Why does it seems too hard to leave phone and focus on study? What should I do?

Our society hands out instant gratification like candy. That's why our phones are designed with notifications, alerts, and popups: Every one of those is something new to grab our attention. It has to do with brain chemistry and dopamine, which is one of the 4 chemicals that regulate happiness. Dopamine is released whenever we "complete" something, such as checking off an item in our checklist, or getting a certain amount of likes on a social media post. The notifications our phone creates are a constant stream of dopamine, which can sometimes be helpful, but can also be a major drag to our productivity. Dopamine can be addictive. If you try to suddenly abandon your stream of notifications to study, sometimes your brain fights back, craving more dopamine. This is the reason. As with any problem, there are multiple ways to approach it. Some temporary solutions would be to allow yourself to use it, but only after a certain amount of time, or only once you've completed a certain number of study problems, or in a more extreme case, until a trusted friend thinks you've made suitable progress. Our brains will make any number of excuses to get back at that dopamine, so you have to plan ahead and say what you are and are not going to do. More long-term solutions include mindfulness, meditation, listening to music (also short-term), exercise, sleep, and hobbies. Consciously engaging in activities that don't instantly reward you with dopamine are the best way to lessen a dependency on it, as is the same with any addictive tendency. It's the nature of the world that we live in that many people rely on their phones for constant entertainment. The best techniques to combat this dependency is to distract yourself with other activities that are also interesting, if not more so than the dopamine-yielding behavior. Over time, you will feel less of a need to open your phone, and more of a desire to brainstorm, reflect, and appreciate the world around you.

It is because these things attract us more. We don't have to use our brain much & it's fun! If you want to get out of this habit then I'd suggest you to make studies fun. Take it as a challenge & keep your 5 min phone breaks in between. You can also use your phone for good by removing distracting apps & adding the productive ones. I would like to suggest few - 1) Pocket casts - It has podcasts you can listen to during your break. 2) Ted talk 3) Your hour - Tells you about screen usage & you can totally shut down your phone for upto 4 hours. You can also try sketching in between, listening to some music & meditation. Walk after every 20 mins so that you don't feel sleepy & stay hydrated. :) Hope it helps.

Focusing on something that might not be as fun or entertaining as your phone can be quite difficult. You'd much rather be connected to an online world away from reality instead of doing something boring and mundane and time consuming like studying. Something that can help with this is setting aside an exact time for studying and leaving your phone out of sight. Sometimes taking a break can be helpful but avoid checking your phone in the meantime because it can be difficult to disconnect again. Doing things in short bursts can help to not feel overwhelmed and still be able to keep up with the latest news on your online world

It is hard to not focus on your phone, for it has access to many things, such as social media, messages, and games. Most of things are enjoyable to engage in. On the other hand, studying is often not as enjoyable. If you tend to focus on your phone, there are apps in the app stores that encourage you to be off your phone. For every minute that you are off your phone, you can either earn redeemable points or plant trees. You can also leave your phone somewhere that is not near you to decrease your time and the phone and focus on studying. Perhaps put the phone in your least favorite part of house. To focus on study, chunk the study time. Acknowledge your attention span and incorporate it into your study plan. If you can only focus for one hour, study one hour and take a good worthy break. Don't force yourself to study when you are tired.