Hi all!
I’m a sophomore right now and I’m starting to get side tracked when working or studying. I was able to combat this earlier this year by continuously reminding myself that if I work hard I’ll have a better chance of getting into my dream schools but now I can’t keep my eyes on textbooks or hw. How can I keep focused?
Thanks!
What’s distracting you? Social media? Something else?
I have the exact same problem. My problems are College Confidential and rock climbing. What kind of helps, to some extent, is to make a list. And then assign time values to each assignment. And then make a schedule.
I also give myself pep talks in the shower, like “your Geometry grade is going to be a 90 as soon as she puts in that assessment. You got a 77 (yikes) on that Biology quiz today. If you get 100s on everything for the rest of the quarter and get at least a 95 on every midterm, you’ll strengthen and uphold your Top 10 reputation. You’ll probably get at least a 95 in every class. You just need to stop effing procrastinating.”
I should probably maybe find a web app that blocks certain sites while studying…
First tip: Get off C.C, posting on C.C definitely gets you off track.
Second tip: Remove all distractions from your desk, internet, phone, books, everything leaving only homework
Third tip: I suffer from the same problem. Read your textbooks aloud while taking notes, then talk out loud to yourself on what you think the main points are, summarize, then write down the notes, thats how I keep on track.
Fourth tip: Put in breaks. Study for two hours then have a half hour break, or one hour and then a fifteen min break, depends how easily you get distracted, and take your break in a dif room from where you’re studying. So you associate your hw with whatever room you study in, and subconsciously go into study mode when you enter that room, and then associate breaking and getting off task with being outside your room. Put in breaks periodically to rest your mind, then get back to studying.
Fifth tip: Write down list of hw before you start. Then put down hours and breaks Like for ex:
Math hw pg 45 #1-31 odd 4:30 -5:30
Science worksheet 5:30 -6:00
BREAK 6:00 -6:30
History notes pg 334-338 6:30 -7:00
Write it all down and hours to give yourself structure. IF you follow all this, then you SHOULD be able to force yourself to focus, if you don’t try though, honestly there is nothing we can do to help you. We can advise here on C.C but if you don’t follow our advice bc it seems to hard, there isn’t much we can do.
I understand how you feel, I have the same problems but this is an internal battle. You need to give your all, or this will get worse, this is coming from someone who suffered from not being able to concentrate and my grades suffered as a result. But if you don’t really try, not try and let yourself get distracted because it seems to hard and you dont WANT to concentrate. There is a difference between WANT and CAN’T you don’t want to pay attention because you’re bored and you honestly cannot bring yourself to. IF you don’t have ADHD or ADD then its the ‘don’t want’.
So you have to force yourself. If you don’t oh well, you’re the one who will suffer. Good luck.
thanks for the advice!