Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Twelve Ways For Cyber School Students To Refocus

Ever have one of those days where you have a bunch of stuff planned, but then you sit down to start doing them, and your brain seems to reject anything productive? That's me today. Mark your calendars because this is the worst brain fart I've had during Cyber School. Really though, I made it about a month without a really bad focusing problem so I'd call that a success!

It started yesterday when I decided to finally sit down, and work on the Sunday school lesson (I am teaching at my church this weekend). I got the fun stuff done, but anything remotely work related like reading a couple of chapters in the bible started to feel like a situation where you have to lick your elbow to save your life. I just couldn't do it and it frustrated me. So I stopped, went upstairs to read a bit, and went to bed.

That's my usual method for getting through stressful situations like mind block, just get away from it for a little while, then revisit it once your mind is clear. But what do you do when the stressful situations and mind block are because of school? You usually can't just get up and give it some time to process. No, you have to get it done in only a short amount of time or you are penalized with something like a tardy or a bad grade or other important stuff doesn't get done!

Today my 'To Do' list looked something like this

1. School= Finish an English report, three lessons of math and some sociology

2. Put up a blog post

3. Contact a bunch of churches around the area about the Christian club at school

4. Clean up a bit

5. Tennis practice, leave house at 2:30

After Tennis there were a couple other social events I had made a commitment to go to allowing me only the time between 8am and about 2pm to work. That gave me about six and a half hours to complete everything, keeping in mind that school work took me about two and a half hours today and contacting churches took out about another hour in my day. That leaves me with about three hours to clean and finish my blog post. Along with that I also need to feed myself and get ready for tennis. Also I am a girl so getting ready is a slightly lengthy process.

My day was booked! I couldn't take any time to slack off or take long breaks. So how did I get through? Well I did what any desperate to be done with work kid would do, I pushed on through completing some work only to the level of proficient rather than to an advanced level.

It wasn't very fun today. A lot of the tests and lessons I had to do today were extremely simple and easy, but more than once I'd find myself totally out of it just staring at the screen willing something, anything to put the correct answer there so that all I would have to do is click the 'Finish' button.

Somehow I got through, and then decided I could give myself a couple minute breaks to play a Wii game called 'Just Dance.' I don't mean to brag, but I got the high score in each dance.

The dance game helped a little, and is probably the reason I am able to write this post, I couldn't help but wonder what are some other little tricks and ideas to help us focus better. So I have compiled a list from three different articles:

1. Create a good learning environment with minimum distractions

2. Practice concentrating by doing things like listening to your breaths and heart beats

3. Use the number five. For example five more minutes or five more problems

4. Create a routine around your most productive and least productive times of the day

5. Set Goals/ Bribe yourself- If I finish these last 5 problems I can eat a piece of cake (I recommend not always using food)

6. Write out a 'To Do' list so you can work on things one at a time.

7. Make sure your body is healthy- enough sleep, good diet (less sugars), exercise, etc.

8. Set some time in the day to allow your mind to wander and think through things

9. Cup your hands around your eyes to give you tunnel vision so distractions are blocked.

10. Develop an interest in what you are doing

11. Limit the time where you have to focus a lot

12. Don't procrastinate because it distracts your mind from other activities

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