a-gay-fool asked: Hey gaud finals are coming up for me and I was wondering if u or the gremlins had and tips on how to stay focused while studying/doing homework and not take a break every 10 minutes? I can never stay focused and pretty much nothing ends up getting done
this is ridiculously long but this is my Oh Shit We Need To Study Now pattern.
step 1: get comfy. fight your chair. arrange supplies just so. build a nest. it doesn’t matter as long as your space is set up and you won’t be dealing with something poking your backside constantly. maybe get some nondistracting music going.
step 2: stock up whatever drinks/snacks you’d like to have on hand. make sure they won’t spill on your textbooks. I personally reccomend ginger chews because the burn keeps me Here but it’s up to you.
step 3: grab your phone. set a timer for anywhere between 20-40 mins. I’ve seen varying recommendations, but definitely don’t go over 50 mins. that’s just too long. now, toss (or gently place) that sucker out of arm’s reach. get a separate calculator if you need one, but the phone will suck you in, man.
step 4: study until that timer runs out. make notes in bubble or chart or whatever format for reading. just force yourself to keep trying. (disclaimer: I do not have any learning disabilities. this advice is from the perspective of a perfectionist. I do not think this will override anybody’s other conditions.)
step 5: try not to take too long of a break, but for the love of all that is sacred, stretch. pace around for a few minutes. go make yourself some more tea. I don’t know. just try to keep it around 10mins.
rinse & repeat for as long as necessary or until brain fuzz sets in. best of luck.
For the phone bit- there are several apps that are really useful for helping you not get distracted. I have one called Forest that I really like. I sent a timer, you can go from anywhere between 15 minutes and several hours… And for every time you hit that cool, it grows a little plant. You can look back on your day, week, month, and see the forest that’s grown out of all the times that you spent studying. If you open your phone and close the app, the little plant dies. A bigger plant grows when you set larger goals. For me, being able to watch it grow kind of satisfied that same itch that I get when I want to pick up my phone and do something else for a minute… Without actually ending up distracted from my work. It keeps me on a roll.
If your class/course had a syllabus or distributed a study guide, I would go back over your notes and compare what you have with what is on that guide. Can you answer all of the questions? Are you able to explain each of the topics clearly? Go through each of the main subjects and make sure that you have notes for them. If you don’t, make them from whatever handouts or other content was given to you, like the textbook.
Make some basic notes for each major topic with the critical concepts outlined and key terms defined
Turn major concepts/ideas from a topic into acronyms so you can remember them without your notes
Handwrite a cheat sheet page- don’t type it! Handwriting, if you can, helps you commit that stuff to memory more easily. Having all the critical information on one page, written by hand, will help give you prompts when you forget something. Having all the major ideas will help you remember the details.
There’s a lot to unpack here.
+the flexibility to get in that pose
+the balance to stay on the skateboard
+the strength to pull back a bowstring with your toes
+the dexterity to hit a target while moving
+the coordination… not hand-eye, but foot-eye
…I don’t know what to do with these things now that I’ve unpacked them…
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“The International Space Station sails over New England at night, capturing both the sunrise on the horizon and the aurora borealis [3000x1688]
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