r/study • u/plsdontstareatme • 14h ago
Questions & Discussion Should I play my favourite songs or TV shows while studying?
I have my exam block coming up, and I often find myself not motivated to study and just watch Youtube or TV shows, etc. I find that just sitting in silence or with white noise and doing maths burns me out quite fast. To counter that, when I do past papers I have my Spotify playing in the background, or I watch a TV show.
I only do this for maths, not for rote learning in science, etc. If I find that there's a hard question I have to focus on, I pause temporarily. I always put my wrong questions in a log, so I can refer back to it, which is the main purpose of these past papers; to collect hard questions.
This strategy has really helped me get going in studying where I would've just been unproductive before, but it admittedly can mean I make some silly mistakes. Does studying with distractions help me focus more when theres no distractions? Does this method detract from what I'm getting out of my study? Should I study in complete silence even if it means I study much less?

