Distractions affecting motivation..

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>My distractions are seriously affecting my motivation to study!! I'm like the only person who studies more than 20 min in my family while everyone else either watches TV or plays computer. I'm so annoyed by all the sounds and "activity" going on around my room. Seriously, my room is in the center of the house and the TV, computer, and LIVING ROOM lies adjacent to my room and wall. I always hear noises like dum dum dum, from people taking and noises coming from the TV and it is soo annoying.. </p>

<p>Also, I have a problem when I observe my sister playing computer. Even time I spot her playing a game, I want to go and look at what she's doing. Being a game addict, I have tried my best to avoid getting distracted from games since this year. However, sometimes I can't control myself and I end up telling my sister to move over and let me play. I just like the limited less than 1 year for studying the SATs oh-no-your-in-trouble abscond to the back of my head to let my game craves take over. What should I do? I mean I've tried quitting during weekdays and playing during weekends but I ALWAYS get addicted again and end up playing superfluously. For example, I would think, "Oh, I've studied so hard this week, a couple hours won't be so bad." Then the next couple of days I would be playing like crazy; 5+ hours a day or even the whole day. </p>

<p>Main Questions: How do you guys keep your motivation up and not get totally distracted and addicted to something that affects your school grades, social life, and overall, WASTES YOUR TIME! Are you able to play a little while and then get back to your school work? Or are you like me and totally slacks off and forgets about studying for the SAT or thinking about/doing ECs? I mean all the time you waste watching tv, spending time on the computer, writing this post right now deduct time off your total study time to do more ECs, get better grades, and most of all get into a good college. </p>

<p>What do you think I should do? What do you do? Do you think the way I think about doing time-wasting activites? Another example: I study like from 4-11 every weekday and I watch tv from 4pm-2am on friday because I think that I have the right to do so? Thats wayy to much I think and I just don't know how to control this. </p>

<p>Also, where do you guys usually study? Do you go to the closest public library? School's library? Please give me some advice on the best place to study. Keep in mind that my mom works and is gone for most of the day. I also don't have a car or any source of transportation currently. Thanks for your insight and opinions!</p>

2

<p>So basically I have the same problem as you. I've been an avid gamer throughout high school (I'm a senior now). And amazingly, I've maintained good grades so far playing 3-4 hours of games a day. So I kinda lead and managed a cs team that actually did pretty well so I kinda justify my lack of motivation by calling gaming an extra curricular. But, my advice is to just do homework to get credit. You can actually get away with doing a lot of your homework in class too if you want to maximize your free time after school. Prioritize subjects by difficulty and proximity of your next test. Also, familiarize yourself with the test format that each teacher gives and make sure that you know how approach the test come test day. Another piece of advice, be prepared to sacrifice sleep for your grades. Night before test day, I don't go to bed until I understand the material completely. Though you may perform worse due to fatigue, knowing everything + fatigue > knowing 50%. This is just how I work. So don't take this for complete truth. As far as the studying thing goes, public library is the best, but the kitchen table late at night is hard to beat during crunch time. This isn't a guide to overachieving, but I've follwed these general rules and have managed a 4.0 uw thus far.</p>

3

<p>For a while I went to the local (public) university's library and studied there. It's actually a great place to go -- very pretty and relaxing.</p>

4

<p>Yeah, but the thing is, I don't want to just maintain a 4.0 gpa! I would like to be able to learn and remember the majority of the information taught in school instead of just cramming the info in for tests. I totally did what you did last year and I played from when I got back from school till I slept with about 10-30 min of hw in between. Unfortunately, I got a 3.9gpa and now I really regret that. Plus, if you play games more than 5 hours a day, it will really affect your other important aspects of getting into a really good college(what I really want). So should I just quit gaming forever and ever until I get into college or graduate? I mean, I still watch tv but gaming just doesn't give you as many benefits as watching "real life" people, news, etc,etc. I want to do good on the SATs, as I'm way behind in every section right now. =[ </p>

<p>Yeah, libraries seem good to me also, I've just got to find a adequate one like yours. The closest one to our house is a old and small library which is right next door to a not-so-good high school. Usually right after school it gets so crowded and noisy, and it makes me not want to go there anymore. Our school library closes 1 hr after school so it sucks!! My house sucks, ugh, any more suggestions?</p>

