Do you ever have trouble concentrating in class? It's really frustrating when you want—and actually need—to pay attention, but you can’t. If you're looking to learn how to pay attention better in class, you're in luck. This article will give you a step-by-step approach for rapid improvement.

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In a study, researchers wanted to measure how often students’ attention wanders in class. 

They gave students in 3 different chemistry courses electronic clickers. The students were told to click every time their attention wandered. 

Their clickers were wirelessly connected to a computer to track the lapses in attention. 

The results show that a major spike in attention lapses happened just 30 seconds into the class! They saw further spikes around 5, 7, and 10 minutes in. 

Sound bad? It gets worse.

The lapses happened more and more frequently after the first 10 minutes. The spikes then peaked near the end of the lecture, occurring about every 2 minutes. 

Short lapses in focus lasting just 30 seconds to a few minutes during class are probably costing you a lot more than you think...

What competes for your attention? 

For one thing, visual and auditory stimuli from the environment. This includes any sounds besides your professor’s voice like students talking, cell phones going off, cars on the street outside, etc....

Also, anything else in your visual field besides your teacher’s props (their lecture slides, the whiteboard, etc.) like peers sitting in front and beside you, exit signs, the classroom door, etc...

Harder still, your own internal thoughts compete for your attention.

If you’re hungry, thirsty, or tired, these feelings will make it harder to stay on task. 

If you’re stressed out, or just had an argument with a friend, the related feelings also compete for your focus.

Obviously since you’re here right now, following along with this post, you have your own reasons for why being able to focus in class is important to you.

But the benefits cannot be emphasized enough...

When you don't give the learning activity your full attention, your map comes out incomplete.

In contrast, when you’re fully engaged, your map comes out not only faster, but richer and with more depth.

Now, of course your map won’t come out perfect on the first try even if you're fully engaged. You’ll still have to put the time in outside of class to perfect your map. But your review will be much easier and less painful.

In other words, when you’re able to focus in class, you’ll learn faster and remember longer.

At most, what you'll learn will completely solve the problem for you. At the very least, it'll raise your awareness to the point where solving your focus problem becomes so much easier.

Sound like a good deal? Awesome! Let's get started!

Peter Drucker once said if you can't measure it, you can't improve it. Attention span is no exception. But how exactly do you measure it? 

Think about your class schedule. Pick out the one class that you have the most trouble focusing in.

Don’t worry about any of your other classes for now—if you can get the hardest one under control, the rest will be easy. 

Next time you go to class, tally up all of your attention lapses. [In other words, make a record of all the time you space out]

The simplest way to do this is to mark a tally down on a sticky note, index card, or in the margins of your notes each time you lose focus and then catch yourself. 

After class, count your total number of tallies. Whatever the result is, don’t be alarmed! It doesn’t matter if you have 5 tallies down or 105. Just get a record!

There are two main reasons for doing this:

1. The number of times you lose focus in class is your key performance indicator. If this number goes down over time, it's an indication you're improving.

2. The practice of catching yourself after you've lost focus itself strengthens your attention span.

However long you choose to track your data for is up to you. I recommend doing it for at least 2 - 3 weeks if you're really serious about being able to pay attention better in class. If you stop shorter than this, your data won't tell you as much.

One of the main reasons students have difficulty paying attention in class is because it’s hard for them to follow the lecture.

If you can’t understand what your professor’s talking about, it’s a lot harder to stay focused.

​The solution is to do your reading before class and make an outline. 

This will significantly boost the value you get out of the lecture.

Right now you’re probably thinking: won’t doing my reading before class and making an outline take extra time?

Honestly, yes it will require some extra time...But not much by my estimates. 

If you work effectively, 30 minutes to 2 hours is all you need (unless you're taking an exceptionally hard class)

If you’re concerned about the extra time, please keep an open mind and hear me out here.

It’s not about how much extra time it will take you. It’s about increasing the value you’ll get out of the lecture, and that means it’s well worth it!

It’s totally fine to do it the day of class though if that works best for you. As long as you put in the effort to read and make your outline before you get to class, you’re going to benefit!

I'm sure you have your own way you like to do your readings. That's totally fine! You can use your approach if you want. But here are my suggestions:

Why should you list at most 3 - 4 main topics per chapter? Having to pick just 3 - 4—even if you think there should be more—forces you to identify what’s most important in the chapter.

Not only does this simplify your outline, it also helps you with your future test prep.

Think about it. If you understand the most important stuff, learning the rest is all downhill. Plus, the most important stuff is virtually guaranteed to be on your exam.

Yes—everything else is still fair game.

Yes—​you absolutely do need to know it all to ensure you get an A.

