Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

198 Coping online 
for checking social media or emails, your brain isn’t sure. So, it 
triggers lots of reminders to keep checking. 
Te most important thing to do to reduce online distractions is 
to set up routines and make them a habit. Have times in the day 
that are your “email checking times”, or have a daily “social media” 
time, for example. It doesn’t matter when you do these tasks, but 
setting them up as routines will signifcantly impact your produc-
tivity as you will be less distracted by constant subconscious push-
es to check something else online. 
QUICK TIP: Establish routines for checking emails and social 
media. Doing so will reduce distractions a great deal. 
It is vital to do everything you can to minimise distractions while 
studying. Plenty of research demonstrates a link between a lack 
of focus on studying and lower marks in assignments and tests. 
One study, for example, showed that marks can drop by almost 
40 per cent when students are distracted from their work (Blasiman, 
Larabee, and Fabry, 2018). It is therefore crucial that you do ev-
erything you can to minimise distractions. Setting up routines is 
an excellent frst step. 

 sTaying focused while 
sTudying online 
Te myriad distractions for online students means it can be 
challenging to remain focused for very long. In one research 
project that looked at how often students switch their focus, psy-
chologists from California State University found that individuals 
changed what they were doing frequently. Te researchers discov-
ered that students only remained focused on a single task for up 
to six minutes (Rosen, Carrier, and Cheever, 2013). When I ask 

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Avoiding distractions 199 
students about their online studies, they tell me similar things, 
pointing out that studying online is mentally draining due to con-
stantly switching from one screen to the next. However, much of 
that switching of tasks is not part of the course being studied. It 
can be switching attention to a news website, for example, or to 
read the latest blog from an infuencer. As one student said in an-
swer to my questionnaire about studying online, “Internet distrac-
tions take away the continuity of learning”. 
Te chopping and changing from one screen or program to an-
other lies at the heart of being distracted while studying online. 
When you move to the web browser, for instance, to access the 
VLE, you inevitably “bump into” something else on that browser 
window, such as your latest emails or a news website you had been 
looking at earlier in the day. Tese elements can remove your fo-
cus and take you away from what you had intended to do.