Let’s be honest, living in the dorms is set up for distractions. It’s practically impossible to achieve anything when you live in the dorms especially if you’re like me and have serious FOMO. I live with 6 people in a 7-person apartment. Every time I get home from class, the door is swung open, a Google Home is blasting Camp Rock music, and there are 10 random people playing Mario Kart in our living room. Any logical person would take this opportunity to leave and go somewhere quiet to do homework. Yet I’m always roped into a game or two. I decide to do other menial tasks like cooking and doing laundry. My homework waits until midnight where the number of people has reduced to six playing other games I don’t want to play.
It’s always a struggle living in a building with your friends, especially when they invite the whole hall to do fun social events during the week. In high school, everyone went home. It was a decision to spend time with your friends or partake in distractions. In college, living in the dorms is like asking those distractions to come for you. So here are some tips to get rid of those pesky distractions also known as your friends.
Always change where you’re studying.
If your dorm isn’t working, then don’t do work there! If you’re anything like me, the dorm is a place to relax, watch Netflix and take a nap. Find a place that’s in public like the Union or Gardner Commons (or somewhere else if you don’t go to the U). Even if you find a place, you should be changing where you’re studying every two or three days. You’re more likely to pay attention to what you’re doing if you’re in an unfamiliar place. You haven’t explored what else there is to do in these buildings, you don’t know where everything is so the only thing left to focus is on your work.
Put your phone on Do Not Disturb
Living with so many people means there’s bound to be a roommate group chat, separate mini-chats to talk about the group chat and private chats to talk about the different mini-chats. Your phone is always blowing up and it’s so easy to get distracted and fall into the drama of who bought the dish soap or left their clothes on the floor. There’s another time for that. You should be focusing on work. Those group chats will mean nothing if your grades start to fall.
Designate time for your friends
Work is all good and fun, but college is definitely more than doing homework and getting good grades. Schoolwork is a major part of college but it’s also about making friends. Those roommates are only ever annoying when you’re busy but other than that, they’re pretty great. I follow a three-part system. Depending on my workload for the day, I either spend ⅔ of my day doing homework or ⅔ of my day hanging out with friends. Make the most out of your college experience, but allocate certain times throughout the day to commit to work or to people.
Living with your friends takes a strain on your work ethic, at least for me. School is hard enough as it is. Time management is definitely something you learn with the temptation of the dorms. Just remember that all that stuff on your to-do list will definitely get done. And hopefully, you’ll take some memories with you along the way.