<p>Thanks to your replies btw, I really appreciate your advice/insight.</p>

5

<p>^^Bookstore? I've seen some people study at the 24-hour-a-day donut shop.</p>

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For example, I would think, "Oh, I've studied so hard this week, a couple hours won't be so bad." Then the next couple of days I would be playing like crazy; 5+ hours a day or even the whole day.</p>

<p>Main Questions: How do you guys keep your motivation up and not get totally distracted and addicted to something that affects your school grades, social life, and overall, WASTES YOUR TIME! Are you able to play a little while and then get back to your school work? Or are you like me and totally slacks off and forgets about studying for the SAT or thinking about/doing ECs? I mean all the time you waste watching tv, spending time on the computer, writing this post right now deduct time off your total study time to do more ECs, get better grades, and most of all get into a good college.

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<p>Usually what I do when I feel that way is go really extreme and say something like "Okay. AP exams are next month, and I will not watch TV, play computer games, or read anything not school related until AP exams are over. If I do this I will fast for a day/slap myself 200 times/wear my clothes inside-out and my glasses upside down. (have you ever tried wearing your glasses upside down??)" Unfortunately this only seems to work around AP exam time. Oh well. You could probably say something like "I will only play for one hour each day on weekdays, and if I violate this condition I will <impose some="" sort="" of="" uncomfortable="" but="" not="" disabling="" punishment="" upon="" yourself="">."</impose></p>

<p>Or I just delete half my games. Most of the stuff I play is freeware anyway. Freeware is fun.</p>

6

<p>Well I have a lot of hobbies, piano, running, sports, lifting weights, but I always think about games, tv. first! Do you guys watch tv when you eat? I think I should stop doing that because I always end up watching tv for like 2 hours until I'm finally "not bloated."</p>

7

<p>Question, do you 'need' to study that much? Like.. are you studying because you want to make 100% on everything? or just to get As... because if you are studying for 7 hours a day that's.. a little bit.. crazy? and I understand it's probably the 'asian gene' killing you but.. dude, if you don't need to spend all that time just to get an A, just relax... you don't need to be perfect.</p>

<p>Even though you say playing games for 5 hours a day cuts into EC time.. don't you think studying for 7 hours a day does the same thing? You need to take a break I think... and enjoy life again! go play a game for an hour.. then you can study for an hour and switch back and forth...</p>

<p>I have an odd feeling your parents try to tell you that if you don't study endlessly you'll never get into college? (btw, what colleges interest you?)</p>

<p><em>shrug</em> I've managed a 4.0 through HS even though I clock many hours on the computer.. but I still find time to enjoy ECs (because you also shouldn't just do ECs for college purposes, you should enjoy them)...</p>

<p>frankly I think you are trying to stuff your brain too much as well. It's nice that you want to retain information and not just learn things for tests and forget them the next day.. but you can't expect to realistically remember everything... because like.. for instance..</p>

<p>Math - every successive year, you basically review the previous years information.. if you forgot something, you can relearn it quite simply.. so there's no need to remember just EVERYTHING.</p>

<p>English - you speak, write, and read every day... nothing huge to remember there (unless you plan to memorize every single book you've ever had to study in school... just.. don't try to force that upon yourself, if you really enjoyed a book, you'll remember the important stuff about it.. if you didn't.. just let it go)</p>

<p>History/Sciences - Here I can see you actually remembering stuff.. but learn to accept memory blanks... you review most everything in college anyways.. you just need to have a general base of knowledge (dyou know what amino acids are made of? what a covalent bond is? who wrote the declaration of independence? what happened @ the end of world war ii? what country did King Louis XIV rule?) and you'll be fine</p>

<p>.__. seriously, you sound like someone my parents want me to be... but it's just not realistic to want to be that person who spends @ least 4 days a week studying non-stop... I think, if you must, just try to slowly break it down.. cut studying time to 5 hours a day.. .see if your grades suffer at all (I think you'll realize they won't). Then you can use those extra 2 hours to relax at the end of your studying sessions so you aren't exhausted before sleeping.</p>

<p>I would suggest you just stay where you are to study.. and get some headphones (the large DJ type ones that are good w/ blocking out sound) and wear those while studying (you could double up and use earplugs + the headphone) or play some classical music through them as you study.</p>

8

<p>
[quote]
Math - every successive year, you basically review the previous years information.. if you forgot something, you can relearn it quite simply.. so there's no need to remember just EVERYTHING.

