<p>Hi! Over the summer I had a lot going on: this year I skipped a grade in Spanish and had a summer assignment for an AP class to work on. But this summer, instead of getting into the work and studying all summer, I kind of took the three months off and hung out with friends and did a lot with sports. Now I did get the work done, but it was a struggle--in fact, school starts in two days and I only JUST finished my summer assignment. My plan last year was to really get ahead...but now with school starting so soon, I'm afraid I'm only getting by. </p>
<p>The main distractions for me were 1. My laptop/cell phone 2. Social media and 3. My friends. Last year, I pretty much got rid of everything (except for the friends part) and got really great grades. But now that I had all four distractions every day for the whole summer, I'm scared that I'll get so distracted that I'll really blow my sophomore year. But then again--I made some really great friends this year and don't want to drift away from them like I tend to do when crazily studying. So here's my question: What do y'all do to get rid of the distractions, yet still have a relatively fun social life? </p>
<p>(Note: I lean towards extremes: either I'm a completely slacker or an insane honors student. It's very difficult to get an in between for me. So when I say social life, keep in mind that I'm not planning on spending every weekend with friends or anything. And when I say studying, I don't want to be locked in the house with no friends. I guess I just want to make sure I can STAY friends with everyone and get great grades...is that even possible?)</p>
<p>THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! :D</p>
<p>0 0 0
[] [] []</p>
<hr>
<p>=====</p>
<hr>
<p>=====</p>
<hr>
<p>======
I made you a cake for your responses :)</p>
<p>Can you study with your friends?</p>
<p>Not really…a lot of my friends are B and C average. The one friend I do have who gets the same grades as me is really into chatting and it’s kind of hard to work with her on school assignments. Believe me, I’ve tried 
</p>
<p>If you want my advice, you simply have to sacrifice some aspects of your social life for school work and your career in general. Mainstream society and popular culture would tell you otherwise, but just remember they are how we define the word “average,” and think about whether playing games on your facebook at age 30 will make you happy. Based on my acquaintances, I’ve found that once certain people’s tangible gratification runs out, they have nothing left but regret.</p>
<p>Sorry to be such a downer, but I would probably study alone first and talk with friends later. Also, stay away from social media completely except for communication’s sake, because all you’ll do is dump valuable time into it. And don’t worry, if you prioritize right you’ll have more than enough time for a healthy amount of fun</p>
<p>I totally get you, I get distracted SUPER easily, and something that should only take me 30 mins ends up taking me 2 hours. It’s really bad.</p>
<p>I find that it helps to take short and frequent breaks. My AP teacher said something about humans being able to focus for 45 mins at a time, so maybe take a 5 min break every 45 mins. Decide what you can do in that 45 time span (something reasonable) and make it a goal to finish it, and then reward yourself with a snack break or something.</p>
<p>I also recommend studying in different places each time. Going back to the same place gets repetitive and BORING, so make things a bit more exciting by moving around. Sometimes you can be at your desk, other times in the kitchen, or maybe even on the patio.</p>
<p>When you’re studying, put your phone on silent, somewhere where you CAN’T SEE IT! Same goes for your computer, unless you absolutely need it to finish your assignment. It’s super tempting to go check Instagram or Facebook but remind yourself that it can wait! They will always be there, and you can always check them later. And the same goes for text messages. Your friends can wait 45 minutes.</p>
<p>Also, I know that music often helps people calm down and study, but I really think it’s a bad idea… Humans weren’t made to multitask, so jamming out to OneRepublic while trying to write an essay doesn’t really click. I personally loved listening to music while doing homework, but then my mom took my earphones away and now I can focus SO MUCH better! But if you already don’t listen to music, then kudos to you.</p>
<p>These are super helpful for me, but I can’t say that I follow them all the time either hahah. I’ve developed some pretty bad study habits during middle school and high school (currently a junior)… I’m trying to work on fixing them lol</p>
<p>Anyways hope this helped! Good luck :-bd </p>