Distractions: Cancelled.

We could start off this post by saying that ‘in this day and age it is now harder than ever to stay focused due to social media and blah blah…’. Though this is true, we find that this doesn’t actually motivate people to stop being distracted. We all subconsciously know we probably spend too much time on our phones and that for many students, this can be the core reason for their distractions, but this is not always the case. Distractions come in many shapes and sizes- you can be distracted by your phone, by other people, by yourself. The distractions that we are referring to here are the ones the types of activities that you start undertaking when you are meant to be studying. Hey, no one’s perfect and practise makes perfect! We’ll address the main distractions and how you can deal with them.

1) Take a proper break. This may seem extremely counterintuitive because this is essentially what these distractions are but just in smaller increments, but just hear us out. Usually when you’re distracted, you might look at your distraction and then feel guilty so then do a bit more work, then lost concentration, then go back to your distraction and the endless cycle continues. If you tell yourself that you are going to take a planned long break, you’ll be less likely to give yourself excuses to not doing your work because you’ve actually had a guilt free break. This means for example, taking an hour break where you know exactly what you are going to do once that hour is over. You have a battle plan after you have rested.

2) Write down everything that distracts you when you study. Your list may be long or pretty short – either way, just write it down or think about it. Don’t leave anything out.The reason we are telling you to do this is so that you can grasp how much time you may not realise you are accidentally wasting.

3) Throw your phone across the room. Okay, we don’t mean this literally but you have to get that phone out of sight, so that it can be out of mind. Put you phone somewhere that you can’t easily reach. This means it cannot be in the same place that you are studying, because you will be tempted to look at it, it happens to the best of us. Or even better, give it to someone else, not permanently, just for the amount of designated time that you have decided to study. Let them know that you can’t have your phone back before a certain time (e.g. in an hour) and then the phone is literally out of your hands.

4) Disappear. This sounds pretty weird but unfortunately sometimes the people in our lives can be a distraction when we are trying to get something done. Not all the time, but you may be around people that don’t necessarily want to study and may convince you not too. Like all things, studying must be done in moderation, so we are not saying to never be around with your friends, we are just saying that during your school day if you have designated times to work don’t just waste it away because someone has convinced you that your work is not important. You get breaks during your school day – use these! There is time for work and there is time for play, and if it means distancing yourself a bit just to get your work done, that’s okay. If you do your work now, you’ll have even more time to play later.

5) Three is the magic number. Many people get distracted because they don’t actually want to do the work. This is understandable when you have too many things and the list is ever-growing. You are immediately disheartened and so lose motivation. On days where the motivation is particularly low, the distractions get particularly high. That’s why you should only give yourself three things to do on a day like that. Just three. Three is a good number, a number that is not too big or too small, it’s like a goldilocks number – it’s just right. You’ll feel accomplished once you’ve finished these three tasks and won’t be overwhelmed. And what’s even better is that usually after you’ve finished these three tasks, you may actually be more inclined to do more tasks.

6) Meditate. You may or may not have rolled your eyes at this one unfortunately. There are a lot of misconceptions attached to meditation but at this point you may as well try anything you can get. There are literally thousands of videos out there for increasing your focus and concentration and how to beat procrastination. Just give it a go, what have you actually got to lose? You are already distracted, make use of it!

7) Time is not the gift that keeps giving. A harsh but true reality. It’s okay to get distracted every now and then – we are all prone to it. There’s really no point in beating yourself up about it. Sometimes, we just need to be reminded that if we do something now, it means we won’t have to do it later. Your future self with thank your present self for doing that thing you’ve been putting off.