Exam season is upon us. Are you a student? Or the parent of a student? If so, you’ll be aware of one of the major challenges – staying focused on studies rather than getting sidetracked smartphones. 

According to a 2019 study by RescueTime, the average person spends 3 hours and 15 minutes on their phone every day, with many checking their phones 58 times a day. This can be a real drain on concentration and derail studies. So let’s try and stop these distractions with some top tips and advice!

Whether you’ve got an iPhone or Android, there are settings you can change to manage screen time and stop distractions.

iOS Screen Time
If you’ve got an iPhone, Apple's Screen Time feature is a powerful tool to help manage device usage. To enable it, go to Settings > Screen Time. Here, you can limit phone use to essential apps during certain hours – very handy. Screen Time also provides detailed reports on your usage, helping you identify the biggest distractions.

Digital Wellbeing for Samsung and other Androids
Digital Wellbeing is built into lots of Android devices, including Samsung phones. To enable it, go to Settings > Digital Wellbeing & parental controls. You can then easily monitor your phone usage, set app timers, and use Wind Down to reduce screen time before bed. Samsung's version includes additional features like Focus Mode, which can pause distracting apps when you need to get down to serious studying.

Focus Mode is another useful feature found on both iPhones and Android devices. Here’s how to use it.

iPhone Focus Mode
On iOS, you can customize Focus Modes to suit different times of the day. Go to Settings > Focus to set up modes like Work, Personal, and Sleep. Each mode can be customised to allow notifications only from specific apps and contacts, reducing the temptation to check your phone.

Android Focus Mode
You’ll find Android's Focus Mode in settings, under Digital Wellbeing. It lets you pause distracting apps with a single tap, and you can set it to turn on automatically during certain hours - so you can stay focused when you need to.

Samsung Focus Mode
If you’ve got a Samsung Galaxy phone you’ll find Focus Mode under Settings > Digital Wellbeing and parental controls. Similar to the standard Android's version, it lets you pause apps temporarily. You can also set routines that trigger Focus Mode based on your studying schedule.

Notifications are a major source of distraction. Both iOS and Android allow you to manage notifications by going to Settings > Notifications. You can then choose which apps can send you notifications, select quieter notification styles, and even turn off notifications for specific apps entirely. 

How to uninstall distracting apps

One of the most straightforward ways to reduce phone distraction is to uninstall apps that are especially distracting or time-consuming. We’re talking about all the big social media apps, games, and even certain messaging apps. Removing them not only reduces temptation, but also helps free up storage and improve phone performance. Here’s how to uninstall them:

• iPhone: Tap and hold the app icon until it jiggles, then tap the ‘x’ and confirm deletion.
• Android: Tap and hold the app icon, then drag it to the ‘Uninstall’ option that appears.

Okay, so this might sound counterintuitive, but… there are some really good apps designed to help reduce phone distraction. Here are three that are worth checking out:

Forest
Available for iOS and Android
Forest helps you stay focused by planting a virtual tree that grows while you stay off your phone. If you leave the app to use your phone, the tree dies. Over time, you can grow an entire forest. If you study hard enough!

StayFocusd
Available for iOS and Android
If you can overlook the annoying spelling, this is a great app for blocking access to distracting websites and apps. You can set daily limits for each app, schedule block times, and even use a strict mode that prevents changes during certain periods.

Cold Turkey
Available for iOS and Android
Cold Turkey offers one of the strictest blocking systems. Once you block an app or website, you can’t access it until the timer runs out. It’s perfect if you’re looking for an uncompromising way to eliminate smartphone distraction.

Another simple but effective way of reducing distractions is to rearrange your phone Home Screen. Move all your distracting apps off the main page, and replace them with apps that aid productivity – such as calendar apps, note-taking apps, or study-related tools.

You can even use Focus Mode (see above) to have different Home Screen layouts for different times of the day. For example, during Study Focus Mode you can set your Home Screen to only display study-related apps - and hide things like social media sites and games. 

We wish all students the best of luck during exam season. Do you have any of your own tips for reducing phone distractions? Any good study advice you’d like to give? Feel free to share in the comments below!