If you are like me, you find it extremely difficult to study in the average house hold these days. There are just way too many distractions. People running around, cleaning, doing chores, watching TV; each distraction progressively detracts you more from the goal you are trying to achieve, to STUDY!

Here are a few tips to help create an effective environment to study in:

1) Study at a desk. Studying at a desk will help to keep you focusing on studying. Lying on a couch or on your bed is comfortable place and may aid in making your mind wander.

2) Do NOT sit in a room with the television running. Watching TV while trying to study is probably the worst thing a person can do. Nine times out of ten you will wind up attempting to study in the commercials, and the two to three minute periods between shows just isn't enough time to help something sink in.

3) Play some soft familiar music in the background. Music has been show to aid in information retention. Avoid listening to music with heavy lyrical content or music you don't really know as you will just wind up distracting yourself.

4) Get away from other people unless they too are studying. It is in your best interest to avoid others when trying to study. Hanging out with somebody while studying or doing homework usually leads to unnecessary conversations on unrelated topics. If you absolutely have to, go to somewhere quiet like a library, they usually have plenty of desks and are quite strict about noise and distractions.

If you follow these tips you should be able to save yourself some time in the studying department. I look at it like this, I'd rather spend one hour of solid focussed time studying distraction free, then spend 4 hours and get only have mediocre study time.