I would love to sit in a café and work on my school assignments. It would be so nice to get out of my room and have a separation between schoolwork and relaxation. But unfortunately, I get so easily distracted. I cannot concentrate on reading when people around me are talking. I can’t even listen to music or watch television in the background when I’m doing classwork. It’s too distracting for me. I need a quiet space to work.
I usually do my homework on my desk in my dorm room. It is very spacious and I have a lot of room to fit my laptop and look at notes in my notebook. I even have room to keep a textbook open too.
Oftentimes, my dorm is quite spacious without others near me to distract me. But sometimes I end up distracting myself. One of the most common ways I distract myself is by thinking of something like a song, movie or book that I forgot the name of, and I feel the urge to look it up until I find it. Sometimes I do look it up and then I end up down a rabbit hole of looking at the cast of a television show on the internet instead of finishing my theology reading.
Other times I distract myself by remembering some other task I was supposed to do. I start doing that instead of my homework. I’ll send emails that I never ended up responding to, or I’ll put my laundry away when I’m supposed to be studying.
I am a college student, so sometimes, I do procrastinate doing my homework on purpose. Watching a movie, scrolling through social media, listening to music or hanging out with friends is so much more appealing than searching through databases to find sources for a research paper.
In order to refrain from procrastination, I have learned to keep my phone far away from me when I am doing my schoolwork. I leave it several feet away from my desk so I’ll have to walk across the room in order to reach it. This ensures that I won’t pick up my phone numerous times when I’m supposed to be doing homework. I don’t allow myself to leave my desk and get my phone until I have finished a certain assignment.
I do take short breaks between assignments where I can be on my phone. Scheduling times to get work done is another tip that helps me to stay focused. I’ll tell myself that I have to start my reading at 10:30 a.m., and once I finish that I can take a 15 minute break before working on my newspaper article for that week.
Scheduling time to work on homework has been very helpful for me. Also, finding a quiet, spacious place on campus to work has been great. It’s really motivating to do work away from my dorm room. I keep my phone in my backpack and try my best not to look at it while I’m working.
These tips and tricks have helped me to stop procrastinating and distracting myself, so homework has become easier to finish. It also takes me less time to complete because I’m focused on the assignment more.