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<p>You start reviewing less and less the higher you go. Sure, in Algebra II you review pretty much all of Algebra I and in precalc you review half of Algebra II -- even in calculus you'll spend a while reviewing trig -- but once you get a bit higher, there'll be much less review built into the class. (My differential equations teacher was basically like "Okay, chapter 1, that's that review stuff, eh? You can read it all tonight, and tomorrow we'll start on the new material.") And relearning slows you down -- while the professor's solving exact equations on the board in DiffEq you don't want to be wondering what the heck a partial derivative is, or else you'll fall behind. (especially at good schools -- my friend who goes to MIT told me the majority of students at MIT don't know what they're doing.) Not to mention it'll slow you down in other classes as well (physics requires calc and so forth).</p>

<p>
[quote]
History/Sciences - Here I can see you actually remembering stuff.. but learn to accept memory blanks... you review most everything in college anyways.. you just need to have a general base of knowledge (dyou know what amino acids are made of? what a covalent bond is? who wrote the declaration of independence? what happened @ the end of world war ii? what country did King Louis XIV rule?) and you'll be fine

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<p>A lot of people skip out of the "review" classes with AP/IB credit, and they end up taking things like organic chemistry freshman year when they last took chem in 10th-11th grade and have forgotten most of it. (This is why I'm glad my future school doesn't accept AP credit. Even if it did I probably wouldn't take it except in humanities courses)</p>

9

<p>I go down to the kitchen and study, because my room has a computer. Which means the internet. Which means sweet, sweet distraction.</p>

<p>Going anywhere that's a new place I find helps. I once sat in a Barnes&Noble for four hours writing a 20 page essay, start to finish. I never could have done that at home. I've also written essays on the commuter train. Anyplace that has absolutely no other merit to itself. </p>

<p>I couldn't imagine studying a library...I'd get distracted by all those books. And those computers.</p>

10

<p>
[quote]
Going anywhere that's a new place I find helps. I once sat in a Barnes&Noble for four hours writing a 20 page essay, start to finish. I never could have done that at home. I've also written essays on the commuter train. Anyplace that has absolutely no other merit to itself.

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<p>Yeah, I've noticed that too. I usually bring my algebra book to restaurants and cars and get the most work done there. I remember last summer I just carried it in my purse constantly (it's a huge purse).</p>

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<p>Well, I said that because from what I've seen, relearning doesn't take that long if you've had a good base in the subject. For math, most of my friends and I only need to google an equation and <em>snap</em> everything comes back. I understand it might not be like that for everyone, but I assumed that since Aznboi was studying 7 hours a night, his base would be pretty awesome :]</p>

<p>^^ the 2nd comment you quoted was stated assuming Azn would not skip the review classes... because I also don't really care for skipping - the only thing I'd consider jumping would perhaps be a basic freshman writing seminar of some sort</p>

<p>Even if Aznboi does plan to skip his review classes, I still don't think this uber-studying (35 hrs/week) in will benefit him that greatly ._.</p>

12

<p>Yea I seem to have the same problem myself. </p>

<p>
[quote]
Going anywhere that's a new place I find helps. I once sat in a Barnes&Noble for four hours writing a 20 page essay, start to finish. I never could have done that at home. I've also written essays on the commuter train. Anyplace that has absolutely no other merit to itself.

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<p>New places always help. I've started to bring my laptop around with me, too. I usually get the urge to do homework and study when I am on the go. Haha I look so dorky with it but as long as I get back on track, it's all good.</p>

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<p>you should either go to any library near you or go to a REALLY smart friends house where their parents are freaks and will force you to study</p>

14

<p>I just think of the Six Flag's guy.</p>

15

<p>i have the exact same problem! i'm so glad someone here can relate!</p>

<p>i know i have loads to do, but i can't get myself to do it. then i feel bad afterwards. but lately (this year) it's gotten worse, i don't even CARE to do it anymore. i need some MOTIVATION. and home=computer=AIM, CC=not good.</p>

