I want to try being mindful through out the day. Is there anything that helps me do this? I try to be mindful whenever I am reminded of it. But I am very rarely reminded of it. I have been using mindful bells to remind myself to be aware. That worked for sometime and now it looks like my brain has got used to it, so it is neglecting the sound of the bell. I spend most of my day studying (in front of a computer), travelling on bike for an hour. I don’t exclusively sit and meditate for an hour or so. May be 15-20 minutes here and there. Or whenever I find I am caught up in difficult emotions. I can’t afford to spare time exclusively for meditation because I have study to do. Hence my motivation is to incorporate mindfulness while studying, other activities. I haven’t been able to do like the way I wanted it to be. Can anyone please suggest how to go about it? Will continuos noting help? Will ‘“reading.., reading.. , seeing,.. reading..’” help? How do I be aware while studying? If I try to be mindful while I study, I find it hard to understand what is being read. Looks like it comes in the way of studying process itself. Or is it that Mindfulness and studying never goes hand in hand, at this stage atleast?

What about the time I am not studying? Will continuous mental noting help during those times?

My meditation background include Goenka body scanning since 8 months, also a retreat under Christopher Titmuss and crew.

While studying and riding bike, what should be my object? The body scanning or the specific things that I am doing? Right now I am at a stage where I can notice subtle sensations on the surface of the body. I want to know if I Should continue to be aware of these subtle sensations while studying / riding or mental noting helps me? Which helps me best to progress?

Continually noting would help your mindfulness tons, but realistically, you are not going to be able to study productively while noting, reading.., reading.. , seeing,.. reading..’”, and it doesn't sound like you have time to be unproductive in your studies

You have many options, but here is one you might consider:
In "The Mind Illuminated", Culadasa makes a distinction between "attention" and "peripheral awareness", and defines mindfulness as "the optimal interaction between the two. The goal of meditation in TMI is to develop stable attention and strong mindfulness. You need strong mindfulness to maintain stable attention, and stable attention is also key to developed peripheral awareness, and hence necessary for strong mindfulness. In the minds of people who have never trained their minds, unconscious processes decide the focus of attention, but through meditation we gain complete conscious control. A very effective way to continue your practice off the cushion is to have the intention to use attention intentionally at all times. Whatever you are doing, try to focus on that thing without letting your mind wander. If you are studying, make sure that you are not caught by day dreams or planning; try to engage fully with the study. If you are biking, you could focus on the movements of your body. The important thing is that you are consciously, intentionally using your attention at all times; the actual object of attention doesn't matter, only that you chose it. Through this practice, you inevitably and naturally end up becoming very aware of your mind and developing mindfulness, because if you are not aware of the movements of your mind, it is impossible to prevent wandering and maintain sustained attention

here is a practice I did a long time ago which in retrospect is a kind of mindfulness practice.

I was working a desk/computer job and I noticed that my productivity was low.  Long story short, I kept a piece of paper on the desk between me and the keyboard.  I'd write down on the left side of the paper what I was trying to do at the moment.  Like "answer an  email", or "research X" or "call Y". 

When I noticed I was doing something besides what I'd just written on the left side of the paper, I'd pause to consider, "well, do I want to be doing that or not?"  If yes, I'd write that new item down on the left side and keep doing it.  If 'no', I'd write down that new item on the right side of the paper and get back to the left-side thing I had decided I'd do.  

The framework of this 'meditation' is to always know what I'm trying to do, and notice what activity was pulling me away from what I had wanted to do. I'd end up with stuff on the right side of the page like: going to the bathroom when I don't really need to, looking at email, looking at phone, going to get a drink of water, thinking about something I don't need to think about, talking to somebody about something I don't need to be talking about, etc.  It turned big chunks of my working day into a meditation.  When I got into vipassana mediation I realized that I already had some skills.  You could do this practice while studying... just notice when you're off target, write that unwanted activity down and get back on target.

In other activities I try to be clear on *exactly* the thing I'm trying to acomplish, then know exactly the real-time information it takes to acomplish that goal, then focus on exactly that sense object and notice when I'm focusing on something else.  For example, when maneuvering around the house I use my eyes to position my body exactly between the approaching obstacles.  Normally I'd just take a glance and then stop paying attention.  That pattern leads to a certain number of things (sometimes painfully) stepped on, or shoulders bumped into door frames.  But the new practice lead to zero collisions.

When approaching a light switch I hold my finger ahead of me, watch it approaching the switch and practice touching exactly the tip of my finger on the right spot of the switch without fumbling around first.  Done well, the finger touches the switch exactly when I'm close enough then the switch goes 'click'.  Done distractedly, the finger kind of flys around and bumps into something besides the switch, then fumbles around to land on the switch.  I find it useful to do something like this when reaching for a door nob, deftly moving a fork from the dishwasher rack, etc.  The criteria for choosing such an activity is, is there obviously a good/accurate/efficient way to do this thing, is it easy to see/hear etc when I'm not doing it well.

When bike riding or driving I'd focus on exactly what sensory information is required to do the job.  So eyes are 'it' when biking, know where you should be looking to balance near-term collision avoidance and far-term navigation choices, and notice when you're not actually even looking out your eyes.  I mean, notice when actually you are putting more energy into thinking about something random than processing the unfolding visual information.  If you're noticing the breeze on your face you are not noticing the texture of the ground 20' in front of you.  It might be OK to enjoy the breeze for a moment but doing it means you 'dropped the ball' of visual awareness.

There is a walking practice I do.  Focus my eyes on some specific patch of something in front of me, like a splotch of color on the sidewalk 25' ahead as I walk towards it.  I lock my eyes on it and notice when more visual information comes into clarity, then look more.  For instance, it's a brown patch, oh its a leaf, oh it's torn, oh it has veins, oh the veins are darker, etc.  At each new discovery the brain wants to stop looking and spend time catagorizing the information, but stifle that, just keep on looking!  This is best done in an environment where you are not worried about collision with people, animals, etc.

So its all the same: know what you are trying to do, know what sensory target allows you to directly accomplish the goal and notice when you're not even looking at that sensory target.  I'm a fan of activies that <figuratively, or literally> hit you in the face when you stop looking in the right spot, for example beach ball.  I think if the activity results in 1 minute gaps between you noticing you've dropped the ball, figure out how to change the activity such that you need to notice sooner or you can't help but noticing sooner.  If the activity has your rapt attention, for example watching an exciting movie, then there is no mindfulness practice there.
[editing a few times to add more stuff]

Thank you for the response. I have just started reading TMI. I read the part where he explains about peripheral awareness and attention. I will read more about it. I have a couple of questions though. May be I will try and incorporate this idea and practice for couple of days and then get back here to clear my confusions. Thank you so much. 

Thank you Matthew for your detailed response. I started this practice and it looks like it works very good. No doubt this practice increases the productivity of my study and helps me focus more. 

My question might be silly. I want to know if this practice is part of mindfulness? Can you please tell me how this whole practice might help me progress in Vipassana. Because until now I thought just 'being aware' is all about mindfulness. Here I see the stress on doing the job with more focus. 

Yes, please do. It will be great.