How to focus during finals week: a phone plan for exams

By the edgi team Updated October 23, 2026 Facts checked October 23, 2026

To focus during finals week, spend your hours on quizzing yourself rather than rereading, protect your sleep, and take your phone off the table except for breaks you planned. edgi, a free iPhone app, covers two of those: its Focus lock makes every open of TikTok or Instagram cost a 60-second Lesson, for the few opens a day you allow, and you can make a Quiz of up to 20 questions on any topic you name, so even your breaks can be retrieval practice.

We make edgi, and finals week is when its Focus lock earns its keep.

Study the way that works

The most useful thing to know before finals is which kind of studying sticks:

Testing effect Testing yourself on material builds stronger long-term memory than rereading it, even without receiving feedback on what you got wrong.

60-second Lesson

Testing effect

Pulling something out of memory makes it last longer than reading it again, even though rereading feels easier.

Play it here Read about testing effect

Rereading your notes feels productive because it's easy. Testing yourself feels worse. It works better. So turn every chapter into questions: close the book and write what you remember, do old exam papers, or make a Quiz in edgi. "Quiz me on Chapter 9: cellular respiration." "Make me 20 questions on the causes of the French Revolution." Nova, edgi's AI, builds it, and you find out what you don't know while there's still time to learn it.

edgi has a Set on this, How to Not Forget What You Learn, open from your first day: seven cards including the forgetting curve, the testing effect and what sleep does to a new memory. Read it before the other ten hours of studying, not after.

Lock your phone for the week

Finals week is the week a phone costs the most and tempts the most. Set it up once, on Sunday:

1. In edgi, open Settings, then Focus, and pick the apps that eat your evenings, through the iPhone's Screen Time picker.
2. edgi writes each rule as a sentence: "I'll open TikTok no more than 2 times a day, for 10 min each time." Choose 1 to 30 opens, 1 to 60 minutes, and the days of your exams.
3. Under "A Lesson opens it," choose Every open. During finals, every open should cost something.

Now reaching for TikTok between flashcards shows "One lesson opens TikTok for 10 minutes." Sometimes you'll take it: a minute of guessing, tapping and testing one idea, a card, then TikTok. Sometimes you'll put the phone down and go back to chapter 9.

And when the night before your hardest exam you decide you deserve unlimited TikTok, edgi says "A looser limit starts tomorrow." A stricter rule starts the moment you save it. The plan you made on Sunday survives Wednesday night.

Protect your sleep

All-nighters feel like extra study time. They aren't. A new memory keeps setting after you stop studying, much of it while you sleep. edgi's What Sleep Is Actually For, another Set open from day one, has eight cards on the night shift, including slow-wave sleep and sleep debt. In finals week, put your phone on its charger across the room by a set time. With TikTok locked, there's less reason to bring it to bed.

The week, day by day

What you keep afterward

Every Lesson you did at the door is a card. Come back to an idea and its card turns foil, then gold; together they fill in a Map of everything you've learned. A home-screen widget keeps the streak in view through exam week. When finals are over, you'll have grades, and a week of ideas from the minutes you nearly spent on Reels.

For the study-week setup in more detail, see how to block apps while studying. For the procrastination behind the phone, see how to stop procrastinating on your phone while studying.

FAQ

How do I focus during finals week? Quiz yourself instead of rereading, sleep, and lock your distracting apps for the week. edgi's free Focus lock makes every open cost a 60-second Lesson, for the opens you allow.

What is the best way to study for finals? Retrieval practice: test yourself with questions instead of rereading notes. In edgi you can make a Quiz of up to 20 questions on any topic you name.

How do I stay off my phone during finals? Cap your apps' opens and make every open cost something. In edgi, loosening the cap waits until midnight, so you can't undo it the night before an exam.

Is edgi free? Yes. edgi is free on iPhone, Focus included.