But at the very least, count on being asked about the most important topics a lot!

Now, you can expand on the sub-topics by including a few of the most relevant points underneath them if you’d like to. This step is 100% optional though. Again, the details aren’t what’s most important here.

3 - 4 is also a great limit for your sub-topics. Without these limits, you risk ending up with an outline that’s too massive for our purposes.

Try to fit your outline on as few pages as possible (1 - 3 pages). If your assigned reading was multiple chapters, you can make separate outline for each chapter.

There’s no right or wrong way to make the outline. When in doubt, go with your gut. As long as you organize the information somehow in a way that makes sense to you, you’re going to dramatically speed up the learning process.

As a result, your ability to pay attention better in class will naturally shoot up!

If you’re having a lot of trouble picking out just 3 - 4 main topics, here's what to do: 

Make a list of all the contenders. Go down your list and ask yourself one-by-one if each topic can be placed underneath another topic on your list. If a topic can't, keep going. If it can, cross it off your list and use it as a sub-topic.

The headings in the textbook and the summaries at the ends of the chapters are a great place to look to get ideas for your headings.

There are several things you can do right after you wake up to maximize your ability to pay attention better in class. Here they are:

1. Eat a healthy breakfast (lunch and/or dinner too depending when your class is)

2. ​Drink enough water 

3. Dress comfortably [layers are great in case your classroom is too hot/cold, etc]

4. ​Make or review your to-do list for the day

5. Make or review your schedule for the day

Some of these may seem like trivial points, but I can assure you they’re not! When you go to class dehydrated, or on an empty stomach, you’re not going to feel well. This makes it much harder to focus.

If you can eat in class, think about bringing a snack with you like fruit, veggies, crackers, energy bars, or almonds. Sugary drinks like fruit juice or Gatorade are also good.

 I’m not a nutrition expert, so I won’t say too much more about this. Expert nutritionist Sam Gemmell did a guest post here on Test Prep Champions called 10 Budget Friendly Foods that Boost Brain Function, which has some great advice!  

Also note that good sleep and exercise habits go along way towards boosting your energy levels, and thus your focus.

Why is making a to-do list and planning your day so important? There’s a phenomenon in psychology called the Zeigarnik effect—the finding that we think about unfinished work more than work we’ve completed.

Getting everything you have to do and when recorded for your day gets it out of your head. This frees up more mental space or concentration so that you can pay attention better in class.

Check out these 2 FREE video tutorials to learn more about making to-do lists and prioritizing:  

Alright, you followed my advice and did your reading and outlining the night before. You’ve also made sure to get enough sleep, eat a healthy meal, and hydrate yourself before class.

Congratulations! You’ve already got a head start on the majority of your classmates. Your pre-class work’s not done yet though. What you do during the 10 - 15 minutes before class starts can make or break your focus.

The key is to get to class 10 - 15 minutes early, take deep breaths, relax, and think about what’s coming up in the lecture.

If there’s another class in the room before you, sit outside. I’m not saying be anti-social—it’s perfectly okay to talk with your friends. Just stay positive and keep the class in mind.

The only excuse for not being 10 - 15 minutes early is having another class or engagement beforehand that runs close to your class time. You can’t always help your schedule, so just do your best to get there as early as you can.

Remember the research study that we talked about at the start? The researchers observed lapses in attention starting as soon as 30 seconds into the lecture. This accounts for a “settling-in period.”  

Recall that paying attention isn’t just about focusing on a stimulus. It’s also about NOT focusing on competing stimuli.

The process of unconsciously tuning out a stimulus after you “get used to it” is known in psychology as habituation. Letting go of everything but what’s pertinent to the lecture is in part an effect of habituation. The early you get there, the faster this happens!

This will really help you pay attention better in class!

Pay close attention when your professor talks about the topics you marked down that were especially confusing for you the night before.

I recommend again keeping a separate notebook or planner handy. If you get any intrusive thoughts about things you need to do that aren’t relevant to the lecture take a few seconds to jot them down. Getting them out of your head will help pay attention better in class!

Compare the notes you made to your outline.

Did your teacher gloss over any of the topics you thought were most important? If so, revise your outline to reflect this, or at least make a note of this so you’ll know for your test.

Review the number of lapses you tracked. Maybe even make a spreadsheet so you can easily observe your improvements over time. 

No matter what your starting point is, at least you’ll know where you’re at!

Challenge yourself to beat this number every class. Keep repeating the process of reading, outlining, and preparing throughout the day until it becomes a habit. In just a few short weeks, you'll be able to pay attention better in class—like never before!

Treat it like a game and never stop striving for improvement!