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Concentration.

Easily distracted.

Some dyslexic students may suffer from some dregree of ADD or ADHD (Attention Deficit Disorder) or hyperactivity. This means that you will find it hard to avoid being distracted by sounds and movements around you. To improve our concentration skills we need to counteract these barriers.

Set aside a place for study and study only.

• Find a specific place that you can use for studying (for example, the campus libraries, vacant classrooms, quiet areas in the student center, your bedroom at home, etc.)
  
  
• Keep this place just for studying. You are trying to build a habit of studying when you are in this place. So, don't use your study space for social conversations, writing letters, daydreaming, etc.
  
  
• Ensure that your study area has the following:
  
  - good lighting.
  - ventilation.
  - a comfortable chair, but not too comfortable.
  - a desk large enough to spread out your materials.
  
  
• Avoid distractions in your study area, such as a telephone, stereo or television.
  
  
• Irregular sleep, exercise, and eating patterns can cause concentration difficulties.
  
  
• Your brain works better in the morning than in the afternoon or evening, so plan your work around learning new materials in the morning.
  
  
• Many students are not aware that, as we perform tasks like studying, we talk silently to ourselves - praising accomplishments, helping to sort out what to do next, monitoring progress and achievement. However, comparing your abilities to others' and harboring inaccurate expectations about how long or how well you "should" be able to concentrate may also contribute to negative self talk.
  
  
• Don't look for an easy answer in stimulants such as caffeine. They only have a short-term effect of making you feel alert, and too much or too long an exposure can affect your physical and mental health.

Divide your work into small, short-range sub-goals.

• Don't set a goal as vague and large as ... "I am going to spend all day Saturday studying!" You will only set yourself up for failure and discouragement.
  
  
• Take the time block that you have scheduled for study and set a shorther study goal that you can definitely achieve (for example: finish reading three sections of Chapter 7 in my psychology text, or complete one math problem, or write the rough draft of the introduction to my English paper).
  
  
• Set your goal when you sit down to study but before you begin to work. Set a goal that you can reach. You may, in fact, do more than your goal but set a reasonable goal even if it seems too easy.

Active learning.

Be an active learner. It is much easier to concentrate when you are fully involved in what you are doing. Draw diagrams, pictures or squiggles, use highlighters, make mind maps, talk to yourself, use pretty colors. It all helps to keep you focused.

When you lose concentration.

When you notice your thoughts wandering, say to yourself STOP and then gently bring your attention back to where you want it to be. Each time it wanders bring it back.

To begin with, this could be several times a minute. But each time, say STOP and then re-focus.

Don't waste energy trying to keep thoughts out of your mind (forbidden thoughts attract like a magnet!), just put the effort into STOP and re-focus.

To begin with you will do this lots of times a week. But you will find that the period of time between your straying thoughts gets a little longer each day, so be patient and keep at it.

Change you activity.

If you really, really get stuck with something, put it aside and come back to it. Your brain is a wonderful time-sharing machine. Whilst you are doing something else it will be working away at finding out more about the difficult thing you were struggling with before. You may find, to your surprise, when you try it again at a later stage that you have a far better idea of what to do.

Between periods of concentration, do things to change your physical and mental activity - e.g. move around to boost your circulation if you have been sitting, give your brain a new focus.

Some Personal Issues.

• Few students can make it through university without having to cope with studying through some personal disaster. Something like a breakup with a boyfriend or girlfriend can cause a major disruption in the ability to concentrate.
  
  For the most part, these disruptions are short term, and the ability to concentrate normally returns quickly. Serious situations, or minor ones which seem to carry on, may need outside help or counselling.
  
  
• Some students find it helpful to write down a distracting thought: it is easier to banish a thought if you are sure you won't have forgotten it when you get to your worry time.
  
  

• Training Your Wandering Mind: Learning Mental Self-Regulation for Improved Concentration.

• Concentration and your body.