Ace
Short answer: use your phone for short bursts of self-testing, such as answering a few practice questions on the bus or between lectures, not for long reading or deep work. Set it up so studying is one tap away and distracting apps are not. For focused study sessions, put the phone in another room: research shows that even a silent phone on your desk reduces the mental capacity you have available.
Why your phone hurts focus, even when it is silent
Ward, Duke, Gneezy and Bos (2017) ran experiments with nearly 800 smartphone users. Participants did tests that needed full concentration with their phone either on the desk, in a pocket or bag, or in another room. The phones were silent. People whose phones were in another room did significantly better than those with phones on the desk. In a second experiment, turning the phone off or face down made no difference; only distance helped.
The researchers' explanation is that part of your attention goes on not checking the phone. You do not notice the cost, but it is there. So for anything that needs deep thought (a hard problem set, an essay, learning a new topic), the phone should not be in the room.
What phones are actually good for
The phone's strength is that it is always with you. That suits a study method that works best in short, spread-out sessions: self-testing.
- Retrieval in small doses. Answering questions from memory strengthens learning far more than rereading (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006), and it does not need a long session.
- Spacing for free. Five questions in the morning and five in the afternoon spreads your practice out, and spaced practice lasts longer than one long session (Cepeda et al., 2006).
- Dead time becomes review time. Queues, commutes and the ten minutes before a lecture add up across a week.
What phones are poor for: reading long PDFs, taking notes from lectures and anything that needs a big screen or sustained concentration.
Set your phone up for studying
- Put study apps on the home screen and move social media into a folder on the last page, or delete it during exam season.
- Use a Focus mode (iPhone) or do-not-disturb schedule that silences everything except calls from people who matter during study blocks.
- Turn off non-essential notifications completely. Each one is an invitation to switch tasks.
- Set a screen-time limit on the apps that eat your evenings.
- Keep your questions ready. The easier it is to start a quiz, the more often you will do one instead of scrolling.
A simple phone study routine
- Morning (5 minutes): a few questions on yesterday's lecture.
- Between classes (5 minutes): questions on a topic from last week.
- Evening, phone away (45–90 minutes): your main study session at a desk, phone in another room. See how to focus while studying.
- Before bed (5 minutes): a quick round on anything you got wrong today.
The short sessions keep everything ticking over; the long one is where you learn new material.
The Ace iPhone app is built for those short sessions: it turns your own lecture slides, PDFs or lecture videos into practice questions, keeps a streak and study calendar, and lets you duel a friend on the same questions. It also works in the browser on a laptop for longer sessions. See the best iPhone apps for studying for other options.
Frequently asked questions
Is it bad to study on your phone?
Not for short self-testing. It is a poor choice for long reading or deep work, where the phone's distractions and small screen get in the way.
Does putting my phone face down help?
Not much, according to Ward et al. (2017). Their results suggest only physical distance, such as another room, removed the cost.
How can I stop checking my phone while studying?
Put it in another room, turn off notifications and use a Focus mode. Plan short breaks where you are allowed to check it.
Can I revise for exams just on my phone?
Use it for practice questions and quick reviews, but do your main learning sessions at a desk with a bigger screen and the phone out of reach.
Sources
- Ward, A. F., Duke, K., Gneezy, A., & Bos, M. W. (2017). Brain drain: The mere presence of one's own smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 2(2), 140–154. UT Austin summary
- Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. PubMed
- Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380. PubMed