<p>i've never tried the library through</p>

<p>it might work</p>

16

<p>Loads of people have the same problem. Seriously, when I'm doing my homework, I'll finish one problem, and tell myself ok, i'm only going to stay on the computer for 5 minutes. Once I get onto the computer though, I check my email, chat with friends, surf the web, and it takes WAY more than 5 minutes. Usually it takes an hour. And if I don't wander over to the computer, I go into the kitchen and grab myself some snacks. Then go back to homework and do one problem. And then back to the kitchen. And I haven't figured it out yet.</p>

<p>My guess would be to try to think of your worst enemy and imagine them beating you in academics. That should get motivated. (It doesn't for me though, because I just consider it a hypothetical situation. Now if it were REALLY happening, I would do something).</p>

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[quote]
Well I have a lot of hobbies, piano, running, sports, lifting weights, but I always think about games, tv. first! Do you guys watch tv when you eat? I think I should stop doing that because I always end up watching tv for like 2 hours until I'm finally "not bloated."

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<p>Stop watching tv and eating! Haha. I used to do this too though. Basically I would convince myself that I needed to stay on the couch in order for my food to be digested so that my blood didn't try to go to my brain (for studying) AND my stomach (for digesting). Well now, I just don't watch tv and eat anything. I go on the computer and eat. Bad idea. I'm eating as I type.</p>

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<p>that actually got me motivated last year. the enemy thing.</p>

<p>but this year, i'm not in any classes with her so i don't even think about her much anymore.</p>

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<p>Well yes, last quarter I studied from when I got home till like 11pm or 12am, seriously! Of course I took breaks in between(to eat while watching tv) which is a total of about 1-2 hours. So yeah, I would study about 7-9 hours per weekday. However on Friday I would let everything go and watch tv until 1-2. I always do! I don't think it is healthy either; it's a bad habit! </p>

<p>Basically, I've slacked off last year, and every year before that. I'm below average right now, really below average and I'm trying to step it up. I'm trying to catch up on things. I was playing computer for 7+ hours per day last year and I didn't learn anything at all. What should I do this year? If I don't study hard, how am I going to learn everything important that I have MISSED? This is definitely affect my SATs and most importantly my future.</p>

<p>I do know that I need to take more breaks and study less. I'm going to pick classes in which I don't NEED to memorize everything and slack off a bit =D But as for the AP and cores, I need to do as much as I can. I need to do good on the Subject tests and the core classes are needed to improve my SATs. How can I not study hard in those classes and TRY to remember everything that I'm taught? I want to remember the most important information that I will need FOREVER. Plus, I'm a slow learner and I read sooo slow and I get distracted so often. This is why it takes me so long to do 1 hw assignment. </p>

<p>What about teacher recommendations? Don't those matter? What if you got 100% on all of your tests vs getting 70%-100% on tests? Which one will be more effective on your recs? I don't know, thats what I feel like I need. I do think that I've worked too hard and that I need to do other things.</p>

<p>What I was thinking is that I could work less and do other things more. I'm planning to join sports next semester. Should I cut 1-2 hours off my studying time and go outside and run? I'm planning to tryout of track btw. I think this is a good schedule. Study for a few hours. Go outside and run for 30 min. Eat when I come back. Study. Play piano. Eat. etc... This way, I'll always have something to do. I don't want to let tv or anything else get in the way. I need to manage my time better. </p>

<p>I just don't think I'm good enough you know? I've scored 160 on my PSATs!! My mom was like wth?? even though I didn't prepare for it. My parent's don't force me that much anymore. I'm basically on my own. I know that I need to study more than average right now because i'm below average currently. This is the consequence of slacking off through 9 years of school. lol Although I have maintained a 3.9 average gpa, I haven't learned much at all. I've crammed and memorized info for 1 day then everything went out my other ear and I forgot everything the next day. I just wanted to get 4.0 and I didn't care if I didn't remember anything. </p>

<p>Now I think differently. Why should you waste your time just to get a good grade? You want to remember the important stuff right? Sigh.. I don't know where I'm going to end up with a SAT less than 1900.. Does anyone know anything about Community college? What if I go there for a year and then transfer? I think that is a great idea yet not a lot of people do it? Does anyone know where I can find information about community college and its benefits/disadvatages? I'm glad to hear that many of you have the same problems as me and I hope we can all solve it soon. I really hate my studying enviroment and habits.</p>