At first glance, it appears to be a foregone conclusion. Studying with distractions is disingenuous. Yet, there are scores of students who attest to studying while background music is playing. In fact, they claim it gets them into the right frame of mind while studying. Truth be told, background music may or may not hinder the productivity of your study sessions. It all depends upon the complexity of your academic material, and your personality.

If the material presents as interesting or important, it becomes increasingly difficult for distractions to divert your attention. Students with a voracious appetite for a specific subject will invariably block out all of the noise and devour the content. When the subject matter is dry, dense, and dull, even the slightest distractions have the capacity to derail your academic efforts. Our proclivity towards being distracted is a function of many different factors.

Intense focus tends to shield us from annoyances, while diminished focus tends to crave study distractions. Yet something really interesting happens when distractions actually have the opposite effect and enhance academic performance. Studies suggest when the academic material is more complicated, students tend to have a much better recall. In these types of situations, distracting environments did not adversely affect student performance. Concentration tends to be much better when the material is more difficult to master.

Yet, this is not always the case. Easy study material does not require intense academic focus. This makes it much more appealing for students to seek out distracting environments, such as groups of friends, social settings, sports meets, and other distraction-laden environments. In these types of situations, there is a tendency for students to recall less of what they’re learning.

What Are the Real Distractions Students Face?

Procrastination and distractions are often linked; students tend to put off learning, and find distractions in place of studies. You name it, and there’s a distraction waiting to be noticed. The Internet is a hive of activity that students find incredibly difficult to avoid. Since most learning is done online nowadays – research, reading, referencing – it’s all too easy to navigate away from academic material.

Students have toyed with all sorts of solutions to avoid the Internet of things trap. Consider Wi-Fi free zones, hardcopy study material, and traditional methods of study. While increasingly difficult nowadays, the purists among us are still capable of untethering from the World Wide Web.

Amazingly, the distractions students encounter aren’t necessarily the first things that come to mind. While the Internet seems like a major distraction, fraternity and sorority parties, booze and drugs, friendships and relationships, extracurricular sporting activities and related interests are more culpable than distracting videos, video games, or gambling.

Consider Mansion Casino’s large selection of online roulette games as an example, or other regulated online casinos for that matter. These table games are available in demo mode, with no real money needed. The distraction is innocuous. If the student is under the age of 21 +, it’s not possible to gamble anyway.  According to the NCAA, ‘Overall rates of gambling among NCAA men have decreased (2016)’, and most gambling behaviors of student-athletes involve low stakes betting.

 Mental Acuity Through Physical Activity

Healthy distractions such as exercising can mean the world of difference between a productive student and a failing student. A healthy mind is a healthy body, and a healthy body ably assists a healthy mind. There are many reasons why distractions are incredibly beneficial to students, as part of an overall health and wellness package.

Virtues and vices can certainly coexist in moderation, and even allow for increased productivity and enhanced learning. It would be foolhardy to assume that a distraction in and of itself is detrimental to your success as a student. Sometimes we actually need distractions to re-energize ourselves.

It takes tremendous powers of concentration to remain productive from sunrise to sunset day after day. Sometimes you’ve just got to take a little time out to exercise, play, and enjoy your hobbies and distractions.