How to Run Phone-Free Study Sessions With Friends
Make studying with friends the productive kind: agree the plan, pile up the phones, work in blocks, and the first to check their phone buys the coffees.
Studying with friends can be the most productive or the least productive thing you’ll ever do. Here’s how to make it the first one.
The set-up
- Agree the plan before you start: how long, and what each person’s working on.
- Phones in a pile or in bags across the room.
- Work in blocks: 50 minutes on, 10 off. Or 25 and 5 if you’re starting out.
- Breaks are for each other, not phones. Get a snack, have a moan about the module.
Rules that help
- First to check their phone buys the coffees.
- One emergency check per block, said out loud.
- Say your goal at the start, and whether you hit it at the end. That bit of accountability works wonders.
Where to do it
- The library (the silent floor if you’re easily distracted).
- Someone’s kitchen table.
- A café with bad Wi-Fi. Seriously.
When you’re not together
Try a video call with cameras on and mics off, so you work “together” from home.
Snitch’s focus hours help too: set times when your apps can’t be unlocked, and if you really need to unlock during one, you need your group’s approval.