Handstands during break. A social media reward system. Peer study groups at tutorial (T) period study halls. These are tools students use to stay focused while completing their schoolwork.

Many students balance maintaining relationships with friends and family, playing sports, and participating in extracurricular activities — all while completing their schoolwork. They must focus through a series of distractions, such as background noise and the internet. Forty percent of U.S. teenagers said they were online almost constantly last year in a 2025 Pew Research study.

“We are in an era where many, many people — probably everybody  — has … something taking away their focus,” said Rachel Herbert, director of learning strategies. “We have billion-dollar companies trying to get your attention, and that’s not a fair fight. So, I would say moving away from a model where just some people need to think about how they focus, to everybody figuring out what it looks like to focus, in 2026 is essential.”

For students looking to improve their focus, the Learning Strategies resources site lays out strategies and tools to assist students’ learning and studying. 

Another resource available to Urban students is the four focus apps the Urban tech department preinstalls on all Urban laptops: WriteRoom, Time Out, SelfControl and Cold Turkey Writer. The apps provide blank documents for writing, allow students to block certain apps or websites for a given amount of time and help students plan their study breaks. 

According to a survey of 83 students conducted by The Urban Legend, 66.3% have never used any of these apps. “I think the impacts [of the apps] are, unfortunately, not super big, because a lot of students don’t know that they’re there,” said Jiajing Wang, academic support coordinator and math and science teacher. “But, I do think that once students are aware of [them], they use it a lot more.”

Some students use cellphone apps to hold themselves accountable for completing their work. Adora Fong ’27 uses an app called Focus Friend by Hank Green. In the app, users set a timer while they focus. As the timer runs, an animated bean knits socks — but if users break their focus, the bean’s knitting unravels.

The Focus Friend app has helped Fong pay attention for longer. “I used to work for long periods of time and not feel that productive, because I would take frequent breaks. Homework would take me five hours,” she said. “Now it takes me two hours … because I’m taking shorter and less frequent breaks.”

Olivia Prime ’27 uses the app ClearSpace to limit her time on social media. “When I didn’t use [ClearSpace], I would kind of just pick up my phone and automatically click on Instagram or TikTok,” Prime said. “But now that I have that in my head that it’s going to be blocked when I look at it, I don’t reach for my phone as much.”

In addition to apps and platforms, Herbert says computer organization affects students’ focus. “How we design our screens really matters. … While people think having 30 tabs open isn’t impacting [them], the reality is our brain is taking all of them in,” she said. “Trying to find ways digitally to only look at one thing at a time is important.”

Beyond technology, the Learning Strategies Department suggests that students take breaks and move their bodies. In a 2018 study published in the National Library of Medicine, 10 minutes of walking had a positive impact on students’ (ranging from elementary- to college-aged) ability to solve math problems.

“[When] I’ve been studying for three hours, … I’ll go and do a handstand,” said Kate Dollard ’27, learning differences and neurodiversity space (LDNS) fellow. “It’s about disrupting your rhythm. You’re also getting all the blood … into your head, and you’re really refreshing yourself.”

The Urban schedule never keeps students in a class or study hall for more than 75 minutes without a break. It also provides most students with dedicated times to focus on academics during the school day. Urban requires ninth and 10th graders to attend two silent study halls each week if they are not enrolled in E period classes or music ensembles. All students also have two T periods each week where they can talk to teachers or work with classmates.

In the previously mentioned survey, 79.6% of respondents reported feeling focused in E period study halls, compared with 73.1% in T period study halls. The different types of study periods appeal to different students’ study strategies.

“I really dislike silent study halls,” Simon Coyne Sutton ’28 said. “I need help from people, and I can’t really do that while I’m whispering. … I definitely learn a lot more [during T periods], since I can collaborate with people in T periods.”

All students have unique needs and focus strategies. “A core piece of focus is having observed yourself in enough situations to know what really does work for you,” Herbert said. “Because there is natural variation among humans, what works for you might not work for me.”