Phone Distractions While Studying: How to Break the Habit

Phone distractions while studying cost more than the minutes you spend scrolling. Each check breaks your train of thought, notifications pull attention even when you ignore them, and students who switch between studying and social media tend to learn less. The fix that works best is boring: silence notifications and put the phone where you can't reach it until your study block ends.

This guide covers what the research actually shows (including where the famous findings are weaker than the headlines), whether you can multitask while studying, the phone and laptop settings that help, and a two-week plan to make phone-free sessions a habit.

How much do phone distractions while studying cost you?

More than students think. In a 2013 study, researchers watched 263 middle school, high school, and university students study for 15 minutes in their own homes, logging what they did minute by minute. Students knew they were being observed. Even so, they averaged less than six minutes on task before switching, most often to texting, social media, or other technology. Students who checked Facebook during the session also had lower GPAs, although an observational study can't show which causes which.

Classroom experiments show the cost to learning. In a 2013 Canadian study, students took notes on laptops during a lecture, and half were also asked to do short online tasks, the kind of browsing students do in class anyway. In a second experiment, students taking notes on paper were seated either behind laptop users who were multitasking (actors working for the researchers) or out of view of them.

The samples were small (about 40 students per experiment), so treat the exact gaps loosely. The direction is consistent with everything else here: divided attention during learning means less learning.

Do notifications distract you if you ignore them?

Yes. In a 2015 experiment, people did a demanding attention task while the researchers sent calls or texts to their phones. Participants didn't answer or interact with the phone. They still made more errors, and the cost was about the same size as when people actually used the phone for a call or text.

The researchers' explanation: a buzz starts a train of thought ("who's that?", "is it urgent?") that runs in the background while you try to work. So silence notifications completely for the block, including sound, vibration, and on-screen banners, with an exception for one or two people who might genuinely need you.

Does having your phone nearby make you worse at studying?

This is the "brain drain" study you may have heard of, and the honest answer is: probably less than the headlines said.

The original finding. In 2017, Adrian Ward and colleagues gave about 520 undergraduates tests of working memory and fluid intelligence. Phones were silenced and placed face down on the desk, in a pocket or bag, or in another room. Students whose phones were in another room scored best and those with phones on the desk scored worst, even though nobody touched their phone and most felt it hadn't affected them. A second experiment found the same pattern with phones switched off.

What happened next. Later studies often failed to find the effect. A 2024 meta-analysis pooled 33 studies with 4,368 participants and found an average effect of essentially zero (d = −0.02) for a phone's mere presence. Results didn't depend on how attached people were to their phones.

What that means for you. A silent phone lying on the desk may not drain your brainpower. But a phone you can reach is still one second away from the most interesting thing in your day, and every glance is a decision you have to keep making. Putting it in another room removes the decision, which is why it remains the best default, even if the original explanation was overstated.

Can you multitask while studying?

Not in the way most people mean. For anything that needs real thinking, such as reading, writing, or solving problems, your attention handles one thing at a time. What feels like doing two things at once is switching between them, and each switch costs a moment to reload where you were and what you were thinking. Psychologists call this a task-switching cost.

Is anyone actually good at multitasking?

Not the people who think they are. A 2013 University of Utah study measured people's ability to juggle tasks in a lab test alongside how much they multitask in daily life. The people who multitasked the most tended to have lower actual ability, and they rated their own skill far higher than it was. Frequent multitasking was linked to impulsivity and trouble blocking out distractions, not to talent.

Does multitasking damage your attention permanently?

That claim goes back to a 2009 Stanford study, which found that heavy media multitaskers were more easily distracted by irrelevant information. Later replications mostly failed. A 2017 paper combining two replications with a meta-analysis of 39 effects found only a weak link, which disappeared after correcting for small-study bias. The clear, proven cost of multitasking is in the moment: you learn less while you're doing it.

What can you safely combine with studying?

The music row has its own nuances, covered in our guide to whether music helps you study.

Phone settings and app blockers that help

Rules you have to remember fail when you're tired. Settings work in the background. Menu names vary by phone and software version, so search your settings for these terms.

• iPhone: create a "Study" Focus that silences all apps and allows calls from one or two contacts. Use Screen Time app limits for the apps you open on autopilot.
• Android: use Digital Wellbeing Focus mode to pause chosen apps, and turn on Do Not Disturb with exceptions for starred contacts.
• Both: turn off notifications from every app that isn't a person messaging you: news, shopping, games, streaks. Move social apps off the home screen, or log out so opening them takes effort.
• Laptop: use a site blocker (browser extensions like LeechBlock, or apps like Freedom or Cold Turkey) during study blocks. Your phone being in another room doesn't help if Instagram is a tab away.
• Commitment apps: apps like Forest reward you for leaving the phone alone. They work for some people; if you find yourself overriding them, go back to physical distance.

Pair whichever you choose with timed blocks and planned breaks. Our Pomodoro guide shows how to structure them, and how to focus while studying covers the other causes of drifting.

A two-week plan for phone-free study sessions

Change one thing at a time so the habit sticks. Use a paper tally to mark each time you want to check your phone during a block; the number should fall over the two weeks.

A phone-free hour is wasted if you spend it rereading. Fill the blocks with active recall: answer questions from memory, solve problems, and check your answers.