With just a little over a month left in the fall semester here at UW – Stout, it can be really difficult to stay focused on your classes. Student orgs seem to just keep getting better while your lectures and labs just drone on endlessly, and your good intentions to get that A may seem too far out-of-reach to continue to strive for. But just as last year’s Senioritis seems ready to reclaim you, it’s really important to remember that staying focused could be the difference between landing your dream job . . . and losing it to someone else. And above all else, you aren’t paying tuition just to fail.
Coming from a student with plenty of experience in motivation-deficiency, I can tell you that it isn’t easy to keep on task all by yourself. There are many nights when Pinterest calls me away from ten page essays due at 8 AM the next morning, but I’ve found that there are many tips that can help with even the most easily-distracted of individuals.
1.) If you are very visually-oriented like many creative spirits in this day-and-age, it might help to create yourself an assignment schedule. Color-code it by subject, order it by due date, and – if you really want to go crazy – set aside how many estimated hours it will take to accomplish these tasks. Extend it all the way out to the end of the semester and you can watch your stress disappear as the list gets shorter and shorter!
2.) If your time-wasting addictions tend to pull you away from your assignments, there are many apps that can keep you locked in. The Write Life’s Kelly Gurnett published an article in 2013 with all the answers.
For 99 cents in the iTunes app store, an app called Pomodoro – Focus Booster offers you a proven time management strategy, in which you set tasks for yourself and it breaks the time to complete it down into increments. This app will tell you when it’s okay to break from your work and mentally recover as well as sternly remind you to stay focused during your set increments. Buy it now or try the fifteen day free trial online and see how much better your efficiency becomes!
Or for the more hardcore procrastinators, try SelfControl – free on all devices – to lock down all of your distractions for whatever length of time you set it for. Regardless of whether you restart your computer or delete the app, all selected blacklist sites and apps will be completely unavailable to you until the time is up!
3.) It’s really easy to take off for lunch with friends over finishing the projects you dread. Friends are the largest distraction of them all, but can be a great reward system if you’re in need of motivation. Set little goals for yourself such as, “If I finish my Anthropology notes, I can go for coffee with the girls.” This way, your friends are building you up, and not holding you back.
If these tricks don’t work for you, there are many others out there. Scour Pinterest; pillage Google; do what you have to do. As mighty and insurmountable as your last month of the semester may seem, you’ll feel ten times better about yourself when you can say you finished strong.