Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

Avoiding distractions 203 
Te reason we like notifcations is because of FOMO – the Fear 
Of Missing Out. We tend to think that we’ll miss an important 
message or posting from someone. Students with high levels of 
FOMO tend to interact with the notifcations more, which appears 
to afect the learning process (Rozgonjuk et al., 2019). However, 
as outlined earlier, your brain will not sense you are missing out 
once you establish a routine for checking emails and social media 
at the same time every day. Terefore, you can switch of all noti-
fcations on your mobile phone and on your computer safe in the 
knowledge that you will see any important messages or postings 
later in the day when your routine time for checking takes place. 
Switching of notifcations means you will not get disturbed, your 
attention will not get switched, and you will be able to remain 
focused on your studies. 
QUICK TIP: Switch off unnecessary notifcations on your mobile 
devices and on your computer.They serve no useful purpose. 
Tere are some notifcations you should keep switched on, though. 
Tese might include notifcations from family members. Also, you 
will want to the notifcations from your university switched on, 
otherwise, you will miss out on important information. Indeed, 
one of my students had all notifcations switched of, including 
from the messaging service of our VLE. Tat meant he missed 
out on the message saying that the lecture had been moved to a 
diferent room. He arrived at the lecture theatre to fnd there was 
nobody there, so he wondered where everyone had gone to. If you 
don’t keep university notifcations switched on, you will miss out 
on important information. 
use background music 
Having background music while studying can be a real help in 
maintaining focus. Research in Germany has found that when 
students have background music while studying, it can improve 

---